The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-04-23
A BOOK AGENTS STORY.
A Young Woman Relates Her Dis
agreeable Experiences.
The Doer Often Shut in an Agents Face
Experience Meetings of the Women
"A Premium on lmpudencc
and Smooth Tongue.

why don take up bOOk-canvaSS-
ing? l tried that once, and let me tell
you would be scrubwoman rather
than book agent"
She was bright, capable girl, anx-
ious to get honest employment Some
one ventured the canvassing suggestion
and this was her reply.
Let me tell you something of my
experiences" she continued, land per-
haps you will not wonder at my asser
ton. Seriously. 1 would go into a
kitchen before / would again under
take canvassing. / was book agent for
three months At the end-of that time
was, to be sure, richer in experience,
but in very little else l had covered
my expenses and had about fifty dol.
lars besides. But the humiliation, the
fatigue / had undergone, the rebuffs,
good-natured contempt and insults
had received were something beyond
calculation.
81 signed contract to canvass for a
book which sold for two dollars and
half and which absolutely was not
worth five cents. 1t was the history
of a mans life from the cradle to the
grave. How he was chased by bull
when boy; how he fought, bled and
died in the re bellion-unmitigate
rubbish that nobody wanted to buy,
and my business was to talk people
tired until they would buy to be rid
of me.
II was only to visit offices, banks,
manufactures, etc.-never private
houses-for there I would encounter
women, and you know that if there is
any creature on earth that woman
has no mercy on it's woman book
agent. I'll tell you some thing about
that presently
at was the author of this great lite
rary effort who engaged me to canvass.
He and his wife were the shrewdest of
shrewd people. They had system all
their own. They mapped out their ter
ritory and divided it up into sections
and sent a knot of agents here and
there, and then kept an espionage over
them that was worse than the police
system.
II was required to start out every
morning at eight O'clock rain or shine,
wind or snow. 1 was given five offices
and | must spend those four hours in
five offices. No matter if l was told
again and again that my book was not
wanted must keep on talking, talk ling,
unless was shown the door, as hap
pened once or twice.
after dinner I started out again,
and if l did not get ten orders day 1 |
was met with considerable GOODNESS and |
sarcasm when | reported once week |
to my employer.
sit was his custom to hold weekly |
experience meetings, at which eaci, I
agent was required to rise and state |
her experience, her ways and means of !
getting orders, her worst struggle for
a name and other odds and ends of in
formation. The girls who had received
the greatest number of orders got
prizes, gold watches, diamond earrings
and money. The others were reproved
and exhorted into greater activity.
Each one had her own particular
story to tell. | was educating a little
cousin whose parents had adopted me
when | was an orphan. Now they had
lost their money and 1 was trying to
-eturn their kindness. One of the girls
was supporting her aged grandparents, {
mother wished to finish her musical I
.ducation, and SO on. 1t taxed our in I
senuity sometimes to get up enough {
tories to go round. Nice business, t
sn't it, that teaches young girls to get S
money under false prctense5? I
II can't begin to tell you the expert
nee had. was persevering and a
lib tallier and generally brought
own my game. One man shut his
oor in my face and didn't blame
i'm. In many places book agents are
lot allowed to enter l used to hide
ay book under my wrap or muff and
lip in. Once l found myself in long
ow OF offices separated by steel rail- I
ags and communicating by gates. 1 l
cyan to talk in Office number one, {
'hen the man rose and without one t
,ord opened the gate. passed into Q
lc next where the same performance c
as gone through and SO on until l I
cached the last gate. l give you my c
ord that left that building shaking /
18th laughter at the swift and silent
cans of disposing of an annoying
ools agent.
almost every man would say to me:
Why in Heavens name don't you do )
mething besides this?' All had .
for the business. went into {
ne Office where. there were eleven t
Dung men, who at once began guying
lie numerically. l turned on them a
nd gave them good-sized piece of my
lind, and before l left l got eight i
riders. i
Il had one very funny experience e
18th an old man. the proprietor of a b
urge tin shop, He. tried to escape me. II
ut followed him upstairs and down IL
nd finally cornercd him. ! told him n
would only take two little dollars
i'd q half: that it wasn't much to him,