The sun., 1906-01-13
SJPERSTITIONS or THE ROAD.
Odd Things Travelling Statesmen DO to Sell
Goods.

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Goods.
Travelling men as a class are fuller Of peoul-
arities and superstitions than any class, per-
haps, In the world. seldom have met sales
man on the road who didn Z have some kish
idea some pet superstition, regarding selling
goods, says a correspondent nt the Cleveland
Pia'n Dealer. and most Of them are worship
pers at the shrine Of luck
One OF my best friends on the road is a
shoe saesman-he is known to the fraternity
ywhere--who would not think Of attempt
ing TO sell bill of goods II he did not wear a
red tie. He is firm believer in red ties. and
he wears one every time he starts to sell. and
he believes that any man who wears red tie
can sell goods. Why he does not explain.
There is another man on the road-l have
known him for fifteen years-who sells men q
furnishings, who would not think OF smoking a
cigar until he had plastered 1t all over with
cigarette papers | asked him once why he
did 1t, for before smoking a cigar he spends
perhaps five minutes carefully wetting rice
paper and binding it around the cigar. He
explained that when he was first on the road
he one day took cigar from bis pocket and
started to light it. discovering that it was
broken. He patched it up with cigarette
paper and started out to sell q bill Of goods
He had phenomenal sales that afternoon. and
ever afterward believed that he could sell
goods any time he wrapped his cigars in
cigarette papers.
There is a lot in that sort Of belief. am
not superstitious myself. although | always
carry wishbone in my pocket. but the man
who starts out confident that luck is with him
will sell goods unless he loses confidence In
himself
/ have another friend who collects letter.
heads Of hotels in which he stops. He never
will write letter oh the stationery Of the hotel
where he happens to be- but will take a bunch
OF that paper to his rooms and write on the
letterhead of some hotel perhaps thousand
miles away. Why he does it no one except
himself knows. and it constantly tangles W his
firm, but he persists in It,
Another crank friend Of mine always car
ries his own pillow with him and sleeps on it
every night after throwing the hotel pillows
off his bed. Over fifteen years ago he went to
bed one night and pin in the pillow scratched
his face. The pin scratch was the direct ca use
Of his losing big order the next morning. and
ever since then he has refused TO use any hotel
pillow and carries his own with him in his
sample trunk.
One Of the oldest fads of travelling man
that | know of is that Of a silk salesman who
collects souvenir electric light globes, carrying
of the bulbs from every hotel in which he stops
and using them in his own home In email
Eastern City He has in his home almost every
klhu ol sIope kho"l H. ana on tdch OF theih ne
has pasted the name ol the hotel whence II
came he mas some mat VIII not NJ me
hAtures IN his mouse. and these ne mas plleo IN
ornamental 1ashlon on table
Another man whom | meet frequently on
inc roao !s salesman LOT Il olE t!eC'r'c uN'ure
works in the central West. and he has queer
idea he carries with him ms own telephone.
ana IN some way ne mas achleveo the IDEA that
II DHnGs nm luck IL Is one ol the thehsh
s'Fle ol receivers rhht III the heao' ana every
uhle he gers lt'o ho'el mat mas 'elephoHeS
IN 'he rooms ne dlscohhectS 'he mouse tele-
phone ana puts IN MS own apparatus, Just
nov 1t help7 hln l canho, imagine out ne
th!hAs II Goes. ana tha' Is 'he main point,