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diff --git a/6132.txt b/6132.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..007f99c --- /dev/null +++ b/6132.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5771 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man of Samples, by Wm. H. Maher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Man of Samples + +Author: Wm. H. Maher + + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6132] +This file was first posted on November 17, 2002 +Last Updated: June 30, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MAN OF SAMPLES *** + + + + +Produced by Ben Byer, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + +A MAN OF SAMPLES + +SOMETHING ABOUT THE MEN HE MET "ON THE ROAD" + +By Wm. H. Maher + +Author of "On The Road To Riches" + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +"When do you start, Tom?" + +"At midnight." + +"Well, good-by; sock it to 'em; send us in some fat orders." + +"I'll do it, or die; good-by." + +And then I sat down to think it all over. Our traveling man was off on +a wedding tour, and I had agreed to take his place for this one trip. +As the hour drew near for me to start, my courage proportionately sank, +until I now heartily wished that I had never consented to go. What if I +failed? I had been stock clerk and house salesman for three years; I +had been successful; my position was a good one, and one that would grow +better; there was nothing to be made by success on the road, as I had no +intention of continuing there, and failure might be the means of making +my place in the house less secure. What an infernal fool I was! If +there had been any way under heaven for me to get out of it I would have +hailed the opening with delight. I would have blessed any accident that +would have been the means of sending me to bed for a week or two, and +I would have taken the small-pox thankfully. But there was no release. +Like an ass, as I was, I had agreed to take Mallon's trip, and I must go +ahead if it made or unmade me. + +I ate my supper with a heavy heart, bade my landlady and her daughters +a solemn good-by, then went to the theater to forget my sorrows. At +midnight I was checking my sample-trunk for Albany, and persuading the +baggagemaster that 218 pounds were exactly 120. I succeeded; but it took +three ten-cent cigars to do it. + +The reason I call the town Albany is because that is not its name, and +I may as well say here that as I write about actual incidents I don't +propose to "lay myself liable" by giving the name of any town or any +dealer. If I call him Smith it will naturally follow that he was not +Smith. + +If Albany had been a hundred or more miles away I would have taken a +berth in the sleeper, but we were due there at 2 o'clock, so I dozed and +nodded and swore to myself during the two hours' ride. I wanted to get +there, but I dreaded it, too. Stories I had heard traveling men tell +about poor beds, mean men, dirty food, and unprincipled competitors all +came back to me in a distorted fashion, and if I didn't have a nightmare +I must have experienced a slight touch of delirium tremens. + +"How much of a town is Albany?" I asked the conductor. + +"No town at all; just a crossing." + +"No hotel there?" + +"Oh, yes; they call it a hotel." + +This was exactly what I expected. Probably no one would be up and I +could walk around the town for the next four hours. What an idiot I was! +By thunder, I would break my leg or my arm the first thing I did and get +out of this foolish-- + +"Albany!" + +What, so soon! Those were the two shortest hours I had ever known. + +No lights anywhere; no one about; nothing but-- + +"Hotel, sir?" + +Good; here was a ray of comfort. "Hotel? Well, I should say so. Where is +your light?" + +"Here it is." And a lantern came around a corner as the train dashed off +on its way. + +"Don't mind your trunk; that will be taken care of and I'll get it in +the morning. Here, Dan, lead the way." + +We walked a square or two and went into a neat appearing office. Bed? +Yes, I might as well get a few hours' sleep. And I was given a very +comfortable room. I lay in bed trying to recall our customer's name, and +preparing my speech of introduction when--. Some one was rapping at +the door. What's up? Breakfast! What, breakfast already? Why, I hadn't +thought I was asleep at all. + +As I looked over the register, after breakfast, dreading to start out, I +asked the clerk; + +"Been any gun men here lately?" + +"None since last week. Layton was here from Pittsburg on the 22d." + +"Did he sell anything?" + +"I think he did sell Cutter a small bill" + +"How many stores are there here?" + +"Three that sell guns. Are you in the gun business!" + +"Yes. I am from Pittsburg." + +I hung back as long as I dared; found out all about the trains; picked +up facts and fancies about the merchants; got my cards and price-book +handy; stuck four revolvers (samples) in my pockets; pulled my hat +down solidly on my head, and started out. And every step I took I, +figuratively, kicked myself for being there, and for being a blasted +fool generally. "JOHN O. JORDAN, GUNS AND REVOLVERS." + +This was the legend that attracted my attention, and toward it I took +my way. I stopped at the window long enough to take a hasty inventory of +its contents, and from it I sized up my man. There were some goods there +that came from our store; this cheered me, I took courage, walked in, +and handed Mr. Jordan my card. + +"We have done some business with you," I said, in my blandest tones, +"and Mr. Mallon always spoke pleasantly of you [this was a random shot]; +he has taken a wife unto himself, and I am making his trip." + +"Why the devil don't you send me the goods I ordered last time from him? +Where are those British bull-dogs? Did he sell them too low, or is my +credit poor?" + +Phew! There it was. I must first close up an old sore before I could do +anything else. I might have known it would be just so, but I was such a +pig-headed fool I hadn't thought of this. + +"Tell me all about it, Mr. Jordan;" and he told it, with fire in his +eye. But he felt better for having told it. I knew nothing of it till +now, but I took out my book and said: + +"Mr. Jordan, the goods will come now. You may depend upon it. How many +bull-dogs do you want?" + +"I don't want any. I got some of Layton. The house can't fool me again." + +I sat down on the counter and gave him fourteen reasons for his order +not having been filled (I hope some of them were true), and then I +pulled out a "Pet" revolver and asked him if seventy-five cents was not +mighty low for that. + +He admitted that it was, but he had bought of Layton five cents lower. +Then I explained wherein Layton's was ten cents poorer than mine (I +hadn't seen his), and why he ought to give mine the preference. What had +he paid for 32-caliber? + +"One twenty-five." + +I drew out mine at $1.20, and I convinced him that mine was a better +pistol than his, although he said he had already more than he ought to +have and he would not buy more. Then I placed an automatic ejector under +his eyes, threw out the shells, cocked it and snapped it, and explained +how, though it cost us $6.70, I was going to sell him some at $6. + +"No, you ain't," said he, "I've got two on hand and can't give them +away." + +By this time it struck me I was making but little headway and was +wasting my breath in praising goods he already had, so I concluded +the best plan to go on was to see what he had, and govern myself +accordingly. He seemed to have everything, confound him! There was +nothing he had not bought in the thirty days, and I began to think I +could use my time better somewhere else, when a man came in to buy a +gun, and I stepped aside to watch the subsequent proceedings. + +The story told by that retailer about those guns would have made a dog +howl, if it were not for the fact that he believed every word of it. +The farmer wanted a good muzzle loader, but wanted it choke-bored! The +retailer brought down seven different guns, all of them choke-bored! and +expatiated upon their cheapness and good qualities. Some reference was +made to me, as being a gun man, and I was drawn into the conversation. +I explained the merits of guns to that farmer in a way that pleased him +mightily. I could see that, but he finally said he didn't intend to buy +a gun that day, but would some time in the fall, and he passed calmly +out. + +I looked at Mr. Jordan, and he looked at me. "Are you mad?" I asked. + +"No; I'm used to it." + +"Then try a cigar." + +As we smoked and discussed mean customers, I put in some good licks for +my house, and by and by heard Jordan say: + +"I lied to you about those bull-dogs; I didn't buy any of Layton; you +may send me six." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +When Mr. Jordan gave me the order for six "bull-dog" revolvers, I felt +that I had made a conquest; I went carefully through my list, adding +something here and there, until I had made a very pretty bill with +him. So, although he met me as if he wanted to punch me in the head, we +parted on the best of terms. Where should I go next? A sign farther down +the street said "Hardware," so I started down that way. + +A man who carries a mixed stock is easier to sell goods to than is the +man who makes a specialty of one line. In the house we always had a +closer price for the dealer who made guns a specialty than for the +hardware man who kept a few guns and revolvers as a small branch of his +stock. + +"John Topoff" was the name over the door, so I went in, carefully +noticing the stock, the way it was arranged, and the amount, in order to +get some idea of the kind of man the owner was. + +"Is Mr. Topoff in?" I asked a young man who was blacking stoves and who +I was sure was not the man I wanted. + +"Naw," he said, as he brushed away. + +"Will he be in soon?" + +"Naw, he's dead. There's Mr. Tucker, he's the boss." + +The young man spoke as if answering the questions about Mr. Topoff had +become a burden to him, and if that honest hardware man had been dead +long I didn't blame the boy for getting tired of him. + +Mr. Tucker had been studiously keeping his back toward me, as if I was +to expect no encouragement from him, but he turned when I spoke his name +and I introduced myself. + +"Don't need anything in your line," said he, as if he wished I would +accept that as a final verdict and get out. + +What would you have done, respected reader, if you had been in my place? +I would gladly have said "good-day," and gone at once if it were not for +the fact that my present business was to get orders, and the only way +to secure them was to work for them. So I ignored Mr. Tucker's ill-timed +remark and proceeded to be sociable. + +I explained as pleasantly as I could why it was our house was sending +out a new man. I got him interested enough to ask a question or two, +which was a point gained, and finally I came round to his stock, but +I carefully ignored guns and talked of nails; something I knew nothing +about. + +Don't you know you can pay no one a higher compliment than to place him +in the position of a teacher to you? I picked that idea up somewhere, +and I put it in practice by asking Mr. Tucker for information as to +hardware and hardware houses. He was soon talking warmly and as if he +was enjoying himself, and I was wondering when would be a good time to +get guns started, when a little boy came to the door and shouted: "Pa! +ma wants you to come home a minute, just as soon as you can!" + +He started off without a word, and I proceeded to get acquainted with +the young man who said "Naw!" + +Of all creatures on the face of the earth the average clerk is the +easiest to pump. The fact that a man is from a wholesale house seems to +be sufficient guarantee that he may safely be told anything regarding +prices, and where goods came from. The moment Tucker went out the door +Bob stopped his work, and for fifteen minutes he kept his tongue wagging +about the cost of goods and all he knew about them. He was so incautious +that I soon learned his cost mark, and then did not need to ask cost +afterward. + +How did I do it? Bless you! Every traveling man does it in spite of +himself. For instance, I pick up a box and notice it is marked L.X.K., +and I ask the clerk, while I look at the revolver, What did this cost? + +He turns the box up to see the mark, and answers, $2.25. + +This may be the truth, or may not. If it is, "L" is 2 and "K" is 5, and +"X" means "repeat." So by and by I find a box marked B.L.K., and I ask +the cost of that. He answers, $1.25. I am now sure that B is 1, L is 2 +and K is 5, and I can easily guess that A and C are 3 and 4. By finding +boxes with other letters on, and learning from the boy what the mark is, +I soon have "Black horse" as the cost mark in that store. I make a note +of this in my trip book so that I can use it when I am here again, or +when our other man is here. + +My way now is tolerably smooth. If he really needs goods the merchant +will be willing to order at prices paid before; if he thinks he does not +need anything I may tempt him by quoting prices a little under what he +paid. In either case I am in good shape to make a fight for an order; +thanks to the clerk's loose tongue and lack of sense. + +A customer comes in and wants a file. I listen to the conversation, +trying to get hold of any hint that may be useful to me by and by. +Another man wants a box of cartridges. My ears are wide open now. + +"Have you the 'U.S.'?" + +"U.S.--U.S. What do you mean?" asks the clerk. + +"I want the kind with U.S. on the end." + +"What good is that?" + +"Good to go. I like that kind. Have you got them?" + +"I don't know; yes; no, they ain't either! They're U.M.C." + +"Don't want 'em!" + +Now I was temporarily selling the U.S. cartridge, so I made a note of +what the man said, to be used on Tucker, but I took up the conversation +and convinced the customer that the U.M.C. make of cartridges was good; +he finally bought a box and went off apparently satisfied. + +Just then Tucker came in. + +I made some laughing allusion to pig-headed customers, and the clerk at +once opened up on the "fool" who thought one cartridge was better than +another. When the young man was back at his stove I started out to sell +Tucker a bill. He was backward about buying; didn't know our house; +always bought of Simmons; did not like to have so many bills; always got +favors from Simmons, and despised our city on general principles. + +I agreed with him on every point, but (Oh! these "buts") I also wanted +an order. I took out my bull-dog revolver that was selling at $2.85; he +had none like it in stock; it was the leading pistol, retailing readily +at $4 to $5, according to locality. "I want to send you a few of these +at a special net price," said I; "the regular price is $3; I will sell +you at $2.85." I said this as if I was making him a present of a gold +watch. "I wouldn't have the d--n things as a gift," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +When a man has been on the road a year or two he is never disappointed +because a dealer refuses to buy something he was sure he was going +to sell him. He is prepared for "No" on all occasions rather than for +"Yes." But a man is terribly disappointed on his first trip every +time he starts out to sell a particular article and does not meet with +success. I was sure Tucker would give me an order for some bull-dog +revolvers, but in answer to my low price he had said he wouldn't take +them as a gift! + +I would have been very glad to go straight home and let Tucker get along +without bull-dogs, but my silly head had brought me into this business +and I must keep on. Probably he saw I was a good deal disappointed, for +he added, in a rather kindly tone, "Every pistol of that kind I have +ever sold came back on my hands for repairs, and I swore I'd never buy +another." + +"You are making a mistake," said I. "When the double action first came +out they did get out of order easily, and manufacturers were obliged to +take back broken ones and replace them at great expense to themselves. +In self-defense they were obliged to make them better, and they are just +as reliable as any other to-day." + +"Well, I don't want any." + +"All right, we will pass it. But I wondered what one of your competitors +meant when he said he had the pistol trade; now I understand." + +"Does he sell these?" + +"Yes, he had some from us not long ago, and gave me an order for more +to-day." + +"What's the best you can do on them?" + +How many times a day does every traveling man see men act as Tucker did? +Here was a line of goods he was cocksure he did not want, but the moment +he heard that his competitor had a trade on them he began to feel that +he must have some. Seven-eighths of the goods sold are sold in this way. +Very few men do business on their own judgment. Their competitors make +their prices, select their styles, and force them to carry certain +stock. The drummer's best card is always: This is selling like fire; +Smith took a gross, Brown half a gross, Jones three dozen, and you will +miss it if you do not try a few. Such dealers always have the larger +part of their capital locked up in goods they bought because others had +bought the same goods. + +I repeated my price to Tucker, and he told me to send him a few. "By the +way," said he, "what are your terms?" + +"Sixty days." + +"Does your house draw the day a bill falls due?" + +"No; the house is slow about drawing upon customers, and they always +give ten days' notice before making draft." + +"Well, I don't like to be drawn on. The house that draws on me can't +sell me again. I can't draw on my trade, and I'm devilish glad to get my +money in six months, but you fellows in the city expect a man to come to +the exact minute. I don't want any drawing on me." + +It was an excellent place to have delivered a lecture on the beauties of +prompt payments. I could have told Brother Tucker that if he did not see +his way clear to pay his bill when due he should not buy it, and if his +customers did not pay promptly he should dun them harder or keep his +goods. But the traveling man is not sent out to inculcate business +morals, and he is too anxious to sell a bill to run any risks by +disagreeing with a buyer. I did what all others would have done in +my place. I assured Mr. Tucker I would be as easy with him regarding +payments as any house in the world would dare be, and that point safely +out of the way, I sold him several items quite smoothly. We came to +guns. + +"What is Parker's worth?" + +"Twenty-five per cent, off factory list." + +"What! Why, here's a quotation from Cincinnati of 25 and 10!" + +"Let me see it, please. I have not heard of any such figures." + +"Bob, where is that list of Reachum's?" + +"I don't know." + +"D--n it, you had it." + +"Then it must be in the drawer." + +Tucker emptied the drawer, looked through a pile of papers, but could +not find the circular he was looking for He was annoyed by it, and I was +sorry. + +"Well, let it go," said he, "but that was the price." + +"There must be a mistake somewhere," said I, "for the goods cost that at +the factory in largest lots." + +"There was no mistake," he said sharply; "I know what I am talking +about. The discount offered was 25 and 10." + +I hastened to assure him that I had not meant that he was mistaken, but +that Reachum must have made a mistake. + +"That's no concern of mine," said he, "and I rather think that Reachum +is a man who knows his business as well as any of you. If you are higher +than he is on guns you probably are on other goods. I guess you had +better cancel that order." + +Here was a pretty how-do-you-do! How was I to get out of this box? I +confess I was in great doubts as to what to do or say. I dared not sell +Parker's guns at any such price, yet the man would cancel the order and +probably always have a grudge against the house unless I sold him now. I +could not believe that Reachum had made this price, and yet there was no +telling what that house might or might not do. + +"How many Parker guns do you want?" I asked. + +"I don't want any. I only asked because it is a leading thing, and if a +house is not low on that I conclude it is high on other goods." + +"I was going to say," I said, "that I would meet the price." I wasn't +going to say anything of the kind, but as he didn't want any I was safe +in saying it now. + +"Then you may send me two. I think I know a place where I can sell two." + +Just so! I was in for it again, and in for it bad. Sometimes it pays to +be smart, and sometimes it does not. This was one of the latter times. +As a matter of fact I had no business to quote a discount greater than +20 per cent, but I had said 25 so as to make a good impression on him, +and at 25 and 10 I was sure to catch Hail Columbia from the house. + +Just then Bob, who had come over when appealed to about the list, said: + +"There's that list you wanted," and drew one out of a pile of papers on +the desk. Tucker opened it with an air of satisfaction, but I could see +his face grow black. + +"D--n it, this isn't it." + +"Yes, it is; it's the one that came in yesterday, and there's the +figures on it you made for Utley," persisted Bob. + +I did not wait on ceremony, but looked over Tucker's shoulders, and to +my astonishment and delight, there was, in plain figures, discount on +Parker guns, 15 and 10 per cent. + +"How in thunder did I make such a mistake!" said Tucker, with a somewhat +downfallen air. + +"We all do it," said I, anxious to help him out the best way I could. +"Fifteen and 10 is low enough, but if they were offering 50 and 10 I +would meet them." + +Don't you think, good reader, that this was a proper thing to say? It +seemed so to me, and cost nothing, so I said it. I added, "You see, +Mr. Tucker, my price of 25 per cent, straight was a better one than +Reachum's. Shall I send the guns at 25?" + +"Why, you just now said you'd sell at 25 and 10!" + +"I said that because you said you were offered at 25 and 10, but as that +was a mistake I take back my figures." + +"Well, let the Parker guns go." + +I was quite glad to do so. But it made it up-hill work for a few +minutes, until Tucker had got over his chagrin about the guns. But we +managed to get in smooth water again, and when we were through I had +taken a fair order from him, and much of it was for little odds and +ends that paid us a good profit. I bade him good-day with a feeling of +gratitude, and assured him of my hearty thankfulness. + +After dinner I tackled a general dealer. The hotel clerk told me the +Pittsburg man, who was there a week before, had sold Cutter a bill, so I +had no hopes of doing much with him, but I had two hours yet, and might +as well improve them. + +"Martin Cutter" was over the door, and I got an idea in my head that +he was a long, thin individual, with black hair and whiskers. But he +wasn't. He was of medium size, well built, and had an air of shrewdness +and of business about him. He was waiting on trade, so I sat down and +watched him and took notes of the stock. When he was through with his +customer he came forward and met me pleasantly, spoke well of our house, +but said he was just getting in a bill of revolvers and cartridges, and +needed nothing in our line. + +There was something about him that made me like him at once, and I had +the feeling that I was making a pleasant impression upon him. We chatted +about Pittsburg, about gun houses, about the cutting going on in prices, +and the general dullness in all business. I think that when I went out +of the store I had more respect for him as a man and as a merchant than +I had for the two who had bought of me. Had he needed any goods, I would +have given him my lowest prices at the first word. As I was walking back +to the hotel I suddenly remembered that he was just the man to buy a +certain pocket-knife that we had lately taken hold of, and I went back +to speak about it to him. + +"Are you sending goods here to any one?" he asked. + +"Yes, two bills." + +"Then send me a dozen." + +I thanked him, and went off feeling better. The chances are always +decidedly in your favor of selling a man whom you have sold before. The +dealer who lets you leave town without an order this trip will let you +go twice as readily the next time. I like to get him down in my order +book even though it is for some very trifling thing, because of the +influence it will have on the future. + +I went to the hotel, copied off my orders, and mailed them, feeling that +I had done extra well, and then sauntered leisurely to the depot. On the +train a man behind me heard me ask the conductor about Rossmore. + +He leaned over and asked, "Are you selling goods?" + +"Yes." + +"Then we'll go to Rossmore together. What line are you in?" + +"Guns and revolvers." + +"The devil you are! So am I." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +I didn't fancy going to a town with a competitor. I have now been on the +road a good many years, and I do not fancy it to-day. If I can get in +there one train ahead of him I will strain every nerve to do it, but +rather than go in on the same train I would hang back and let him have +the first "go" at the town and take my chances for what he leaves. + +When two men selling the same goods are in a town together the dealers +usually take advantage of it. They tell the first man that they may want +this or that, "if they can buy it right," and, after getting his +price, say he can come in later. He knows very well that this means +his competitor is to be consulted also, and he must have a very stiff +backbone indeed if he does not cut his own prices at once. + +So when my neighbor on the train told me he also was going to Rossmore +and was selling guns and revolvers, I felt my courage ooze out of my +fingers. He handed me a card, with a good-natured smile, and I read: + + SHIVERHIM & GAILY, + Philadelphia. + +I don't like to hand out a card as an introduction of myself to other +traveling men, so I told him my name and that of my house, and we +considered ourselves acquainted. + +"Is this your first trip?" + +Now, why in thunder should he have asked that? Did I look different from +other traveling men? I felt as if he showed very bad taste in asking +such a question and I made a note to never do it unless I wanted to be +mean. But I told Blissam (that was his name) that it was my first trip. + +"Then you'll find Rossmore a tough place to tackle." + +I said we had three customers there. + +"So have we; so has every dealer that ever went there. They buy a +handful of goods of everybody, and they buy most goll-darned cheap. +They'll lie to you until your head swims. First, there's Fisher; keeps +an eating room on the main floor and gun store upstairs. I'll go in and +quote him Remington guns at $36, when you call he'll ask your price; if +you say $36, he'll tell you that you're high, and he'll break you down +in spite of yourself." + +"But when a fellow gets to the bottom he's got to stop," said I. + +"Oh, there's no bottom to guns. It's the meanest business in the world, +and it used to be the best. In '70-'73 I could make big profits as easy +as a duck swims, but now it's all glory. I sold Simmons a bill of $600 +last week, and made exactly eighteen dollars. + +"Oh, well," said I, "you can't expect to make much on Simmons, but there +are lots of places where you do make a good profit now." + +"No, sir; it can't be done. Say, are you going to cut prices much at +Rossmore?" + +"Not at all, if I can help it. I'm out on the road to make money, and +not to show big sales. But I'm afraid your house will overshadow mine." + +"Oh, that's all nonsense; people don't go a cent on houses any more; +prices are what tell. I'll introduce you." + +Not much. No competitor of mine ever introduced me or ever shall. I +prefer to introduce myself in my own time and way. + +We reached Rossmore about 7 o'clock in the evening. Blissam took it for +granted that I was going to the Everett House, but my hotels had been +fixed for me by our old traveling man, and he had instructed me to go +to the Forest; a cheaper house, but in all other respects equal to the +other. I was rather glad, too, that we were not going to the same house. +Be ever so sociable with a competitor, still the fact remains that he +is a competitor, and his success means your failure. Under such +circumstances a man must be less interested in his business than I was +to permit him to feel very desirous of his competitor's company. + +After registering at the hotel it occurred to me that it would be a good +idea to catch any of the dealers that I could that evening and break +the ice. It might be worth something to make a good impression before +Blissam got around. After getting my bearings well established, I +started to call on Billwock. + +Billwock was pretty generally known in the gun trade; first for being +mighty slow pay, and second for the fact that they had a baby at his +shop regularly every year or oftener, and the store was used as nursery +and play-ground. Traveling men had to see the last baby and count all +the old ones, and according as they praised them did old Billwock buy +liberally or not. + +The head of the house had said to me, "Don't push goods on Billwock; he +owes us enough already. If you squeeze a good payment out of him you can +sell him a small bill." + +This kind of talk is all good enough, so far as it goes; but the poor +devil on the road often finds he can't get a cent, neither can he sell +any goods. The men at home think all he need do is to say, "Here I am; +what is it you want?" and then copy the order as fast as he can write. +But the men who order that way are the kind who never intend to pay for +what they order. + +I thought the matter of Billwock's account all over by the time I found +his store. It was dimly lighted, but I saw a man and woman at the rear, +and went in. A mussy and dirty looking man came forward to meet me, +but when he had walked a little way he evidently concluded that I was a +drummer, and that I might walk the rest of the way to him. + +"Is this Mr. Billwock?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +I told him who I was, but he seemed little interested. I started to ask +about his business, but some one sang out my name and said, "Don't go +talking business out there; come back and see the baby." + +Blissam, by thunder! + +I went back and found him beside Mrs. Billwock, with a young one on his +knee, and as much at home as if he was the uncle of all concerned. I +made up my mind that Blissam couldn't be any more sociable than I could, +and I set out to do my prettiest. + +About 9 o'clock we both went out together, and, perhaps naturally, +drifted to the smoking room of his hotel. He was an old hand on the +road, and full of stories of his own and others' experience. I tried to +be a good listener. + +"There are some mighty queer men in the trade," said he, as he puffed +his cigar. "I took an order from a man in Indiana, not long ago, for +felt wads, Nos. 8 and 9, and for some cardboard. When I went to copy +my orders I remembered that the man had given no size for the cardboard +wanted, but I was pretty sure he wanted 12's, and wrote that size. As +it happened the house was out of No. 9 felt and let it go, as he only +wanted one-third of a dozen. What did the fellow do but send back the +card-board wads, saying he had ordered 9's, and giving us Hail Columbia +for sending 12's instead, as well as a long epistle about knowing his +own business, and not wanting our help in running it. The card-board +wads were worth about 33 cents, and the express charges on them back +were 25 cents. I tell you the world is full of smart Alecks." + +"I presume I have seen more about returned goods than you have," I said, +"as I have been in the store so long, and see every package that comes +in. I do get my back up over some of the stupid things the average +retailer will do. It never seems to enter his head to drop the house +a card and await their instructions about the goods that are +unsatisfactory, but he fancies he is showing how smart he is by whacking +them back at once, and always by express, no matter how heavy the goods +are. A neighbor of mine, a hardware man, told me an instance of the +smart Aleck a few days ago. The house was handling a new tubular lantern +and selling it under the market price of regular goods. The traveling +man sent in three orders from a Michigan town, each of them for one-half +dozen lanterns. The stock clerk had a single half dozen of the new +lantern and found a half-dozen case of the genuine. He filled two orders +and put the other half-dozen on the back-order book. The genuine was +billed at the cut price and nothing said on the bill. In a day or +two back that case came by express, and an indignant letter from the +customer for palming off on him the old tubular, when the agent had sold +the new. The clerk erased the mark and sent the case back to the other +man in the town whose order was not filled. You can see how much time, +trouble and expense would have been saved had the smart Aleck dropped +a card to the house saying he did not want the lanterns and held them +subject to orders. + +"Yes," said Blissam, "but I have seen goods go back when I thought it +was the proper thing to do. You know one of the latest schemes is to +sell goods in cases, and throw in the show-case. It started with needle +and thread men and has gone into a good many other things. A concern +from somewhere in Ohio had a man in Illinois selling shears in this way. +In one town he sold the dry-goods man a case, at 45 per cent, off retail +prices, and gave him the exclusive sale of the town, and then sold a +hardware man across the street at 50 per cent, discount, and gave him +the exclusive sale. When each party opened up his stock and made a +display they soon discovered how the land lay, and, furthermore, the way +in which the dry-goods man swore when he saw the other's bill at so much +less than his, would have made your hair stand up. He boxed up these +goods and sent them back by express, and I thought he did right." + +I went down to my hotel and sat a while in the smoking-room. There were +several traveling men there, and they seemed to be very much interested +in some "she," but I was never a good hand at making acquaintances, +and I made no effort here, but went to my room and soon fell asleep, +to dream all night about selling goods at 100 per cent profit. The next +morning I was out bright and early to see Jewell & Son. The clerk said +neither of the firm was in, so I made myself as pleasant to him as I +could, and posted myself as to the goods the house was handling, and the +prices they were paying. By and by the elder Jewell appeared, and as I +introduced myself he said: + +"Gun men are plenty to-day; my son has just gone to the hotel with a Mr. +Blissam to look at his goods." