The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-30
THE EVENING STORY
Canvassing for Shaw g. Co.
By Bryant G. Rogers.l

ihhHuIdcturerS OF tOmbStOnes In III q
world-delivered anywhere by freight
ANY size or style-pay by the week
OF month-your moneys worth or you
needn't pay at all-canvassers can
make $25 week the year round"
Ihat was the lingo OF a keen and
VWeli-dressed man who called on the
widow Lee in the village of Medina
because he had been told that she had
buried two husbands ard had not
erected a stone over the grave of
either. He didn't say 1t, however, until
ne hao Valnly tried to get a couple of
orders from her.
my tlme," she admitted as she sighed
Two long signs. ''They were both good
men, and some day 1 shall buy grave
stones. but there's no hurry about it.
nat was what both of them said
not to be in q hurry"
You've lived around here a good
Wh1le?" asked the agent
here" ~
Then you know about. every fam
lily that has suffered a loss?"
EVERY single one of them for ten
miles around! I always go to every
funeral within five miles. whether it's
on washday or not
Then take an agency for Shaw &
Co, AMI canvass. You'll get thirty
- OSA| SOAAAAAI1SStOH. w e nave can
VasserS who make $50 a week right
along. You just pass around among
the folks who have lost a dear one
and the thing is done. They will order
from you where they won't from a
stranger Your voice and your looks
are sympathetic. and you'll be a great
success. Make it your particular bust
ness to get after widowers and shame
them into putting up to,nbstones over
iong-neglected graves. Here is list
of twelve I have picked up It isn't
\ like selling a history by subscription.
A Widower can say that he doesn't
want the book on any terms, and you
| nave to go, but when you come to ask
him what about the tombstone he
ought to have had up seven years ago,
that's different
The. Widow Lee listened to a great
deal of talk and was at last convinced.
| She owned an old horse and buggy,
and was therefore prepared to make
trips around the country. She was left
book of cuts and prices, given some
business pointers, and the man from
Shaw & Co. passed on to bring up in
| Grafton, eight miles away.
There he found Deacon Carter, who
bought eggs and butter for shipment.
He gave him Just the same talk as
he had the widow, and the deacon
| agreed to try canvasSing for a month
and see how 1t went. He was supplied
with list of twelve widows who had
| buried one or two husbands each and
the name of the Widow Lee headed it.
| The deacon had to go over to Me-
4 dina on business next day anyway and
he planned to call on the widow. When
he arrived he found her getting ready
to set out with horse and buggy to
take her first order. He had been told
not to be too harsh in introducing his
subject. and he therefore talked about
the weather and other things for
awhile before saving:
Widow, may 1 inquire, if you have
yet marked the graves wherein your
two husbands repose?
There's a single sticking up. but
nothing more. was told not to be in
hurry about the stones. Seems to me
you look like a widower?"
| Yes, I am one"
| wife been dead long?'
Seven or eight years"
ANY tombstone YETI"
Moo"
| 81 heard you hadn't, and I was Just
going to drive over to see you about
it, I'm taking orders for tombstones' -
"But-so am Il 1 heard about your
orders for both. Date of birth and
death, please?'
Date of nothing, sir. You've got
lcheek to come here when the grave of
lyour wife is neglected."
But you were coming to see me
well, you can get along with you.
Your wife didn't tell you there was no
hurry, and my husbands did. In fact,
the last one said Idd better buy hogs
with the money"
! A week passed and neither the wild
ow nor the widower had taken an
Iorder Then the widow came driving
over to Grafton and to the deacon's
place of business. When she had got
tseated she said:
|
lyour case. and I think it's an awful
shame the way you have neglected
your wife's grave. You couldn't have
lloved her"
"And did you love them two hus-
bands as1,, Of yours 5,e, he retoTted,
give me an order to show around !
icould get start and make some
money
But why don't you give me an
order?"
Deacon, your wife is lying up there,
probably grieving at your neglect, and
you are here buying butter and eggsi
What do you think the people around
lyou are saying?"
How is 1t over at Medina, in your
icase?"
The widow said she didn't want to
lsay right out that the deacon choked
his wife to death to get rid of her, but
she was a woman who had suspicious
land when those suspicious were
laroused 1t took a great deal to 1ull
} them. That was her fling as she left
J for home, and the deacon wasn't quick
enough to answer that he had heard
} OF wives using slow poison.
} In the course of another week he
} drove over to Medina again. He in
) Iterviewed two or three persons on the
tombstone business. and then brought
, iup at the Widow Lees.
ST was sort Of expecting YOU" she