Tales of the Road | Page 4

my house that he would
prefer that they would not sell his old clerk who was now going to
become his competitor. In fact, he said he would not stand for it.
The very next season things came around so that Logan went out of
business, and then I knew that I was "up against it" in his town--my old
customer gone out of business; Fred not wanting, then, of course, to
buy of me. But I took my medicine and consoled myself with the
thought that a few grains of gold would pan out in the wash.
Up in a large town above Logan's I had a customer named Dave, who
had moved out from Colorado. He was well fixed, but he had not
secured the right location. Say what you will, location has a whole lot
to do with business. Of course, a poor man would not prosper in the
busy streets of Cairo, but the best sort of a hustler would starve to death
doing business on the Sahara. A big store in Dave's new town failed.
He had a chance to buy out the, stock at 75 cents on the dollar. He

wished to do so; but, although he was well-to-do, he didn't have the
ready cash.
One night I called on Dave and he laid the case before me. He told me
how sorry he was not to get hold of this "snap." I put my wits together
quickly and I said to him: "Dave, I believe I can do you some good."
The next morning I went to see a banker, who was a brother-in-law of
Logan's and who had made enough money, merchandising and out of
wheat, down in Logan's old town, to move up to the city and go into the
banking business. The banker knew all about the way that I had treated
his brother-in-law, and I felt that because I had been square with Logan
he would have confidence in anything I would say to him. I laid the
case before the banker. I told him I knew Dave to be well fixed, to have
good credit, to be a good rustler and strictly straight.
In a little while I brought Dave to meet the banker. The banker
immediately, upon my recommendation, told him that he could have all
the money he needed-$16,000. The banker also wired to the people
who owned the stock--he was well acquainted with them--and told
them he would vouch for Dave.
The deal went through all right and Dave now buys every cent's worth,
that he uses in my line, from me. He is the best customer I have; I got
him by being square.
A great mistake which some salesmen make when they first start on the
road is to "load" their customers. The experienced man will not do this,
for he soon learns that he will "lose out" by it. A merchant will not long
continue to buy from a traveling man in whom he has no confidence.
He, in great measure, depends on the judgment of the traveling man as
to the styles and quantities he should buy. If the salesman sells him too
much of anything it is only a matter of time when the merchant will
buy from some other man. When a storekeeper buys goods he invests
money; and his heart is not very far from his bank-book.
The time when the traveling man will ram all he can into an order is
when the merchant splits his business in the salesman's line, buying the

same kind of goods from two or more houses. Then the salesman sells
as much as he can, that he may crowd the other man out. But even this
is poor policy.
I once took on a new town. My predecessor had been getting only a
share of his customer's trade; two others had divided the account with
him. I made up my mind to have all of the account or none. The
merchant went to my sample room and gave me an order for a bill of
hats. He bought at random. When I asked him what sizes he wanted, he
said: "Oh, run 'em regular." "Very well," said I, "but will it not be well
to look through your stock and see just what sizes you need? Maybe
you have quite a number of certain sizes on hand and it will be needless
for you to get more of them. Let's go down to the store and look
through your stock."
We went to his store. The first item on the order he had given me was
one dozen black "Columbias." I found that he had five dozen already
on hand. "Look here," said I, "don't you think I would better scratch
that item