St. Tammany farmer., 1906-12-29

For three years l have been swearing
every time l sat down to the table
To-day when I wanted to sprinkle
some salt over canteloupe the stuf
was wet and soggy. ! couldn't shak'
the salt out, and when it came to th'
pepper, I pounded on the bottom o
the pepper box so hard that knocked
of the top of it and spilled a whole
spoonful of pepper into my nice cante
ioupe.'
"'How funny!' remarked the youn,
lady, laughing. Now, 1 know that 70,
aren't going to have that trouble any,
more. Here are some real nice sellers
for the salt and boxes for the pepper
and, I'll tell you, just use some of thu
salt sellers to put the pepper in
Why not? And you tell your wife
that if she will mix little corn starch
in with the salt, it will shake out the
incest ever
well, that was just a simple thing
for that clerk to do, but she pleased
that man and now he won't let any
body else in the house wait on him
when he wants anything, and when
the children of that family are sent tc
the store to get anything, they always
| stand around until Miss Belle can
wait on them. You see the customer
appreciates some little suggestion like
| this from the clerk
How Drug Clerk Made Friend.
"Yes, indeed, they do." answered the
Baltimore cloak man. "And in addi.
tion to that, they like to be treae(
honestly. Not far from whese l live
when at home, there are two drug
stores-on opposite sides of the street.
For three or four years l always went
to the one nearest me. One day, how
ever, when happened to be out for a
walk, friend of mine asked me into
the other drug store to have a cigar.
happened to think that my wife had
told me to get a sponge SO that she
could sponge off the baby with alcohol
that night. The baby was trifle all
ing. The clerk showed me three or
four sponges. He was rather gruff
kind of fellow and didn't exactly like
him. He asked me what I wanted to
use this sponge for. Well said, I
want to get real good soft one. We
must use it to sponge the baby of
with alcohol Well, I'll tell you.' said
he, there are plenty of sponges and
I'll sell you all you want If you wish
them. It's none of ny business, but if
I were you wouldn't use sponge for
that. After you use it once or twice
it will all draw up and be right hard.
The best thing for you is to tear a
piece out of the sleeve of one of your
old shirts and use that
II took that clerks tip and didn't
buy the sponge, but I'll wager that my
bill at that store for little sundry
things has not ruin less than ten dol
lars month for good long time
When I was at home last, this clerk
told me that he had bought out that
store; and this man was not a bad fel.
low at all. Oftentimes you meet people
who are really disgusting with their
shallow smiles This man might have
been just little less rough-I don't
altogether approve of that-but the
common honesty he had more than
made up for anything else he lacked"
"Wel1, you must back up honesty,
too, when you deal with customer by
giving him honest merchandise" said
Hoover. Il instruct my clerks always
to sell something good if they can and
always to show something good even
il the customer wants something
cheap. The old saying that the quail
ity is remembered long after the price
is forgotten is true one, and there is
no place where it works out better
than in the retail business. In the re-
tail trade, you see, the one who sells
the goods comes right up against the
one that uses the goods. If what you
sell proves o. K. then the customer is
coming back. to tell you about it; but
if what you sell is poor you may never
hear of it because the customer does
not wish to go back the second time to
a place where he has once been bit.
This idea Of customers coming
back to a place where he has been
swindled to get even-well, there's
nothing in that! Yes, SIR I instruct
my clerks always to sell something
good if they can; and if they sell a
poor article, to tell the customer so at
the time, so that the disappointment
may come before they get the article
rather than afterwards.
Lady Clerks Good Work.
"Now, for example, this same young
lady was telling you about-Miss
Belle-always sells to customers the
very best stuff that we have in the
house. Last Christmas we had in our
line lot of toilet articles. A lady
came in and wanted a brush. The
clerk showed her several brushes.
The first one was worth four
dollars. Now, you know, four
dollars for one hair brush down in
town the size Of ours, where there are
not many rich people, looks like ex-
travagance. But this young lady said:
Now, madame, four dollars looks like
good deal for hair brush, I am
sure-but see what a beautiful brush
this is; and with this she ran her
hand over the bristles-.and you know
a lovely head of hair like yours should
not be touched with a cheap brush.
This brush will go right down to the
roots of your hair and at the same