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +When I found that Blissam was ahead of me, notwithstanding my being out +so early, I felt as if I should be glad to get away from him as soon as +I could. He was altogether too numerous for me. He had told me he wasn't +going to cut prices, and I was very sure I did not want to do it, but I +made up my mind I was going to get my share of the trade, cut or no cut. + +I began with talk to Mr. Jewell about a single-barrel breech-loader our +house was controlling, and quoted it at $7.20, sixty days. + +"Is that the F. & W. gun?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why, Blissam quotes that at $7." + +The deuce he did! Yet he was the boy that didn't intend to cut. + +"Was his price net?" + +"No, two off, ten days." + +"Well, that brings them $6.86. We make 5 off in case lots, bringing them +down to $6.84, and there is 2 off that, ten days." + +This was so mighty close to what the goods were costing us that I felt +like crying as I made the figures; but my back was up, and I didn't +propose to let Blissam walk over me, even if he was from Philadelphia. + +Mr. Jewell was a very pleasant man to meet. He had no hobbies, no +crotchets. He was as pleasant with me as if I was buying instead of +trying to sell to him. This is a pretty good test of a man. One that +meets a strange traveling man pleasantly and gives him a patient hearing +is bound to be pleasant and kind-hearted clear through. + +I gave him quotations on revolvers and cartridges, and tried to get him +to say he would not order of Blissam till I saw him again; but he would +not promise, for the reason, he said, that his son might even then be +buying at Blissam's room. Still, he said, it was the son's custom to +do no more than make a memorandum at the hotel and give the order after +consulting him. + +I then started off to see Billwock, and squeeze some money out of him. +His wife and seven children (or more) were there, but no Billwock. Where +was he? + +He was down getting a boat ready to go fishing with Mr. Blissam that +afternoon, she said. + +Confound Blissam! + +Had Mr. Billwock left any word for me? + +"Nein; not ein wort." + +I found where he was and started for him. He wasn't at all pleased to +see me; in fact he didn't seem to care whether I had gone from Rossmore +or not. + +"Going fishing?" I asked. "Yes; I dakes a leetle fish." + +"Don't you need some goods?" + +"No; I dinks not." + +"How about money? Haven't you got some for me?" + +"Not a tollar now. You see I pay Plissam last night ery tollar I haf." + +"Why didn't you divide?" + +"It was not wort' w'ile." + +"But I must have some money; your account is long past due and we need +it." + +"W'at you do? I got no money, I told you." + +"You must get some. I don't care how you get it or what you do, but I +must have $50 to-day." + +"Well; if I get it I gif it you." + +"But you are not going to get it while you are off fishing. I don't want +to be too stiff, but I want you to understand that I mean just what I +say. Our house drew on you and you let the draft come back, and I have +orders now to attend to it." + +"What you do, s'pose I not get it?" + +"I shall tell you when the time comes." + +He saw I meant business, so tied up his boat and started toward the +store, muttering to himself and looking daggers at me. When he reached +the store he talked in German with his wife awhile, and finally said to +me: + +"You come in pimepy and I see what I can do." + +Satisfied there would be some money coming I then called on the hardware +house of Whipper & Co. I had often heard of Whipper. He was known to the +trade as the biggest liar east of the Mississippi; but a real good liar +is usually an affable fellow to meet, and Whipper called me "My dear +boy" before we were together five minutes. + +I sympathize with business men in their affliction from traveling men. +We go into their stores early or late, as suits ourselves; we expect +their immediate attention, and we want to sell them or have a good +reason for not doing it. I often walk back to a man's desk and find him +intently at work over something; I would gladly back out if I could, and +risk the coming in later at a more opportune time. But he has seen me, +probably cusses to himself, hopes I am selling something he doesn't +keep, so he can cut me off at once, and then takes my card or listens to +my name. + +I don't want to come right out and say "Do you need anything in my +line?" for if he answers "No" I ought to turn about and leave him, so +I casually remark that it is a good day, or a stormy day, and he says +"Yes," as if he had heard that before. I take a roundabout way of +getting to my business, and all the time he would be very glad if I was +in Halifax. I may interest him in my goods before I get through, but if +he could have had his way he would have omitted the interview until a +better time for him. + +But there are men on the road who drum a man if they reach the town at +midnight, and as he sticks his head out of his bedroom window, inform +him they are giving an extra 2 1/2 on "J. I. C." curry-combs and ask him +how he wants his shipped. Henley can do this. The boys on the road know +that he carries a Waterbury watch in each pocket, and expects to sell +1,000 bills in 1,000 minutes. + +I appreciate such a man as Whipper. Whatever it was he was doing he +always dropped it, and met a salesman as if he was honestly pleased. I +think that ought to offset a great many sins. I hope it will. + +I told him my little story and he looked as if he believed every word +I said. Then he asked, in a very confidential tone "What is your best +price on American bull-dogs?" + +"Two dollars and eighty-five cents." + +"Phew! You are far out of the way, my dear boy, far out of the way. Did +you see this last card of Reachum's? No? How could you? You are on the +road. We now get two postals a day from Reachum, and I expect to see +them coming oftener by and by. Tom, where's Reachum's last card?" + +"I don't know; I toss them in the waste basket when I come across them." + +"Don't do it again; I want to make a collection of them in an album. So +$2.85 is the best you can do?" + +Now, $2.85 was as well as any one could do, and we only had a margin of +10 per cent. to figure on. But I determined to cut a little, just for +fun, and see what the upshot would be. So I said, "$2.85 is bottom +everywhere, but I am going to make you a special price of $2.82 1/2." + +"Tom," said he turning to the desk, "What was that Shiverhim & Gaily +man's price for bull-dogs?" + +"Two dollars and eighty cents." + +I swore to myself that I would punch Blissam's head when I next met him +in a good place. There was no getting even with him, let alone getting +ahead of him. I dared not go below $2.80, sell or no sell, so I began to +talk brand. + +"Two dollars and eighty cents is all the Lovell bull-dog ought to sell +for," I said: "in fact $2.75 is Reachum's price on them, but we are +selling F.& W. goods, and can easily get 5 to 10 cents more for them." + +"Will you sell me some of Lovell's at $2.75?" + +"I would if I had them, but we don't carry them. I'll make you the F. +& W. at $2.80, and I shall catch thunder for doing that. But I want to +sell you." + +"To be sure; to be sure!" + +He said this as a man might humor a child, and as if he fully understood +all that was in my mind. + +"Tom, do we need any bull-dogs?" + +"No, sir; got 50 on the way from Reachum at $2.70." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +I probably looked as disappointed as I felt, for Whipper's voice took on +a very sympathetic tone. "You could not touch $2.70?" he asked. + +"No, sir." + +I felt like adding, "I can't touch anything; I'm going home." + +"What is your price on cartridges?" + +"Combination price; same as every one else." + +"Is this your first trip?" + +"Yes, and my last. I'm not cut out for the road. I don't suppose I could +sell you anything even if you wanted it; I'm not a success." + +"Pooh; pooh! I've been on the road myself; it is not always fair +sailing, and it is not always foul. Keep a stiff upper lip." + +Yes, keep a stiff upper lip, when goods were being sold at cost all +around you! I was not built that way. Just then the book-keeper, Tom, +handed a memo to Whipper and he turned to me. "Have you Quickenbush +rifles?" + +"Yes; blued and plated. Regular price, $5. I'll make you special price +if you want any." + +"What will you do?" + +They cost us $4.50 at the factory; I quoted $4.75. + +"Great Caesar! You are high!" + +"Yes? Well, it is the best I can do." + +"Make it $4.50 and we will take twelve." + +"No, sir; it can't be done. But I am afraid there is no use in my trying +to sell you. If you can get them at $4.50 you can buy as low as we can." + +"Well, send me a dozen." + +I entered the order. Was there anything else? + +"What is the best you will do on bull-dogs?" + +"$2.80 is bottom; but you say you have ordered them?" + +"Oh, that is one of Tom's lies; you may send us 50." + +We went through the list, and the old man gave me a very nice order; +then followed me to the door with his arm in mine, and sent me off as +if he was bidding good-by to a son. I forgave him all his lies, and feel +kindly toward him to this day. + +I ran into a hardware store with my samples of cutlery, hoping to do +something in a line where Blissam could not meet me, but the first man I +saw was Blissam, leaning over the show-case, as if entirely at home, and +in full possession of the stock. He introduced me to Mr. Thompson as if +we had been traveling companions for life, but added to me, "Thompson +does not do much in our line, except caps and cartridges, and I've just +fixed him up." + +I felt like taking him by the nape of the neck and dropping him down the +sewer, but I turned to Mr. Thompson and talked cutlery. I told him I had +a line of No. 1 goods at low prices, every blade warranted, and put up +in extra nice style for retailers. + +"Whose make?" he asked. + +"Northington's; but made especially for our house, and with our brand. +We are making a specialty of a few patterns, and intend to make it an +object to the retailer to handle them and stick to them." + +"You can't touch me on those goods," said Thompson; "I've handled them +and had trouble with them. I am now handling nothing but the New York. +I don't know that they're better than any other, but Tom Bradley dropped +in here one day, and I had to give him an order, and I've not been able +to leave him ever since." + +"Does he come often?" + +"No, about once in two years or so, but he's business from the ground +up. I like him and like his goods, and I don't want to change." + +I took out my samples more for the purpose of posting myself than with +hopes of selling him, and where my patterns were like those in his stock +he passed mine over without a word, but I saw that two patterns of mine +pleased him. They were even-enders, 3 1/2 in. brass lined, and cost us +$3.85. We had been getting, in half dozen lots, $4.80, but I felt that I +was in a dangerous place, and I quoted $4.25. + +He went back to his stock and returned with a sample the exact +counterpart of mine, and said, smiling, "This is Bradley's; he's a tough +fellow to beat; I paid $3.65 for it." + +I lost all interest in pocket knives then and there and got out of +the store right speedily. I was feeling savage, and made straight for +Billwock's. He had made a raise of $40 for me, saying, with several +German-American oaths, that was all he could do, and when I talked +of selling him something he looked as if he would throw me out of the +window. + +I called twice at Jewell's before I caught father and son there +together, and then I had a difficult task before me. The father was +inclined to give me the preference, the son favored Blissam, but they +had not yet ordered, and were needing some goods, and I felt as if I +could never forgive myself if I were to fail then and there. + +They tackled me first on Flobert rifles; I quoted them at exactly 10 +per cent, above cost to import, but they declared I was too high. I felt +sure Blissam's house bought no lower than we did, and that he could not +sell on less margin than that, so I stood up to the price. Then we took +up bull-dogs; I named $2.80, and they shook their heads at that; so they +did at price of Champion guns, till I began to feel that my case was +hopeless. + +"I am afraid we can't give you an order to-day," said the son. + +"I have quoted you my best prices," I said, "and am disappointed." + +They talked together a few moments and finally said, "You may send us +a case of Champion guns," and this was followed by other items. I could +see that they were dividing the order between Blissam and me, and I felt +grateful for even this, and tried to make this evident. I succeeded in +getting several items that paid a good profit, and I went to my hotel +feeling that I had done pretty well. + +At the desk I was handed a note from Whipper, saying: If you cannot make +the Quickenbush rifles $4.60 please omit them. + +There was but $3 profit in the item, and I would have omitted them but +for a desire that Blissam should not get ahead of me; so I started for +the store to learn something about it. On the way I met Blissam, and I +put it right at him. "Are you quoting Quickenbush rifles at $4.60?" + +"Not by a drum sight! Who says so?" + +I handed him Whipper's note. + +"Are you going there?" he asked. + +I said I was. + +"I'll go with you." This suited me. We saw no look of surprise on +Whipper's face. I went straight to the point. "I can't sell the rifles +at $4.60, Mr. Whipper, unless I know some one else has quoted that +price; if they have, I'll meet it." + +"Just scratch them off," said he, as calm as a day in June. + +"But has any one given you such a figure?" + +"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies. If I can get them at +$4.60 I will take them." + +I could get nothing more out of him and we started back. On the way we +met Tom, Whipper's book-keeper. I asked him what it meant. "Oh," said +he, laughing, "I guess the old man thinks he can get them at $4.60, +but we have so many on hand, perhaps it's only his way of canceling the +item." And that was all I ever got from them about it. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +I parted with Blissam at the hotel, he going to the South and I West, +and about 7 o'clock that evening I reached B--. I had often heard our +traveling man speak of the hotel here, and the popularity it had among +salesmen, so I was prepared to find the smoking room tolerably well +filled when I went in there after supper. There were half a dozen or +more in one group, who seemed to be on the best of terms, and I listened +to their talk. I found that they were discussing the mistakes of the +shipping and stock clerks, and of course that touched me upon a tender +spot, and I was all attention. + +"Some of our boys used to make the most absurd mistakes," said one +talker; "but the old man was about as bad as any of them. I remember +getting most mighty scared once. I had been entry clerk and shipper +and jack-of-all-trades in the house. One night's mail brought us back a +letter we had mailed, with the notation of the postmaster, 'No such man +here.' Taylor, the boss, took the mail, calling out to the book-keeper, +'Fague, I guess we've got a mistake on you this time.' Fague looked at +it, saying, 'I don't believe I've made a mistake, but if I have I must +stand it.' The envelope was torn open and the address on the bill was +the same as that on the outside, John Smith, New Castle, Ind. Then I was +sent to the order book, but the order there was New Castle, Ind. Taylor +was getting mad. I was told to find the original order, which I did, and +discovered that it was from John Smith, New Carlisle, Ind. Says Taylor, +'There's altogether too many mistakes here. Now these goods are lying at +New Castle, and will have to be ordered back; the chances are Smith will +refuse to receive them, and we will lose at least $75. The man that made +that mistake ought to be known; if we owe him anything he can have it +in the morning, and then let him be discharged. What do you say, Dewey?' +'It's a bad mistake,' said Dewey, the partner, 'and we are making a good +many, but it's pritty hard to discharge a man. Let us see who made it, +and show him how much loss it causes us, and give him a pritty good +scolding.' 'No,' said Taylor, 'he ought to be discharged; d--n him, he +ain't fit to be around a store; if we owe him anything pay him up, and +let him go; it will be a lesson to the rest. 'Billy,' turning to me, +'bring the book here so we can see who made that mistake.' Now I was +mighty afraid that I had done it. I had been doing that work, more or +less of the time, and I trembled as if I had the ague. And in looking +at it before, I had paid no attention to the writing. I went back to the +desk for the book, and brought it to Taylor. Dewey came over to look at +it as Taylor opened the book and found the place. 'H--l,' said Taylor, +'I did it myself!' Jerusalem! but I felt good! 'Well,' said Dewey, 'if +we owe you anything you'd better take it.' I was just about dying to +holler. The next day all the boys knew it, and Taylor was mighty quiet +for several weeks after that." + +"I came near losing a customer once," said another man, "by a little +carelessness. I went into his store in a great hurry; sold him a +bill, and collected pay for a previous one. I neglected to enter the +collection on my book and also to report to the house. They shipped the +goods ordered, but supposing that I had not collected amount due from +him, inclosed a statement of account with a 'please remit' at the +bottom. No bull ever flew at a red rag quicker than he flew at that +statement, and he wrote a saucy letter, saying he had paid me, and he +didn't like being dunned for a paid bill, etc., etc. You all know just +how a small man will act under those conditions. They forwarded his +letter to me and I acknowledged my carelessness; I wrote him taking all +the blame on my shoulders, and explaining how the mistake happened. +But his Irish was up, and in a few weeks he went into the store, still +talking 'bigitty,' proposing to settle up and quit. The book-keeper took +his money, handing him back his change and a receipt. He counted the +change and pushed it back, saying, 'That ain't right.' The boss stood +near, taking all the tongue-lashing, but feeling as if his cup would run +over if the book-keeper had now been guilty of making a mistake. He took +the change, ran it over hastily, and saw that it was correct. This was +nuts. 'It seems,' said he, 'you occasionally make mistakes, Mr. B., so +you ought to make allowance for others. It is a devilish smart man +who never makes a mistake, and a devilish mean one who will not make +allowances for the mistakes made by another.' 'Oh, I'm mean, am I,' said +B.; 'well, I pay my bills.' 'So do other people; you're not the only man +who pays.' But B. went off on his high horse. The next time I went there +I could'nt touch him with a ten-foot pole, but the trip after he came +around all right." + +"I wish I had no collecting to do," said a man near me; "I can sell +goods, but collecting is the deuce-and-all. I envy the New Yorkers who +don't have any collecting to do. Their business is to sell, and the +house collects." + +"But when we do have to look after an account." said a man whom I had +set down as a New Yorker from the first, "it is always a tough one. Not +long ago our house told me to stop at a town to see one Berry & Co., who +had let two drafts come back, and then had written an impudent letter. +They had given us an order for about $700 worth of goods, but they are +quoted light, and the old man concluded he'd send on a part of it, and +when that was paid send another part, and so on. They refused to pay +because they did not get all the goods ordered, and when asked for a +report of their condition refused to give one, saying parties could find +out about them from Dun or Bradstreet. I presented the account and was +told they wouldn't pay until they had to. I reasoned with them, but +the fellow was a big-head, and the more I talked the worse he acted. I +finally told him I was sent there to get the money or put the account in +the hands of an attorney, and went out saying I would be back again at +a given hour and I hoped they would be ready to settle up. I went to the +other dealers there whom I knew and they all said the fellow hadn't +a leg to stand on in court. I went back in the afternoon, and after +getting another tongue lashing, he gave me a check, but told me I had +lied, as he handed it to me. I haven't wanted to punch any one in years +as I did him, but I gave him my opinion of him in a few words, and he +won't soon forget it, either. Now, you Western men don't have that kind +of trouble in your collecting." + +"No," said a grocer, "our men never say they will not pay; it's the +other way; they say they will and then don't. Seems to me I could get +along with a man who said he wouldn't but could be made to. I could do +something there; but the fellow who solemnly assures you he will send +in a large remittance next week, and then doesn't, is a hard one to +manage." + +"Do you want to know who, in my opinion, is the smallest man on earth?" +asked a Chicago traveler. + +Of course they all looked assent. + +"Well," said he, "Ed. Smythe told about him the other day, and I know +the man. Ed. had his samples open at the Moody House and called on the +man. Yes, he would go look at them; he wanted a few German goods. He +went there, looked the cards all over (Ed. has three trunks), made a +sheet full of memo's, and said he would write out an order. Ed. called +around about 6 o'clock in the evening. There are two chairs in the +office; the hog sat in one and had his feet in the other; he was reading +a newspaper and kept on reading; Ed. stood around patiently, as any man +can afford to be patient if he is going to get an order. In the course +of half an hour a friend came in and wanted to know of the hog if he +wasn't ready to go somewhere. He jumped up, pushed his books in the +safe, talked to his friend, and ignored Ed. After a while Ed. said: +'Have you made out your order, Mr. B.?' 'No, sir; I'm not going to give +you an order. I don't intend to buy any more from your house,' and he +walked into Ed. in a way that he evidently thought would impress his +friend that he was a wonderful cuss. Ed. is a good-natured fellow, and +business is business; he didn't open on him then, but he got even before +long. I tell you the smallest man in the world; the meanest dog in the +kennel; the dirtiest whelp I know, is the fellow who thinks it's brave +to abuse a drummer when he has him in his own store." + +This received a universal amen. + +"Let me read you a sketch from the _American Grocer_ on 'Smart Alecks,'" +said a man, drawing a copy of that paper out of his pocket. "It's +called, 'Solomon Smart visits the City.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Solomon Smart, of New Portage, O., dealer in general merchandise and +country produce, had been in business three years, but had never, until +the present occasion, visited the city where the larger share of his +purchases came from. + +Going to the city was something to which he had long looked forward. +He had dreamt of it when he was a clerk; he had eagerly questioned the +traveling men about it, and his old employer always told marvelous tales +when he returned from his annual trip. + +When the old man died, and Solomon, assisted by his father-in-law, was +enabled to buy the stock, he began to arrange for a business trip to +the city, but somehow every plan he made was interfered with and came +to naught. It was a source of great grief to him that he could not carry +out his plans. + +"If I could only get to Toledo," he often said to his wife, "I could +save at least 10 per cent on prices, and I could pick up job lots of +things at big discounts. All the jobbing houses have odds and ends that +they are willing to sell at anything they can get, in order to get rid +of the stuff. I hate to buy of drummers. It costs piles of money to keep +them on the road, and the men that buy of them have to pay it." + +Solomon, as may be supposed, was not popular with traveling men. His +contempt for them was expressed openly, and his opinion of their being +a curse to retailers was usually the first thing he told them, after be +had looked at their cards. Some of them argued the matter with him. +Some of the more independent members of the profession told him he was a +blank fool. But those who called regularly let him say his say and then +squeezed an order from him, keeping their opinion of him for use outside +his store. + +His peculiar opinion of traveling salesmen was not his only peculiarity. +Most of "the boys" on the road mentioned him as "Smarty Smart," because +of certain tendencies he had of making reductions in prices, of marking +off charges for cartage or boxing, or of returning goods because he had +changed his mind after buying them. + +Solomon didn't intend to be mean; he fancied he was only standing up +for his rights, and if he occasionally took a little more than his +conscience told him was his "rights," he soothed that by saying to +himself that the house wanted to sell him so mighty bad they would stand +it. + +Let a man be constituted as Solomon was and his "smartness" grows on +him. He has an idea that every house he buys from is trying to get +unfair advantage of him, and that he must present a bold front or he +will be imposed upon. He always magnifies his importance as a buyer, +and fancies that every order he sends in is met with a hand-organ and +treated to champagne. + +So when he finally saw his way clear to making the long-wished-for +visit, some of his pleasantest anticipations were the welcomes he +expected from the heads of the wholesale houses, and the invitations he +would receive to dine and wine with them. But he did not propose that +they should pull the wool over his eyes. He would show them that he was +no "greeny," and that he knew what was what. + +He carried two large empty valises with him to bring home as much of +his purchases as possible as baggage, and when he reached the city hotel +late in the evening the clerk sized him up as easily and as accurately +as if he had known him for ages, and sent him to one of the poorest +rooms in the house most unceremoniously. + +The next morning, bright and early, Mr. Smart started out to do +business. His first call was on a hardware man with whom he had done +considerable business, and from whom he was sure of a warm welcome. He +was met by a pleasant young man whose manner seemed to ask, What is your +business? He asked for Mr. Braun. Mr. Braun was not down yet but would +be in a short time. Would he wait? No; Solomon didn't propose to wait. +He was there on business and must attend to his business. Perhaps the +young man could wait on him? No, indeed; Solomon didn't come to town to +be waited on by clerks. Perhaps he would call again, but he said it with +a doubtful tone as if he was not sure that he would patronize a house +where the proprietor didn't get around earlier in the morning. Then +again he was somewhat indignant that the clerk should not have known +him, and when he was asked to leave his name he went off saying it was +no matter. + +Then he called at Sikkor's, wondering if anyone would be in there. Was +Mr. Sikkor in? No; did he want to see him personally? Personally! He +wanted to see him on business, of course. He would not be at the store +that morning, but Mr. Birden was at the desk, yonder, if he would +do. Well, it was good to find one proprietor in; and he moved over to +Birden's desk, where that gentleman was busy opening the morning's mail. +He looked up at the approach of Smart, said "Good morning," and waited +for Solomon to tell his business. + +"This is Mr. Birden?" + +"Yes, sir," pleasantly. + +Solomon had rather expected him to say, "This is Mr. Smart?" and to hold +out his arms, so he was somewhat disconcerted. + +"I buy goods of your house occasionally." + +"Yes? Whereabouts is your place?" + +"North Portage." + +"North Portage, eh? What is the name, please?" + +"Smart." + +"Yes." Solomon could see that he might as well have said Smith, so far +as Birden's seeming to recall it was concerned, and he began to get +angry. + +"How is trade, Mr. Smart?" + +"Rather dull just at present." + +"Sorry to hear that; hope it will improve. You have a memorandum for +some of our goods, Mr. Smart? Let me call one of the men to wait on you. +Church, look here." + +And before Solomon had time to open his mouth he was introduced to +Church, who shook hands with him, linked his arm through his, and had +him half way to the sample room. They were getting on well till Church +asked: "Let me see, Mr. Smart, where is your place?" + +"North Portage," said Solomon in his crispest manner. No one seemed to +know him, or to remember him five seconds. + +"Oh, yes; North Portage. Waite goes there. Waite's a good fellow; you +like him, don't you?" + +"I'd like to have him stay at home. I never want to see a drummer." + +"Is that so?" and Church looked at him in mild surprise. "Well, what +shall we start on first?" + +Solomon wasn't prepared to start on anything. It wasn't at all the way +he had expected to get started. He didn't like being pushed from one +proprietor to another, and then to a mere clerk, and to have that man +take it for granted that he was going to buy without any coaxing or +figuring. He was disappointed. He expected to have bought a bill here, +but there were other stores of the same kind in Toledo, and he believed +he'd punish these fellows for their indifference by going somewhere +else. Good idea! He would act on it. + +He told Church that he guessed he wouldn't leave an order just then; +maybe he would come in again. Church coaxed him a little then, but it +was too late. Solomon was bound to go, and off he started for a notion +house. + +The proprietor was in the office, shook hands with him, asked about +trade and crops and finally proposed to show him some goods. This was +more to Solomon's taste, and he bought readily, but