Tales of the Road | Page 5

off of the bill?" I drew my pencil through the "one dozen
Columbias."
"Now let us go through your whole stock and see if there are not other
items you have duplicated," I suggested. We worked together for four
hours--until after midnight. It was the biggest mess of a stock I ever
saw. When we got through I had cut down my order three-fourths.
"See," said I, showing the merchant my order-book and his stock list--
which every merchant should have when he goes to buy goods--"you
have enough of some kinds to last you three years. Others, because they
have gone out of style, are worth nothing. All you can get out of them
will be clear profit; throw them out and sell them for any price.
"Do you know what has been happening to you right along? Three
men-- and the one from my firm is just as guilty as the rest--have been
loading you. Why, if I were a judge and they were brought before me,
I'd sentence them to jail."
"And I guess I ought to be made to go along with them," broke in my

friend, "for participating in the crime."
"That I will leave you to judge," said I, "but there is one thing for sure:
You will not see me back here again for a year; it would be a crime for
anyone to take an order from you during that time. And when I do
come I want all of your business, or none; you haven't enough for three,
or even for two. You can buy no more than you can sell to your
customers, unless you go broke some day. Your interest and my
interest are the same. In truth, I stand on the same side of the counter as
you do. It is to my interest to treat you right. My firm is merely the one
from which you and I together select your goods. Ought I not to see
that they give you the right things at the right prices? If I treat you right,
and my firm does not, you will follow me to another; if I treat you
wrong I'll lose both your confidence and my job."
That man today gives me all of his business; I got him by being square.
By being over-conscientious, however, a salesman sometimes will not
let his customer buy enough. This is frequently to the disadvantage of
the merchant. To sell goods a merchant must have goods; to have them
he must buy them. The stingy man has no business in business. Many a
man becomes a merchant and, because he is either too close-fisted or
hasn't enough capital or credit with which to buy goods, is awakened,
some fine morning, by the tapping on his front door of the Sheriff's
hammer. A man may think that if he goes into business his friends will
buy "any old thing, just because it's me"; but he will find out that when
he goes to separate his friends from their coin he must give them the
kind of goods they want. The successful merchant is the man who
carries the stock.
One of my old friends, who was a leading hat salesman of St. Louis,
once told me the following experience:
"Several years ago I was out in western Texas on a team trip. It was a
flush year; cattle were high. I had been having a good time; you know
how it goes--the more one sells the more he wants to sell and can sell. I
heard of a big cattleman who was also running a cross-roads grocery
store. He wanted to put in dry goods, shoes and hats. His store was only

a few miles out of my way so I thought that I would drive over and see
him.
"How I kicked myself when I drove up to his shanty, hardly larger, it
seemed to me, than my straw-goods trunk! But, being there, I thought I
would pick up a small bill anyway. I make it a rule never to overlook
even a little order, for enough of them amount to as much as one big
one. When I went in the old gentleman was tickled to see me and told
me to open up--that he wanted a 'right smart' bill. I thought that meant
about $75.
"I had to leave my trunks outside--the store was so small--so I brought
in at first only a couple of stacks of samples, thinking that they would
be enough. I pulled out a cheap hat and handed it to him.
"'That's a good one for the money,' said I, 'a dollar apiece.' I used to
always show cheap goods first, but I have learned better.
"He looked at my sample in contempt and, pulling a