A Man of Samples | Page 3

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