he was disgusted +to see that prices were no lower than the traveling man had sold at. +He mentioned this to Shaw. "Lower? Of course not. We can't ask you one +price in Toledo and another in North Portage. My man carries my stock +into your store, lets you see the goods, quotes you prices and posts +you." + +"But his expenses are big; it costs you nothing to sell me now." + +"His expenses come out of my pocket; not out of yours. I would be mighty +glad if traveling men were done away with; but it would be a saving to +me, not to you." + +This rather staggered Solomon, for it upset one of his hobbies. As +he was finishing, and about to say "good-by" to Mr. Shaw, he saw the +book-keeper whisper into that gentleman's ear and turn away. + +"By the by, Mr. Smart, my book-keeper tells me he has had some +correspondence with you over deductions made in remittances. These +little things are very annoying, and while the amount in dollars and +cents is nothing, still business ought to be done in a business way." + +Smart began to feel very hot. + +"The book-keeper tells me that your last bill ran nearly two months over +time, and that you not only refused to pay interest, but did not pay +express on your remittance. Now, Mr. Smart, this is not right. Our place +of business is Toledo, not North Portage; our bills are due here, not +there; and if we allow them to run sixty days after due we are loaning +you money, and ought to be paid for the use of it." + +"I don't get interest from my customers," said Solomon. + +"That's your business and theirs. You do not sell them on a jobber's +profit. We deal with you as a business man, and in a business way. I +think I know just how you feel," said Shaw, pleasantly; "when I began +business I felt the same way. I squeezed every cent that I could from +the men I bought from; but I discovered that it was poor policy. I +saved a few cents and lost the good will of the house, which was worth +dollars. I speak of all this in a kindly way, and to avoid future +misunderstandings. Don't you think of any thing else? No? Well, good-by, +I am glad you called and hope to do more with you in the future." And +before Solomon knew it he was bowed out. + +But he was boiling with rage. He was particularly angry with himself. He +had stood there and taken the lecture as if he was a boy. It was in +his mind to cancel the order just given to Shaw, but that gentleman had +dismissed him so politely and smoothly that he hadn't had time to do it. +It had never seemed possible to him that he would have listened to +such a lecture as that without giving back as good as he got, and then +sending the man and his goods to---, a place where there is no insurance +against fire. + +In no very happy frame of mind his next call was on his dry-goods house. +Mr. Luce met him, when he introduced himself, decidedly coldly. Solomon +began to think that he would go to some other house with his order +rather than leave it here. But before he made a move to go out Mr. Luce +asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?" + +"I don't know as there is." + +"Our Mr. Goodnow did not stop at your place the other day because of +your habit of returning goods. While we would be glad to do business +with you, we cannot allow anyone the privilege of ordering goods and +then returning them at our expense, if he happens to change his mind. I +do not try to make Eastern houses shoulder my mistakes, if I make any in +ordering goods, and I don't see why I should bear your burdens." + +"Why don't you send what I order? I didn't order the blue print I +returned the other day." + +"Mr. Goodnow is very positive that you did order it. It is always +possible that the small sample he carries with him appears differently +to a man than the goods do when seen in the whole piece. And a man might +occasionally be expected to make a mistake, as you did the other day +when you wrote us to send you three gross of corsets, when you intended, +you said afterward, to order but three dozen. But in the last three +bills bought of Goodnow you have sent back goods, and it is not possible +that he made such mistakes. Then you deduct from bills, though made out +at prices agreed upon." + +"The last cambrics were billed half a cent too high," said Solomon. + +"Then you shouldn't have ordered them. The time to make prices is when +you are buying. We have a price for every article in our stock; if you +ask it we will give it to you, and then you are at liberty to order or +not, as you think best; but if you send us an order for cambrics and +say nothing about the price you have no right to express them back to +us because our price happens to be different from what you expected. You +could have learned our price before ordering, and not having done so, +you ought to be man enough to stand to your own action." + +"You claim to sell as low as any one, don't you?" + +"We do, and are ready to quote our prices so they can be compared +with others when called upon to do so. But we all cut occasionally for +reasons of our own, and I prefer to make prices when selling goods, not +after they are delivered. Some time ago you returned by express a few +trinkets. You knew that Mr. Goodnow would be at your place in a short +time, and you might easily have waited until seeing him before returning +the goods, but you evidently thought you were punishing us and showing +your grit by rushing them back by express. I assure you it does not add +to your reputation as a business man. I thought I would mention these +points to you because they are important in our relations, and unless +the men you buy from feel pleasantly towards you there is every reason +to suppose that you will be the loser." + +"I guess I can buy all the goods I want," said Solomon; "I've not been +troubled that way yet." And he walked off, with a surly "Good day." + +He had never bought but one bill of the other dry goods house, and did +not like their traveling man; but now he would have bought of Old Nick +rather than buy of Luce. He went over to Keeler's and again introduced +himself (the task was getting as disagreeable as it was monotonous), +saying he wanted to buy some goods. The gentleman made an excuse to +go to the desk for a moment, and Solomon knew it was to consult the +reference book as to his standing; having found that satisfactory he +proceeded to show him through the stock. The goods were not nearly +so much to his taste as was Luce's stock, but he bought lightly, and +considered that he was punishing Luce. + +After dinner he called again at the hardware store, and this time found +Mr. Braun there. He was greeted cordially when he gave his name, but +imagine his feelings when, after a few remarks, Braun said: "What's the +matter with you people down at North Portage about axes? We wrote +you that four of the last six you returned were in no way covered by +warrants; some were broken in solid steel, some were ground thin and had +to bend, and one had never even been out of your store. We can't ask any +factory to take back such goods from us, it wouldn't be right; and we do +not make enough profit on a dozen axes to stand such a loss." + +"If you give a warrant you ought to stand up to it." + +"We do stand up to it, every time; and we do a good deal more than that. +But you do not stand up to it. You take back goods not covered by a +warrant and expect us to stand the loss." + +"Well, if my customers bring them back I must take them or lose their +trade." + +"That's your business, not mine. I don't care what you take back or do +not take, but I object to your taking them back and then shifting all +the burden over to us. We have charged your account with the cost of +making these axes good." + +"Well, that's the last time you'll ever have a chance to do that." + +"We can't help that; right is right. It's a small affair, but the thing +has to stop some time, and it had better be stopped now." + +Solomon pulled out his wallet, "How much is my balance here?" + +Braun turned him over to the book-keeper, who took his money and gave +him a receipt. As he walked out he did not hear the remark of Braun to +the clerk: "He's one of those smart Alecks that have to be sat down on +occasionally, but I guess I gave him a lesson." + +He bought his hardware of another house; he bought his groceries of a +new firm; he didn't buy any boots and shoes at all, because the clerk +did not take hold of him just right, and he reached home the next +morning a tired, soured and disgusted man. He told his wife that he had +been a fool to spend money when he might have stayed at home and bought +of traveling men. "I tell you," said he, "a man's a mighty sight more +independent when buying in his own store. The drummers are red hot for +orders, and you can squeeze them down. Then you've got your stock to +look at, and see costs, etc., and the men feel you're doing them a favor +to give them an order; but, by George, they think they're doing you a +favor to sell you in their own stores. I'm done going to town." + +I saw Mr. Smart a few weeks ago, and he gave me his report of his trip: +"I learned something," he added; "I believe I can make more money by +having the wholesale houses my friends than I can by making them mad +at me, and now we get along first rate. I guess Luce is one of the best +friends I've got, but I was all-fired mad at him that time, I tell you. +And what made me the hottest was that I felt the old man was right." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +A good hotel is a blessing, but the best hotel is still a hotel, and can +be nothing more. One feels all right until the bellboy has fixed the +key in the door and gone. Then you begin to realize that you are alone. +There's but little difference, I imagine, in the feelings of a prisoner +going into his cell at the close of day and those of a man in his lonely +bed room in a hotel. There may be noises and voices, even songs and +laughing, on either side of you, but these only serve to show you how +lonesome you are. + +I dislike to go to my room until I am forced to do so by the hour. I +want to be among people and to see them about me. I go to my room under +protest; I turn the key, fix the bolt, look at the window, open my +valise, and wish I was at home. I think of fires, of sudden sickness, of +to-morrow's trade, of to-day's orders, and of all the pros and cons of +business. Through the night I hear scurrying feet in the hall, the +late arrivals, the early risers, the bell-boy's raps on the doors, and +finally the chambermaid's clatter, and her occasional turn on the knob, +as a broad invitation to get up and out of the way that she may do her +work. + +I started out in the morning at B----, determined to do all in my power +to make a good showing for myself. There is but one gun-store, but all +the hardware dealers handled something in my line. It is a sleepy town. +Time was when it had a large trade in the surrounding States, but of +late it sells near home. A town of its size might and ought to support +two or three good gun stores. I called on Bell & Co., gave the man who +looked most like the buyer my card, and proceeded to say a word or two +about something else than business. + +"We have had some goods from your house," said Mr. Bell, "but we never +get our orders filled. There's always something left out. I don't like +it. When I order an article I want it." + +Our house had always made a specialty of filling orders complete, and I +was surprised at what I had just heard. I remarked this, and that I was +the stock-clerk, and that I feared he was visiting on our heads the sins +of others. + +"No, I am not," said he. "In the last bill we sent you there were two +items left out;" and he found the bill and showed me our own memorandum +regarding the items. To be sure they were goods we never kept in stock +and never intended to. I explained this, but he took the ground that, in +the first place, a house should keep everything in its line, and if they +happened to be out of anything should buy it. + +I did not attempt to contradict him, for it's a mighty poor time for +that when you are hunting for an order, but I tried to change the +conversation into some other channel. + +"How is your stock of guns?" + +"Full. What do you ask for the Lafoucheaux, twist barrels?" + +"Ten fifty." + +"Oh, you're way out of reach." + +It's a pretty good plan not to disagree with a man at any time, but it's +especially a wise course about this time. + +"I can buy them," said he, "at $9." + +"Yes? That beats me; $10.50 is best I can do. Who quotes at $9?" + +"Why, Reachum does. So does Tryon's man. Do you know him?" + +"I do not." + +"He's a lightning fellow; well posted; good natured; sharp as a needle, +and a mighty sight better than his house. If he was in business for +himself I'd buy all my goods of him." + +Yes, that was interesting; but I had other fish to fry. + +"Do you need any Lafoucheaux guns?" + +"Yes, if I can buy them right." + +"I will meet any price given you by Reachum, Simmons, or Hibbard +Spencer." I didn't want to; I wanted to get better prices than they were +quoting to their mail trade, but I proposed to make myself solid with +him at once. + +"Well," said he, "I'm waiting for Clayton. I rather promised him an +order the last time he was here, and he's to be here in a day or two." + +If there's one thing in the wide world that would make a man work for +an order that is the kind of speech to do it. I had no grudge against +Clayton, but I was bound to get that order or know why I couldn't. I +remarked that Clayton was a first-rate fellow. + +"Yes, he is; he's quiet and modest, and knows his business; if he only +let up on his whistle he'd be perfect." + +"I didn't know he was a whistler." + +"He is; he's always whistling under his breath as if he was trying to +catch the extra 2 1/2 on cartridges." + +"Are you handling the U. M. Co. cartridges?" + +"Yes; got them of Simmons. He offered to discount Reachum and I gave him +the chance. What are you doing on cartridges?" + +"60 and 10." + +This was cost, but I saw he had a good stock. + +"What are you doing on Champion guns?" + +"25 and 10." + +"And Zulus?" + +"$2.40." This was bottom on both these articles, and I would get my hair +pulled if I sold at these prices, but I was in for it, and proposed to +keep on. The partner came up to me and asked about revolvers, and very +soon we were chatting about our line in detail. + +If men really want goods, it is often difficult to get them to order. +They have thought, like Bell, of waiting for a particular man, or they +fancy there may be advantage in delay, or they have no figures but +yours and are not sure you are quoting bottom prices. There is a +disinclination in all men to buy even in good times, and in these days +there is almost a determination in every dealer's heart that he will not +order anything at any price, or under any circumstances. Of course, when +a call comes for something he has not got he realizes that he has gone +too far. + +I spread out my samples, talked my prettiest, sang the special praises +of my goods, and finally heard the welcome words: "You may send us," +etc. When one gets that far, it is his own fault if he does not go on. +Several times in our work we were interrupted, so that the forenoon was +pretty well spent when I was through. It was the hour when many men +go to lunch, and I fancied Mr. Bell to be a man who occasionally might +enjoy a glass of beer, so I suggested that we go out. He assented, and +led the way to the nearest place. + +What is there in the act of eating or drinking together that draws men +nearer? It surely does do this, but I don't know why. In his store we +were in the position of proprietor and drummer, at the beer table we +were two sociable men. + +"I do not often drink," said he, "and there are times when I feel +provoked at being asked out. Some drummers throw out the invitation as +if it was part of their samples, others as if they saw I was cross, +and proposed to spend five cents in beer to make me good natured. I +occasionally enjoy a glass of beer, and when I don't feel like drinking +it all Chicago couldn't make me drink." + +I remarked that I was pretty much in the same way. + +"I've known a good many traveling men who went to the dogs from too +much treating," said he. "When I began business in '65 one of the best +salesmen out of New York sold me my first stock. He was paid $5,000 a +year, and was worth it. He went on a drunk here, but braced up in a day +or two and went off all right. The last I heard of him he was dying in a +hospital in Cincinnati of delirium tremens." + +"You must have known a good many men in your time?" + +"Yes, sir; and knew a good many to go up, and a good many to go down. +I was in the hardware trade then, and bought of Billy Smythe and John +Milligan. Look at those boys now! Both of them in splendid positions. +Poor Hank Woodbury, who sold me thousands of dollars from Sargents', +went insane and died. I remember a man dropping in one day who looked +a good deal more like a school teacher than a salesman. His name was +Bartlett and he was selling chisels. He didn't know much about the +goods, or about hardware, but he had a frank, open way of confessing his +ignorance and his prices were all right. Do you know him?" + +"Yes." + +"All the wholesalers know Bartlett; he's getting shiny on the head, but +he can talk Miller's cutlery sweeter than the angels can sing. They tell +me he's grown rich and lives like a lord; owns an island in Long Island +Sound, and a yacht and other good things, but he's the pleasantest man +who comes here." + +I like to hear about traveling men who have prospered; they ought to get +on in the world if any class of men can get on. There may be houses that +are prosperous in spite of their salesmen, but such houses are very few. +And the man who can make money for others ought to be able to do that +for himself, but this does not always follow. I have met some traveling +men who were once superior salesmen and then steadily ran down. Perhaps +whisky is back of it, or, perhaps, circumstances are against them, +but every business man will have known just such cases. Mr. Bell and +I discussed this until it was time to part, and then he said, "Come in +again, I may see something else." I felt that I had won his good will. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +I left Mr. Bell, and went a square farther down the street to a hardware +store, where our house had occasionally done some business. I was very +familiar with the firm's name, and had heard a great many stories of Mr. +Harris, the buyer. There was an air of push and prosperity in the store, +and when I inquired for the buyer I was shown into the office. There +were two men at the desks, and a man lying on a lounge; the latter +proved to be the man I wanted. + +"I don't feel like doing any business just now," said he, "come in after +dinner." + +This was pleasanter than to be told not to come in at all, so I made +another call on the street, but did no business. As I took my place at +the dinner table a man opposite me (we two were alone) nodded, and asked +if I was selling hardware, saying he had seen me come out of Mr. Bell's. +I told him my business, and he gave me his card: Tibbals, of Meriden, +Conn. I've seen many handsomer men than Tibbals, but I have not often +met one who was better company. He had been on the road, so he said, for +twenty years, selling plated ware, and I expect "Rogers Bro., 1847," was +tattooed all over him. + +"Have you sold Harris?" he asked. + +"No, he told me to come in after dinner." + +"What a lazy fellow he is! That man is the laziest one on my route. I +took his order this morning while he lay on a lounge. I asked him if he +was sick, and he said he was not, but he was tired. Great Scott! just +think of a man getting tired doing nothing." + +I saw Tibbals liked to talk, so I led him on to more details about +Harris. + +"Some folks are lucky," said he. "When I came out here in '65 Harris +was a traveling man, but the next January he was given an interest. The +house was old, rich, well known and well liked. They carried everything +in stock from a bar of iron to a knitting-needle. Harris took the books +and gradually got to be the buyer. He used to have some ambition, but +for the ten years last past he takes the world as easy as if he was a +fat old dog." + +"Do they still make money?" + +"No, I guess not. They don't buy as they used to, and they are always +grumbling. But other men have made lots of money here in these twenty +years and didn't have one-tenth the start Harris had." + +"Does he drink?" + +"Of course he does. Great Scott! when did you ever see a lazy cuss that +didn't drink? I've often gone over to the billiard-room and taken his +order there. I believe, by thunder, he would leave a customer any time +if a crony came for him to go off on a good time." + +I do like to hear an old traveling man. If he has the inclination he can +give one lots of points. Tibbals went on: + +"I ran across a man in Seebarger's the other day that I used to know in +Toledo and Cleveland. He was stock man twenty years ago and ten years +ago, and is to-day. He's a first-rate man; solid, reliable, competent; +he seems to be content, and he used to seem content. But how, in the +name of H. C. Wilcox, can a man be so satisfied with himself? I don't +understand it. I should want to be going up or down; I wouldn't be a +setting hen all my life." + +"You have seen many houses go up and down," I said. + +"Well, I have. I remember a Detroit concern that in '65 had a nice, +small trade, but each year seemed to be doing better, until I used to +think they were about the sharpest set on my route. Business was always +good, and the goose was away up. One of the partners built the nicest +house in the city, and lived like a baron. But, by hokey, he's on the +road selling goods to-day, and another man lives in his nice house." + +"What brings them down?" + +"Big head, almost altogether. They get the big head; they fancy they are +all Claflins or Stewarts, and they suddenly drop through a hole. It's +almighty hard to be successful and not take to worshiping yourself. And +the younger men fall into the trap easier than the old ones do or did. +Take such a man as Wm. Bingham, of Cleveland; I don't see any change in +him in twenty years. Yet the house has grown to be a very large and very +successful one. Did you ever know Tennis?" + +"No, I did not." + +"In '65, Tennis & Son seemed to be the booming firm in hardware there. +They were rich and had a big trade. The old man died, the boys ran +through the business so fast that you couldn't catch it with a gun. Oh, +I've seen a good many fellows go under in twenty years." + +"And you think it's always their own fault?" + +"Not always. I've seen some mighty good fellows go down. I remember a +Toledo concern--good workers, good habits, living economically, but '76 +pinched them to the wall. I tell you it's hard to see such men fail. +It's like death to them. They fight against it until it's no use +fighting longer, and it's pitiful to meet them." + +"How is plated ware?" I asked, to be sociable. + +"Like all other ware, mighty hard to sell. There's several Rogers, all +genuine, but I'm the head one. Our goods are the best known and the +best, but if another 'Rogers' offers 2 1/2 per cent, better, off goes my +customer. Do you have folks so confounded close?" + +I assured him, laughingly, that I had. + +"Well," said he, "it's funny. I'm not so all-fired close when I buy +a suit of clothes; I don't leave a man if he won't throw in a pair +of suspenders; but dealers will go back on their best friend for a +tooth-pick. I'd like to sell a line of goods like Chris Morgan's, where +the price isn't mentioned." + +After dinner I called on Harris and found him scolding the boys in the +store-room. I saw he was irritable, and would have gone out if I could, +but he saw me and I had to advance. + +"D--n those Eastern fellows," said he, vindictively, "I'd like to wring +their necks." + +I had to appear interested and ask why. + +"Because they're such infernal fools. Here's a case of 150 pounds just +in by express with $3.37 charges; could have come by Merchants Dispatch +for 69 cents. But the fool clerks they have down there have the most +insane idea about express, and every little while will shove something +like this in on us." + +"Can't you charge it back?" + +"D---d if I don't!" + +He went into the office and ordered the book-keeper to charge up the +difference. I could sympathize with him. As stock clerk I had seen many +a box come in from the East by express that we were in no hurry for, and +that was never ordered to be so sent. The parties doing most of this are +not in New York stores, but at the factories. In the small towns where +most factories are, express and freight bills are paid once a month in a +lump, and the clerks and shippers do not see the cost of each shipment. +This makes them careless as to such charges, and to receive or send a +big box by express is a matter that does not need a second thought. But +in the cities, where each package is paid for when delivered, the +clerks soon learn how express charges count up, and they do not ship so +carelessly. + +Perhaps I said something of this to Harris, but he finally turned to me +sharply and said, "What are you selling?" + +I handed him my card again. + +"Oh, yes; well, we don't need any." + +Goodness! How disappointed I was! I guess I looked it, for he added, +"Unless you've got some d--d low prices." + +I assured him I had, and made up my mind to give him only our ordinary +figures; I had heard our senior say once that the man who talked this +way was never a very close buyer. + +Just at this moment a very pert young man came in at the office door, +walked up to Harris, handed out his card in a way that pushed me to one +side, and said: + +"Mr. Harris, we've got the best butcher knife there is in the market." + +"Better than Wilson's?" + +"Yes, sir; better than anybody's." + +"How does your price compare with Wilson's?" + +"We are about the same." + +"Then I don't want it. Wilson's are good enough for me." + +"But I can show you ours is better." + +"I don't want any better, unless it's at less price. Wilson's sell +themselves." + +The young man looked crestfallen and soon went his way; I took up my +story, but instead of asking about this, that or the other article I +handed him my price-list and asked him to look it through. He stretched +himself on his lounge, and taking the book was about to open it, but +stopped to ask, "Have you got a cigar about you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +When I had given Mr. Harris a cigar and he had lit it, and when he had +once more resumed his horizontal position on the lounge, I proceeded to +take his order. He was an easy man to sell. The stock was low on some of +my goods, and he had a favorable impression of my house, so he ordered +easily, saying but little about prices until we came to cartridges. + +"Whose cartridges are you selling?" he asked sharply. + +"We handle both the U. M. C. and Winchester." + +"No Phoenix?" + +"We don't keep them in stock, but I can get them for you if you prefer +them." + +"I won't sell any other." + +I was curious to know why. + +"Just because I like Hulburt; he's one of the nicest men there is in New +York, and I'm going to handle his cartridges every time." + +"But," said I, and very cautiously, "don't you find some trade that will +insist on having the other brands?" + +"Yes, and they can go somewhere else and get them. I wouldn't buy a U. +M. C. cartridge if there never was any other. Reachum uses their goods +to cut prices with, and, d--n 'em! they can sell him, but they can't +sell me." + +I finished the bill, then chatted awhile with him about trade. + +"There's no money in business," said he; "times were when you could make +a profit, but nowadays it is a struggle to see who can sell the lowest. +There's a revolver that I bought of Tryiton for 53 cents, and our men +say he has advertised it all over for 55 cents. How the devil am I to +pay freight and sell for 2 cents profit? There is no such idiocy in any +business today as in the gun trade. A jobber has to fight against every +other jobber and the manufacturers too. The U. M. C. folks are said to +back up Reachum, and Simmons is supposed to have Winchester behind him, +and away they go, seeing who can cut the most and be the biggest fool." + +"But is it not so in other lines?" + +"No; the prices are not advertised to any such extent as with guns and +ammunition." + +"Then you think the factories could stop it if they chose?" + +"Oh, the factories be d--d! Seven-eighths of the factories are managed +by school-masters. They get up their little schedule of prices just as +they draw off their 'rules and regulations' for their help, and expect +the dealers of the country to dance to their tunes." + +I thanked him for his kindness and went on my way very well content. +But when I sat down to copy off the order I was put in quite a quandary. +Traveling men meet such men as Harris frequently. He gave the order +because he was friendly to the house, but he had not asked for prices +on anything. What was I to do? I had several prices, for my figures were +elastic, to offer trade, according as the buyer was a close one or not, +and just where to put Harris I did not know. I proposed to ask him all +I dared and not get into trouble, but to decide on what this limit was +gave me some study. + +The other trade in the city I attended to carefully, and was well +satisfied with my work. In the evening I started for C. As I went +into the car there were three men at one end talking rather loud and +sociably, and I went as near to them as I dared. One of them had lately +been out to Denver and that section, and was describing to his audience +the wonderful perpendicular railroads of Colorado, I soon found that all +three were connected with boots and shoes, but handling different grades +or styles, so they did not conflict. Of course they were from Boston, +and equally of course they were rather priggish. The talker was not +more than 22 or 23 years old, but the immense experience he had passed +through was more than wonderful, and the old chestnuts he got off as +having happened to himself were beyond Eli Perkins' power of adaptation. + +"I had a customer in Peoria," I heard him say, "who picked up a goat +shoe and said 'he supposed dat was apout tree sefenty-fife.' I told him +it was $5.25. 'O, tear, tear,' said he, 'can't you make him four tollar? +Shake dells me: Fader, ton't you puy ofer four tollar. You should see my +Shake; he is only dwendy-dwo, but he got a young head on old shoulters.' +I told him that, seeing it was he, I would make the price $5, and he +ordered twenty-four pairs." + +He told this as if it was the most comical story ever heard, and he +laughed both long and loud over it, as did his two friends. + +"When are you going home?" one asked him. + +"Next week; been out over two months; had a big trip, but I don't expect +to do any more traveling." + +"No! Why not?" + +"I'm going to be married." + +"No! Who to? Are you telling the truth?" + +"Yes, I am; honest; going to marry the boss's daughter. She and I used +to go to school together, and I honestly believe she made the advances +to me, rather than I to her. Oh, yes; I'm all fixed; going to stay in +the office and help the boss." + +I wondered what kind of a girl the "boss's" daughter could be, to marry +such an ass as this, and I would have been glad to see the photograph of +her that he passed to his friends, but I made up my mind that the "boss" +was getting a rare prize in a son-in-law. + +Sitting in the smoking room of the hotel that evening I heard some men +mention names that were familiar to me, and I discovered the talker to +be a groceryman. + +"If our goods are close," said he, "the sales are large and folks have +to buy. I heard H. K. Thurber say that the best year's business that he +ever did was on a net profit of 1-3/4 percent." + +"Phew! How much did he sell?" + +"Eighteen or twenty millions." + +"I've been in Thurber's store," said another, "and I tell you they have +things down fine. I think H. K. Thurber had the best head on him of any +man I ever saw. He was quick as lightning; his judgment was good; he had +no soft spot for any one, and he didn't tell his plans to any one. But +Frank, his brother, seems to be just as successful, and yet is very +different." + +"He's the politician, isn't he?" + +"Yes; he was a Greenbacker, and anti-monopoly, and lots of other things. +Some of these days he'll be Mayor of New York, or go to Congress, and +he'll be heard from. His public life is profitable now, for it helps to +advertise Thurber's business." + +"Well," said another, "You've got to get up mighty early to get ahead of +Hoyt in Chicago. They don't sell as many dollars, perhaps, as Thurber, +but they have sand, and they don't put it in their sugar, either." + +"I like groceries. A dealer has to buy them, whether times are good or +bad. Folks must eat." + +"And take medicine?" + +"Yes, and take medicine. And, by the way, do you know that the grocers +are giving druggists a lively time on medicines? They are. Thurber has +a drug department, and advertises them at 'a grocer's profit.' Lots of +others have gone in, and the day will soon be here when a man can buy +his sugar and quinine in the same place." + +"What will druggists do?" + +"What have they been doing the last ten years? Sell teas and coffees, +cigars and tobaccos, and fancy goods. Look at a drug store in holidays, +and it is full of plush cases, placques, bronzes, and goods that were +supposed to belong to jewelers. The bars are dropping down in every +line." + +"Business is done in queer ways," said a man who was sitting near me. +"Tobacco men give away guns in order to sell their tobacco; coffee is +sold by giving plated ware, baking powder by glassware, boots and shoes +by giving dolls and sleds, ready-made clothing by a prize of a Waterbury +watch, and soap by giving jewelry. Nowadays a dealer don't ask you about +the quality of your goods, but about the scheme you've got to sell them. +It's a demoralizing way of doing business, and ruining trade." + +"That's so! That's so!" was echoed from all sides. