The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1906-11-10


Along with Watkins. his fathers LEAD
ing salesman. for whom he was pack
or, Brewster, the customer, and theil
three travelingmen friends, he had lin
gered rather long over the small
black; and Monty, the head waiter, nae
softly closed the eight o'clock doors Dc
fore the party laid their crumpled nap
1tins upon the table cloth and lett the
dining.room Watkins was yet 70
sell a tedious bill of dry goods, ana
the IA trunks were to be packed that
night, as he and Watkins were to go
to Crete on the 1890 a. m. train.
Come into my sample room, folks.
think l have little better cigar
than you can find downstairs. / threw
a couple OF boxes OF my favorites In
as we were packing up the other day
in Chicago. There are few OF them
left" They all retired to the sample
room. 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
your fraternity friends at Har-
ward. 1t isn't very good thing to use
on the road. You'd better make a
blum at cigar" All this was quickly
and quietly said. you may go to
work packing that trunk Of blankets
over there. and the rest Of the stun
against the wall. We are all through
on that side OF the house."
The 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
,of spreading out whole line Of GER
tain sort OF stuff, he would merely
pick out a few of them and say to his
customer: Here, these are about the
best of this bunch" and Brewster
would say: Eyes, think so, too" and
Watkins would write down the order
and 60 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 .
green hand, but when the veteran got
ut 1t he filed the other seven In COM
paratively 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 go
and his order is usually written up
when he closes 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
ne.
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?"
well, l should say not! We all,
once in awhile. even the best of us,
get a hard fall. About the hardest
tumble ever l knew a 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 q
little town in Mississippi He ran a
little store of his own and sang bass
in the Baptist choir. He was a
straightforward, honest fellow-lacked
a 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
Iy with sight drafts"
you bet, It's a 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
job with st. Louis dry goods house
Cook was as green as tobacco worm
when he first started out-smoked q
cob pipe and carried backing brush
n his grip. One thing in his favor
was he kept down expenses, and when
ever he got chance to turn loose that
bass voice of his, in a Sunday school,
The would usually land big bill the
next day II any merchants were pres
emit. 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.
I saIesman's Lack Of Tact.
THE little village in which he grew
mp was a quiet place. Occasionally
the young plantation singers would &c
to meeting. stir up a scrap and carve
each other with razors, but in that
town no one flashed pistol. One sea
son, while Cook was In st. Louis look
ing after his market trade, one of his
Sunday school superintendent custom
ers came up to the city. His little
town also was quiet berg and the
superintendent, while at home, woult
talk to his lady customers in a low
voice and say grace at the table. bu