A Man of Samples

s every traveling man see men act as Tucker did? Here was a line of goods he was cocksure he did not want, but the moment he heard that his competitor had a trade on them he began to feel that he must have some. Seven-eighths of the goods sold are sold in this way. Very few men do business on their own judgment. Their competitors make their prices, select their styles, and force them to carry certain stock. The drummer's best card is always: This is selling like fire; Smith took a gross, Brown half a gross, Jones three dozen, and you will miss it if you do not try a few. Such dealers always have the larger part of their capital locked up in goods they bought because others had bought the same goods.

I repeated my price to Tucker, and he told me to send him a few. "By the way," said he, "what are your terms?"

"Sixty days."

"Does your house draw the day a bill falls due?"

"No; the house is slow about drawing upon customers, and they always give ten days' notice before making draft."

"Well, I don'