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Stepping into a hardware store early the next morning, after introducing +myself I was handed a letter sent to me in the care of the firm. I was +very glad to receive it, and accepted the pleasantly given invitation to +sit down and read it. + +No man should greet a letter with more welcome than a traveling +salesman. It is a tie that connects him with home, he who is so wholly +disconnected. He is always wondering what his house may think of this +sale, or that price, or this failure to sell, and be he never so sure +that he has done well, still the assurance from home that they recognize +his success makes him happier. + +Houses differ much in their manner of writing to their traveling men. A +friend of mine who lately made a change told me his principal reason +for leaving the old house was the letters they wrote him. "I never cut a +price in the world, unless I had to do it to meet a competitor; but if +I did it, no matter for what cause, I was sure to be reminded that I had +not been sent out to 'cut,' but to make money. Yet when I came home and +explained why I did it, I was told I had done the right thing. But they +nagged me the next trip just the same, and I grew tired of it." + +I did not find any such letter as that. It was a hearty commendation of +my work and braced me up for the future. "We miss you in the stock," the +letter read; "but we can put up with all that while you do so well on +the road." + +I spoke of this to a traveling man. "Well," said he, "I scarcely ever +hear from my house from one end of the trip to the other. Our goods +don't vary in price very much, and I'm not much of a hand at writing +letters. I send in my orders when I've any to send, and when I've none +I save postage. But I know men who have a printed form, and they have to +fill one out and send home every night, orders or no orders. That's too +much like being a sleeping-car conductor for me." + +After reading my letter I turned to Mr. Shively with determination to +sell him a good bill. But I saw he had a customer, and kept out of the +way, but not too far to hear the conversation. + +"That," said Shively, "is a better gun than the ordinary Lafoucheaux--a +good deal better. I know you can buy of Reachum and Shiverhim & Gaily +for $7.65, but there is all of $2 difference in the goods, and the man +who should appreciate this the quickest is the retailer." + +"But I can't get a cent more for this gun than for the others; buyers +will not discriminate." + +"You give them no opportunity. You take it for granted that they will go +to the lowest-priced places, so you insist upon buying the lowest-priced +goods, but I tell you, Mr. Thompson, you are making a mistake. A certain +proportion of every community runs after the lowest prices; a large +majority seek good value for their money, and a small percentage, who +are fools, buy only high-priced goods. Then again, a share only of the +trade will come to you or me. Our competitors, no matter how mean they +may be, will have their own friends, and, try as we may, we can only +draw a certain share of the trade." + +"That's so." + +"Of course it is so. And the dealer who looks these things squarely in +the face and acts accordingly is the one who succeeds. I remember when I +was younger I expected to do all the business in my line here. There +was a run on Parker's gun. The list price was $50; they cost us $37.50. +Every one was asking the list, but making a small cut if necessary. +I had a fair trade in them, but I concluded I would do more, so I +advertised the price $45. This did not accomplish what I expected, so I +came down to $42.50, and finally to $40. I sold a few more guns than I +otherwise would have done, but I did not make one dollar more of gross +profit. In order to attract a few extra buyers I had been cutting down +prices to men who would have bought of me, whether or no, and I stopped +it." + +"I remember my first Parker gun," said Thompson; "I called a man into +my store to look at it, one who talked as if he knew all that was worth +knowing about guns. He opened it, looked through it, sighted it, etc., +then asked the price. I quoted $50. 'That settles it,' says he, 'I +wouldn't have it; a good gun can't be bought for any such money,' and he +dropped it as if it was a hot brick. The next time I showed it I asked +$75, and I sold it at $65." + +"Yes," said Shively, "the fools still live; I'm one of 'em. I suppose +I do things just as bad as that every day, but I don't do it knowingly. +Here's this craze over Smith & Wesson's revolvers. A man, for some good +reason of his own, wants a revolver in the house. He hopes he shall +never have to shoot with it, but for fear he may need one he buys it. +The chances are ninety-nine in one hundred that he has never been a +marksman, or if he was he is so much out of practice that he could +not hit a door off hand, and with his nerves steady. I show him a good +revolver at $2.50, or a double action bull-dog at $3. But he asks, +'Have you Smith & Wesson's?' Of course I have; single action $9.35; +double-action, $10.35. I explain that the cheap one is as safe to the +shooter as this is; that the chances are not one in a hundred that a +man can jump out of bed excitedly and hit a burglar off-hand; that no +burglar, hearing a shot, waits to be informed whose make of revolver is +used, and that practically the cheaper pistol is the most sensible for +him to buy. But he has a foolish idea that he is going to be a much more +formidable fellow with a Smith & Wesson under his head, and he takes +that. And because of just such idiotic men Smith & Wesson can ask a big +price for their goods." + + I was much interested in that talk, and sorry when the two men + separated. But I was there to sell Shively some goods, and I went at + it right heartily. + +"I am rather tired of the gun business," said he, "and would drop that +branch quite willingly. It is being managed on the basis of brag rather +than that of brains. Any fool can sell a revolver at 92 cents that cost +him 90, or a gun for $7.50 that cost him $7. No brains are required to +do that. The poorest salesman I have on the road sells the most goods +and makes me the least money. The gun business has got into the hands of +men who have just brains enough to run a ten-cent counter store." + +"Is it not about as bad in other lines?" I asked. + +"No, not quite. There is much more detail to other lines. The gun +business is compact and the line small. Consumers pick up names of +makers quicker, and post themselves easier. A man buys a pistol or gun +but once or twice in his life, and he gives the matter considerable +study and shops around a good deal. Fifteen years ago Kittridge of +Cincinnati used to be the champion cutter, but either he is out of +business or has changed his tactics; now St. Louis and Chicago have gone +into the postal card business and struck the 'Me Big Injun!' attitude. +Here is a card one of my men sent in from a little town to-day. Shot +quoted 80 bags $1.16! The man can't buy 80 bags in 80 months, and the +house sending the card to him knows it, but it gives him a basis to work +on us, and hurts us without helping anyone." + +"Yet you buy of these card men?" + +"No, I don't, d--n them; I'd shut up shop sooner. There is no reason in +the world for wholesale gun stores; the business ought to be handled by +the wholesale hardware trade, and ought to be done in a legitimate way +on a legitimate profit. But some idiotic manufacturer, either being +hard up for money, or envious of a competitor, goes to one of these +gun houses and offers a special cut price, and within twenty-four hours +every little cross-roads dealer is advised of the cut." + +"I heard a man swearing just about the same way about screws," I said. + +"Screws? Oh, yes; that's so. Screws have been about as mean. One +factory used the hardware trade of the country to club a competitor, and +thousands of dollars of values were wiped out in the operation. I had, +say $1,000 worth of screws, bought at 75 percent off. Russell & Erwin +wanted to hurt the American, so down went screws to 80. That didn't +settle the business, and next they went to 90 off. What was worth +$1,000 at 75 off was worth but $400 now. And this cut was advertised +everywhere, so that retailers insisted on getting it. The orders as sent +in were not filled, and retailers' orders on us were much larger than +before. By and by we had no stock, and then, without any reason +other than their own sweet will, prices went up again. It was a most +outrageous piece of business from beginning to end." + +"I am glad all the bad work is not done in guns," said I, "but how is +your stock? I think bull-dogs are going to advance." + +"I suppose they are; look at this letter." + +He handed me a letter from a New York house which read: + +New York,----, 188--. + +Messrs. Rhodes & Shively--_Gentlemen:_ I have entered your order for +100 "Blank" Bull-Dogs at $2.85, prices guaranteed. Please send +on specifications. A combination is about to be formed among the +manufacturers, and prices will advance to $3.25. Yours respectfully, + +F.B. Combaway. + +This was news to me, so I opened the letter I had just received from +home and read to him: + +"We have just got in a large lot of 'Blank' bull-dogs and you may cut +prices to $2.65." + +"Well," said he, "what the devil does this man mean by sending me such a +letter?" + +"He undoubtedly believed there was going to be an advance and booked you +for 100 revolvers." + +"What is your price on cartridges?" + +"Fifty-nine per cent." + +"There is another smart combination. The cartridge association puts my +competitor in the A class and gives him 50 and 10 off, but we, who have +to sell in the same town and to the same men, can only get 50. It's the +most childish and sickly combination that I ever saw. Manufacturers seem +to sit up nights to see what infernal fools they can make of themselves. +Now I tell you there are only two classes of dealers--wholesalers and +retailers. If a man is a wholesaler he should have wholesaler's prices, +and if he isn't he shouldn't. But your smart Aleck manufacturers want +to rate them, as Bradstreet does, and give 12 1/2 off to the A class, 10 +off to B, 7 1/2 to C, 5 to D, and list to E." + +"But a man who buys 1,000 dozen axes ought to buy for less than he who +buys but 100 dozen?" + +"Not a bit of it. If both men sell at wholesale they ought to be on one +level, otherwise the smaller buyer can not hope to succeed. And I tell +you it is much more to the interest of manufacturers that there should +be six small houses in a town than one extra large house. Your large +buyer is autocratic; he can break the market, and often does it to his +own hurt, as well as to the damage of every one else. The average buyer +is content to buy as low as his competitor, or if he gets a little +inside price, keeps it to himself, lest his competitor shall know it." + +"You seem to have figured it out pretty thoroughly." + +"I have, and I know what I'm talking about. But of all the silly things +manufacturers do, they never get quite so absurd as when they undertake +to advertise." + +"Please explain." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +"I can explain what I mean by showing you this letter," said Mr. +Shively. "Here is a line of goods I proposed to handle, and wrote the +manufacturer for prices. He has advertised them largely, but has not +worked up a very large sale as yet, though he has succeeded in making +them pretty well known. He writes me he will discount 35 and 5 per +cent., and adds: 'Please do not quote or sell at better than 30 and 5.' +What does he take me for? The list is $12; 35 and 5 off brings the net +price to $7.41, and if I sold at 30 and 5 off, I get $7.98, or 6 +per cent. on the investment, and I pay freight out of that! But this +manufacturer thinks I am liable to cut under $7.98, so kindly cautions +me against doing it. He must have a mighty queer idea of a merchant's +profits." + +"What would you do if you were in the manufacturer's place, to begin +with?" I asked. + +"First decide on a fair retail price. Every article must first be judged +on this basis. It is not 'What will the jobber pay for this?' that +decides the cost of goods, but 'What will this retail at?' Having +decided this, then settle on a discount from this price that will pay +the retailer a fair profit, and in quoting prices to the retail trade +stick pretty close to this. Then the jobber should have a margin of 15 +per cent. at least, and yet be able to sell retailers at my price." + +"But suppose the goods will not allow all this." + +"They must allow it if they are to be handled by the trade in a regular +way, and they will always allow it if proportioned aright; but what I +complain of is that so many manufacturers are unable to comprehend the +jobber's position. Here is a sheep-shear that is advertised to consumers +at $1.25 per pair; the maker says the lowest he can sell at and make a +small margin is $8 per dozen. There is a good margin between $8, factory +price, and $15, consumer's price, but how is it divided? A retailer +is quoted the goods at $8.65 and the jobber at $8. Don't you see that +common sense would say $10 to the retailer and $8 to the jobber? If the +jobber wants to sell at less than $10 let him do so (he is sure to do +it), but the manufacturer should not." + +"Some houses ignore the jobbers altogether; what would you do with +them?" + +"They are all right; I have no fault to find with them; I can meet all +of such competition, and without worrying. No factory can handle my +trade so cheaply as I can. A great deal of my trade no factory can +reach. Salesmen get higher salaries from the factories than we pay. They +only get the trade they drum; there is very little of mail orders +from the small trade sent East; what they need they want quickly. Both +Russell & Erwin and Sargent & Co. have drummed the retail trade for +years, but they have done jobbers no harm, and of late are very anxious +to get the jobbing trade. I don't fear the drummers from the factories, +but I do dread the low quotations they scatter around, because I must +meet their figures." + +Mr. Shively seemed pleased at having a good listener, and had talked +as if enjoying himself. While I was very much interested in his views, +still it is probable I should have acted just the same even if I had +cared nothing about what he said. No higher compliment is paid to a man +than to place him over you as your teacher. I left him after getting a +fair order from him, and passed into a large retail store. + +That undefined line between the large retailer and the small jobber is a +delicate one on which to tread. It is rarely that a retailer will buy +of his home jobbers. Every jobber will sell more or less at retail; will +tread on the toes of his retail neighbor, and the latter has a special +desire to buy as low as the jobber does. Much of his stock is bought at +such prices; on a large part he is assured by the salesman that he is +getting as good prices as the largest jobber in the land. If one is not +direct from headquarters it is doubtful ground to walk on, but it has to +be taken care of. + +I handed my card to the man whose face seemed to me to show authority +and ownership, and I was not mistaken. + +"Guns!" said he, "we don't handle guns." + +"But you do revolvers and cartridges." I had seen them in the show-case. + +"Yes, but we don't sell them. The jobbing houses are retailing at +wholesale prices, and we poor retailers stand no chance." + +"You must retail at wholesale prices, too. You can buy about as close as +they do, and you can do retail business as cheaply as they can." + +"Yes, but don't you see, no matter what our prices are they are retail +prices, and for the same reason their's are wholesale; the idiotic +public loves to be fooled, and will fool itself if no one else takes the +job. What are cartridges worth?" + +"Two dollars and ten cents per 1,000 for 22s." + +"Why, I can buy here in town for that!" + +"I presume you can; we make no money on cartridges; neither do the +jobbers here or anywhere else." + +"Well, if you can't beat the houses here, how do you expect to sell +goods?" + +"Oh, cartridges are but one item in a very long list, and, profit or no +profit, people must have them." + +I always expect a retailer to tell me that I must beat his home jobber, +or he will not buy of me. But I know that this is not often true. He +will not buy of the home jobbers at the same price, for he feels that he +is building up his competitor. I have seen a great many jobbers who had +spent time and money trying to get control of all the trade in their own +city, but I never saw one who did not finally give up in disgust. It is +not human nature to be willing to help build up a man who is in any way +your competitor, and often you would rather pay a trifle more elsewhere +than buy of him. This may not be "business," but it is human nature, and +there are many places where the latter is by far the stronger. + +I undid my sample roll and showed my revolver samples to Mr. R. Almost +every revolver reminded him of something, and I listened to his stories +with the interest of a man who wanted an order. + +"There is no trade in the world so mean as this," said he. "People come +in here for a revolver, and I am almost sure they mean mischief with it. +What am I to do? My refusal to sell one will not prevent their getting +it, yet I hate to sell to them. Of course a large majority of those I +sell are sold to people whom I know, and I know they buy them for proper +use. But a woman will slip in here and slyly ask for a revolver, and I +am wondering if she is going to commit murder or suicide. Many a time a +man looks so woe begone as he buys a pistol that I make some excuse to +keep him from loading it here for fear he will blow out his brains right +in the store." + +"Did anything like that ever happen with you?" + +"No, not with me, but it has happened. I read of a man going into a +gun store, buying a revolver, asking the clerk to load it (doing it +all calmly), and then placing it at his temple and falling down dead. I +believe I would go crazy if such a thing were to happen in my store, and +I always worry more or less for fear it may. It's a mean business at the +best; I wish there were no revolvers made. What do you get for this?" + +"Two eighty-five." + +"Well, send us six." + +I sold him a fair bill, and then spent the afternoon trying to sell two +other large retailers, but without success. One of the men was snappish, +the other good-natured but full of goods. I did want, very badly, to get +a little order out of them, but when I went to supper I had nothing +from them. After supper I went down to the cross-grained man's store +determined to get so well acquainted with him that I could meet him +again under different auspices. + +He looked at me as if he expected to be pestered in some new spot, but +I put him at rest by saying I had a little time to lounge and thought I +could do it there. At this he dropped some of his frowns and began to be +sociable. We talked until I was sure it was long after his shutting-up +time, so I bade him good night, saying I was going off in the night. + +"Don't you ever drink a glass of beer or wine?" he asked. + +"Try me!" + +"All right; let us lock up and go down the street a block." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +I think a merchant who does not want to buy usually feels uneasy to have +a traveling man about the store. He keeps up all the barriers that he +can, so that he shall not be led farther than he intends to go. If he +becomes very friendly it may be all the harder for him to say "no" by +and by, so he keeps up an uncomfortable stiffness and is glad to see the +salesman go. I have seen this, or thought I saw it, often and often in +my own case. I could not get the dealer to be friendly with me while +I was in his store, but perhaps I met him in the hotel and found him +cordial and sociable. + +The retail dealer who had invited me to take a glass of beer with him +had been rather stiff in his own store, but the moment he turned the +key in the lock he seemed to throw away his coldness and became very +talkative. We sat down at a table and our beer was brought. + +I doubt if any traveling man ever became a drunkard, because of the +drinking necessary to be done among his customers. A little of it +appears to be really necessary. But this little would lead no one to +excess. The men who drink to excess are those who patronize bars with +other traveling men, and who drink alone. The temptation is great. Every +hotel has its bar; all introductions and intimacies have to be sealed +with a drink, and the man who does not feel bright, or fancies he does +not, has a row of bright bottles beckoning to him to "brace up" with a +glass of their contents. + +I do not wonder that the pulpits and all thoughtful people cry out +against the drinking of liquor. Every traveling man's experience, +the tales he could tell of the financial and moral ruin of men from +drinking, and men who are usually the most intelligent and who ought to +be the most influential, are all in the line of the injunction to taste +not the accursed stuff. I say this after years of experience; I felt +it on my first trip, but I was so anxious to ingratiate myself into the +good graces of every man I wanted to sell to that I drank with customers +when asked, and when it seemed wise invited them to indulge with me. + +Do you say that the foolishness of this was that I must continue it each +trip and do more each time? No, you are not correct. I had less occasion +for it the next and each succeeding trip. I was able to meet the men on +a different footing after the first trip, and I had but little use for +liquor as an engine to help business. + +A man must needs, too, be very cautious in inviting men to indulge. If +it is done in any way so that it appears to be to help make sales it +will do more harm than good. A certain class of traveling men will +invite a merchant to go out and get a drink as if they were offering him +a new paper collar, or to pay for his having his boots blacked. Their +manner seems to say, "I must buy you a drink and then I'm going to stick +you on an order." They disgust where they expected to please. + +Yet, as I have said before, men seem to come close together over a glass +of beer. My friend had positively refused to buy a dollar's worth from +me, and I had put him down as rather a surly fellow, but as we sat there +over our beer he chatted about himself, his business, and his partner, +as if we were old friends. + +"I have been seventeen years in trade," said he, "and we have been +tolerably successful. I began with $1,500, and I suppose I am worth +$35,000, but I work fourteen hours a day, and I have to carry all the +responsibility on my shoulders. My partner waits on customers when he +is in the store, but when he wants to go out driving or to go anywhere +else, he goes. I never let him do anything but he makes a bull. He +contracted for advertising the other day, $300 worth, in a paper that +will never do us three cents' worth of good. We have the meanest kind of +competition here; every wholesale house retails, too, and retails a good +many goods at wholesale prices. They buy in larger quantities than +we do, and of course can buy cheaper, and they look upon their retail +profit as so much clear gain. I am tired of the business, and if I could +sell out I would get into the jobbing trade." + +There it was. The man who wants to sell out is one of the most numerous +men that exist. But it was my business then, and it has always been +my business since, to listen sympathetically to all such tales, and to +promise to have an eye out for any possible purchaser. + +"We don't do much in your line," he continued, "because men don't come +to a stove store to buy revolvers, but if I don't sell out I'm going +to do some wholesaling, and see if I can't eventually work up into +wholesale exclusively." + +This was a much more promising opening for me, and I led his fancy +over a bed of roses to the not distant day when he might put up that +fraudulent sign--"No goods at retail." And I was reminded of a very +cheap pistol that we had that I would sell him at 52 cents, which he +could job to any country dealer at 75 cents. I don't know if it was the +beer or my eloquence, but I sold him fifty then and there, and added +some other goods to the sale, so that my evening was not wholly wasted. + +I saw him not long ago. He is still retailing at the old stand and still +grumbling about his partner, but we have been the best of friends since +our first evening together. + +As I ate my breakfast the next morning I overheard two men at my table +talk about trade, and I quietly listened. + +"It only takes a little thing to help out a line of goods or to kill +them," said one. "Nimick & Brittan got out that burglar-proof attachment +on their locks and just kept themselves going by it." + +"Is Brittan on the road now?" + +"Guess not. The Big Three, Brittan, Rashgo, and Bond, work some kind +of a syndicate, though, and make a good thing out of it. I met Brittan +twenty years ago or so. He was a hard worker, good-natured, understood +human nature and was a success. He represented several concerns, and +used to make ten or twelve thousand clear a year. Finally he got into +the lock factory." + +"Most traveling men are crazy to get into something." + +"Yes; that's so. We think if we had a shebang of our own we'd just make +things fly; but we miss it oftener than we hit it when we do get the +factory." + +"You're right. The man on the road with a good trade and a good salary +has a pretty good thing of it." + +"Well, some men expect to strike it rich by silver stock. Do you know Al +Bevins?" + +"The sleigh-bell man? Yes, I know him well." + +"Has he told you about the silver stock?" + +"No." + +"He has been investing in Deming's--" + +"Oh, d--n Deming! He's a nuisance with his silver stock." + +"Yes, but he gets the boys in all the same. Henley has bought a lot +in Providence on the strength of his investment, and Deacon Hall, of +Wallingford, will buy out Wallace when his dividends come in. Bevins +says it's better than sleigh-bells, and Al knows how to run a factory." + +"Still, some of the men at the factories are born idiots. You can't +teach them anything. If the managers were compelled to make one trip a +year they'd find out a good deal. Here's my ax trade. I've been cussed +from one end of the trip to the other. My orders for October shipment +were billed about January 1. And it's the same way year after year. +I swear, I often wonder that I get any orders at all! They damn me in +February, and yet they give me new orders in May. But it is sickening to +hear the same story over and over, year after year." + +"What excuse do they offer at home?" + +"Oh, it's never two years alike. One year the streams dry up; then the +foreman is discharged; then they booked too many orders." + +"A little thing happened that riled me when I was last home. A customer +ordered a certain spoon, using a special number of his own, on the 18th +of May. I was in the shop late in June, and the shipping clerk asked me +what spoon that was! Here he had held the order six weeks before he took +steps to find out what the man wanted. I gave him a piece of my mind." + +"Talking of spoons, do you ever run across Kendrick, of Mix & Co.? I +traveled with him a few years ago." + +"He sticks close to the factory. There is an instance where the +traveling man took the management of the factory to good purpose. I +don't believe there is a better-managed business anywhere. Kendrick has +become a deacon in the church, with a weather eye out for fast horses." + +"Talking of spoons reminds me of Father Parmelee, of Wallingford. Do you +know him?" + +"Who, Sam? Yes, indeed." + +"We were in Detroit together, and the way Parmelee talked William Rogers +was enough to drive a man crazy. He's just chock full of William Rogers, +and I'll bet he'll want Rogers on his plated grave-stone." + +"Parmelee is one of the kindest-hearted men on the road. I never heard +him say a bitter word against any one; I never knew him to bore any one; +I never heard a merchant speak other than kindly of him. He travels for +a big house, but they probably do not know how much of their business +in the West is due to Parmelee's push and tact. He has been a long time +traveling, and I always like to meet him." + +When the two men went away I ruminated over what they had said, and I +laid up several points for my own use. I was especially glad to hear +them praise other traveling men. It's a mighty good sign of any man to +find him generous in his praise of others. I thought this all over as +I started down the street to find Shull & Cox and try to sell them 100 +bull-dogs. I caught their sign and marched boldly in, wishing there was +a law on the books that would compel every dealer to give a salesman an +order whether he needed goods or not. + +A young clerk was at work near the door, so I asked if the buyer was in. + +"That's him over there with that drummer." + +"Is it Mr. Shull or Mr. Cox?" + +"That's Shull; Cox won't be here for an hour yet; he don't get up till +the school bell rings." + +I saw the young man was talkative, so I prodded for more information. +"Who is that drummer?" + +"I don't know his name; he's selling revolvers from More & Less, of New +York." + +This was fun for me, and I wished I was out of the way, and out of the +town. I concluded that the best thing I could do would be to interview +some one else immediately, and I started off at once. