The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-05-28
exPERT SAFE OPENERS.
How They Aid the Salesman with
His BurgIar Proof Wares.

Row They Aid the Salesman villa
His Burglar Proof Wares.
when any one of the manufacturers
gets out new type of SAFE" said vet
eraH agent, ''he can always be certain of
half d dozen customers who will fairly
tumble over one another in their eager
ness to purchase. Strange to say. they
are not men who are In need Of safes; on
the contrary, they have safes to burn.
They are his business rivals, who are
anxious to lose no time In putting their
skilled mechanics to work unrayeling the
secrets of the new mechanism. You must
understand" continued the veteran smil-
ing, that the strongest card Of a safe
agent is the point blanR assertion that ev-
cry lock except his own can be opened by
an expert, and he must be prepared to
make good when the statement is Quss-
toned. ] don't think | exaggerate when
l say that this one claim Is the backbone
of the safe business and brings about
more sales than all other arguments put
together.
ITO illustrate its effectiveness, suppose
l am trying to persuade the officers Of
country bank to put new doors in their
vault. But, my dear man. they protest,
these doors we have now are nearly new
and are guaranteed burglar proof by -
& Co. That gives me my cue. l glance
at the vault, smile sarcastically and shrug
my shoulders. DO you really believe that
work is the slightest protection against
burglars3 | inquire. OF course we do
they chorus anxiously. DO you mean to
intimate that it isn'tY don't reply i'm
mediately, but affect reluctance, and ev-
cry director stares at me and breathes
hard. We'll, gentlemen / say at last, 4
never like to run down business rival,
but. since you ask me. don't mind tell
ing you that we have a man at our works
who can open those doors any day in less
than Is minutes. That will give you an
idea how long they would hold out
against a modern burglar
"Of course such a speech throws the
whole crowd into a cold sweat, but never
theless they Indignantly scout my asser-
ton, and | proceed to jar them again by
calmly telegraphing for my man. Next
day, let us say, the expert arrives. He is
generally a very ordinary looking fellow,
which helps the game along, and take
him over to the bank and introduce him
to all hands as a workman from our shops.
Now, then. gentlemen l chirp cheer
fully, get out year watches and see how
long our friend here will be In breaking
into your burglar proof closet At that
the expert walks over. lays his ear against
the door and begins to manipulate the
combination. The chances are he has
been studying 1t for months and months,
and every faint click Is like so much
plain print Generally 1t takes from four
to six minutes to do the job. and when the
door swings open the poor directors look
at each other and groan. After that it's
dollars to doughnuts l close my contract.
II have been through this little comedy
so often" ehuckled the veteran, shat
know 1t by heart. but you mustn't sup
pose that every deal is as easy as the one
l described. / selected q simple case as
an illustration. but often the work is a
great deal more complicated. But 1t all
turns on opening the other fellows door,
and what wanted to make clear was the
importance of the professional expert.
The moment any novelty is introduced he
makes it study and keeps at 1t until he
has devised some method of exhibiting it
to its disadvantage. The touch and hear
ing of men of that class become so abb
normally sensitive in time that they ap-
pear to be guided by instinct. and they do
things they can't explain themselves. No,
never heard of one turning crooked, and
/ doubt whether any burglar that ever
lived equaled them in skill. New Or
leans Times Democrat.