The Meeker herald., 1906-12-01

AItSI UluucT y. ShaiAobs Doa Va sso
boss. went up against the real thing.
Along with Watkins. his fathers lead
Ing salesman, for whom he was pack
er. brewster. the customer, and their
thre,, travelingmen friends. he had lin
gered rather long over the small
black: and Monty. the head walter. had
softly closed the eight O'Clock doors be-
fore the party laid their crumpled nap
kins upon the table cloth and left the
Sell a tedious bill of dry goods. and
he "A trunks were to be packed that
nigh. as he and Watkins we're to go
10 Crete on the 1880 q. m. train.
Come into my sample room. folks.
tn INK l have little better cigar
than you can find downstairs. / threw
4 couple OF boxes Of my favorites in
as We we're packing up the other day
in Chicago. There are few Of them
ler.." They all retired to the sample
rom. Watkins passed box around.
first to Brewster. and then to his other
friends. They all took one. but when
he came to j. Charles. this young man
said. mo, thanks" and pulled out
HIS cigarette case.
Nope. nope. Johnnie = none of
that. You had better take that
thing and send 1t back to one of
yoar fraternity friends at Har-
ward. 1t isn't very good thing to use
IN the road. You'd better make
bluff at cigar" All this was quickly
ant quietly said. You may go to
work packing that trunk OF blankets
over there. and the rest of the stuff
against the wall. We are all through
on that side of the house"
che travelling men friends soon left,
as they saw he had business to do,
the necktie and furnishing goods men
to pack their own samples. Watkins
worked quickly and quietly. Instead
nj Spreading out whole line Of GER
tain sort of-stu6. he would merely
pick out few Of them and say to his
customer: Here. these are about the
best Of this bunch" and Brewster
would say: Yes. think 10. too." and
Watkins would write down tho order
and go on to something else. BY ten
o'clock they had finished and J.
Charles had packed seven of the
trunks. He was doing first rate for a
greeu hand. but when the veteran got
at 1t he filled the other seven in com
paratively q few minutes. All three
then went into the lobby, having two
delightful hours to spend. such as
come into the life Of the man on the
road. There was nothing to do but
wait for the train. The old-timer's
grip is always packed and ready to 30
and his order is usually written up
when he closes q bill.
Not Always Easy Sailing.
well, how do you like the road by
this time. Johnnie?" asked Brewster
of the young man.
"oh, bully; l think it's great" said
he.
Its all right when you have an
easy mark like me, Johnnie. but 1t
doesn't come SO easy when you strike
them all. Ell. does 1t. Wat?"
We'll, 1 should say not! We all,
once In awhile. even the best Of us,
get q hard fall. About the hardest
tumble ever / knew fellow to get
was once down in st. Louis. A dry
goods man named Cook (he's quit the
road and gone into business for him
self now) used to travel down in
Louisiana. He had one especially
solid customer down in the Bayou
district. Cook had been raised in
little town in Mississippi. He ran
In the Baptist choir. He was
straightforward, honest fellow-lacked
q good deal of being fool-but he did
too much credit business with his
brethren and by'm'bye the bank clerk
began to come around pretty frequent
ly with sight drafts"
"You bet, it's shaky old time, too"
said Brewster. I've been there
Finally Cook. went broke. A friend
of his In the shoe business on the road
was one Of Cooks creditors. In order
to help Cook along and also perhaps
to get his money back. he found him
a Job with st. Louis dry goods house.
Cook was as green as tobacco worm
when he hrst started out-smoked a
coz pipe and carried q backing brush
in his grip. One thing in his favor
was he kept down expenses, and when
ever he got chan9a to turn loose that
bass voice Of his n 4 Sunday school,
he would usually land a big bill the
next day II any merchants were pres
ent. In the course Of good many
years he had sprinkled that voice
around In good many places and had
a fair list OF faithful customers.
8alssn,an's Lack Of Tact.
THE little village in which he grew
up was . quiet place. Occasionally
the young plantation singers would go
to meeting. stir up a scrap and carve,
each other with razors. but in that
town no one flashed a pistol. One sea-
son, while Cook was In st. Louis look