Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1914-12-04
Confessions Of
Mail Order Man
By Mr.. M. o. x.
Revelations By One Whose Experience In
the Business Covers q Range Rom
Office Boy TO General Manager
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE
MAIL ORDER BUSINESS.

in small store. My self-confidence
was small and my diffidence abnormal.
l suppose stood outside the store en-
trance for fully an hour before 1 mus
tered up courage enough to go in.
II want to see the boss" was my
statement to rather fashy appear
Ing man who asked me what l wanted.
"What for?"
II want job"
He sized me up quizzically and then
pointed to door leading into dingy
little Office in the corner. There was
long counter, behind which a sleepy
looking bookkeeper was engaged in
adding up figures and within the Office
I could see tall, angular man read
ing letters. Timidly l knocked at the
door.
Come in," said the angular man,
in deep, bass voice.
Tremblingly l approached him. He
looked at me with keen glance and
asked me what wanted.
II want job"
what can you do?"
Work around a store"
Then followed 6 series of questions,
which answered freely as l be-
came more at ease.
Il need good, Woodworking boy"
he said, zone that is honest and re-
liable. Have you any references?"
"No, sir" I explained that had
been refused reference from my last
employer because he did not wish me
o quit and he had taken this petty
revenge. Then he asked me a. lot
more questions about my work, etc,
md 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 vallse or
your bundle" -.
tessed that l did not have anything
except the clothes had on. did not
confess to the possession off, pair
Of neatly darned socks, whic&1 had
In one jacket pocket. As .to linen,
why, I had the shirt was Rsar5hg. and
my celluloid collar had been, % far,
all sufficient, as I could lauHdAf It In
minute with basin of water.
He laughed and said, .All. right,
sonny; start right in and see that you
don't take away from my store any
more than you fetched into it."
\ barely existed on the three dollars
I week he paid me, but managed to
make shift by sleeping on a cot in the
rear of the store.
"You can go out in the store and
straighten up Stock" he said, tand
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. It belongs to
me because this is my store, under.
stand?"
4 I nodded assent.
During the lay you can help around
the store. wrapping up bundles, filling
orders and doing anything that comes
handy, but keep busy" =.
In my after years / realized hdw
pitiful, how utterly inadequate. how
worthless for all practical. purposes
was the "junk"-yet, it was mo tsbet.
tervthat he had in stock. Asa buyer
! have since visited the biggest mar.
kets in all of. the principal cities and
have never seen anything like the;
stun he had piled on his shaiFas,
There was long table with clothing,
made from material known as "shod.
dy." When you wore it out in tn
rain 1t became 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 big canister Of white" SMEAR,
There was coffee, which mixed with
roasted beans and corn and ground nv
hand In the mill" screwed to the
dirty pine counter. There were prunea,
raisins. currants, apples. all dried.
The dry goods would now be consid.
cred absolutely worthless. Thin,
scrawny and shapeless. the stun would
unroll from the bolts, while the rib.
bons were fyspecked and dirty. Then
there was a stock Of motions" q
stock OF hardware. more groceries. moi
forgetting barrel each Of whisky
rum, molasses and vinegar. There
were other things, too numerous "a
mention, but all Of the same oueat,on.
able value.
The store made pretensions to befne
quite an establishment, but Viii
state honestly that as remember thu,
awful stock Of merchandise I would
not offer 500 for the whole outfit
were to appraise It today.
SO swept out the store morninea
tied up bundles and waited on c,,s'
omers during the day and at nixht j