The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-01-18
1T went over to his store just before


dinner, and found the first thing that
he was going to give his clerk the rest
of the day off. No, he wasn't going to
hold out on his wages, either. 1 saw
that he was getting ready to go to din
ner, too. and I told him that l hated
to disturb him and all that sort of
thing. and he just smiled as cordially
+ as though l had been his long-lcst
brother, and looked over my samples as
county agents. Then he sat down and
strung me off a nice little order.
II sort of fiattered myself that it was
my winning way that was doing it at
first, but l changed my mind by the
time got through with him. l don't
believe he wanted those goods any
more than a cat wants two tails. He
merely wanted to jolly me up and make
me feel good and thankful. l was tear
ing the duplicate out of my book, and
he had got one arm in the sleeve of his
coat when fellow comes in who
looked as if he had been up against it
pretty hard. He had some kind of a
preparation to take grease and stains
out of clothes, and he wanted to operate
on the storekeeper's coat to show him
how it worked. He didn't have to.
Take box? Why certainly I'll
take box says the storekeeper. Ger
tainly will, my friend. It's just what
I've been needing; only I haven't time
to use it now. just rub it on, do you?
Does it matter whether you use wool
or. cotton cloth? Doesn't, Ell? How
| much is it?
Twenty-Five cents says the ped
dler, and l wish you hardened wretches
could have seen the poor devils face
light up. 1t would have done you good. 1t
made me glow all through my inside
just as if it had been slillfully con-
cocted cocktail, and I had good no.
ton to buy box of the stuff myself.
"'That's cheap enough says the
storekeeper, giving him a quarter
Hold on; I'll take another box, be-
lieve; I'm the worst man to get grease
on my clothes you ever saw So he
hands him out another quarter, and the
fellow goes out smiling SO that you
could see it with his back turned to you.
AS soon as he had gone asked this no.
BILE man if he always bought of agents
or only on Thanksgiving and Fourth of
July.
Why he says, smiling benevolent
ly, I don't advertise for them, but l
most always buy when they come
around. l figure out that when man
goes about selling thing that retails
for rs cents it's more than likely that
he's hard up, and that 25 cents is
whole lot of money to him. It's to his
credit that he does it, because / don't
believe it's the pleasaniest or easiest
kind of work. Then I make it work
more than one way. Now, that little
investment was so cents. Are you GO
ing up to the hotel? All right, let's go,
and I'll show you something else
'He put the boxes of the cleaning
mixture in his pocket and we started
out. About two blocks down the street
he stopped and opened the door of
little tailor shop and walked in, and 1
followed him. 1t was one of the poor
est, barest-lool1ing places you ever saw.
There wasn't anything in it but some
big shears and smoothing iron and
one or two scanty rolls of cloth, and
the tailor himself looked half starved.
caught sight of little girl about four
years old breaking for the living-rooms
back of the little shop as we wentin. I
don't believe the poor little thing had
anything on but thin calico slip, and
her little bare legs were blue with the
cold.
"'Well, Hans said the storekeeper,
cheerily, 'how's everything?'
"'Poorty bad,' said the tailor. There
vas no peezness at all no more
"Well, there's better times coming
says the storekeeper. Here's some
thing I've brought you. It's grease
and stain remover-takes any kind of
grease spot or stain out of cloth in
spontaneously. There's couple of
boxes, and if it turns out all right 1
think we can manage to get you some
more
SWELL, I wish you could have seen
the tears of gratitude on the poor
taiior's face. The storekeeper tried to
get away, but the tailor insisted on
calling in his wife and children to tell
them what he had done for them, and
then the whole family hung to him and
called down blessings on his head. AL
though unused to weep, l myself felt
the tears springing to my"
Here the bookkeeper seized the drum
mer by the neck and one of the entry
clerks caught him by the feet and tilted
his chair back until it fell with a crash,
carrying the drummer along with it
Chicago Daily Record.
His Preference.