"Your forty-five years in the hardware trade hasn't got you into a rut then, La.r.s.en?" I said with a smile.

"You bet your life, nix, Boss! You are the first man that let me speak right out to him, and you know I don't mean to be--to be--you know what I mean--bossy like. But it gets my goat how hardware folks has let good things get away from them!"

I had sometimes wondered why La.r.s.en, with all his experience and knowledge, and many good ideas that I had found him to have, hadn't got farther ahead in the world. I had decided that it was perhaps because he was lacking in a certain independence of spirit--and while he spoke freely to me, and wasn't afraid to correct me, it was more because I was young and inexperienced compared with him, and because I had got so I didn't take offense at it. Perhaps under an older and sterner boss he would have been rather afraid to give expression to his views. However, he certainly was valuable to me.

The conversation ended there, because the salesman from the Cincinnati Pencil Sharpener Company came in again. I didn't wait for him to say anything, but beckoned to him, and said:

"I can give you a little time now. I was really busy before, and I am afraid I spoke a little more sharply than I meant to."

"That's all right, Mr. Black," he replied. "I think I owe you an apology for losing my temper. A man in my position can't afford to lose his temper. I'll tell you now my proposition. Mr. Sirle of _Hardware Times_ told me you were a coming man in the business and suggested I show you this line."

"Well," I replied hesitatingly, "it seems to me that a pencil sharpener is not just the thing for a hardware man to sell."

"Mr. Black," he responded, "I am not going to try to persuade you what a hardware store should or should not sell; but I want to show you, with your permission, what you can make by handling this line. I have spent most of the day around here calling on some of the residents and other people. I have taken orders for eighteen of these pencil sharpeners. I will turn these orders over to you and you can deliver them and make the profit on them."

He pa.s.sed me over eighteen orders for the dollar Cincinnati Pencil Sharpener, "to be delivered by the local hardware store."

"These sharpeners," he continued, "cost you 69 each f. o. b.

Cincinnati. We will turn these orders over to you on the condition that you buy an additional eighteen. That is three dozen in all. In addition to this, if you wish to use this 'ad' in your local paper"--and here he showed me a very attractive advertis.e.m.e.nt for the pencil sharpener--"which will cost $4.00 an issue in both your papers--"

"How do you know?" I broke in quickly.

"Because we found out before we came here.--We will pay half the cost of three insertions. You notice the 'ad.' is already prepared, except for filling in your name. We don't provide electrotypes because, if we did, your local paper might not have the type to harmonize with the rest of the 'ad.,' so that it would look like a regular filled-in affair; but by having the paper use the nearest type to this that they have, the advertis.e.m.e.nt has the stamp of your own individuality."

That was a pretty good thought, it seemed to me.

Well, the upshot of it was that I bought the three dozen and agreed to run the advertis.e.m.e.nt on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday following the arrival of the sharpeners.

I shook hands with him as he left the store, and couldn't help thinking that my foolish haste and rudeness might have lost me what I was convinced would be a valuable agency to me.

As he left the store--Mr. Downs was his name--he gave me a little booklet, which he said might refresh my memory on a few points which I was doubtless familiar with. The booklet was ent.i.tled "A few reminders on selling methods for Cincinnati Pencil Sharpeners." It outlined methods of approaching schools, private houses, business offices, etc., giving samples of form letters and a whole lot of useful selling information.

It seemed to me on looking it over that no one could help buying those pencil sharpeners!

It never occurred to me, until after he had left the store, to ask about the quality of the sharpener and I wondered why, and then I realized that I had bought the pencil sharpeners, not because of their quality, but because of the sales plan which had already been worked out for me.

If other concerns, who sent salesmen to see me, had presented worked-out plans like these they would have had more business from me. I don't know how it was, but I seemed to be rushed all the time with so many little things that I hadn't had the time to try to think out plans and ideas for selling; and the fact that it was easy for me to go ahead to sell these pencil sharpeners was the main thing that induced me to buy them.

La.r.s.en was unquestionably pleased, and the man had hardly gone out of the store when he said:

"Couldn't one of our fellers go to folks and sell some? . . . And couldn't we sell pencils, . . . and while we are about it--"

"For heaven's sake, La.r.s.en," I cried, "you're trying to run me off my feet!"

