The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-06-12
CIGAR STUBS IN
topeka PROVE IT
Unburned Lengthy Ones Prove
Prosperity Claims.
Commercial Traveller Shows
How Conditions Compare.
EAST SMOKES 'EM SHORTER
Never Failing Sign of Necessity
for Economy.
Business Situation Indicated by
Traffic i'm Weed.


States each year says so. Not alone
does the commercial man base his ar
gument on the testimony of business
men and feeling" the financial con-
dition of communities. Being rather
observant and somewhat Of a phil
osopher, the travelling man carries
some brand new argument all his
own. The mid-western man smokes
more cigars, better cigars and does
not smoke them so short as the down
east chappie who lives closer to Wall
street and the interests once listed as
infant industries and benefited by
a not unfriendly Tariff.
Sitting in the lobby of a Topeka no.
tel, the travelling man discussed
finance as he saw it. He talked about
the psychology of money matters and
he drew argument and thought from
new angles.
when a mans business is slipping
a bit, he begins to econonize," said
economize by wearing last years bust
ness suit this year or by denying his
wife a new dress Neither does he
move to less fashionable district.
Seldom does he discharge the chauf-
feur and drive his own car. Man is a
peculiar animal in that respect. He
has the desire to save and the will
ingneSs to save. But he doesn't want
any one to know about it, will seldom
admit it himself, but just the same he
saves.
How He Fools Himself.
1.-THE easiest way in all the world
for a man to fool himself into the
idea chat he is saving is in his cigar
BILL" said the philosophical travelling
salesman. II know because 1 have
tried it myself and other men have
told me the same thing. For twenty
years L have been watching the signs
anG never knew them to fail-hard
times, slow business. fewer cigars
smoked and smoked TO shorter
The travelling man instinctively
reached for his cigar case, offered his
visitor a dark Havana and lighted one
himself. By the rules of his native
theory, the travelling mans firm was
doing a fairly prosperous business and
the travelling man himself had not
suffered a salary cut.
Was down east last month" the
travelling man explained. Business
what it ought to be. For some time
big business has been cutting corners
close. OF course things are looking
up. But the real prosperity of the
country is in the mid -west-Kansas,
Nebraska, Missouri and all through
the wheat producing states. Missouri,
Arkansas and Oklahoma are looking
up on account of the zinc boom. But
Kansas and Nebraska are more typi-
cal. They have their big wheat yields
year.
"Of course I knew these things in
a general way when I was east. One
day it was raining in New York and 1
lounged about in the lobby of my
hotel a bit. 1 went over and talked to
the cigar girl, after first buying few
cigars.
Business on the Hummer.
Business is on the hummer she
told me. The old sports who used to
buy quarter and fifty cent ones buy
ten centers now and our old ten cent
er customers go to the nickel counter.
It's just rotten that's all and our fine
stock of high priced cigars is about to
dry up and blow away
Then 1 watched events in the lob
by. I saw gay old New York smoking
cigars until 1 thought the stubs would
burn the whiskers Of some of those
Wall street spectators. But the con-
dition wasn't local in New York. Old
There wasn't much difference in Phil
adelphia or Cincinnati. Along the
curbs L saw ships smoked to within
an inch of the end. The east was
merely economizing, that was ALL
Then the travelling man sighed.
Give me the midwest he said.
They're right up on their toes out
here"
The travelling man pointed to a
hotel patron in the lobby.
See that MANI" he asked. The
visitor nodded.
Bet you that's a lawyer or a mer-
chant from some Kansas town"
The visitor knew the man in the
lobby and supplied the information
that he owned store in a western
Kansas town.
would have known it if he had
been in the middle of the Atlantic
vowed the salesman. That man has
been there about an hour. He's
smoking his third cigar and he has
twice since I have been sitting here.
They are smoking two for rs cents
cigars-pretty medium good cigars
out this way. But just watch them"
For ten minutes the travelling man
and his visitor talked about the Kan
SaS wheat crop, the rains and the war
news. All the time they were keeping
their eyes on the men with the cigars.
Presently one of the men threw his
cigar in the cuspidor. A few min
utes later, other members of the party
followed suit. The cigars were from
a third to half smoked.
What did l tell your" asked the
travelling man with a broad grin.
due to nervousness. That might be
true as applied to an individual case.
But when they all do it, that means
osperity-especially when they are
smoking them short in another sec
ton of the country
The visitor watched other men in
the hotel lobby-Kansans from the
smaller towns. The travelling mans
psychology of finance was beginning
to parse.
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