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +I think a man often does better work when he is spurred on by anxiety. +I had seen More & Less's man in the store across the street, so I +determined I would do my best at Bingham's and not get whipped out of +the town. Mr. Bingham met me as if he wished I was somewhere else, but I +was too eager to sell to care very much about his manner. I told him my +story as well as I could, and insisted that if he needed anything in my +line I could do him good. + +"I don't need anything," said he, "but what is all this talk of the M. +H. & Co. revolver?" + +"It is coming into prominence," I said, "and Jim Merwin gave it a big +boom in Cleveland the other day. McIntosh took him before the Police +Board, and they say Merwin outdid Buffalo Bill. McIntosh says the Chief +of Police took a Smith & Wesson, and Merwin a M. H. & Co., and each +tried to shoot the other with empty shells, Jim grabbed the Chief, +emptied his revolver of the shells and rammed the pistol in his ear +until the Chief yelled for mercy. Merwin gave such a war dance that they +had to call out the fire department to cool him down. He secured the +city's order for an outfit for the police, and M. H. & Co. stock has +gone up since then." + +"Do you sell them?" + +"Yes, at factory prices." + +"Pho! All you men talk factory prices." + +"I mean factory prices." + +"Well," said he, "I'm going to buy of Simmons after this; he beats the +factories. His New England man--" + +"His what?" + +"His New England man. Didn't you know he had opened a Boston office and +now drums New England?" + +"I hadn't heard of that." + +"Oh, yes. St. Louis is going to run the country on hardware hereafter +and on guns. Simmons' New England man says they do a big business there; +dealers buy bills of $8.87 down. Their New York office isn't open yet, +but it's coming; they want Sam Haines as manager, or J. B. Sargent. They +do things up big down there." + +"How many M. & H. revolvers can I send you?" + +"Don't want any now; just asked out of curiosity." + +This was discouraging, but I opened my price-book at A, and called +his attention to every item in it, but to everything received the same +answer, "Got it." I began to get desperate. + +"Look here," said Bingham, "you seem to be excited, young man. I like +to see a man work, but if a fellow don't want anything, he don't, and +that's the end of it. I never bought a dollar from your house, and your +prices are no better than others." + +But I wanted an order. Whether he needed goods or not was no concern of +mine; I wanted an order and I was determined to get one if such a thing +were possible. Finally I struck Flobert rifles. "Look here," I said, "I +have a special price on Flobert's target rifles--$2.10 by the case--but +I will give you a cut even on that; I will make them $2, and now I want +you to give me an order." + +"Two dollars," he said, as if turning it over in his mind; "$2, eh? I've +a mind to go and see Madley with you." + +"Who is Madley?" + +"He's a clothing man, and chain lightning about offering gifts to +purchasers. He has run cows, watches, pianos, and lager beer; maybe he'd +take hold of rifles." + +"Very well," said I, "let's us go see him. What price shall I quote +him?" + +"You needn't do any quoting; I'll make prices and you expatiate on the +goods." + +We started down the street to Madley's, and I was introduced to the +gentleman, a fussy, garrulous little man with an extremely red face. +Bingham opened the ball, and I never listened to more talented drumming +than he did that morning. + +"Chris," said he, "this young man is offering target rifles at a cut +price that knocks anything ever known. The boys have been buying them +very freely of late, and they are popular. I fancied they might hit you +as a gift with a boy's suit. If you can handle them I don't want any +profit, but am getting other goods from him, and you can ship with my +goods." + +"What are they worth?" + +"Well, you have as much of an idea of the worth of a rifle as any one +else has; suppose you were going to buy one for your boy, what would you +expect to pay?" + +"I don't know anything about them." + +"Oh, you've got some idea and I want to get it, for you will not be very +different from the average man in your estimate of cost." + +"Oh, d---n it, say $10; but I can't handle any such goods." + +"We don't ask you to at $10. But that is about the average idea +regarding price. Now, Chris, this man's price is $3.12." + +It struck me this was getting mighty close to "cost!" + +"Eh, $3.12! How the devil can they make it at that?" + +"Oh, they make it. How they do it is none of our concern. It would make +you a very popular gift and the boys would go wild over it." + +Madley turned to me. "Is that your bottom price?" + +"I gave Mr. Bingham my very best figures." + +"How many have you got?" + +"Any amount you want." + +He called two of his young men, and after a conference with them came up +to Bingham and said: "Bingham, I can't afford to let you make a profit +on these rifles. You wouldn't come up here if you were not making +something. The idea is a good one, and you may send your boy up and get +the best suit of clothes I've got, but I'm going to figure on rifles +before I order." + +"All right, Chris, go in." He turned on his heel to go out, and I +followed. When we were on the sidewalk he said: "I don't give it up yet, +but I can play bluff as well as he can." + +"You asked too much advance, I am afraid." + +"Oh, I know him. I'll go for him by and by." + +And he did. I called in the afternoon and took his order for 100 rifles, +and he showed me a written order for them from Madley at $2.62. To these +he added several other items, making a very nice bill. I have always +noticed that, however much a man did not want any goods, the moment you +get him started there is but little difficulty in then getting his order +for some of the very things he told you he was not needing. + +During this time I had no fear of the other salesman. My prices were +down so low I cared for no one, but I concluded I would go back to Mr. +Shull's, and see if anything was left for me there. He happened to be +at work at the shelves, which is a place I like to find a man at, and I +explained that I was in early in the day but saw he was engaged. + +"Yes," said he, "I had a gun man here all forenoon. He sold me all I +needed in your line. He says bull-dogs are going up." + +"I had not heard of it." + +"What are you selling at?" + +What should I say? If he had bought I didn't care to quote a special +price, and I did not want to name a high price, for that might give him +a bad impression of the house in the future. + +It is a difficult place in which a salesman finds himself, this quoting +prices to a man who has just bought. The temptation is always to name a +very low rate, perhaps even to go below your lowest selling price, for +the purpose of making the man feel that you would have been a better +man to buy from, but this is a two-edged sword, and I have not cared to +handle it. I concluded it would pay here to be frank. + +"It is possible there is some advance of which I don't know," I said, +"but my price has been $2.75 to $2.85, according to quantity." + +"That's what I bought at." + +I opened up on rifles, found him entirely out, and showed him my order +from Bingham for 100. + +"What in Sam Hill is he going to do with 100?" + +I did not enlighten him. I said: "Oh, every lad buys a target rifle +nowadays." + +"What price do you get?" + +"Two dollars and ten cents by the case." + +"Case? How many's a case?" + +"Thirty-six." + +"I don't want any case. If you want to send me a dozen at that you may." + +I wanted to, and got his order for another item or two, and left him, +feeling I had done pretty well. + +This showing one merchant the order you have taken from his neighbor +is one of the easiest things in the world to do, but it is not always a +trump card. Still, it has a powerful influence in a majority of cases. +The best buyer who lives has times of doubting if his judgment is +infallible, and he is glad to brace it up by comparing with the judgment +of others. This he is able to do through having salesmen tell of the +orders given by other buyers, and be he never so smart, he very often +falls into their traps. + +If you are a buyer you are, possibly, looking at a Russell knife, +listening to Booth's eloquent description of the way they are hand +forged, elegantly ground, and how Oakman inspects every blade and then +wraps it up carefully in Ella Wheeler Wilcox's last poem. The pattern +you have in your hand pleases you, but you wonder how others will look +at it. The question is not, "Do I like it?" but, "Will it sell?" You +are inclined to think it will, but just then your eye falls on scores of +patterns on your shelves that you thought would go like hot cakes, but +they have disappointed you. Perhaps, after all, your best way is to +wait; but just then Booth opens his little book and shows you where +Bartlett ordered 100 gross; Buhl, 50 gross; Ducharme, 25 gross, and +Blossom, 10 gross (but he puts his thumb over this last hastily), and +you tell him to send you a few. As I said before, I believe the best +buyer is more or less influenced by being told what others are doing, +and with the smaller trade it is constantly used to sway their decision. + +Is it right? + +I do not know. I am not writing of the ethics of business. I know that +traveling men use the order taken from one buyer to influence another, +and that it often has great influence, although I think the buyer is +not wise who acts upon such information. Even when he is told the strict +truth regarding the orders given by others, he ought to know his own +stock and trade so well that he could depend upon his own judgment. But +most of us like to lean on some one else, and when we are hesitating and +learn that our competitors have decided thus and so, it is easy to fall +into line and buy as they did. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +Sitting at the breakfast table of the hotel next morning a gentleman +opposite looked up pleasantly and asked: + +"Are you selling goods, sir?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"What line?" + +"Guns and sporting goods." + +"Yes? I'm a little in that line myself." And he handed me his card. + + HOPSBY, COCKLEY & CO., + 20 Warren Street, + New York City. + +"My name is Cockley," he added. + +I had heard of him often, and was very glad to meet him, though I would +have been still happier if he were not selling the Norwich revolvers. +I always had a feeling that I stood a poor show when I was in direct +competition with other salesmen in my line, and I never felt quite +comfortable with them. + +"How is trade?" I asked. + +"Well, rather dull on the road; but they write me it is booming at home. +We have a large South American trade that the elder Mr. Hopsby, being a +fluent Spanish scholar, and author of that well-known work, 'Spanish +As She Is Walked,'looks after, while young Mr. Hopsby looks after his +father and me, and it keeps him busy." + +"You have a good many lines beside pistols?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes; pistols are a side issue. I sold Deming 1,237 Waterbury +watches, and Blossom a car-load of can-openers. I sell Pribyl here a ton +of nail-pullers at a time. Did you ever see the Waterbury watch?" + +"I have not seen it lately." + +"Then take these two; no, put them both in your pockets; I always give a +man two, so he can check off one by the other. A Waterbury watch is one +of the greatest blessings in the world. Babies can drop them; boys can +throw them at each other, and women can use them as stocking-darners. +Mr. Hopsby drops one into the contribution box every Sunday, and +expects, in the course of a few years, to provide every young African +with a time piece." + +I didn't get it quite clear in my mind whether Cockley was guying me or +not, but he looked as if he were simply trying to be sociable. + +"Have you been long on the road?" he asked. + +"No; this is my first trip." + +"That so? You look quite at home. I remember my first trip; it was in +New England, and I was selling sewing-machine needles. Mr. Hopsby +took me around a corner before I started and, presenting me with a +nail-puller, told me he was afraid he was doing wrong to send me out, I +was so young; but that I was to remember that the only way to prosperity +was in getting orders. It hadn't struck me in just that light before, +but the more I thought it over the more I believed he was right. The +first man I tackled was a pious-looking deacon, and I began to whistle +'The Ninety and Nine' as I went toward him, so that he might understand +that I was a Bible class scholar. I worked over that brother for two +mortal hours, and finally got mad. 'If you only played billiards,' said +I, 'I'd lick you like thunder.' 'You can't do it,' said he, and in less +than ten minutes we were at the table across the street. I was just more +than walloping him, when suddenly I remembered the tearful injunctions +of Mr. Hopsby. I let him beat me three games, and then sold him $60 +worth of needles." + +"You have been on the road a long time?" + +"Twenty-two years come Valentine's day." + +I looked incredulous. + +"Oh, I began young. Chris. Morgan, George Bartlett, Sam Parmelee, +Charley Healey, and I started on the same day. We now leave New York +Saturday night, give Cleveland, Monday; Toledo and Detroit, Tuesday; +Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Wednesday; Chicago, Thursday; St. Louis, +Friday; Cincinnati, Saturday; and are in New York for business the next +Monday morning." + +"That is fast traveling." + +"Yes, but we have the trade educated up to it. We tell them 'no +bouquets,' 'no parties,' but just orders. We telegraphed ahead to +Toledo, the other day, so that while the train waited twenty minutes for +dinner I sold three bills." + +The was all said so honestly and so pleasantly that I had to believe he +was sincere, but at the same time I knew it wasn't strictly correct, and +I felt more and more uncomfortable. + +"How do you like this hotel?" + +"Pretty well; I'm not very particular." + +"You will be when you have been ten or fifteen years on the road. Hotels +are a large part of your life. I left word at the Julian House, in +Dubuque, to be called at six o'clock, the other night, and about four I +heard some one pounding away, so I asked what was up. The musical voice +of the watchmen came back: 'It's now 4 o'clock, and I'm going off watch, +so yees has two hours yet to sleep before 6 o'clock.' Now that struck +me as a family arrangement, and I'm going to have it extended to other +houses." + +"There's something about hotels I don't like," I said. + +"What's that? The whisky? It is poor here, but you will find it better +farther West." + +"No," I said, "I'm not much interested in the whisky. What I dislike +about hotels is the loneliness." + +"Yes, that's so. For that reason I like to travel with a party. I get +Brother Little, he sells Pillsbury flour, and is a first-rate player +on the harmonica, and Al Bevins (the talented sleigh-bell artist), who +plays on a $2 music box, while I play on a double police whistle equal +to any man in America. We take possession of the parlor and invite the +landlord's family in, and, I tell you, we make it home-like! How would +you like to try a little concert here to-night?" + +I begged off most emphatically, and said I must go for business. "Hold +on, we'll go together. Do you know any one here?" + +I confessed that I did not. + +"Neither do I; so we can be of great help to each other. I'll introduce +you, and then you can introduce me." + +I felt as if I stood a good chance of getting into some kind of a scrape +before I got away from him; but off we started. We were going down the +street when Cockley struck an attitude and pointed to a sign over the +way: + +"I told you I knew no one; I was joking. There's a friend's. Let's go +over and see Bewell. He'll be glad to see us and give us the whole town. +He was in New York this spring, and we had a good time together studying +up art. After he had once seen the game piece in Stewart's it was +impossible to keep him away from it. I never saw men so devoted to +aesthetics as he and Joe Gildersleeve were. He said the best way to see +the picture was through a glass of rum and molasses, and he looked at it +in that light about thirteen times a day." + +I followed him in with some fear of a joke being played on me, but his +manner changed at the door, and we met Bewell as if we were all deacons. +He gave Cockley a very warm reception, as if thoroughly glad to see him. +I concluded I was in the way, so with a promise to call later, I betook +myself to another house. I did not meet Cockley again for many months. + +I thought him over when I had time, and was not surprised that I had +always heard him spoken of as being a very successful salesman. The +half-hour that we were together had made me like him, and the way that +he went into Bewell's store showed me that he knew when to be dignified +as well as when to be jolly. I especially liked the way in which he +spoke of his partners; in my way of thinking this is one of the signs +of a broad man. The small, petty-minded fellows are sure to have a +complaint to make of their house or buyers or partners. In following +Cockley's steps since I have always heard him pleasantly spoken of by +merchants and travelers. + +I found the store, to which I took my way, a large wholesale hardware +house. I observed as I entered that one man was very angry about +something, while he talked to another whom I took to be his traveling +man. I did not care to bother him until he was through, so nodded a good +morning and took a chair. I soon found the man was angry over allowances +the traveler had made in the previous week, and I was much interested +and strongly in sympathy with him. + +"What did Labar say about the goods he returned?" he asked, as his eye +caught that name in the list in his hand. + +"He claimed that he ordered dish-pans and that we sent rinsing-pans, and +that the brushes were moth eaten." + +"What did you tell him?" + +"I said as little as I could." + +"I wish you had told him that he was a contemptible cur. A man who will +lie over $4.80 worth of goods, after keeping them in his hands ninety +days, and seeing you twice meantime without saying a word, is a mighty +small man. He knew from the price what the pans would be, but he never +thought of any such excuse until after we drew on him for his long +overdue bill. Of course our kicking does no good, because other houses +will sell him until they have similar experiences with him, and it will +take a good while to go around. If I was as mean as some of these whelps +I'd shoot myself. Did Simpson pay up?" + +"He paid the balance of the bill, but would not pay interest; said that +we were the only house that charged interest, and he should never buy of +us again." + +"The miserable little liar! I don't suppose a house is in existence that +lets a bill run five months after due and does not add interest. When +are you going out?" + +"On the next train." + +"Well, try and collect the balance due from Stone, but don't sell him +another dollar; there are decent men enough in the trade, let the mean +ones go. If he does not pay, get the name of a reliable justice and we +will send a sworn account to him. But don't sell him again." + +"They're good as wheat." + +"I know they are good in the sense of being responsible; mean men +usually are; but it is not a question of their responsibility; they +are tricky and untruthful, and their idea of being smart is to lie over +goods and prices and compel a deduction. Give them the go-by. Well, +good-by; don't worry over trade; do your best and we will be satisfied." + +As his man started off he turned to me with, "Well, young man, you look +as if you wanted to sell me something." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +When a merchant says to the traveler, "Young man, you want to sell me +something?" it is a notice to come at once to the point and state your +business. It is not the way we like to proceed. We prefer to pass the +compliments of the day, talk about business, and approach gradually the +special branch of trade to which we are devoted. But Mr. Clark's "Well, +young man," was like a whip, and I had to at once open out with my +little story. + +"We don't want anything in that line," said he, with decision. "We are +full of guns and ammunition. It's a beastly business. I wish I was out +of it. Here is a card quoting Pieper's 'Diana' gun at $32; mine cost me +$38; now, how the d---l does this concern sell at $32?" + +The "Diana" gun was well known to the trade as one having all the modern +improvements; the rubber butt-piece had Diana's head on it and hence +the name; but Pieper sent over one lot of about two hundred guns of the +common quality, and this "Diana" butt-piece was on them; they were sold +by Pieper's agent to a gun house as common guns, at about $28, but this +house promptly sent out its daily postal card quoting the "Diana gun" at +$32. This was the story as told to our house, and I explained it to Mr. +Clark. + +"That may be just as you say," said he, "but a business that is full of +that kind of tricks is a good one to get out of." + +Just then a clerk came in and handed him a slip of paper, which I +recognized as a special report from the mercantile agency. He excused +himself while he read it. "This beats the Turks," said he to me. +"I never knew a time when it was so difficult to get reports of the +standing of retail dealers that you could tie to. My man sends in an +order from J. C. K., Burlington, and he says: 'This man has a nice +stock of goods and his neighbors say he is worth $5,000, and is good for +anything he buys.' Dun does not quote him at all, so I asked for special +report, and here it is: + + J. C. K., Burlington, has been in business here since 1880; came from + Kokomo, where he failed and paid 40 cents on the dollar; is married, + age about 42, habits good. Claims to have stock of $2,200, and to owe + not to exceed $600. Is doing fair business, but his personal expenses + are rather high, and it is said he is close run for ready means. + Thought safe for small amounts, but bill should not be allowed to + lapse. + +"Now this and my salesman's report don't tally very closely. Here is +another case. My man sells John Johnes, of Dubuque, and writes: 'He has +a grocery well stocked; says stock is worth $3,000, and no debts. His +neighbors say he is sound as wheat.' But when Dun's report comes in it +says: + + Is a married man. Been in business alone and with partners for + several years; means limited and estimated worth $500 to $800. Is + regarded as an honest man, and it is believed he will do for a + limited line. + +"Now I don't like an honest man who is worth $500 to $800, according to +Dun, but who tells my man he is worth $3,000." + +"You can usually depend on Dun, can't you?" + +"Yes, I think they sin on the right side; they are apt to make a man out +as bad as they can. Here is one of their reports, as an instance: + + F. Keef, saloon and grocery. He appears to be doing a good business; + is in debt, but to what extent are not able to say. Had some claims + against him here, but think he will pay. Has some energy and push in + business. Has no real estate so far as known, and not considered + sound financially. + +"You would not care to sell a man on such a report, would you? Yet that +man is one of the best paying men on our books." + +"Do not your salesmen call on the banks?" + +"Yes, I suppose they do, but let me tell you that banks are the biggest +liars in existence. They often say a man is good when they know exactly +to the contrary. My man sent in an order from L. Loeby, of LaGro, +Kentucky; he wrote, 'Loeby is a sharp buyer, and said to be good. I +called at the bank and they said he was A No. 1, and good for anything +he buys.' Well, I got a report from Dun, and here it is: + + L. Loeby, LaGro; age 35; married; been in business two years; fairly + temperate and fairly attentive to business; character and business + capacity moderate; it is said doubtful as to honesty; means in + business, about $1,000; no real estate; on the $1,000 above listed as + his means in business the bank here holds a chattel mortgage of $600; + he has a large family, and of late he has not been paying his bills + as they fall due. + +"You can see why the bank quotes him A No. 1. The more goods he gets the +better is the value of their chattel mortgage. I have stopped putting +much faith in what banks say about men." + +"Are not the mercantile agencies almost always sure to find something +against a man or a firm?" + +"No, sir; they have to give facts as near as they can get at them, and +if there is nothing against a man they can not give anything against +him. Take this report: + + Darby & Chase, groceries and commission, Delphi. E. J. Darby and W. + H. Chase compose the firm; seem to be men of good character and + business capacity. They are thought to be worth $10,000 to $15,000. + +"That report probably gives the best general opinion in that community +regarding that firm. Their character and business capacity are good, and +they are prospering, evidently. But the mercantile agencies omit to tell +us some very important points about men. A man may be financially +all right, and yet be an undesirable customer, or one who ought to be +handled with great care. Every report ought to tell whether the man is +a smart Aleck or not; if he is mean about returning goods; if he makes +unfair claims; if he is a chronic reporter of shortages; if he allows +bills to run long past due and then refuses to pay interest, or exchange +on drafts; all these points ought to be covered." + +"Are you much bothered by such men?" + +"Every wholesale house is; no matter what line it is in, or who it is, +the wholesale dealer has more or less of just such men to deal with. I +know a retailer who invariably reports a shortage; he lies, of course, +but he is fool enough to think he is making money because he beats every +house out of a dollar or two every time he pays a bill. Here is a man +whose bill was due November 30; I draw on him by express (his town has +no bank) February 23, and add 25 cents to the draft to cover the cost of +getting the money to me. I make no claim for interest although I have as +good a legal claim for it as for the principal, but he refuses to pay +my draft, and in a few days sends me his check on a country bank for the +face of the bill. It cost me 25 cents to collect his check, and I paid +25 cents to the express company on the returned draft, so I get 50 cents +less than my bill and lose the use of my money nearly three months after +it was due me." + +"Why didn't you draw through the nearest bank the day the bill was due?" + +"I didn't want to be so sharp with him; I felt kindly toward him, +and supposed a little leniency would be appreciated, so I only sent a +statement asking for remittance. And this is the way he repays me!" + +"Probably you gave him a piece of your mind." + +"What good does it do? The drummer from my competitor will call on him, +and if the dealer starts to run me down he will help him at it. We put +up with things of this kind until the average retailer fancies he is +real smart, and the meaner he is the smarter he will be considered." + +"But isn't it your experience that shippers do make mistakes, and +occasional overcharges are made?" + +"Certainly it is; not very frequently, but occasionally such things +happen to us. But I don't write the factories as if they were +pickpockets, and as if these errors were intentional. In thirty years' +experience I never knew a house refuse to correct an error, and while +I want all my discounts and extras to which I am entitled, I don't want +one cent more than that. If I do not pay bills when due I expect to be +drawn on, and have to pay the cost of the draft. If interest is demanded +I pay it, and if it is not demanded I feel grateful to the house for +letting me off." + +"I think gunsmiths a mighty touchy set of men to deal with." + +"They're no better and no worse than any one else. My neighbor told me +last night that he had just received notice from an Iowa customer that +he would not take a bill of dry goods, just sent him, out of the depot +because they were charged one-half cent too much. He claimed the bill +was one-half cent a yard on everything higher than the price agreed upon +between himself and the salesman. The house is one of the most reputable +in the State; the salesman is one of fifteen years' experience, and the +prices are the same as he made to others in that town and all along the +route. He says the retailer kept no copy of the order and goes entirely +by guess. He does not write to ask the house if there is a mistake +or not, but shows his smartness by announcing that he shall refuse to +receive the goods." + +"What will they do with him?" + +"Keen said the man owed them $700 on a past due note that they were +carrying at his request; he said they would compel him to pay it up +clean at once, and never go near him again. I hope it will bother him +right bad to raise the money." + +I apologized for having taken up so much of his time, but said I would +be sorry to go away and not have a small order to show for it. I called +his attention to Flobert rifles, interested him in them, and finally +secured his order for a case. As we were finishing our talk a +happy-looking pair came in the door, and I took up the morning paper +while Mr. Clark went forward and greeted one of them, a Mr. Healey, very +cordially, as if he were a very old friend, and then Healey, his eyes +twinkling, said: + +"Mr. Clark, let me introduce my friend, Mr. Fuller. He is known far and +near as 'And Forged Fuller, and he is also the owner and patentee of +that celebrated washing compound, Fuller's Earth." + +Clark laughed heartily as he shook hands with Fuller, who said: + +"I may say that my trade mark is 'Paragon;' heverybody hasks for it--" + +"Yes," broke in Healey, "and nobody buys it!" + +"I may say," said Fuller, placidly, "that Mr. Healey is wrong; I +frequently sell a few. It's my trade mark, and known, I may say, in +England as well as here." + +"Yes," said Healey, "Fuller lives on both continents, and brings the +steel over in his grip. We have our examples at the hotel and shall be +glad to have you come up there. Fuller don't care whether he sells or +not; he is rich and traveling only to keep down his flesh." + +Mr. Clark made an engagement with them and they went away. As they +passed out he said: "There goes one of the most genial-hearted men on +the road. I have known Charley Healey for about twenty years. He came +out here representing Hilger & Son, and built up a good trade for that +firm. Hilger could not have done it in a thousand years. Then that +firm and Wiebusch consolidated, and Healey looked after their Western +business. I never met a buyer who was not his friend, and I imagine most +of them are, like myself, heavily in his debt for courtesies extended to +us, not by way of business, but as if he were under obligations to us. I +say to you that a good many houses never suspect the debt they are under +to their traveling men, but look upon themselves as the great magnet +that draws trade, when nine out of ten dealers care nothing whatever +about the principals and buy entirely out of regard for the salesman." + +I had heard many men speak in the same terms of Healey before, and I +hoped I should meet him at dinner. + +As I bade good-by to Mr. Clark and thanked him for the order given me, +he said: "Somehow you do not seem like a stranger." + +I thanked him for that compliment most sincerely. