“I paid no attention to him, as I had heard
of him; instead of going out I bought a cigar and
sat down by the stove. Although a man may not
wish to buy anything from you, you know, he is always
willing to sell you something, even if it is only
a cigar. I’ve caught many a merchant’s
ear by buying something of him. My specialty is
bone collar buttons—they come cheap.
I’ll bet that I bought a peck of them the first
time I made a trip through this country.
“I had not been sitting by the stove long until
I noticed, in a show case, a trombone. I asked
Larry to please let me see it. ’Oi’ll
lit ye say the insthrumint,’ said he, ’but
pwhat’s the good of it? Ye can’t
play the thromboon, can ye? Oi’m the only
mon in this berg that can bloo that hairn. Oi’m
a mimber of the bhrass band.’
“I took the horn and, as I ran the scale a few
times, Larry’s eyes began to dance. He
wouldn’t wait on the customer who came in.
The instrument was a good one. I made ’Pratties
and fishes are very foine dishes for Saint Pathrick
in the mairnin’’ fairly ring. A big
crowd came in. Larry let business drop entirely
and danced a jig. He kept me playing for an hour,
always something ’by special rayquist’—’Molly
Dairlint,’ ‘Moggie Moorphy’s Hoom’
and everything he could think of. Finally he
asked me for ‘Hairts Booed Doon.’
“As I played ‘The Heart Bowed Down,’
tears came to the old Irishman’s eyes.
When I saw these, I played yet better; this piece was
one of my own favorites. I felt a little peculiar
myself. This air had made a bond between us.
When I finished, the old man said to me: ’Thank
ye, thank ye, sor, with all my hairt! That’s
enoof. Let me put the hairn away. Go hoom
now. But coom aroond in the mairnin’ and
Oi’ll boy a bill of ye; Oi doon’t give
a dom pwhat ye’re silling. If Oi’ve
got your loine in my sthore Oi’ll boy a bill;
if I haven’t, Oi’ll boy a bill innyway
and stairt a new depairtmint. Good noight, give
me yer hand, sor.’
“Not only did Larry give me a good order, but
he went to two more merchants in the town and made
them buy from me. He bought every dollar’s
worth of his goods in my line from me as long as he
lived.”
Clerks, cranks and touches.
Many a bill of goods is sold on the road through the
influence of the clerk. The traveling man who
overlooks this point overlooks a strong one.
The clerk is the one who gets next to the goods.
He checks them off when they come in, keeps the dust
off of them every day, sells them to the people and
often he does the selecting of the goods in the first
place. A merchant usually buys what pleases the
clerks in order to get them interested. In this
way he puts a sort of responsibility upon them.
If the business man neglects his clerks, they neglect
his business; if the traveling man ignores the clerks,
they ignore the traveling man.