The thought of sending salesmen out to get business for a retail store had never occurred to me, although on thinking it over it seemed so reasonable that I decided to think it over some more, and maybe I would send one of the boys out to see if he could not drum up some business on those pencil sharpeners, and perhaps some other things.

CHAPTER XV

HOW TO STOP SWEARING

La.r.s.en was a bully good fellow, but I found that in one way he was hurting the help, as his habit of swearing seemed to have been caught by the other fellows in the store.

Somewhat with fear and trembling I got the force all together one night and gave them a little talk on business conduct. Goodness knows I felt quite incompetent to speak about it, but I felt that it was necessary, particularly as I had noticed Jones and Wilkes swearing badly, and even doing it when there were customers in the store. From the language they used, it was evident that La.r.s.en was the source of inspiration. I spoke to them somewhat like this:

"It's only a few weeks ago, fellows, since I was a clerk at Barlow's, so I know how you fellows feel and think, because I thought very much like you do now. You know there are certain things which a boss realizes which an employee doesn't. I really want you fellows to know that I want to help you in any way I can."

La.r.s.en chipped in here, saying:

"I know he does that!"

I silenced him, however, and went on:

"You fellows represent this store when you are in it and out of it. The way you conduct yourself is to the public the way this store conducts itself. For instance, if I were to get drunk nights, that would reflect on the store, wouldn't it?"

They nodded in agreement.

"Now, if I were to be using bad language all the time, that would reflect on the store also, wouldn't it?"

Again they nodded yes, but not with the same emphasis as before.

"There's one thing," I continued, "that we all have to learn to stop. It is so easy to slip into bad language that we use it before we realize it; but it is a bad habit and one that, I am sure, does hurt the standing of the business. So I am going to ask you fellows, for one thing, to stop using bad language in and out of the store. I'll go further, and say I will not allow it in the store at all; and if I find any one swearing, either about something or at something, I shall put a black mark against his name.

"Now," I continued, and here I brought out a little tin box, "I have put a dollar in this box to start a fund. At Christmas any money that is in this box we will turn over to the Christmas Tree Fund run by _The Enterprise_ every year. If any of you fellows catch me swearing, tell me, and I'll put a quarter in the box. If any of you other fellows are caught swearing I think you ought to put something in the box--if it is only a dime or a nickel, even. You understand," I said, "that there is nothing compulsory about this, but it should be a bit of good fun to keep check on each other in that way, and if any one of us forgets himself and lets loose some language that isn't proper English, he may console himself with knowing that his flow of language may mean a new doll for some poor kiddie. Is that a go?" I asked.

La.r.s.en chirped right up and said:

"You bet it is! It's one good h---- of a--" he grinned sheepishly, put his hand in his pocket, and dropped a quarter in the box, while a howl of laughter went up from the other fellows.

That one laugh seemed to break the ice, and for the first time we all seemed to have a good understanding of each other. They all pledged themselves to a fine of a dime every time they swore.

"There is one other thing I am going to say at this time," I continued, when that question had been settled, "and that is that every Monday evening I am going to have a general meeting of all men who have done their duty during the week. It will last for three-quarters of an hour only, and I shall look upon it as a kind of directors' meeting.

"You know," I said, "that directors get paid for every meeting they attend. Now, I am going to pay all you fellows half a dollar for attending this directors' meeting every Monday.

"You will be at liberty to say anything you wish. You can roast the store policy, or me, or any one of us here, and whatever takes place at this meeting will be considered merely as an outside affair and nothing to affect our relationship in the business. In other words, you have a free hand to go as far as you like in that meeting and know that there will be no kick from me on it.

"Next Monday we'll all get together and talk things over generally. If any of you have any suggestions to make, shoot them along next Monday. A week from Monday, however, we'll name one definite thing for discussion among ourselves."

I gave the boys a cigar each and the meeting adjourned.

I felt that that night's work was well worth while, for I soon noticed a little different att.i.tude in the men. Eighty cents, however, went the first day into our "swear box." I began to wonder whether their dimes or whether their bad language would hold out the longest.

The idea seemed pretty simple, after it had been tried, and found to be a success, but it wasn't such a simple thing for me to think up. It had started when Betty read in a paper about how the inmates of a prison were given a voice in the running of it, and that had set me thinking about giving the employees a hand in running the business, and the plan grew out of that. I had been convinced from the start that it would work out well.

A customer had come into the store one day and asked for an 8-in.