Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-12-03

Il want job"
He sized me up quizZically and then
pointed to a door leading into dingy
little Office in the corner. There was
a long counter, behind which a sleepy
looking bookkeeper was engaged in
adding up figures and within the office
l could see a tall, angular man read
ing letters. Timidly I knocked at the
door.
Come in" said the angular man,
in deep, bass voice.
TremblingIy I approached him. He
looked at me with a keen glance and
asked me what I wanted
q want a job"
What can you do?"
Work around a store"
Then followed a series of questions,
which I answered freely as 1 be-
came more at ease.
q need a good, Woodworking boy"
he said, "one that is honest and re-
liable. Have you any references"
mo. sir" I explained that I had
been refused a reference from my last
employer because he did not wish me
to quit and he had taken this petty
revenge. Then he asked me a lot
more questions about my work, ETC.,
and finally he said:
"A reference doesn't amount to any
thing, anyhow. Men will give a ref
erence to get rid of a fellow, lots of
times. I've done it myself. You show
me that you are all right, and We'll
have no bother about the reference.
I'll give you a job. Where are your
things?"
What things?"
why, your trunk or your valise or
your bundle"
It was with humiliation that l con-
fessed that I did not have anything
except the clothes I had on. l did not
confess to the possession of a pair
of neatly darned socks, which l had
in one jacket pocket. AS for linen,
why, had the shirt I was wearing and
my celluloid collar had been, so far,
all sufficient as I could launder it in
a minute with a basin of water
He laughed and said, "AIl right
sonny; start right in and see that you
don't take away from my store any
more than you fetched into it"
l barely existed on the three dollars
a week he paid me, but managed to
make shift by sleeping on cot in the
rear of the store.
straighten up STOCK" he said, land
fix everything up in good style. Every
morning you will take the broom and
sweep out, and if you find anything on
the floor bring it to me. 1t belongs to
me because this is my store, under
stand?"
I nodded assent.
During the day you can help around
the store, wrapping up bundles, filling
orders and doing anything that comes
handy, but keep busy"
In my after years I realized how
pitiful, how utterly inadequate, how
worthless for all practical purposes
was the Junk it was no bet
ter-that he had in stock AS a buyer
I have since visited the biggest mar
kets in all of the principal cities, and
I have never seen anything like the
stuff he had piled on his shelves.
There was a long table with clothing,
made from material known as "shod-
dy." When you wore it out in the
rain it became a pulp and lost any
semblance of shape. There were
shoes. made of the cheapest leather,
with insoles of paper; there were bar
rels of brown sugar, coffee A." etc,
and a big canister of white" sugar.
There was coffee, which I mixed with
roasted beans and corn and ground by
hand in the mill" screwed to the
dirty pine counter. There were prunes,
raisins, currants, apples, all dried
The dry goods would now be consid-
cred absolutely worthless. Thin.
sCrawny and Jhapeless, the stuff would
unrOu from The bolts, while the rib
bOns were flyspecked and dirty. Then
there was a stock of notions" a
stock of hardware, more groceries, not
forgetting a barrel each of whisky,
rum, molasses and vinegar. There
were other things, too numerous to
mention, but all of the same question
able value.
The store made pretensions 10 being
quite an establishment, but I will
state honestly that as I remember that
awful stock of merchandise I would
not offer $100 for the whole outfit,
were I to appraise it today.
So swept out the store mornings,
tied UP bundles and waited on Gus
toners during the day and at night I
crawled under the counter, too tired
to dream, and slept amidst the odors
from the barreled and boxed groceries.
He showed me how to manipulate
the oId-fashioned scales so that 1 could
cheat an old woman out of a pound
or two of sugar or flour. Our pint,
quart and gallon measures had false
bottoms. Our peck and bushel meas
lUes we're fixed for false measure,
and there was ample material for adul-
iteration or all commodities. He in
structed me in their use, and one day
he trounced me without mercy be-
! cause he observed that I did not suffi-
clenIy adulterate the purchase of an
imprisoned in Ships Hold.
\ remarkable story Of q 1,,o,, eroi,, .