The Washington herald., 1913-03-16
A Bluff That Worked.

There was long moment Of hesitation. The
man walked forward. looked at his machine
and sighed.
" That's q pretty good machlne," he said
" But not as good as the one have to offer
you"
This was the opening / had desired. Most
Of the time l was not even given the right TO
show my goods. 1 am an expert " sewing
machinist." and I have several little tricks
with the attachments. such fold ng goods
a certain way. running il through the ma
chine once, shipping Off loose threads. and
bringing it forth full plated shirt bosom.
I brought my machine in from my wagon
and worked with 1t for while Then l
pressed the mat tier OF the infringement. /:
was not long before ] carried away SO In
money, a note for $40. and the head OF an
antiQuated sewing ma chine. Around the next
curve I threw the junk over the hillside and
listened to 1t go clanl1inS down the side OF
the mountain II was the first sale made.
A few days later stopped before a small
shack with a small garden before It. The
man was hoeinS sweet potatoes. Iattempted
TO get his attention
Amt got no time to talk to you" he said
gruffiy; I've got to hoe these here tiers"
" But" interjected. my ass.sta Mt ca n do
that for you. while show you this machine
1 carried with me boy of about 10.
The man shook his head.
I'm a-gointer hoe these here taters my
self" he answered
Very WELL" said. Jim. help me with
this machine"
Ny assistant and took the machine from
the wagon and set II in the road. Then !
began TO work.
I noticed a child playing around the ''stoop"
Of the house. I made doll dress ard threw
1t over into the yard ! saw the woman OF
the house hanging some things out OF tire line
the week 5 washing l made some fancy
plating and threw that over into the yard.
Gains Confidence and Sales Record.
l worked as fast as | could. making one
thing after another and as fast as they
were made throwing them into the yard
But not once diG l speak. However, look
ing out Of the corner of my eye. / could See
that rhe woman and the little girl were get
ting interested The old man kept on hoeing
his taters." A few minutes more and the
child had come down TO watch me- An
other moment and she had picked up the
pieces Of goods / had sewed and carried
them to her mother.
The woman left her work. She saw the
case with which l workeG-gained through
many a year OF pracuce-and of course
imagined that here was some new invention
which made the work of sewing so simple
that " even a man could do it" And the
result was that she hauled her " old man ."
away from his potato pa tch, made him dig
down into the tin can under the puncheon
floor. pull forth his savings. and buy that
machine. l didn't even get a MOTEL had
all the money in cash.
OF course those two sales gave me conf
dence 1t was confidence that had lacked
before. Never again did those moun;aineers
get the best Of me. l finally got so that l
would simply walk up to a man. shove
note in his face, hand him a fountain pen.
and announce to him that the only way he
could get rid of me was TO buy ard to sign
that note. And the strangest thing Of Il
all was that they seemed to like my manner
my air of superior trading ability They
bought and bought fast. When went back
to the factory from that trip carried the
honor of having broken the selling record Of
wears. And, come to think OF 1t. l didn't
90 anything 50 very much out of the way
after all.