Tales of the Road | Page 8

away. Go
hoom now. But coom aroond in the mairnin' and Oi'll boy a bill of ye;
Oi doon't give a dom pwhat ye're silling. If Oi've got your loine in my
sthore Oi'll boy a bill; if I haven't, Oi'll boy a bill innyway and stairt a
new depairtmint. Good noight, give me yer hand, sor.'
"Not only did Larry give me a good order, but he went to two more
merchants in the town and made them buy from me. He bought every
dollar's worth of his goods in my line from me as long as he lived."
CHAPTER II.
CLERKS, CRANKS AND TOUCHES.
Many a bill of goods is sold on the road through the influence of the
clerk. The traveling man who overlooks this point overlooks a strong
one. The clerk is the one who gets next to the goods. He checks them
off when they come in, keeps the dust off of them every day, sells them
to the people and often he does the selecting of the goods in the first

place. A merchant usually buys what pleases the clerks in order to get
them interested. In this way he puts a sort of responsibility upon them.
If the business man neglects his clerks, they neglect his business; if the
traveling man ignores the clerks, they ignore the traveling man.
But in this matter the salesman must go just so far and no farther, for
the moment that the merchant begins to think the traveling man is
influencing the clerks unduly, down comes the hatchet! A hat man once,
as we rode together on the train, told me this incident:
"I once sold a small bill of hats to a large merchant down in
California," said he. "The next season when I came around I saw that
my goods were on the floor-shelf. I didn't like this. If you want to get
your goods sold, get them where they are easy to reach. Clerks, and
merchants too, usually follow the line of least resistance; they sell that
which they come to first. If a man asks me where he ought to put his
case for hats to make them move, I tell him, 'up front.'
"From the base shelf I dug up a box of my goods, knocked the dust off
the lid, took out a hat, began to crease it. One of the clerks came up. He
was very friendly. They usually are. They like to brush up against the
traveling man, for it is the ambition of nineteen clerks out of every
twenty to get on the road.
"My young friend, seeing the hat in my hand, said, 'Gee, that's a beaut.
I didn't know we had a swell thing like that in the house. I wish I'd got
one like that instead of this old bonnet.'
"With this he showed me a new stiff hat. I scarcely glanced at it before
I cracked the crown out of it over my heel, handed him the hat I had
taken out of the box, threw three dollars on the counter and said, 'Well,
we'll swap. Take this one.'
"'Guess I will, all right, all right!' he exclaimed.
"Another one of the boys who saw this incident came up with his old
hat and asked, laughing, 'Maybe you want to swap with me?'

"Crack went another hat; down I threw another three dollars. Before I
got through, eight clerks had new hats, and I had thrown away twenty-
four dollars.
"Thrown away? No, sir. I'll give that much, every day of the week, to
get the attention of a large dealer. Twenty-four dollars are made in a
minute and a half by a traveling man when he gets to doing business
with a first-class merchant.
"The proprietor, Hobson, was not then in. When I dropped in that
afternoon, I asked him if he would see my samples.
"'No, sir, I will not,' he spoke up quickly. 'To be plain with you, I do
not like the way in which you are trying to influence my clerks.'
"There was the critical--the 'psychological'--moment. Weakness would
have put an end to me. But this was the moment I wanted. In fact, I
have at times deliberately made men mad just to get their attention.
"'Hobson,' I flashed back, 'You can do just as you please about looking
at my goods. But I'll tell you one thing: I have no apology to offer in
regard to your clerks. You bought my goods and buried them. I know
they are good, and I want you to find it out. I have put them on the
heads of your men because I am not ashamed to have them wear them
before your face. You can now see how stylish they are. In