Tales of the Road | Page 9

six months
you will learn how well they wear. I would feel like a sneak had I
stealthily slipped a twenty dollar gold piece into the hand of your hat
man and told him to push my goods. But I haven't done this. In fact I
gave a hat to nearly every clerk you have except your hat man. He was
away. Even your delivery boy has one. You owe me an apology, sir;
and I demand it, and demand it right now! I've always treated you as a
gentleman, sir; and you shall treat me as such.' Then, softening down, I
continued: 'I can readily see how, at first glance, you were offended at
me; but just think a minute, and I believe you'll tell me you were hasty.'
"'Yes, I was,' he answered quietly. 'Got your stuff open? I'll go right
down with you.' After Hobson had, in a few minutes, given me a nice
order, he said to me: 'Well, do you know, I like your pluck.'

"It sometimes happens that a traveling man meets with a surly clerk, a
conceited clerk, or a bribed clerk who has become buyer," continued
my friend. "Then the thing to do is to go straight to the head of the
establishment. The man I like to do business with is the man whose
money pays for my goods. He is not pulled out of line by guy ropes. It
is well to stand in with the clerks, but it is better to be on the right side
of the boss. When it gets down to driving nails, he is the one to hammer
on the hardest.
"I once took on the territory of a man who had quit the road. About this
same time one of his best customers had, to some extent, retired from
business activity and put on a new buyer in my department. Now, this
is a risky thing, you know, for a merchant to do unless the buyer gets
an interest in the business and becomes, in truth, a merchant himself. It
usually means the promotion of a clerk who gets a swelled head. The
new buyer generally feels that he must do something to show his ability
and one of the ways he does this is by switching lines.
"During the illness of my predecessor, who soon after quit the road,
another man made for him a part of his old trip. In one of the towns he
made he struck the new buyer and, of course, got turned down. Had I
been there, I would have received the same sort of treatment.
"My immediate predecessor, who was turned down, posted me; so
when I went to the town, I knew just what to do--go direct to the
proprietor. I knew that my goods were right; all I needed was
unprejudiced attention. Prejudice anyway buys most of the goods sold;
merit is a minor partner. Were merchandise sold strictly on merit,
two-thirds of the wholesale houses and factories would soon lock up;
and the other third would triple their business.
"When I entered the store, I went straight to the proprietor and told him
without introducing myself (a merchant does not care what your name
is) what my line of business was. It was Saturday afternoon. I would
rather go out making business on Saturday than any other day because
the merchant is doing business and is in a good humor, and you can get
right at the point. Of course, you must catch him when he is not, for the
moment, busy.

"'Can't do anything for you, sir, I fear,' said he. 'Hereafter we are going
to buy that line direct from the factories.'
"I saw that the proprietor himself was prejudiced, and that the one thing
to do was to come straight back at him. 'Where do you suppose my hats
come from?' said I. 'My factory is the leading one in New Jersey.' I was
from Chicago although my goods, in truth, were made in Orange
Valley.
"'Will you be here Monday?' he asked. This meant that he wanted to
look at my samples. The iron was hot; then was the time to strike.
"'Sorry, but I cannot,' I answered. 'But I'll tell you what I'll do. My line
is a specialty line--only fine goods--and I'll bring in a small bunch of
samples tonight about the time you close up.' Merchants like to deal
with a man who is strictly business when they both get to doing
business. Then is the time to put friendship and joking on the shelf.
"That night at ten o'clock I was back at the store with a bundle under
my arm. The man who is too proud to carry a bundle once in a while
would better never