The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-25

as result, the WHOLESALERS found that
he had made bad investment.
"WeI, after he had promised to
give me a commission of Is per cent.
on what 1 could sell, started think
ing out how I'd go about it. The
knives l carried in my pockets, hold
ing two or three at a time in my hand.
But couldn't do that with the Japan
csc stuff, and, besides, I'd an idea
that, if 1 could display 'em some way,
the people would be attracted by the
colors.
Suddenly, while 1 was trying to
study out the problem, l thought of
how walters carry dishes on trays, and
l hurried away to a friend who was
carpenter.
" I want you to make me a tray of
light wood l said, so 1 can hang it
around my neck, or carry it easily
And 1 described the tray that to-day
is used by street men.
He made it for me in an hour or so.
1 paid him 81 for the job, and went
back to the store. I explained my
scheme to the merchant and he fell
in with it at once and heaped the tray
with handkerchief boxes and pin
cushions and ink stands and what not.
And you can sell 'em all at the same
price-a quarter apiece he said.
Il went to my first stand in front
should have seen the men and women
fight to buy those knick knacks. Why,
in two weeks time I'd cleaned out the
wholesalers stock and had put $3.50 in
the savings bank. Yes, sir, and was
only fourteen years old; and by the
time was fifteen I'd $500 in the bank,
and besides 1 kept my mother and
myself. Not bad for a boy, eh?''
do you know, when 1 began
homo nOnnnV
mother She couldn't believe I'd earned
it honestly-thought there was some
thing crooked somewhere. And she
was not entirely satisfied that every
thing was all right until I'd let her
come down town one day and stand
by me while l made sales. After that
she was so proud of me that she
couldn't help talking to all the neigh
bors about me all the time.
We'll, that's how the tray came
into the business, and the next step in
the evolution was the push cart.
How Clocks Caused the Use of the
Push Cart.
"a few months after I'd cleaned up
the handkerchief boxes-in the mean
time I'd sold odds and ends that diff
ferent merchants furnished mel got
a chance to handle some new-fangled
clocks that hadn't been going we'll.
You see, I've always made a point of
selling things that other people can't.
That's what has made this business
and makes it profitable, for articles
that can't be sold in the regular way
l can secure at sacrifice rates, sell
them for a good deal less than the
original prices and still come out
ahead. At first, however, I sold en-
tirely on commission, but for many
years I've been buying outright as
well, and in all that time I've been
stuck only twice through bad judg-
ment.
"Well, when 1 got a whack at the
clocks l saw at once that the tray
would be useless. AS luck would have
it, L knew a Cornishman, called "Ba-
mana john" because he ran little
fruit store and delivered his goods in
a push cart. l got him to let me have
the cart for a day for a dollar and
this 1 loaded with clocks. I sold a
hundred the first day at 81. The sec.
ond day 1 sold seventy and the third
day about fifty.
But 1 didn't like the way the sales
dropped off, and 1 worried about it.
Finally l got an idea that If I'd hire
two or three men to help me sell the
clocks and in this way work different
parts of the town at the same time,
the sales would go up again. And
they did, and the four of us made
things hum until the last clock was
gone.
1T was not until I'd introduced the
one-horse wagon, though, that / open
ed up an office and began regularly
employing men and Systematically
pushing the business. That experience
made me feel sure of myself and con-
WINGED me that I'd really got hold of
an extremely good thing.
A Merchant Pleads With the Boy.
Like many another merchant, a
wholesale dealer in japanese goods
came to me and asked me to accom-
many him to his office. When we
arrived there he showed me row after
row of japanese cabinets, about three
feet high and a foot and a half wide,
with lacquer and mother-of-pearl
work showing extensively.
"'I want you to sell them for me-,
he said.
II told him 1 couldn't-they were
too bulky and nobody would pay the
IS he wanted me to sell them for.
HE argued with me for half an
hour. but 1 hesitated. At last he said,
in a pleading way:
won't you please try it for me?
I've got to raise all the money l pos
sibly can within the next few days and
if you can make the CABINETS go I'm
saved
.sThat settled it. 1 felt sorry for the
man and 1 said I'd try to help him. 1
went out and hired a huckster's wagon
and loaded it with cabinets in such a
way that the pearl work showed up in
fine style. Then l drove in front of
the Stock Exchange, for somehow L
felt that the brokers would buy them
if anybody would. And, Lord, how
those fellows swarmed around me and
bought. Why, they worked me into a
heavy perspiration in no time; and that
day sold three wagonloads to them,
seventy-five to a load.
Opening Up an Office.
GAS 1 said, this experience led me
to quit the street open up an office
and employ other men to sell for me.
Since then I've spent my time train
ing UP street men, gradually extend
ing the business over the country and