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How can I get “in stock?” That’s easy. If you are in the city you are on the spot; if you are in the country, “hyke” for the city! See that you haven’t any cigarette stains on your fingers or tobacco in the corners of your mouth. Go into the wholesale houses, from door to door–until you find a job. If you are going to let a few or a hundred turn-downs dishearten you, you’d better stay at home; for when you get on the road, turn-downs are what you must go up against every day. If you know some traveling man, or merchant, or manager, or stock boy, maybe he can get you a “job in stock.” But remember one thing: When you get there, you must depend upon Number One. Your recommendation is worth nothing to you from that hour on. This is the time when the good front gets in its work.

The city is a strong current, my boy, in which there are many whirlpools ready to suck you under; yet if you are a good swimmer you can splash along here faster than anywhere else. A successful traveling man once told me how he got on the road.

“I was raised in a little town in Tennessee,” said he. “A traveling man whose home was in my native town took me along with him, one day, when he made a team trip to Bucksville, an inland country town, fourteen miles away. That was a great trip for me–fourteen miles, and staying over night in a hotel!–the first time I had ever done so in my life. And for the first time I knew how it felt to have a strange landlord call me “mister.” It was on that trip that I caught the fever for travel, and that trip put me on the road!

“When, the next morning after reaching Bucksville, my drummer friend had finished business and packed his trunks, he said to me: ‘Billie, I guess you may go and get the team ready.’ I answered him, saying, ‘The team is ready and backed up, sir, for the trunks.’ In three minutes the trunks were loaded in and we were off.

“‘Billie,’ said my friend–I shall never forget it for it was the dawn of hope for me, as I had never had any idea what I was going to do in after life!–‘I’ll tell you, Billie, you would make a good drummer, suh. When we drove down yesterday you counted how many more horseflies lit on the bay mare than on the white horse. You reasoned out that the flies lit on the bay because the fly and the mare were about the same color and that the fly was not so liable to be seen and killed as if it had lit on the white. That showed me you notice things and reason about them. To be a good traveling man you must make a business of noticing things and thinking about them. Real good hoss sense is a rare thing. Then, this mo’nin’, when I said “Get the team ready,” you said “It is ready, suh,” and showed me that you look ahead, see what ought to be done and do it without being told. Generally any fool can do what he is told to; but it takes a man of sense to find things to do, and if he has the grit to do them he will get along. I’m just going to see if I can’t get a place in our house for you, Billie. You’ve got the stuff in you to make a successful drummer, suh. Yes, suh! Hoss sense and grit, suh–hoss sense and grit!’

“Sure enough the next Christmas night–I wasn’t then sixteen–I struck out for the city in company with my older traveling man friend. He had got me a place in his house. The night I left, my mother said to me: ‘Son, I’ve tried to raise you right. I’ll soon find out if I have. I believe I have and that you will get along.’ My father then gave me the only word of advice he ever gave me in his life: ‘Son, be polite,’ said he; ‘this will cost you nothing and be worth lots.’