Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1892-01-28
THE TRAVELLING MEN.
Raising n Salary, EFF. cts OF the Weather,
and Making Acquaintance.

ana Making Aeqhaintances.
1t is customary for the commercial
travellers to visit the home Office of
the institutions they represent about
the first of the year and renew their
old contract with their firm or make
new one. If they have done a sue
cessful years business they are likely
to call their employers attention to
the fact and hint that an advance in
salary would be the proper thing. II
they are good statesmen and their re-
quests are moderate their wishes are
usually granted. A representative of
Chicago hardware house got raise
in salary the past week, When he
suggested the propriety of such step
to his employer the latter remarked:
"Why, we gave you big raise year
ago" 81 know that" replied the
young man, land Iwant another now.
think l am worth to you all 1 AM
asking" ''Do you, indeed?" re-
sponded his employer, and further
remarked. tIll tell you honestly
what / think! that is that some men
are never satisfied and that you are
one of that number" 'sTrue," said
the traveller, "and l never intend to
be. You will, sir, pardon me for say
ing if you had been satisfied with tn
200 per year you originally received
for doing the class of work | am per-
forming you would not now be getting
your $40, 600 per year as partner in
this concern" He got his raise.
One of these days he will be a partner
himself.
eyes, / insist that the weather
each day has much to do with the
volume of goods i sell, )" said popular
Chicago tourist. 'In nice, promising
weather merchants will buy much
more literally, and I've often gained
or lost sale by sudden change in
the weather One time down in Cen
trail Illinois the crops were suffering
because of the severe drought. I'm
less it rained soon the crops would be
a failure and there would be hard
times. l called on merchant one
afternoon who in previous years had
purchased lots of goods. found him
afraid to invest but little because Of
the bad prospect. He didn't want
the goods if farmers were going to be
too poor to buy them. Anyhow he
was too busy to buy that evening, and
would have to call the next morn
ing. 1t was fortunate delay for
me, for during the night the drought
was broken by soaking rain that ex-
tended all over that section. When
l called on the merchant the follow
ing morning the cloud that had rested
on his face the day before had van
ished and in its stead was big, sunny
smile. The rain had changed every
thing to my advantage and sold him
the usual bill of goods. But l re-
member another occasion where
lost by delaying a sale over
night, for severe frost came and so
seriously injured the corn that the
merchant, who was on the point of
buying large bill, thought he saw
close times ahead and cut his order
down one-half. Yes, indeed, our
trade is affected by every change in
the weather, and we can often meas
ure the degree of our prosperity by
the figures on the thermometer.
''Men who sit in nice easy chairs in
cozy Offices and open the letters con-
tanning the orders for goods often
have but slight appreciation of the
labor required to secure said orders,"
remarked commercial man. every
employer ought to go on the road for
while and learn just how the orders
6c hn lob TO I'm,
most employers are practical, expert
enced men who have graduated from
the road to something better, but
now and then rich mans son gets
to the head of concern without hav.
ing to climb up from the bottom.
Such an employer is apt to have erro-
neous notions concerning work on the
road. There is such member in our
firm. A few weeks ago he had pri-
vate business calling him to little
town in Indiana. While there he
thought he would favor customer of
ours with call from the head of the
house. He entered the store and
found the merchant engaged in dress.
ing a window. His business-like ap.
pearance led the merchant to believe
he was solicitor for trade, and so
the former went on with his work
just as though no one of unusual i'm.
portance had entered. The visitor
ahemed' and devised sundry other
trifling disturbances to attract the
merchants attention, but to no pur-
pose. He had been mistaken for one
of those men who are expected to
wait for everybody to get ready to do
business with them and yet always
be prepared to take the first train out
for the next town. After standing
on one foot for awhile and then on
the other until both were tired, he
concluded that he must introduce
| himself at once. He handed his card
to one of the clerks employed in the
establishment, with the request that
! it be placed before his employer.
That would bring him from his re-
treat with apologies for having kept
the >ssitOr, no doubt. The clerk re-
n "a 49,