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Sunday to the commercial traveler, if to no others, is preeminently a +day of rest. If there are stores open during week days he feels that he +ought to be at work, and if he gives himself an extra half-hour at noon +or evening his conscience pricks him. But upon the Sabbath there is +nothing to be done by way of business, unless in getting from one town +to another, and it is his rest day. + +I slept so late (I admit that I am always lazy whenever I dare be) that +I fancied I would have the dining-room to myself, but I had plenty of +company. The hotel where I was had an excellent reputation on the road +and was a favorite place at which to pass Sunday. I was fortunate enough +to meet here a hardware man from my own city whom I knew well, and who +had traveled long enough to know almost everybody. + +"How is trade?" was, of course, his first question. + +I had no bragging to do over my trade, for, it must be confessed, I was +not sure that I had sold even half what I ought to have done. So I said, +"My trade is only so-so." + +"Well," said he, "I guess that is about as much as any of us can say. +Times are tight. Goods are so infernal cheap and cost so little that if +you sell a man four or five pages it don't amount to anything in dollars +and cents. I was just telling White here--by the way, let me introduce +my friend, Mr. White; sells notions for Haff & Walbridge, New York. I +was just telling White that I took a big order from a house yesterday, +one covering six pages of note paper, and each item calling for fair +quantities, and it amounted to $92. A few years ago it would have footed +up $400." + +"It is so in every line," said White, "everything is down, but we have +new lines every season, and keep up trade by having novelties." + +"What a chain-lightning genius Haff is!" exclaimed my frend. "I remember +when he traveled for Howard & Sanger; good-natured, voluble, energetic, +and uneasy as a lump of mercury. Suddenly he blossomed out as an +inventor, and he's kept on inventing ever since. I've been surprised +that the man who is father of so many children has not invented a better +nursing-bottle or colic exterminator. What's your last novelty?" + +"Base balls." + +"Ye gods! Base balls! Well, you've got a mighty good man to fight +against." + +"Who's that?" + +"Taylor, of Bridgeport. I don't know when I've seen a man of more push +than he. I believe he patented or invented the ball that Warner makes, +and they placed him in charge of the ball department. He just has balls +on the brain; tosses them in his sleep; takes them to church and plays +catch with the tenor, and keeps two balls in the air while he drinks a +cup of tea. That kind of a man is bound to succeed." + +"Is the base ball trade a large one?" + +"Yes, it amounts to a good deal of money. Every notion dealer in the +country carries more or less of them in stock. The ball that sells for a +nickel is bought by the barrelful; such a ball is sold to the jobbers at +28 or 30 cents per dozen, and to the retailer at 35 to 40 cents. Balls +that retail at 10 to 25 cents are the best sellers, but a few good balls +go in every bill." + +"How high do they run?" + +"The best sewed balls retail at $1.75 each, but the ordinary 'league' +ball retails at $1.50. Such a ball is sold to jobbers at $7 to $9 per +dozen, except Spaulding's; he keeps his pretty stiff because he gets +them into the hands of the National League, and a certain class, because +of that, will buy them and no other." + +"Is there any choice in the different makes?" + +"Very little. Certain dealers get balls made with their name on and +advertise them as being superior to anything made, and very often the +manufacturer cannot sell his own brand in the territory where these are. +You know people love to be fooled." + +As we went away from the table, we met a gentleman whom my friend +introduced as Mr. Hart, of Bradly & Smith, brush manufacturers, New +York. Hart evidently was an old timer on the road, and knew the brush +business like a book. + +"Trade is fair," said he, "but New York has to compete with brush +factories in every city now, whereas, twenty years ago, we had it our +own way. That was the time when my firm ran the Methodist Church and +laid out Asbury Park, N.J. It was easier to make $50,000 a year then +than it is to make $5,000 now." + +I was struck with a point he made against a buyer for a large jobbing +house. Some one had said that they bought in good quantities, as +compared with one of their competitors. "Yes, they buy in larger +quantities," said he, "but give me the other men. I sell them both, but +here is an incident which tells the kind of big buyers your friends are. +A year ago I had a new leather-back horse brush that I was selling at $9 +a dozen. I showed it to B.'s buyer and it took his eye at once. 'What is +the best you will do if I take a quantity?' he asked. 'I would like to +sell that at $9, and if I could do it I'd push them.' I knew there was a +good profit to us at $9, even where we sold in small lots, so I figured +that in quantities we could sell at $7.50. How many do you suppose he +ordered?" + +"Well," said my friend, "knowing that it's mighty hard work to sell a $9 +brush nowadays, I should say six dozen would be a good order." + +"Yes, so it would; I expected he would order six or eight dozen, but he +ordered twenty dozen." + +"The deuce he did! Did he sell them?" + +"I was there yesterday and he had sixteen dozen and a half on hand. I +don't call that very shrewd buying." + +Sitting in the smoking room was a tall, slim, Yankee-looking sort of +a man, who smoked in a nervous way, and when he talked seemed to speak +with great earnestness. He was introduced as Mr. Rockwell, a cutlery +manufacturer of Meriden, Conn. Somehow these Meriden men are all alike. +They are great pushers in business, wire-pullers in politics, and in +season and out of season stand by each other. If Wilcox and Curtiss and +the Rockwell family were only guaranteed fifty years more of life they +would own the State of Connecticut. Rockwell was discoursing upon pocket +cutlery, and as it was a subject about which I knew nothing, I took a +back seat. + +"American manufacturers," said he, "not only have to fight against poor +foreign goods, but what is worse, they have to fight against them under +American names and labels. Thirty years ago if a man got up a fancy +brand he put 'Sheffield' on it; now this is changed; everything has to +have at least an American name. The result is that American goods are +damaged by foreign trash, which, having an American brand, is supposed +to be American-made. A farmer buys a knife branded 'Missouri Cutlery +Shops,' thinking he is getting an honest, home made article. The +probabilities are that it was made in Germany, and is of the poorest +quality. It does not give satisfaction; so he damns American goods and +goes back to his old IXL. And when he gets a poor IXL knife, as he very +frequently does, he swears it is bogus." + +"That's so," said one of his friends. "I often hear men sighing for the +old knife of their daddies." + +"Why, here is a sample of the man in this letter. Let me read a few +lines. After mentioning our advertisement, he says: + + Now I have been hunting a good knife for twenty years, but too much + "protective tariff" having shut out competition, we now only get such + "pot-metal" cutlery as monopolists choose to give us; nice handles + with hoop-iron or cast blades, not as good for $2 as the old "Barlow" + knife boys could buy for a "bit" forty-five years ago. If yours are + good I will be glad to get them, but if they are a cheat, I will call + on you with a shot-gun, on my way to Canada, where I will then have + to look for a good knife. + +"That man," continued Rockwell, "believes what he says, probably, but a +man of 45 who knows so little ought to be shut up in an idiot asylum. If +we could have a law here as they do in England, permitting no goods to +be labeled or branded as American-made unless they were made here, +such a man would hang his head with shame at his injustice to home +manufacturers." + +I liked to hear Rockwell talk; he had a way of giving a sentence in a +crisp, sharp way, and then half shutting his eyes for a moment, as if he +was waiting to see what the other fellow would say and be ready with an +answer. + +My friend spoke of him with great enthusiasm, saying his house had done +business with him for many years, and looked upon Rockwell as one of +the most growing men in the trade. In talking with him afterward about +pocket cutlery, he said to me: "No cutlery factory in this country +is paying a penny to its stockholders; we are looked upon by the +free-traders as coining money, but our men are averaging twice the wages +of the English, and three times those paid by Germany, and the labor is +about eighty-five percent, of the cost of the pocket knife. The leading +American makers turn out good goods, far above the average English or +German; but the consumer is not able to tell whether he is using +an American or foreign-made knife, because of the habit of branding +everything with American names, and we have to bear the curse." + +"Why is it that Meriden people hang together so?" I asked. + +"Do we?" he asked, laughing. "Perhaps it is because they're all such +good fellows. The rich men there, and there are a good many of them, +have always been ready to help any enterprise that came to the town and +could make a fair showing. You will find the same men stockholders in a +great many different companies; their salesmen help each other, and they +are closely united socially. They work together and love their city." + +I don't know any better eulogy to deliver upon a body of business men. + +Later in the day, a rather warm conversation near us drew us toward +five or six men who seemed to be growing excited. A traveling salesman +appeared to be giving a manufacturer some good advice. + +"You men," said he, "seem to think you do a very smart thing when you go +to these big buyers and give them an extra 10 per cent., but you don't +seem to be capable of learning that in doing this you are cutting your +own throats. Only a few months ago I was talking to Simmons. 'I don't +like these low prices,' said he, 'nor to have everything down so close +to cost; we can't get extra discounts as we can when prices are higher; +the most we can get now under ordinary circumstances is 2-1/2 to 5 per +cent.' 'How much do you think you ought to get?' I asked him. 'Ten per +cent., at least,' said he." + +"But he doesn't get it," said the manufacturer. + +"Oh yes, he does, on a good deal of his stock. He must get it on your +goods or he would not be quoting them at the price we pay you for them. +We paid you $3.60 for the last lot we bought, and I saw a quotation from +him on your goods at $3.62. He is no fool; he does not sell goods at +cost. When I saw his quotation my price was $3.60 and will be $3.60 +until we clean your goods from our shelves, and it will be a good while +before any more of the same brand ever go back there again." + +"But that is all nonsense," said the other, "he buys the goods at +exactly the same price your house does." + +"Then it is time we quit them. If we have no protection on your goods we +want to drop them." + +"That's pretty tough," said the other, half disposed to be angry. "I +have no control over your prices; I sell your house as I sell him; I +advertise the goods so that the jobber could make a profit if he would, +but if he won't I cannot compel him to do it. The jobber has no idea +of anything but to beat his competitor in buying and then beat him in +cutting the price. Nothing counts in business but a 'cut.' I don't know +where we are going to." + +"Well," said my friend, "suppose we go to dinner." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +A number of traveling men around a Sunday dinner-table, when they feel +sure it is going to be a good dinner, is about as entertaining a company +as any business man would care to be in. Jokes are necessarily plenty; +stories fly about freely, but the man must be very thick-headed who does +not pick up bits of information that he is the better for knowing. + +At our table were represented knit goods, groceries, cutlery, hardware, +crockery, and guns. When the the jokes had flowed about, and firms were +being discussed, I heard the dry-goods man say: "Yes, sir, if I wanted +to point out two of the longest-headed men who foresaw the coming change +in doing business I would mention Butler Bros., of Chicago and New York. +I used to sell them notions when they were in Boston, and they were nice +men to do business with. It's harder to sell them to-day, for the buyer +has grown hardened and cuts to the quick." "They were the 5-cent counter +men, were they not?" + +"Yes, 5, 10, and 25 cent counter goods was their hobby, and it beat the +great horn spoon to see how the thing spread. Every little cross-roads +store had its 5 and 10 cent counters, and manufacturers and jobbers cut +in prices to cater to it. Of course it could attract attention only +by offering bargains. If a dealer put on his 25-cent counter only such +goods as he had been selling at 25 cents, no one would have patronized +it. The point in his mind was to attract attention by the bargains +he could show. He could make a fair profit on the whole lay-out, but +perhaps one-third of the stock was sold very close. Under ordinary +circumstances a dealer paying 20 cents for an article would sell it at +30 to 40, but now it went on the 25-cent counter." + +"But it hurt regular trade." + +"Yes, it did to this extent, that it led men to dabble in things not in +their own line. The dealer was apt to do the most cutting in such goods +as were not in his regular line. He was inclined to be stiff on his own +goods, but say he was a dry-goods dealer, it did not hurt him to cut +on tin dippers, wash-basins, wooden-ware, etc. So when the hardware men +followed with their cheap counters they were most inclined to cut on +notions, and in fact the cheap-counter business has very much to do in +the mixing up of trades and the demoralization of prices." + +"Don't you think it was the basis of department stores?" + +"Yes, I do. Men saw that their small line of crockery, or tinware, or +stationery sold well, and they increased the assortment, and finally led +up to the 'department' idea." + +"How is this 5-cent counter business managed? I mean, how are the sales +made?" + +"Largely in assortments; for instance, if you pick up advertisements +of the houses making a specialty of such goods, you will find that they +offer assortments for a certain amount of money. They give the goods +in detail; the dozen price of each article, the quantity sent in the +assortment, the cost to the dealer, and the total retail price. Of +course if the dealer is just starting out in such goods the entire +assortment is what he wants, but if he is in it already the list enables +him to buy just those things he needs. You'd be surprised to see the +profit there is in these things, even in the present hard times. For +instance, I saw an assortment of 5-cent goods consisting of 167 dozen +articles which would retail, as you can figure, for $100.20; cost to the +dealer, $60; profit, $40.20, or 67 per cent, on the investment." + +"Let's go into the 5-cent business," said the cutlery man + +"Better start a knife-stand on the street. Do you make goods for +street-men?" + +"No; they handle the cheapest Dutch trash." + +"Where do they get it?" + +"In New York and Philadelphia. Seven or eight years ago some street +fakir got hold of a showy two-blade penknife at about $2 a dozen. He +took his stand on the street and they went off readily at 25 cents. +The business seemed to spread all over the country like wild-fire, and +especially during the fair season. Jobbers in the inland cities were +cleaned out of stock they looked upon as dead and worthless. Of course, +as soon as this demand was felt houses began to prepare to supply it. At +first the fakirs were willing to pay $2 per dozen, but when new stocks +came out cuts were made and the prices steadily went down." + +"What do they pay now?" + +"These 25-cent tables do not cost, on an average, $1.50 per dozen +knives. They get out a very handsome-looking two-blade knife, in bone or +ebony handle, for $1.32 per dozen; a good-looking jack-knife for $1.40 +to $1.75; pearl handle penknives for $1.75 to $2." + +"Are they worth a cent?" + +"Not to cut with. They sell by the eye entirely; handles and blades are +well finished, and they seem to be worth a good deal more than the price +asked for them." + +"We had quite a run with some of these men on revolvers," said the +hardware man. "We had a wood handle 32-caliber that cost 85 cents--a +good pistol. A seedy-looking fellow bought two or three hundred from us. +His plan was to go into a shop, saloon, or store, and in a confidential +way tell the boss or clerk that he was dead broke and would sell his $5 +revolver for $2.50. At that time the average gunsmith was asking $3.50 +to $5 for a common revolver, and he sold enough every day to make him +good wages." + +"Thank goodness!" said the grocer, "we don't have these snide affairs in +our line." + +"No, people have to give your goods away. It's samples of soap, samples +of tobacco, samples of tea, samples of baking-powder, etc., etc., from +morning till night. It's a mighty mean line that has to be given away." + +"This giving away," said the crockery man, "has made a big hole in our +business. Some one suddenly discovered that crockery would be a taking +thing to help work off poor goods. Of course, the home jobber benefited +by it for a very short time, and then the New York importers stepped in +and took the cream. Baking-powder men, coffee-grinders, tea houses, and +others sent out crockery, and people, got so much of it for nothing they +had no excuse for buying any." + +"I doubt if it really hurts us much in the long run," said the Meriden +man. "Here was a baking-powder concern in Ohio that offered a set, +consisting of fifty-one pieces, of silver-plated ware with every case of +their own goods. If you had read their advertisement you would have been +sure that Rogers never turned out any better goods than these they were +giving away. But the fifty-one pieces cost them just $7.50! They used a +good many thousand sets. The table caster was worth about 70 cents. You +can imagine the quality! Now, I hold that in the long run cheap stuff +will help good goods. People who have it will get disgusted with it, +and will replace it with reliable ware, while if they had never had +the trash they would not have had their own consent to buy the better +goods." + +"Perhaps the most wonderful thing about business today," was said, +"is the amount of information given in circulars, price lists and +advertisements. I can remember twenty years back where a price list +simply gave you the briefest statement of the article, sometimes the +size, but oftener not, and the price. Nowadays an ordinary list is a +mine of information. I remember having reached the conclusion that one +of the things particularly needed was a circular for the consumer about +the way to strop and take care of a razor. I could not find a syllable +on the subject in any English or American price list. I wrote to four +manufacturers for points, but received the briefest of replies and no +practical help. I sat down to write the circular. Did you gentlemen ever +try your hand at such a job?" + +No one had. + +"Then I just want you to try it once, and you will believe what I tell +you, that it will be about as tough a job as you ever undertook. I had +been selling razors for ten or twelve years; I had talked with barbers, +as you all have; I had heard customers talk; I had heard shrewd remarks +and silly remarks; I had heard manufacturers occasionally drop a hint, +and now I was to sit down and evolve out of my memory and experience a +circular on the subject that would be of benefit to every one handling a +razor." + +"How did you make out?" + +"Well, perhaps the best answer to that is the fact that our firm sends +out the circular to-day just as I wrote it eight years ago. But +I started to speak of the large amount of information you find in +circulars and advertising nowadays. Advertising is much more of a +science than it was. Pick up a decent trade paper and the ordinary +advertisement is full of shrewd points for those handling the goods, +that cannot help being of immense value to retailers. And I can call +your attention to this: these advertisements, these shrewd ones, are +always written by men who have been traveling salesmen. Such men know +the points that ought to be brought out." + +"Yes," said the dry-goods man, "how is this, cut from the advertisement +of a list of five-cent counter goods. Don't you believe the man who +wrote this knew the soft side of a retailer?" And he read: + + HOW TO DO IT. + + Bundle up some of the unseasonable goods that are taking up valuable + counter space, and put them away on the shelves. By this economy of + space, and with the possible addition of a temporary counter, you + have gained room enough to admit of the introduction of a "5c, 10c or + 25c counter." The next thing to do is to send to some reliable jobber + for a bill of staple household sellers, with which you can mix + hundreds of articles from your own stock; then send out a little + circular ("dodger") to the over-anxious inhabitants, telling them of + a few of the articles to be found on your "Cheap Counter," and they + will respond as readily as though you had sent them free tickets to + the circus. It matters not that they have not seen one of these + counters before, there will be the same rush--the same scramble for + first choice--the same telling of friends about bargains bought; and + instead of sitting around waiting for the advent of spring, you will + have pocketed a nice profit from your cheap counter, besides having + worked off any amount of odds and ends that might have been in your + store five years, and would have remained five years longer had not + this modern wonder made an exit for them. + +"That sounds mighty like Ed. Butler," said the dry-goods man. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +Occasionally a traveling salesman meets at the hotel or on the train the +head of some large house, who is making a trip for special reasons of +his own. Such a man is always sure to be affable with every one, but +he is especially conciliatory to the salesmen he meets on his route. +Perhaps this is due to the fact that he is a stranger and these old +travelers can help him, if they are so inclined, or it may be for the +purpose of leading them to be talkative with him, and in that talk he +can gather points that will be of value to him. Whatever the cause may +be, there is no question as to the fact. But the talkativeness is not +always on one side. I have met wholesale merchants on the road who would +talk freely and tell me more about themselves and their business in one +evening, while we sat in a country hotel, than they would have done in +five years of ordinary intercourse in the city. + +The man who sits in the house all the year falls into several errors. +One is in thinking that people are anxious to buy of him, and that his +traveling men ought to find it very easy to get an order in almost every +store. Another error is in believing that the orders come solely because +of the firm's popularity, rather than of any merit in the salesman. I +suppose there are goods so well advertised that, in a large measure, +they sell themselves; but, outside of patent medicines, I can not now +recall one such item. + +We were talking of this, half a dozen of us, while in the smoking-room +Sunday evening, and one of us said: "The best man to work for, if you do +your level best, is a man who has been on the road himself. Such a man +always knows where and when allowances must be made for dull trade, and +for cutting of prices. The man who always makes the most trouble, and +who was fore-ordained to be a dashed fool, is the book-keeper. The +balancing of his little gods of books is of more account, in his eyes, +than is the sale of a bill of goods. And having the ear of the firm he +usually gets permission to do any piece of dashed foolishness that he +suggests. But next to him is the merchant, who never steps out of his +own door to try to sell a bill, or the manufacturer who runs his little +shop in a one-horse way and never goes out to see what others are doing, +or learn what consumers are saying about his goods. I once traveled for +such an old block-head, and, as I started off on a trip, I advised him +to discontinue making a certain article, telling him it was out of date +and could only be worked off on greenhorns in business. I guess I was as +much interested in getting them off as if they were my own, and I lost +no chance of working in a few wherever I could. The same amount of work +on salable goods would have paid big money. Well, when I got home, may I +never breathe, if that old ass hadn't taken my sales as evidence of the +big demand for the goods and was piling up the store-house with the same +stock!" + +"Yes," said another, "but the man who sits in his office usually makes +the biggest mistake in supposing that he is a great deal smarter than +the men he sells. Because he is a peg higher in trade, as jobber, +importer, or manufacturer, he imagines he is also greater in ability, +and he has no hesitancy in advising these poor devils about their +business. I was selling scythes several years ago, and worked for +just such a man as I have been describing. He was a good mechanic, but +pig-headed; goods must be made and finished a certain way, because that +was the way they had been made for thirty years. The result was we were +losing our trade. I knew he was blaming me for the trade falling off, +so I persuaded him to make a flying trip with me to Buffalo, Cleveland, +Toledo, Detroit and Chicago. The dealers at Buffalo were rather old +fogy, and we got our order there from our regular customer, but when +we struck Cleveland I saw the old man open his eyes. It was one of +Blossom's off-days, so he didn't waste much time on us, but said he +didn't want any of our goods. Deming hadn't got into silver mining, so +we couldn't get an order from him by buying a share of stock, but Van +was about half-full, and he opened up on us. Then Toledo piled it on. +There were four jobbing houses there in our line, but not one would buy. +I knew one buyer pretty well. After we had been the rounds we came back +to his place, and I asked him to tell us frankly how we could get +some of his trade. He gave in detail the ideas that were current among +retailers and consumers regarding shape and finish of scythes, putting +it down in a clear-headed way, so that a baby could have understood him, +but showing the shrewdness of a man who was studying all the points in +connection with his trade. It did the business. We went up to Detroit, +and had a long talk with Charlie Fletcher, and the old man bought a lot +of samples and went home. On my next trip, you can bet, I had salable +goods." + +"You can study a man as he is only when you see him in his own store," +said a third. "When a country merchant comes into Chicago, and walks +into your store, he is very desirous that you shall be pleasantly +impressed by him; so he puts on his best manners. You are on your native +heath, you are surrounded by your clerks, and you are considerable of a +man in a city of big men, while he realizes he is a very small toad in +a little country puddle. But just put the shoe on the other foot, and go +into his store. Now, he is on his own ground; you are asking favors of +him in the shape of orders, and all the petty smartness comes out, if +there is any in him. It is an opportunity that permits a mean man to be +his meanest, and draws out of a generous, kindly soul all the milk of +human kindness there is in his heart." + +"Well," said a dry-goods man, "there are a good many kinds of men in the +world, but the man who makes me fighting mad is in Pittsburg. He's most +infernally polite, but he never wants anything. As I go back to his desk +he is either reading or writing. I say: 'Good morning, Mr. Blane,' and +hand him my card. He scarcely looks at it, but in the most solemn and +dignified way says: 'We do not need anything in your line to-day.' Then +I open up on my leading items: 'I have a very nice line of novelties +in so-and-so.' He looks off from his paper to say: 'We are full of +so-and-so to-day,' then goes to reading again. 'I have some desirable +patterns in new goods in silks.' He looks up to say, 'We have enough +silks for the present.' 'I can give you special prices on hairpins.' He +looks up again to say: 'Our stock of hairpins is full.' And then I bow +myself out. I asked the boss one day if he ever sold the firm when he +was on the road. He said he did once. Blane was out of town and he sold +his partner. Still, I call on him every time I go to Pittsburg." + +"Pittsburg? Oh, that's where Joe Horne hangs out." + +"Who's Joe Horne?" + +"Why, Joe is the man whose orders are as well known in the west as +Willimantie thread. Every New York drummer stops at Pittsburg, and every +dry-goods man sells Joe Horne, or says he does, so that now, west of the +Mississippi, the first greeting given a drummer is, 'Show us Joe +Horne's order.' Joe must be a very good fellow to give his orders so +impartially." + +"Did you know Luce?" one dry-goods man asked the other. + +"Luce, of Toledo? I should say I did." + +"He was a tough man to tackle unless he felt just right. They tell of a +put-up job on a drummer who used to call on him. He couldn't manage ever +to get an order out of Luce. One day he said to a friend, who always +sold Luce, 'How is it that you succeed and I fail? I sell the best trade +in the country and to a good many men that you don't sell; now, why +is it I can't catch on to Luce?' The other asked, 'Do you ever talk +politics to him?' 'No.' 'Well, that's his soft side. He's a regular old +moss-back, Vallandigham Democrat. If you want to succeed, go in on that +line.' His friend thanked him, and the next time he went to Toledo he +felt better. Luce wanted no goods, as usual. Then Mr. Traveling Man +opened on politics. He remarked that all over the State there was a good +show for burying the d--d Republicans that election. Luce glared at +him in speechless wonder. Then Mr. Drummer launched out on the infernal +meanness of the Republican leaders, but by this time Luce was ready for +him, and the way that poor devil was talked to would make you sorry. +When he next saw his friend there came pretty near being a fight, but +the friend thought it too good a joke to keep and told Luce. No one +enjoyed a joke better than Mr. Luce, and, by thunder, the next time the +man called on him he gave him a good order, and they were the best of +friends afterwards." + +"I often wonder if any one ever fools a man equal to the way he fools +himself. I always laugh over a customer of mine in Cincinnati who always +insists he must have 'a leetle adwantage.' The boys on the road like Old +Pap and laugh over his 'leetle adwantage.' He says: 'I must haf a leetle +adwantage ofer New York and Philadelphy. They ton't pay no freight. They +get their goods at their door; I must haf a leetle adwantage to cover +the freight.' The old man has this so firmly fixed in his head that we +have to humor him by giving him 'a leetle adwantage.'" + +"Some men think that in giving an order all they need to do is to state +their own terms and time, and every one will dance to their tune. A +concern in the Northwest that failed (and they ought to), used to write +their orders on a blank that was headed: + + All prices guaranteed. Privilege of increasing, + decreasing, or countermanding + No charge for boxing or drayage. + +"How was that for smartness?" + +"You say they failed?" + +"They did." + +"They ought to have got rich!" + +"Yes, they are a fair type of the average buyer; it's cut here, screw +down there, pare over yonder. No matter what your price may be, it's +always, 'What are you going to do for me?' as if he must have a special +cut. I showed Hibbard & Spencer's buyer a new tool the other day, and +gave him my price. `What's the best you can do?' I told him that was +the best I could do. 'But what is your price to Hibbard & Spencer?' As +though every salesman must have laid away in a snug corner, a special +price for that important firm! `I have given you my price; it is the +best I can do with anyone.' They are not willing anyone shall make a +cent but themselves; they want the whole apple, and are not willing to +give the manufacturer the core." