The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-28
Copyright 1907, by Ellis Parker
 Butler

Copyright, 1907, by Ellis Parker Butler) Y T was the first day of May, and the
 little book agent with the sandy gray \ side whiskers took a seat In one of fl, chairs before the door of the Best Hotel and ran his hand over his face
 ",rhis moving day kind of knocks me ont" he said to the landlord. 'l don know whether to try to sell books today or not The first of May aint a right good day for d book agent. When front ward is full of stra and mixed fur nitlre and kitchenware and the lady of the house has a red handkerchief tied around her head and her mouth full of eight ounce tacks she aint going to think about book buying. She's got othe- things to think of. Instead of fastening down her mind onto the table of contents of a book she lets 1t wander of and try to remember whether she packed the butter in the washstand drawer or tied 1t up in the sheet with the medicine bottle, And 1t ain't no use to talk books to the man of the house. The less said to him the better. If he nasnt just got mad he is just going to, and he is glad to have a book agent for an excuse. When family has Just had to pack up lot of old junk to move It and Is looking forward with seasick- ness to having to unpack 1t all again. that family am III no ulOOu lo puy any thing 10 put on the parlor center table. It is the home that holds the family to- gether and when the home is piled up on the porch, with the cold roast beef under the whole pile, the family ties are so strained they creak, and the first man that crowds in on the family sorrow gets the first kick. When l am selling work li..s this Jarbys Encyclopedia of Knowl- edge and Compendium of Literature, Sci ence and Art l don't mind going into house on funeral day, and the chances are that l can sell the mourners copy apiece and dispose of one to the under- taker, but the time when a family is counting the number of things the mover has broke Is a poor time to sell books
 Everybody don't move on May l." sug gested the landlord
 "Then that don't is so busy looking to see what the new neighbors has got in the way of furniture that they might as well be moving, so far as selling books goes," said the book agent. Curiosity is the greatest merit woman has three hundred and sixty-four days in the year, but on moving day it turns into draw back If it wasn't for womans curlos- ity I'd get out of the book business. l guess the Lord had book agents In mind when he made woman and put curiosity into her, so that when book agent rang the front door bell and mentioned the illuminated frontispiece the woman couldn't rest until she had look at it. And whenever a woman once looks at the illuminated frontispiece her curiosity don't give her no rest until she sees the other things in the book. That's why mott book agents don't carry but slim slice of the book as a sample-the wo- ma buys the book to see what else there is in it besides what the agent has showed her I would do the same, except that this Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Science, Literature anu Art is so good that l ain't afraid to show up the whole thing When you think that the price is only five dollars, one dollar down and -"
 'I know all about it." said she land lord quickly, you sold me one the first day you came.'
 T did," said Eliph Hewitt, "and you've been a better man ever since. l can notice it. But If you done right you would buy a copy for every room in the house. It would raise the tone of your hotel, and please your boarders. There ain't nothing a boader at a hotel likes better than to go up to the room he has been gwen and find a copy of this book there And it would save you money. When a guest goes up to his room to wash up for dinner and finds copy of this work on the bureau he dips into 1t