Tales of the Road

ed to each other in foreign tongues, French and German; on the walls of the room were pictures of foreign scenes painted by foreign hands; but, aside from this, everything about us was strictly Americ

quare meal after he has been "high-grassing it" for a week or two, and when such can become the

so, when we came together again, this time in Denver, not having seen each other for man

le of the world beyond the bare walls in which he has filled orders. To his fellow travelers the young man on the road i

who, after having enjoyed the free and independent (yes, and delightful!) life of the road, and then settled down for a little while as a merchant on his own hook, insurance agent,

could all see in the blue curls of smoke that rose before us visions of our pa

g into a new world and I was surprised to find, when I reached Nebraska, that men way out there wore about the same sort of clothes that they did in St. Louis. I would not have been surprised a bit if some Indian had come out of the bushes and tried to scalp me. The depot was a mile and a half from the hotel. Here I took my first ride in an omnibus. The inside of that old bus, the red-cushioned seats and the advertisements of a livery stable, a hardware store, and "Little Jake's Tailor Shop" were all new to me. Mud? I never saw mud so deep in

but I now know that the reason he gave me the ice pitcher was that he had been slow in paying his bills and the house had drawn on him. A wise thing, this, for a house to do -when they want to lose a customer! This was a heart-breaker to me right at the start, but it was lucky, because, if I had sold him, I would have packed up and gone away without working the town. A man on th

found two out of about six who said they would look at my goods. By this time everybody had closed u

to fall down! I said to myself, 'I am going to succeed.' The will to win means a whole lot in this road business, too, bo

had dusted off the counters, I went in to see the

aren't you, son?' sa

t I'm after th

your hotel and I'll be

as an hour and a half before he came. I hadn't then learned that the best way to do is to go with your customer from his st

ing. I hadn't learned that the real way to sell goods is to lay out one line at a time and finish with that before going to another. Pretty s

nd had nicknamed him 'Old Sorgum-in-the-Winter.' It is a pretty good idea to let a slow man have his way, anyhow, if you have plenty of t

I pack up and quit? Bet your life not! I didn't have sense enough then, I suppose, to know t

ugh, though, to tuck them under my coat as I passed by the store of the man I had sold. I didn't know, then, of th

the corner. That night I took the two o'clock train out of town and had my first experienc

e you in the morning.' Well, there I was! I had been raised to respect the Sabbath and between the time that he said he would see me in the morning and the time that I said all right-which was about a jiffy-I figure

andle samples in a hurry is one of the necessary arts of the road-and took a train to a little nearby town which I could double into without losing any time. I even had the nerve to drag a m

of its ever having known a stove. The windows had whiskers on them long as a billy goat's; the mattress was one of those thin boys. I hadn't then learne

at?" spoke up o

amp chimney, wrap it up in a towel and put it at your

bought from was the best going, and I remembered the advice that my old friend had given me: 'It's better, Billy, to be cussed for sellin

hotel (I still recall that dead, musty smell) was a church directory hang

l spent brings

f health for

rofaned, no mat

n forerunne

ken, one of the boys who had without doubt p

hrifty on Sunda

-sanctimo

ng well if he d

ew on Old Sata

him in my life. He was so well pleased with what I had done that he didn't kick very hard even on the bill that I had slashed. But that ne

up one of the boys. "Do you think you'd

ry," said Billy. "You know we've a saying out her

friend Jim, as we all lighted fresh cigars-having forg

ll wasn't worth going after, so they sent me; but I landed a twenty-five hundred dollar order without slashing an item, a thing no

hier handed me looked as big as a bale of hay. I made a couple of towns the first two

e road. When I was a bill clerk in Chicago I used to meet with some of the other boys from the store on Saturday nights, play penny ante, five-cent limit, and settle for twenty-five cents on the dollar when we got through-I was with a clothing firm, you know. I had always been rather lucky and I had it in

I could stand to lose and 'cover' in my expense account, but all of the old sharks said, 'By jove, you have got nerve, Jim. You have the hardest run of luck in drawing cards that I ever saw.' They doped me up with the usual words o

s like to-morrow-it never comes. By nightfall I was dead broke. Then I began to think. I felt like butting my

again on 'tick,' but then I had sense enough to know that I'd had plenty. I went to my room and wrote the house. I simply made a clean breast of the whole business. I told them the truth about the matter-that I'd acted the fool-a

Schuyler who had had a squabble with his clothing house. I saw a chance right there and jumped right into that town. I got

ost you people over seven dollars. You ought to be able to-and you can-make me this suit for $10. That's profit enough. You can't expect to do business with us people out here in Nebraska and hold us up. We're not in the backwoods. People are civilized out here. Your house has figured that we're Indians, or something of that kind. You know very well that they sell this same suit in Illinois, where competition is

welve dollar suit for ten dollars. He took a dozen of them. It was a staple. I didn't know anything about what the goods were worth, but he had made his bluff good. I sold him the bill right through at cut prices on everything. The house actually lost money on the bill. I hav

ughed at me about how he worked me into giving him a bill of goods, and enjoyed the

of goods. You can lose a hundred and fifty dollars once in a while, if you want to, playing cards, that will be a whole lot better than losing a hundred and fifty every day by not getting as much as goods are worth. Now we're going to forget about the hundred and fifty dollars you lost gambling, instead of charging it to your salary account, as you told us to do. We had made up our mi

an in the house was running a bigger bluff on me tha

idence more than on knowledge. A salesman must feel first within himself that his goods and prices are right, and then he can sell them at those pri

and said; 'Jim, the old man is tickled to death about what you've done.

d your job, all right,

r fifteen years, and I was a fool for ever leaving them. I would

, Arthur?" said my friend J

me start; but he finally said to me: 'Well, Arthur, you're mighty anxious to go out on the road, and I guess we'll let you go. It won't do much harm because I think that, after a little bit, you will want to get back to your old job. Then you'll be satisfied with it. I kind o' feel, though, that in sending you out we'll be spoiling a good retail clerk to make a poor

d who'd tell you with a grunt that he would not go to your sample room but if you had a few good sellers to bring them over and he'd look at them. The

e the porter a quarter to carry my grip over to his store and save my energy, but, instead, I picked up the old grip myself. It was all right for the first block, but then I had to sit down and rest. The store was four blocks away. On the home stretch

grip to the back end of the store and spread out my line on the counter. About one o'clock he came in and I said to him, 'I'm ready for you.' He walked away and d

her and talked about the weather for another half hour. My stomach was beginning to gnaw but I didn't dare go out. The old man by this time had go

I don't want

re and it'll be no trouble t

nd then started to

don't like to insist but as my goods are all

old man turned

ny of your goods. Now, you just get them in your grip and get them out o

m; not that I cared anything about having a scrap with him, but I thought that the firm wouldn't like i

ith a sweep of his hand, just cleaned the counter of my samples and there I was, picking them up off the floor and putting them into my grip. I felt like

out of my hand and piled it out on the sidewalk and gave me a

-was just nineteen-and

call

I believe I'll go back home and sell them a pair at

but I was sweating like a mule pulling a bob-tailed street car full of fat folks. I

h was beginning to gnaw,

ke that man,-and I washed up and went down to supper. After eating something I felt better. At the supper

d that merchants will treat you like a gentleman. The best thing you can do is to scratch that old whelp off the list. Of course you know,' said he, giving me advice

out. I would almost hand over one of my customers to a young man to give him encouragement, and so would you. We've

e done for me when I was the green first-tripper, by the old timers on the road. My new friend took me down the

r cigars my friend Moore, who was next to tell his stor