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +When I reached T. I had a very disagreeable duty before me, namely, +to fix a misunderstanding with a customer. The house had written me: +"Atkinsen & Co. bought a bill last October from Ned on 60 days' time; +goods went exactly as ordered. When the bill became due we sent a +statement, with a mem. that if not heard from in ten days we would draw. +In reply they sent us a letter saying the goods were sold them under +arrangement by which they are to be paid for when sold, and that we had +better hold our draft, etc. We wrote that we did not do that kind of +business; that our terms were plainly stated on the invoice, and that +upon receipt of that, if not correct, they should have notified us at +once. To this they sent a 'Smart Aleck' letter, and when we drew on them +allowed our draft to be returned. Settle the matter up; take back the +goods, if no better way suggests itself, but close it up. And close +up our deal with them; they are the kind of men we do not want to do +business with." + +To be ordered to get money out of a slow customer is bad enough, but to +have to settle an account with a mean one is a thousand times worse. The +slow customer is usually ready to dun himself, and full of apologies for +his slowness, but the "Smart Aleck" who wants to be small has a hundred +arguments ready at hand to prove that he is a very superior person who +proposes to stand on his rights. Every traveling man has such customers +as this "on his list," and is occasionally called upon to tackle them. + +I had made up my mind that I would find Atkinson rather tall and slim, +but he wasn't; he was a pleasant-looking man, and I handed out my card +as if I had called around to sell him a big bill. His face lost some of +the smile when he saw the firm's name, but I began to talk of trade and +the weather, and kept it up until I had forced him into an appearance +of being sociable. Eventually I led the talk around to his stock and was +fully prepared for his decisive "We do not need any." I mentioned guns, +rifles, cartridges, caps--everything--but he was full. I was determined +that he should introduce the subject of the account, and this he did +when I made a move as if to go. + +"Did your house tell you about our account?" + +"They told me to stick to all the money I could get," I said, +pleasantly. + +"Have you a statement of our account with you?" + +"I think I have." And I appeared to be searching for it, though, of +course, I knew the exact page and line it was on. "Here it is: $43.30." + +He went to his ledger, found it correct, I suppose, and then from his +cash drawer counted out the amount and asked for a receipt. I gave him +one, thanked him for the money, and then remarked that I was sorry there +had been any misunderstanding about the terms. + +"I like to see a house live up to its agreement," he said, in a surly +tone. + +"Don't we?" + +"No, sir; these goods were to be paid for when sold." + +"But the invoice is plainly marked sixty days; why didn't you report +such an agreement when you received the invoice?" + +"I don't care for the invoice. Don't I get any amount of invoices where +all of the discount does not show? When I pay them I deduct the extra, +and that is the end of it." + +I concluded a little plain talk would neither do us or him any harm; he +was probably in a state of mind that would prevent him buying of us very +soon again. I said: "I am satisfied that you have been long enough in +business to know that staple goods, such as you had from us, are +never sold on any such terms as you state you bought these at. I made +inquiries about you of your neighbors, and every one said they had +misunderstandings with you, and are not on good terms with you, and if +I could see your correspondence I am pretty sure I would find we are not +the only house out of town that you have had just such disputes with. +I simply say to you, and for your own good, Mr. Atkinson, that you are +making a mistake. My orders from my house were not to sell you, and +while I know you can get along without us, you can't afford to keep +driving houses away from you without hurting yourself. I'm obliged to +you for paying me; that is all I came in here for." + +He told me that I and my house could go to the devil, and in that +pleasant frame of mind we parted. I suppose I cut down the bridge +between him and us, but I venture to say other houses had the benefit of +my frankness. + +I spoke of this to an old traveling man whom I met at the hotel. "Yes," +said he, "there's too much coddling among us all. We smooth over this, +and give in on that, and the result is we make it all the easier for the +fellow to be small the next time. I'm selling axes, and, of course, I +have to warrant them. Do you warrant guns?" + +"Not to speak of." + +"Then you ought to thank your stars. Warranting is the most infernal +device ever brought out to make men mean and dishonest. I put it down +to the dealer, when I sell him, in the plainest way I know how, that +we warrant an ax only against being soft or breaking from a plain flaw. +When I come around in the spring he pulls from under the counter two or +three or more rusty axes that he hands to me, with the remark that 'here +are some poor ones.' I pick up an ax and find some idiot ground it as +thin as a razor, and the edge broke out so that it looks like a saw, I +ask him what is the matter with it.'Too hard; brittle as glass.' 'But +I didn't warrant against being too hard.' 'But you expect your axes to +stand, don't you?' 'This would stand if ground properly.' 'Oh, yes; you +fellows always have some loop-hole to get out of your warrant.' This +rather staggers me, so I pick up the next one. 'What is the matter with +this?' 'Soft.' As I hold the edge to the light I can see a slight bend +in the bit. The man who used it had it stick, and in his efforts to +loosen it, he had given it such a terrible wrench that the edge had bent +a trifle. To a man knowing anything of the proper temper of an ax the +fact of that slight bend is in its favor, and the work of grinding it +out would have been much less than it was to remove the helve. But I +pass that, as there is no use to argue that a slight twist does not show +soft temper, and I pick up the third one. It has a corner broken off; +the break is still bright, but I am calmly told there was a bad flaw +there. I start to explain why I know, from the shape of the break that +there was no flaw, but he twits me again with wanting to go back on my +warrant, and I stop right there. Now, this is the history of nine out of +ten transactions. The retailer takes back everything a customer brings +back for fear of losing that customer's trade. The jobber takes back +from the retailer, knowing it is unjust, but he is afraid that any +hesitancy on his part will damage his trade. And the poor devil of a +manufacturer takes it off the jobber's hands and cannot help himself. +There is a deuced lot of cowardice in business nowadays. It goes back +through the dealers till it reaches the consumer, and it encourages +him to make any kind of claim he sees fit to cover his negligence, +ignorance, or maliciousness." + +Sitting in the cars that evening, I overheard a traveling man say: "I +find it a little bit harder each week to leave home. I have a little +girl of three, and I see so little of her it makes me discontented. Her +mother knows just what time I ought to come up the street, and she and +the baby are watching for me at that hour every Saturday evening. When +they see me the little one comes running to meet me. Her excitement and +her running just take her breath away, so that when she gets to me she +cannot speak a word. But she can squeeze me and kiss me. How I do hang +on to her all the time I'm at home! I go to bed two nights in the week +like a man should. I wake up to find those little arms around me! And +on Monday morning I have to pull myself away. I tell you it's almighty +hard." + +His voice had a tremor in it, as if a very little encouragement would +bring tears. + +"Yes," said the other, "it is hard. I've been there. I had a girl six +years old that was to me all yours is to you, and all she ever can be. +I started off one Monday morning leaving her as happy as a lark. On +Wednesday I was telegraphed to come in, and when I got home Thursday +morning she didn't know me. Just as long as she could speak she kept +asking for me. I never start out on a Monday morning but that I think of +her, and I never walk toward the house Saturday night that I do not +miss her. I don't know, but it seems to me that a traveling man has no +business to have a wife and family." + +"I never knew you had lost a child," said the other; "if I should lose +my baby I believe I would go insane." + +"Oh, no, you wouldn't; you would do just as every one else does; you'd +go on and suffer. But the men that can be with their families seven days +in the week ought to thank their God every hour of the day." + +"I travel a good deal by team," said a third, "and am frequently driving +as late as 10 or 11 o'clock at night. As I go along the road and see the +light shining out of the windows, and see family groups in their homes, +gathered around the lamp, I tell you, boys, I get homesick. It's the +time of day I want to be at home with my family. I envy every man I see +in such a home, and I contrast his condition, surrounded with his wife +and children, and a long night of rest before him, with my work. I +finish up my day at a late hour at night, then perhaps have to get up at +an unearthly hour in the morning to catch a train. There's mighty little +poetry in this kind of a life." + +"But, after all," said the first speaker, "our wives suffer the most. +They have the responsibility of the home and children on their shoulders +all the time, and they worry more or less over us. My wife never sees a +boy coming to the door with a circular but she thinks he has a dispatch +saying I am either maimed or killed in a railroad accident. Then if the +children are sick she has to shoulder the burden alone, and it is all +the greater because she always tortures herself by believing that she +must be in some way to blame. I tell you our wives have the hardest part +to bear." + +"That's so," came from several. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +In a traveling man's experience no two days are exactly alike, and yet +there is a monotony in the story of a trip because the history of one +day is so much like the history of everyday. We sell to different men in +different towns but the arguments on both sides are very much the same +with all men. It is but rarely that a merchant admits that he needs +anything in our line until after a certain amount of preliminary +coaxing, and he never admits that prices are low enough. + +Some buyers meet one pleasantly, and are perhaps all the more +disappointing. Their manner seems to promise success, but the result is +failure. Other men start in rather snappish, as if the salesman was a +nuisance, but gradually grow sociable, and if they give him an order he +is forever their friend. He can not take "no" for an answer, because his +experience tells him that the majority of buyers start out with a "no," +and end by buying a bill. He must be persistent, because he has heard +numberless times, "I will look at your samples if it is any comfort to +you, but I won't buy," and in nine cases out of ten he has taken the +man's order after all. + +The longer he is out on the road the easier his work grows, but it is +not always true that his orders continue to grow larger. Friendship with +buyers work two ways: the salesman may be able to press them to buy in a +stronger manner than a stranger would dare do, and on the other hand the +buyer can the easier put the salesman off. When he says: "You know well +that if there was a thing in your line that we wanted you would get the +order, but there is none," the salesman has to take it gracefully +and hope for better luck next time. But a stranger, in the same line, +calling there the next day, and mentioning each item in his list, may +secure an order, and at no better price than the buyer's acquaintance +would have given. + +For these reasons I have not given details of my trip so far as they +concerned my own sales. It is enough to say that I was doing fairly +well, not only in selling goods, but in making "valuable acquaintances." +My house wrote me very pleasant letters, praising the character as +well as the amount of my orders, and I looked to my going in with such +anticipations of pleasure that the last six days of the trip seemed to +have more hours than any arithmetic table of time ever put into them. +Partly to kill time, and partly to make myself more "solid" with buyers, +I spent nearly every evening with some of my customers, and listened to +many bits of experiences that were worth more than money to me. + +One merchant said to me in his talk: "I have bought a great many goods +of Wiebusch, and feel as much at home in his store as I do in any place +outside of my own. And, while I do it because of dollars and cents, +still there is something back of these that always turns the scales +in his favor when his prices are no lower than his competitors. Twenty +years ago I was clerk for a hardware house in the West, and about as +ordinary a one as could be. One summer I made a trip East to visit some +friends, and concluded to give myself a treat by taking a day or two in +New York. I knew no one in the city personally; I knew the names of the +houses my employers bought from, and for some reason that of F. Weibusch +seemed most familiar. I put up at the Hoffman House. I laugh every time +I think of it." + +"Did you feel overpowered?" + +"That's exactly the word. I was awfully overpowered. I had been used +to dropping into the little country hotels where the landlord and clerk +were at your service, and where you had to black your own boots, and +carry your baggage around. When I dropped into the Hoffman with my grip +in hand, and wrote my name in the register, and saw the overwhelming +indifference in the eyes of the lordly clerk, I assure you I felt as +small a potato as ever grew in a hill. I never felt quite so small and +mean in all my life." + +"How did you get around?" + +"I got to the hotel about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I sat down in the +office and tried to get my spirits up to the pitch of my surroundings, +but it was a dismal failure. I felt that I was 'country' from crown +to heel, and I was terribly uncomfortable. I happened to think of some +familiar names, and among others of Mr. Wiebusch. The directory gave me +his address, a porter posted me on street-cars and the way to Beekman +street, and in due time I presented myself at the door. I felt timid +about going in. I was only a clerk; I had no business on hand; I would +simply be taking up some of their time in the store, and with no profit +to them. But I went up stairs, and after telling a clerk who I was and +whom I was connected with, was by him introduced to Mr. Wiebusch." + +"And your reception was a pleasant one?" + +"You may judge so when I assure you that I remember it vividly and +kindly to this day, and shall always do so. He could not have been more +cordial to the head of the largest house he dealt with. 'Cordial,' mind +you; not simply polite or pleasant. I was made to feel that I had paid +him a compliment by calling upon him; that everything about the place +was at my disposal; and that I could do him a still greater favor by +permitting him to do something more for me. Now that was real kindness +of heart; it was genuine courtesy, and I went back to my hotel not +caring a continental d--m whether the clerk saw me or not." + +"Did you make other calls?" + +"Yes; the next day I called on a dozen houses, more or less, and was +pleasantly met everywhere; I remember that; but I don't recall the name +of a single one of them! You can see by this, from the distinctness with +which I recall everything connected with my visit to Mr. Wiebusch, what +a relief to me his kindness was." + +"Do you still go to the Hoffman?" + +"Not a bit of it. When next I went to New York I was partner in the +house and the Cosmopolitan or French's were plenty good enough for me +then." + +"Are there many men on the road now that were traveling then?" + +"Not a great many. Sam Disston was here to-day; he's one of the old +stand-bys, and he doesn't look a day older now. These red whiskered +men have the advantage of such fellows as you and I. I've grown gray in +spots, but here's Sam still as red as when he first came out snapping +a Disston saw. I'd like to have Sam to myself some Sunday afternoon and +get him to tell the ups and downs of his goods. Henry used to talk saw +and shout saw and swear saw, but he always sold them. I hung on to Spear +& Jackson about as long as anyone did in this section, but I had to +finally give in, and I was an ass for not taking hold of the Disston saw +sooner." + +"It's a high-priced saw, isn't it?" + +"The Disston factory makes all kinds of saws. Look at this saw--pretty +neat, isn't it? Full size, 26-inch blade; good handle; what do you +suppose it is worth?" + +"I know nothing of saws; I couldn't guess." + +"Yes, you can guess. You know whether it looks worth 5 cents or $5." + +"Well, say $1.50." + +"That's close. You are a good guesser on saws. I buy that of Disston for +$3 per dozen." + +"What! A Disston saw?" + +"I didn't say a Disston saw. It is made by Disston, but their name is +not on it, nor is it any such quality as they would brand with their +name. But they have a tremendous trade in goods on which their name +never appears. I guess they are the largest saw manufacturers in the +world." + +"Disston must have an easy job." + +"Don't you fool yourself. Sam has just as hard a job as you have. In the +first place much is expected from him; then his goods being standard, +are sold close by all jobbers, and they are inclined to push other +makes, which can be bought cheaper. And on cheap goods it is entirely +a matter of price, so he has to meet all the competition of every +saw-maker in the country. I don't believe he has any easier job than +you, or any other traveling man has." + +After selling a couple of cases of cartridges to a wholesale grocer one +evening, he was led to tell of his early days, and I learned that no one +trade contained all the shrewd men. Said he, "I once felt that our house +was a very important one, and about as large as the State of Michigan. +But one July I went down to New York, and sauntered into Thurber's, on +West Broadway. I didn't expect to buy anything, but I thought Thurber +would feel complimented by such a man as myself calling upon him. Their +lower room looked rather busy, but not any more so than I expected, but +when I got up stairs and found myself facing from fifty to seventy-five +clerks I began to think Thurber's was a bigger business than mine. A +boy led me to H. K. Thurber's private office, but there were several men +ahead of me and I waited my turn. The longer I waited the smaller I kept +growing. Mr. Thurber's face was one that you could study. One moment it +lit up with a smile or happy thought, the next his mouth closed with a +snap as if it was the combination lock of a safe-door. At his table was +a chair for `the next,' and I felt as if `next' was going to be called +out whenever I saw a man getting ready to arise. It was a pleasure to +watch Thurber. The new-comer took his place in the vacated chair, told +who he was, what was his business, and Thurber had a 'yes' or a 'no' +ready before the man was through. 'We don't want it' came out sharp +and decisive. 'But if I could--.' 'We don't want it;' and this time the +mouth closed tighter, and the man saw there was no 'buts,' and bowed +himself out. Then to the next, and if his luck was better the bell was +touched, and the boy who answered told: 'Show this gentleman to Mr. +Whyland.' Here a letter was placed before him by a clerk, and after a +glance at it an answer was dictated to the stenographer, who sat in a +corner nearby. Long before it was my turn to bother him I felt so cheap +that I would have sneaked off, but I was afraid some of the boys would +take me by the collar and drag me back. Mr. Thurber met me pleasantly, +and said a few words about our business that told me he knew something +about us, and professed to be very much pleased at my call. Then he sent +for Mr. Whyland and insisted upon my allowing him to show me about the +store. Whyland had but lately returned from his European trip, and was +just aching all over to sell goods. You know how that is, don't you? +Take any good salesman who has been out of the harness for awhile and +when he gets back again to work there's more enjoyment in selling a bill +of goods than in drinking a bottle of champagne. I swore to myself that +I wouldn't buy a cent's worth, but before I got away from Whyland I was +down for $13,000 worth of goods." + +"Whew! It was a dear visit." + +"Not at all. I needed the goods and bought them low, so that it was +all right. But Whyland turned me over to Frank Thurber. Frank is the +politician of the concern; the greenback, anti-monopoly, mugwump man! He +beamed on me as if he was Venus rising out of the sea; patted me on the +back; said I would own all of Michigan in a few years, and he was coming +out to get some points from us wide-awake Westerners; then filled my +pockets with his anti-monopoly speeches and papers, led me to the top of +the stairs, gave me his benediction, and I left. It was an experience. +No opera that I ever listened to, no ball that I ever attended, +contained so much genuine pleasure for me as I got out of that visit. +But I went away satisfied that our house had still room to grow before +it would be the biggest in the trade. It does a man good to see what a +small concern he is occasionally." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +"I can tell you one thing," said a hardware man to me, "there is a good +deal of forcing down of prices done by traveling men that is entirely +uncalled for. Here comes a man to me selling auger-bits. I am full, and +I tell him so. He enlarges on the superior quality of his goods. I admit +them to be good, but my stock is too full for me to think of adding to +it. He thinks it possible there will be an advance, as at 70 and 5 per +cent. off the list there is a positive loss to the maker. I have no +fears of an immediate advance, and say so. Then he says: 'Mr. X., I am +very anxious to get a small order from you; trade is not very brisk with +me, and, as an inducement, I will give you an extra 5 per cent.' Knowing +this to be lower than others are quoting, and feeling well satisfied +that the goods are liable to advance rather than decline, when they +change, I make out an order for him. But how is he going to justify that +cut to his factory? It was absolutely uncalled for. It was not done to +meet competition, but to beat competition, and was simply a bait to lead +me to order when otherwise I would not have ordered." + +"But," said another man, "go back of that a little. At 70 per cent. +discount the maker is barely getting back 100 cents for what actually +costs him one dollar. He is trimming as close as he can in everything to +keep him from loss; wages are cut down, economy in material practiced, +and every detail scrimped to the last possible limit Then this order +comes in from the salesman at a still lower figure. No further scrimping +can be done in material--that has a limit that cannot be passed--where, +then, can any saving be made? Only in the wages. The workmen are shown +the prices that the goods are now sold at, and told that there is but +one thing for the factory to do: to meet this 'competition,' or close +up. And, of course, the meaning of this is another reduction in the +already well-reduced wages. I declare, a man must have a good deal of +gall to be drawing a salary of from $1,800 to $3,500 per year and ask a +workman to take 10 per cent. off his wages of $1 per day." + +"Yes, and you will notice," said the first speaker, "that all this was +done that the traveling man might have an order to send in, and not +because of any requirements of competition or of demand and supply. When +I read of workingmen striking I think of these things and wonder what +they would do if they could see what we merchants see of unnecessary +cutting in prices. Manufacturers and jobbers send men out to present the +merits of their goods, but their sole idea of a 'smart' man is one whose +sales are large. If they have a dozen men on the road, the man who sells +the most goods is the champion man. He sells big bills and is expected +to cut prices. But one of the men who makes less show may be much the +most profitable for them." + +"You would keep account of profits rather than of sales?" + +"Certainly I would, and pay salaries on that basis. Then the salesman +would have strong inducements to get good prices. As it is now all he +need ask himself is: 'Will the old man stand the cut?' and if he does it +is as much a feather in his cap to make the sale as if it was at better +prices. Take the matter of steel squares. One of my men writes in that a +Cleveland jobber is selling them to the smallest trade at 75 and 10 per +cent. off. I investigate and find that they can be bought at 80 off. +But the several manufacturers shake their heads and say this price is a +positive loss, etc., etc. Then what the d--l do they sell at that price +for? Neither dealers nor consumers were complaining of the old prices, +and all the extra stock that is sold by the cut goes on to the dealers' +shelves. The decline is made to a few jobbers, and they at once start +out their men to give it to the retailers, and to use it as a bait, and +when other jobbers learn it they combine to squeeze the price down so +that all can get it. This is a sample of generalship that the square +makers ought to be ashamed of." + +"Yes, but the carriage-bolt men of the country have been playing just +that same kind of a fool game for several years. Who is benefited? No +one, unless it is the big wagon concerns, or the big machine men. I am +told that men in bolt factories at present prices do not make $1 a day. +Why should they work for starvation wages so that the concerns using +bolts can save 40 per cent on their purchase? It's a cursed outrage! The +older manufacturers can stand it, because they just coined money a few +years ago, but now they must squeeze their poor devils of workmen down +in order that they can sell goods at nothing. If the Knights of Labor +were devoting themselves to righting wrongs of this kind, the whole +country would back them up." + +"I often feel sorry for some of the concerns," said the other, "when I +have met the 'managers.' I came back from New York three years ago and +told my partner if Lawson & Goodrow could make money as their New York +office was run, that no one else need worry about his business. Here +was an old concern, with every facility for making goods cheap, with a +reputation for quality second to none in the country, with experienced +workmen, and a good hold on the trade, yet they failed a year or two +ago, and made so bad a failure I supposed they were swamped forever." + +"But they are going on." + +"Yes; I'm glad to see it, and understand that new brains have taken hold +of it. But think of putting in as manager of such a business a young man +just out of college! He was a very pleasant gentleman; I remember him +with a warm sense of his courtesy, but he did not know the A, B, C of +business. Fancy such a man competing with Oakman or Charley Landers!" + +"You've got to get up early to get ahead of Landers.' + +"Yes, Landers is a man of resources and thoroughly understands human +nature. I rode down on the New Haven boat with him one night, and I +spent two very pleasant hours on deck talking with him. He makes a good +impression on you, both as to his shrewdness and his breadth. You get +the idea that he is not small in his methods, and that he has an active +mind. I imagine that when he took hold of the management of his concern, +after Jim Frary had stepped down and out, he had about as unpromising a +job on his bands as a man could have. Frary was a terrible cuss to pile +up goods, I'm told, and the stock was in horrible shape. But Landers +rode through the storm, and his business has seen some mighty prosperous +years." + +"Did you know Rubel?" + +"Of Chicago? Yes, indeed. Poor fellow, I received a card a day or two +ago announcing his death. He ought to have been good for twenty years +yet. I bought some of his patent goods sixteen or eighteen years ago, +and sold more or less of his brand ever since. His plant in Chicago +shows what was in him. I hated, like thunder, to sell his goods when +they were branded 'Chicago,' but when he changed that to 'American' I +bought as freely of him as from others. He was jovial, sociable, +and wide awake. I wish he might have lived to enjoy his well-earned +success." + +"What has become of Jim Frary?" + +"I have lost sight of him. If any man ever had a good chance to make a +strike I think Frary is the man. With Weibusch back of him, furnishing +money and brains, with a combination in prices on a profitable basis, +and with the boom in business, that concern ought to have made piles of +money. But it is not generally supposed that they did. Frary has become +temporarily eclipsed, and General Trunk manages it as if it was an +orchestra. I don't know if he gets much music out, but he probably +enjoys bossing things; that's worth a great deal to him." [Footnote: As +is known to the trade, within a very few weeks after the above article +was written the Frary Cutlery Co. failed, and have since been sold out +under the hammer. And prices of table cutlery are once more "booming."] + +"Don't you like Trunk?" + +"Like him? Of course I do. You would if you were to meet him. He's one +of the most unassuming and gentle-mannered men you ever met. If he only +had a little confidence in himself he would be the Napoleon of the table +cutlery trade, but he is inclined to listen to everybody's advice and +not assert himself." + +"I had a deal with Frary once that amused me. I had been handling a +small, one-bladed knife that we paid about 40 cents per dozen for. We +made quite a leader of it, but were told, in answer to our last order +sent, that the stock was out. We tried to get it two or three times +afterward, but without success. The next time I saw one of the men I +asked him why the dickens we couldn't get that knife again. 'We have +given it up,' I was told; our cost book showed the cost to be 36 cents +per dozen, so we supposed we were getting our money back, but somebody +had the curiosity to foot up the items not long ago, and found an error +in adding of 20 cents; the knife had really cost 56 cents! Fancy a +concern doing business in that way!" + +"There are any numbers of just such concerns. Every little while you +see changes made in prices to correct errors. There's a deal of guessing +done around factories, and also a good deal of figuring on what a +competitor does. One man learns of a competitor making a certain price, +and says, 'If he can sell at that, I can,' and that becomes his price, +without his even knowing that he is making money or losing at these +figures." + +"I think a good many dealers sell goods by guess, as well as the +manufacturers. This is especially true of retailers. A level-headed man, +named Root, has got up a series of cost cards that will be of help to +the hardware trade, but other lines need them just as much." + +"But all the cards in the world will not keep the blank fools from +selling goods at cost. Here is an item in an Eastern paper about two +Connecticut concerns who sold 'crazy cloth' (whatever that is) under +each other's price, till at last one fool offered it at 1 cent a yard, +and then the other came down to ten yards for 5 cents. That was in +Sargent's town; probably they had been listening to his free trade +slush." