St. Tammany farmer., 1906-11-17
After dinner j. Charles, son of the

er, Brewster, the customer, and their
three travelingmen friends, he had lin
gered rather long over the small
black; and Monty, the head waiter, had
softly closed the eight o'clock doors be-
fore the party laid their crumpled nap
kins upon the table cloth and left the
dintng-room. Watkins was yet to
sell a tedious bill Of dry goods, and
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 I have a little better cigar
than you can find downstairs. threw
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 ]. Charles, this young man
said: mo, thanks" and pulled out
his cigarette case.
None, nope, Johnnie - none OF
that. You had better take that
thing and send it back to one of
your fraternity friends at Har-
ward. It isn't a very good thing to use
on the road. You'd better make
bluff 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 stuff
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 a GER
tain sort Of stun, 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, I think SO, too," and
watkins would write down the order
and 80 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
green hand, but when the veteran got
at It 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-tfmers
grip Is always packed and ready to go
and his order Is usually written up
when he closes a bill.
Not Always Easy Sailing.
"Now, sit with us awhile" said
Watkins to Brewster. You're little
tired anyway, I expect"
.An right, will. The folks at home
know / am with you and in good
hands" w. II
Soon another knot Of men of COM
merce sat together in the lobby.
well. how do you like the road by
this time, Johnnie?" asked Brewster
OF the young man.
"Oh, bully; I think it's great" said
be.
.It's all right when you have an
easy mark like me, Johnnie, but 1t
doesn't come so easy when you strike
them all, eh, does 1t, Wat?"
'tWell, / should say not! We all,
once In awhile, even the best Of us,
get a hard fall. About the hardest
tumble ever 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
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
" with sight drafts"
"You bet, It's shaky old time, too," !"
said Brewster. 1--WE been there"
"Finally Cook went broke. A friend
OF his in the shoe business on the road
was one Of Cooks creditors. In order
tn help Cook along and also perhaps
to get his money back, he found him
q Job with st. Louis dry goods house.
Cook was as green as tobacco worm
when he first started out-smoked a
cob pipe and carried backing brush
IN his grip. One thing in his favor
was he kept down expenses. and when
ever he got q chance to turn loose that
bass voice Of his in q Sunday school,
he would usually land = big bill the
next day n any merchants were pres
ent. In the course Of good many
years he had sprinkled thAt voice
around Id good many places and had
i ,hif. list o. faithful custnmsEs.
ess.+- salesman's lack Of. Tact.
h .sThe. little village In which he grew
up was quiet place. Occasionally
the young plantation singers would 80
to meeting, stir up . scrap and carve
aach other with razors, but in that
town NO one flashed q pistol. One sea
son. while Cook was In st. Louis look
inx 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, would
talk to his lady customers in q low
voice and say grace at the table, but
~hor ho rof mn To the city he would