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +I fell in with a jolly crowd of commercial men, some salesmen and some +heads of houses, at the Tremont, and I have rarely enjoyed an evening +more. Of course there were any number of stories told, many jokes +cracked, and a deal of chaffing of each other. But if I could have +written down all the points made about business they would have +been eagerly read by my present audience. One man was cursing the +book-keeper, as is usual, when a merchant said: + +"There are always two sides to every question, and there is a good deal +to be said from the book-keeper's stand-point. Other things being equal, +a man who has had office experience makes the best man on the road. Very +much of the trouble caused by the book-keeper's letters might be avoided +if the traveling man knew enough, or had a little forethought. You +say things to your customers ten times worse than the book-keeper ever +writes, but a letter looks much more severe than the words you said +sounded to the ear. One salesman when collecting will take pains to get +certain bills balanced. If the customer offers to pay $50 on account +and there is a bill of $53.36 due, or two bills of that sum, he suggests +that it would be a good thing to make the payment that amount and wipe +these out. Such a man helps the office at home. Another man takes the +$50, and does not care a cent if anything is balanced or not. It may +be necessary to have a scapegoat in every concern, but the traveler who +runs down his office for doing its duty is not smart, and is sowing seed +that will grow up to bother him in the near future." + +"Yes," said another merchant, "and there's a sight more book-keeping +than there is any need of. Every little item has to be charged, bill +sent, statement sent, and then receipted for when paid. If a jobber +wants an ax of a special size, just one, and has to order it from the +factory, although he knows the exact cost, it never enters his head to +send in cash with the order. He must have as much red-tape over it as +if the order was a thousand dozen axes. So the retailer; if a customer +wants a gross of screws sent on at once by express, the charge of 22 +cents has to go through all the departments. There's too much of it. +It's expensive in time, and foolish." + +"Don't talk of paying in advance," said a salesman, "we're mighty glad +to get the money after it's due." + +"Yes, I know; there's too much work there, too. Although the buyer knows +the exact time that his bill is due, he is getting so of late that he +will pay nothing until a statement is sent, and not then till it pleases +him. Your small man, not in the amount of business, but small-minded, +dearly loves to hold back until you have sent him notice of draft made +on him; he at once sends on a remittance then and his little soul takes +comfort in telling, when the draft on him is presented, 'I do not owe +them anything; their bill is paid.' Or else he waits till the draft +is presented and dishonors it because it is drawn 'with exchange.' But +there ought to be a keener sense of the honor to be won in paying bills +promptly. If Dun and Bradstreet were to put in a third rating to show +whether dealers paid promptly or not, and whether mean in little things +or not, it would be of vast help." + +"How would you have it?" + +"Why, as it now is, we are told that John Smith is worth $2,000 to +$5,000, and his credit good. I would add another column, and show prompt +pay, slow pay, unpleasant in collecting, etc. You now trust a man on the +basis of his capital and credit, but if you knew he was a smart Aleck +you would not care to sell him no matter how much he was worth." + +"Well, boys," said a New York man, "I don't have anything to do with +the collecting, and I'm mighty glad of it. It's bad enough to sell goods +without having to squeeze the pay out too. But I had a case the other +day that surprised me a little. Last October I sold a bill to a +concern in Canton, Ohio, on 60 days. When I started out this spring the +book-keeper told me the bill was still unpaid. He said he sent statement +in January, then drew through the Canton bank in February, but draft +was returned unpaid. I told him the concern was good, and I didn't +understand it. I was in Canton in April and intended to speak to the +concern about our bill; but when I went into the store one of them met +me very cordially, said our goods had gone well and he wanted some more. +I took it for granted they had paid up, or they would not be so ready +with another order, so sold them a bill and said nothing about the old +one. But here is a letter from my house asking if anything was done +about the October bill, and telling me it has not yet been remitted +to them. Blest if I understand it! The longer I travel the more I get +puzzled." + +"Well, quit cutlery and go selling coffee." + +"Coffee?" + +"Yes, coffee. There are three things that must be selling well in these +days: soap, tobacco, and coffee. Just look at the advertising pages of +the papers and magazines. You see nothing but these three things and +patent medicines. But then you expect patent medicines, so they don't +count. Soap! Great Caesar! It's in everything. 'Queen Soap, 'Sulphur +Soap, 'Ivory Soap', 'Pears' Soap,' and all the other soaps. The +advertising is by all odds the largest expense, and the poor devil of a +retailer is expected to sell at about 5 per cent. margin. Then see +the whole country painted red on tobacco. And now we're catching it on +coffee. If Arbuckle isn't a nephew of Barnum's he ought to be, for he +knows how to advertise. I long ago gave up eating bread made from baking +powder, because each manufacturer proved the other fellow's goods +were poisonous, and I don't know but I must give up coffee since the +advertisements expose how easy it is to doctor it. But at present I'm +sort of holding on to Arbuckle's, and when my confidence in that goes +then I'm done for." + +"You are right," said a grocer. "Arbuckle has made an immense business +in coffee, and made it by his brains. It's encouraging to see a concern +get out of the rut and show folks that the end of everything hasn't been +reached yet." + +"Seems to me," said a manufacturer, "that you grocers have done more to +demoralize business, by your gift enterprises, than any other class has +done. Is the thing holding its own?" + +"No, there is a decided feeling growing against it. The large wholesale +grocers of New York, Austin, Nichols & Co., say, in a recently published +letter: + +"'We do not believe in "gift schemes" of any sort, and are not in the +"give away" business. When the time arrives (if it ever does) when we +are unable to sell good goods on their respective merits we will quietly +retire from business.'" + +"And a Ypsilanti, Mich., grocer writes: 'One fellow carries a shotgun +around with him, another a saw, but they principally run to clocks. Of +course you don't have to pay anything for these fine articles, provided +you buy the goods which call for them (in your mind). The retailers, +too, now are striving their very best to see which can give the most +with a pound of baking powder. That is, a great many retailers are. They +do not seem to care anything about the quality, if they can only give +the largest prize. Quality is not considered at all. They buy the thing +for the great prize offered. When the retail merchants of this country +shut down on this despicable way of doing business and sell goods on +their merits, without a prize package attached, just so soon will a blow +have been struck at the root of the whole matter.' These pretty fairly +represent the growing sentiment among large and small traders of brains. +They see that the moment an article ceases to be sold on its merit, just +that moment a dealer is losing his hold on trade. I met a man from Ohio +on the cars a day or two ago. He had been sent out to Iowa by his house +to sell coffee and spices on the prize-package basis. He said he was +almost turned out of doors by the Iowa merchants as soon as he had told +his story. The dealers there said they wanted no goods that had to be +worked off in that way, and had no confidence in goods that could not +sell themselves. Now that was a healthy sign." + +"When I see it," said another grocer, "I at once assume that the concern +is sending out cheap goods, or that it has been losing trade and catches +at this straw to save itself. When an old and reliable house like +Lorillard goes into the give-a-prize-away-with-every-package business, +it only goes to show to what an extent this matter is carried on. The +Lorillards are now introducing a tobacco called 'Splendid.' They say it +is a 'splendid' thing, makes one feel 'splendid,' etc. If it is, why not +sell it on its merits; advertise it in a legitimate way; make the price +an inducement, and if it is a splendid article the public will soon +find it out. Lately they have been offering a pack of cards with every +10-cent piece, besides giving a first-class cutter to the retailer with +a single box, and a combination truck and ladder with five boxes." + +"It is really one sign of the hard times. When business recovers itself, +and that time is not so far distant, consumers will not be attracted by +the cheap gifts. Every day they are being educated to understand that +they pay for all their 'gifts,' and pay well, too." + +"In times like these you can't blame men for jumping at everything. +Every buyer wants 'a leetle adwantage,' and, like a Chicago man that the +boys tell of, tells you your price is 'stereotyped' unless you cut down +below every one else. So dealers try low prices and try gifts, but +by and by they will have to sell on a rising market, and things will +change." + +"You think prices will go up?" + +"They must go up, and it is right that they should. There is no reason +why the girl at work at a loom should starve just that your wife should +save a cent or two a yard on her gingham dress. Wages must go up, and +goods advance too." + +"But if wages advance and the cost of living advances too, where is the +girl to be benefited?" + +"Don't fool yourself on that stuff; that is the stale argument of some +of the smart young men who write for posterity. Rent is probably as high +to-day as it was when wages were twice as high. The prices of flour, +pork, and beef are regulated by the crop, not by the buyers' wages. If +I were hammering at an anvil I would take my increased wages and pay +increased prices if I had to, and feel pretty sure I was going to be +benefited. There are some theories, like this one and free-trade, that +sound very plausible, but do not stand any chance when actual tests are +made in every day life. The cry of all merchants to-day should be, 'Pay +decent wages to your help and add it to your goods.' And any factory +that held out ought to be boycotted. I know it's a mean word, but it is +a good one for use with mean men." + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The last day on the road must always seem a long day. One figures out +just what train he will take, the hour he will arrive at the end of the +journey, and the minute he will be with his family or in the store. I +had reached my last day and was putting in my "best licks" so as to have +a good batch of orders to carry in with me, to make my welcome all +the greater. But as luck would have it no day of my trip had been so +uncertain and tantalizing. + +I spread out my revolvers before four concerns and enlarged upon their +remarkable qualities and low prices. "Bulldogs" had stiffened in price +at the factories to $2.25, less 10 per cent., and our stock was large +and bought at low prices. I used this as a bait wherever I could, but +every other man had been throwing out offers of the same kind, and mine +were not so greedily taken as I would like to have had them. + +"No use of your offering baits," said one party "there's no life in the +gun business any more. Here's Lafoucheaux guns at $7, Flobert rifles at +$2, Smith & Wesson revolvers at $8, and the deuce knows where it will +stop. Things must be mighty dubious when S. & W. have to cut their +prices. Here's Reachum's last billet doux on rifles, quoting them at +about 5 per cent, above cost, and yet you expect me to give you an +order. No, it's no use; I must wait till somebody wants to buy something +that I have." + +"Do you say that about all your lines?" + +"Well, it's mighty near it in everything. Here's an order from my man on +the Central for a quarter dozen steel squares at 75 and 10 off; cost me +that a month ago. Here's strap hinges at 65 and 5 off; I paid that for +them. There's a milk-strainer, sold at $1.25 per dozen, cost me $1.20; +carpet tacks sold at $1.50 gross, cost me $1.44. All these things in one +bill. I tell you I am getting rich fast." + +"I am going in to-night," I said, "and would be glad to carry in a +little order for you. I'll get it out myself and see that nice goods are +sent you." + +"No, I don't want anything." + +I heard almost a similar complaint from the next one I saw, but I +managed to secure two orders for my day's work, and then I was done. +I never paid a hotel bill so gladly or bought a railroad ticket with +happier feelings. There was a pleasure in getting my baggage checked +home, and no car ever seemed to me quite so comfortable and inviting as +the one I rode home in. + +When I walked into the store it was difficult to believe that I had been +out of it more than twenty-four hours. The bill of goods on the floor +looked exactly like the one I saw there the day I started away. The +porter and drayman seemed to be talking about the same accident or +"wake" that they were engaged in when I last saw them together, and the +white head of the "old man" was bent over his books as if it had never +moved. I couldn't help saying to myself, "How glad they ought to be that +they have only to do the work that comes to them, instead of feeling the +responsibility of creating new business." + +They met me as if I had been off on a lark, and ought to feel grateful +to them for doing my work while I was away. I wondered if I was ever ass +enough to meet our old travelers in any such way. I guess I was. + +"Well, old boy, had a good time?" + +This from stock clerk, from salesman, from the packer, and from the +book-keeper. + +Good time! Great Caesar! + +Good time! With a constant dread about you that you are going to fail! +Pushing yourself boldly into men's offices a dozen times a day, yet +always nervously dreading the reception they may give you. Catching late +trains and early trains; missing meals or sitting down to tables where +things are so uninviting you cannot eat. And all the time, day and +night, wondering if your employers are satisfied with your sales and +if they recognize the necessity of your cutting prices. A good time! If +there is any business in the world that is so little of a "good time" +I would like to know what it is. The firm met me very pleasantly. They +joked me a little about my new beard and the extra fat they declared +they saw on me, and then the welcomings were over. + +I took my place at my old desk with a firm resolution to let other men +do the traveling; I would stick to the store. + +"Come home to supper with me," said the head of the house; "I'd like +to talk over your trip with you, and we can do it better at home this +evening." + +This was an honor I had not had before. The other boys looked at me with +envy. + +"How have things gone? Has business been good?" I asked my old assistant +in the stock. + +"Things have gone so-so; trade has been only middling. But you did first +rate, old fellow. I heard the old man say you were a success." + +"Did he say that?" + +"Yes, and lots more. You made a strike." + +This was pleasant news. + +After our tea that evening the head of the house began to question me +about my trip, and I saw that a detailed story of it was what he wanted. +So I began with the first town that I had stopped at, and gave him a +history of the trip. He seemed to enjoy it, and to pick up a good many +items from it. + +"Yes," he said, "business is becoming less profitable every year. The +idiots who are going to get rich by selling flour at 25 cents a barrel +less than cost, simply by doing a h--l of a business, are multiplying. +Reachum can probably sell goods close and make money, as he has no +traveling men; his principal expense is his postal cards. Simmons & +Hibbard can sell our goods low because it is only one department of a +large business with them, and its proportion of expenses is not great. +We will be compelled to do either less or more; either do a smaller +business in guns and ammunition and at less expense, or to put in other +goods and drum a larger variety of trade. We have pretty much decided to +do the latter. What do you think of it?" + +I laughingly suggested that in Cleveland and Indianapolis some of the +houses were adding a silver mine to their stock, and that we ought to +have one too. + +"And then compel the traveling-men to buy or not give them orders? That +would be a good scheme. But I had not thought of that. Our plan is to +lay in a line of goods that will work in well with general trade and +sell all the year round." + +I said I thought it was a capital idea. + +"Will you give up the stock and go on the road regularly?" + +What? Go on the road regularly? Not a bit of it. Keep on, month after +month, year after year, hammering after orders? No, oh, no! + +"Then you don't like it?" + +No, I did not. There was altogether too much anxiety about it for me. +There were men so constituted that they did not feel worried whether +they got an order or not. They were the proper men to travel. But I was +nervous and anxious, and worried when I had no order for fear I was not +going to get one; and then worried after I had one, fearing I would +not get any more. No, I was not made of the right kind of stuff for a +traveling man. + +"If I did not see that you are so thoroughly in earnest I would say you +are sarcastic. You evidently believe what you say, but you do not +seem to understand that the very reason why you will make a successful +salesman is this nervous dread of failure. When you meet a man who +doesn't care a copper cent whether trade is good or not you have met a +second-rate man. Trade can only be secured by persistent and hard work. +A man of your disposition will be pulling wires and ingratiating himself +into the good will of his customers, while your contented man is playing +billiards or making acquaintance of a sport of the town. Taking into +consideration the times and the condition of business, your trip has +been a remarkably successful one, but the second one will be a better +one for the house, and a pleasanter one for you. You will then call on +acquaintances, not on strangers, and you will find your task easier and +your trade better. Think it over. You will be more valuable to us on the +road and it will pay you better." + +But I swore I would not consider it. Afterwards I fancied I might think +of it. Then I did consider it, and yes, here I am. I represent the firm +of Blank & Blank, Guns and Ammunition. If you are in need of anything in +my line I would be glad to figure with you, for I am + + A MAN OF SAMPLES. + + + + +HIS LAST TRIP. + + +[ILLUSTRATION] + +Morgan had been on the road for one house about 20 years. This is a long +period of travel. In less time than that most men work up or work down. +No man can continue on a dead level as a salesman during that time, +even if his habits are good. If he has ability he is sure, with rare +exception, to work himself off the road. If he is mediocre no one house +can afford to carry him for twenty years. Morgan was the rare exception +just mentioned. He was an excellent salesman, and his ability and +success but served to weld him the closer to his work. The house had +made him a partner long since, but the business he controlled was +so large and so profitable, that they all knew, and he best, that to +withdraw him and experiment with a new man would be but playing with +fire over a magazine of powder. So he went on his way year after year, +making no plans for the future that would change his work or his life. + +But his family, consisting of his wife and their one daughter, Mary, a +romping girl of twelve, was not of his disposition, These two could not +see husband and father start off without a protest. The wife had always +on her heart a burden of anxiety about him; of dangers on railroads, of +his possible robbery and murder; of the discomforts of hotels, and the +fear of his falling sick among strangers. She was naturally a timid +woman, and the responsibility of the house weighed upon her. The whole +burden of Mary's growth in body and mind, her training, her companions, +and her pleasures were matters the mother would gladly have shared with +the father, but she was generally compelled to decide them alone. + +The father's continued absence was a constant pain and grievance to +Mary. There was never a week but that she felt deprived of some special +outing because he was not at home to go with her. Saturday night and +Sunday, if he was where he could run home, were so many solid hours of +happiness to them all, but to Mary they were full of perfect bliss. + +Morgan was known to all his friends as a man who never worried. If a +train was late he sat down and waited; if a customer failed he always +signed a compromise; if he didn't get the best room in the hotel, +he took what he could get; and he lost no sleep in picturing how +his competitors might get ahead of him. He always left home with the +assurance that everything would go on all right until he returned, and +when he went away he thought of the two he loved as being happy and +well. + +But as he started on this trip, he could not shake off a slight feeling +of anxiety that had possessed him all the night, and had grown since +he awoke. Their talk the previous day had been about the entrance Of +diphtheria into the neighborhood, and of the fatal case but two blocks +away from their door. Mary had complained of a slightly sore throat, +but on Monday morning declared it was entirely well again, kissing him +good-by with more spirit than usual, as if trying to convince him of the +truth of her words, and send him away assured and happy. + +When he was seated in the cars the shadows came over his spirits again +and began to torture him with doubts and possibilities. It might be, he +thought, that her sprightliness of the morning was due to fever, +rather than to health. He wished he had looked into her throat, and he +regretted that he had not cautioned his wife about her. He nursed these +fears until he felt himself becoming wild with apprehension, and then +he resolutely put the thoughts aside, declared he was foolish and +would have no more of it, and devoted himself to a companion and to his +papers. + +Men cannot always govern their minds. These are kingdoms that frequently +rebel against all government. Several times during the day Morgan caught +himself going back to his morning thoughts and he resolutely changed the +current. But at night, try as he would, he could not conquer them. +Even his dreams took up the forebodings of the day, exaggerated and +intensified them, and tortured him. Next morning found him out of sorts, +nervous, and miserable. He had a long drive to take in the country, but +he shrank from it as if he saw danger in his track. All his intuitions +seemed to be crying to him to go home, but what he thought was his +common sense kept insisting that he should go on with his business, and +not cross the bridge of trouble until he came to it. + +The day was one of the loveliest October days he had ever seen. His +drive was through twenty miles of the best corn land of Illinois. The +black road was as dry as a board, and as level as only a prairie can be. +The first effect of the beautiful day and pure air was invigorating. +He enjoyed the drive through the street into the country road. Then the +broad fields, the pleasant farm houses, the herds of horses and cattle, +the long Osage hedges, the perpetual but always surprised rabbit at the +road side, all these attracted and entertained him, and his ride was +successful in driving away his blues. His customer seemed especially +glad to see him; took him to his house to dinner; talked with him of +important personal matters, and gave him a large order for goods. He +turned back to the railroad feeling as happy as he had ever done; took +out his order-book and figured up the amount of the bill and the profit, +as was his custom, and then began to sing. + +Suddenly there came across him a wave of anxious worry, and all his +thoughts flew back to the daughter's sore throat, and the funeral he +saw last Sunday. He could not drive these away. They clung to him; they +whispered to him; they unfolded themselves like a panorama, and on the +canvas he saw Mary sick, then worse, and then dead! It was the longest +twenty-mile ride that he had ever taken, and his old friend, the +landlord, concluded from his face that Morgan had met with bad luck in +sales that day. + +He had a night run to Decatur and determined that he would telegraph +to the house, and quiet these nervous apprehensions that were so cruel, +though probably so absurd. It would cost but little, he reasoned, and +though foolish, it was wiser than to continue to be torn by doubts. +So before going to bed he gave the operator a half rate message, for +morning delivery, as follows: + +To Manning, Morgan & Co., Chicago, Ill.: Is my wife or daughter sick? +Answer, care Gilsey. + +C. MORGAN. + +He felt easier having done this, and passed a better night than the +previous one, although there was in all his sleeping and waking thoughts +an under current of solicitude over impending danger to Mary. + +With an attempt not to be anxious, yet terribly apprehensive at heart, +he tore open the telegram that reached him about 9 o'clock: + +To C. Morgan, care Gilsey & Co., Decatur: Come home first train. + +MANNING. + +Good God, what was this! Were his forebodings indeed true? If so he was +all the more totally unprepared for the truth. His constant comfort had +been that his fears had not the slightest foundation to rest upon, and +the more they crowded upon him the surer he had been that they were +flimsier than dreams. But here staring him in the face were those four +ominous words: + +"Come home first train." + +Why had they not given him the whole story? He started for the telegraph +office to send for further particulars, but stopped. Suppose Mary was +dead! Did he want to learn it here, so far from his wife? No; he would +wait. Such a story would unfold soon enough. There were several hours +before a train went his way; the discipline of twenty years asserted +itself, and he attended to his business. + +The ride home was one that can be understood in its depths only by those +who have been similarly circumstanced. The train seemed to creep. The +minutes were like hours. The stops seemed to be interminable, and every +mile nearer home seemed to be proportionately longer than the previous +one. He reached the city at dark. The store was closed. He had expected +to find Manning there, but he suddenly remembered that he had not +telegraphed to him the time of his arrival. As he neared his home the +first glance showed him there was a change. The lower part of the house +was in darkness, and only a dim light shone in the front chamber, which +was but rarely occupied. + +"They have laid her there," he said to himself, and all his soul cried +within him in anguish. His poor wife! How she must have suffered, to +have gone through all this alone! What a brute he was to go away Monday, +when he ought to have known, and did know, that something dreadful was +upon them! He reached the door; it was fastened; he would go to the +other side and enter quietly. But some one heard his step, and, opening +the door, called him back. + +"Is it Mr. Morgan?" The voice was that of a neighbor. + +"Yes." He passed in, expecting to see or hear his wife. The friend +closed the door and turned to him. + +"Have you heard--," she began. + +"I have heard nothing; is Mary--," he broke down. The door beside him +opened. + +"Oh, papa!" + +Give him air! What mystery was this? + +"Mary, is it you? Are you alive? Why, I thought--I feared--Oh, darling, +is it you?" + +Yes, it was Mary. Oh, thank God! Thank God! + +"Tell me again, dear, are you well?" + +"Oh, yes, papa, but poor mamma!" + +"Mamma! What of her? Is she sick? What is it? Tell me quick!" And again +he was pushed from the heaven of happiness to the bottomless pit of +doubt. "Is mamma sick? where is she?" + +"Oh, papa, the doctor says she is going to--" + +"Hush," said the neighbor. "Step inside, sir; the doctor is with her +now; he will soon be down. Prepare yourself, Mr. Morgan; your wife is +very low. The servant's carelessness caused an explosion in the kitchen, +setting herself on fire; your wife ran to her assistance and saved her +life, but, I fear, at the expense of her own." + +"I must see her." + +"No, sir, not now; be guided by me for a moment. The doctor will soon be +down." + +He took Mary in his arms and they wept together. Oh, if his wife, his +darling wife! were to be taken from him! It was the cruelest blow God +ever struck! And she saving another's life, too! He cursed and raved, +but it was in his own heart; and Mary, crying on his breast, only knew +what comfort it was to have her papa once more with her. + +The physician came down with manner so grave that it told its own story. +"There is scarcely a chance," he said; "you can go to her; she will not +know you." + +"When did this happen?" + +"Monday evening." + +"Have you consulted others? Can nothing more be done?" + +"Nothing except to help her to die easy." + + * * * * * * * + +But she did not die. She knew her husband. He begged of her to live, +as only a man can plead whose soul is bound up in a woman's life, and +whether love, or whether medicine, or whether care saved her, I do not +know. But she lived. But Morgan informed Manning that his traveling days +were over; that a new man must be engaged for that route. They found +him, after diligent search, and much to the surprise of everyone +connected with the house, he sold more goods for the firm than Morgan +had ever done. The one who rejoices most at this is Morgan, who says he +has made his last trip. + + + + +"LET US KICK." + +[The following sketch by M. Quad in the Detroit Free Press, will be new +to some of our readers, and will, we think, be appreciated by them all.] + +I really and truly believe that the day will come when the kicker will +be classed where he belongs and be entitled to the reverence due him. I +look upon him as a philosopher and a philanthropist. He stands forth one +man out of ten thousand. He is actuated by the most unselfish motives. +He is the real reformer. + +I am not a kicker. I am simply taking the preparatory lessons to enable +me to blossom out. The other day when I bought a ticket to go east they +told me at the ticket office: + +"While the train does not leave until about eleven, the sleeper is open +at nine, and you can go right to bed and wake up at Niagara Falls next +morning." + +I entered the sleeper at half-past nine and went to bed. That is, it +is called going to bed. You are boxed up, boxed in, surrounded and +smothered and charged two dollars for the misery. A sleeping-car is a +mockery, a fraud and a deception. The avarice of the companies results +in misery for the passengers. Four other persons had gone to bed, and +at ten o'clock we were all asleep. At that hour two men entered with +a great clatter. They were talking loudly, and they sat down and +continued. I waited fifteen minutes for one of the other sleepers to +kick. No one uttered a protest Then I rose up and asked: + +"Do you men know that this is a sleeping-car?" + +"We do," they answered. + +"And do you propose to continue this disturbance?" + +"We propose to talk as long and as loud as we please!" + +I called the conductor and inquired: + +"I have paid for a berth in which to sleep. I can't sleep for this +disturbance. Will you stop it?" + +"Really, I can't," he answered. + +"Are there no rules?" + +"Yes, but people in a sleeping-car must expect to be disturbed." + +"Oh, they must. Very well--see me later." + +Four others came in with just as much racket, and they kept their +chattering going until eleven o'clock. At half-past eleven the lights +were turned down and everybody was ready for sleep. I had been patiently +waiting for this. Lying on my back, arms locked over my head and my +palate down, I brought a snore which went thundering over that car in a +way to open every eye. After two more a man called out. + +"Thunder and blazes, but we've got a whale aboard!" + +After three more they began to yell at me from every berth. I put in two +extra ones, and the porter came down and shook my arm and said: + +"Heah--you--stop dat!" + +"Colored man!" I said, as I looked up at him, "if you come here and do +that again I may fire upon you!" + +As soon as he had gone I went back to business. When a man sets out to +snore for revenge you'd be surprised to know what a success he can make +of it. In five minutes they were calling for the conductor. He came down +and parted the curtains and said: + +"Hey--you--wake up! You are disturbing the car. + +"Conductor, haven't I paid for this berth?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +"Is there any rule which prohibits snoring?" + +"No, but--" + +"Then you keep away from me! I have a revolver, and I might take you for +a robber!" + +Then I returned to the main question. I snored in every key of the +scale. I snored for blood. I had every person in the car swearing +mad and ready to fight, and they sent for the passenger conductor. +He refused to interfere. Several chaps volunteered to "pull me out o' +that," but when they came close enough to see the muzzle of a revolver +they fell back. At two o'clock in the morning they held a convention, +and as the result one of them asked: + +"Stranger, can we buy you off?" + +"No, sir." + +"Is there any way on earth to stop that bazoo of yours?" + +"The four of you who came in last were grossly selfish. You had no care +for the rights of others. The four who were here before I came were +disturbed but hadn't the grit to kick. Now, then, promise me on your +solemn words that if you ever enter a sleeping-car again you will +respect; the situation, and I will let you off." + +Every soul in that car made the promise, and half an hour later we were +all asleep. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Man of Samples, by Wm. H. 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