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How To Get On The Road
by
“How big that sixty was! Rockefeller hasn’t as much to-day as I had then. What he has doesn’t make him happy; he wants more. I had enough. Why, I was able to buy a new rig-out. I can see that plaid suit of clothes to this day! I could afford to go home looking slick, to visit my mother and father; I could buy a present for my sweetheart, too. The good Lord somehow very wisely puts ‘notions’ into a young man’s head about the time he begins to get on in the world, and the best thing on earth for him when he is away from home is to have some girl away back where he came from think a whole lot of him and send him a crocheted four-in-hand for a Christmas present. This makes him loathe foul lips and the painted cheek. When a boy ‘grows wise’ he stands, sure’s you’re born, on the brink of hell. It’s a pity that so many, instead of backing away when they get their eyelashes singed a little, jump right in.
“All during my first year I had helped the sample clerk, who had the best job in the house, get out samples for the salesmen. It was not “my business” to do this; but I did it during spare time from my regular work. When I came back from my visit home, the old gentleman found me on the floor one day while I was tagging samples. ‘Billie,’ said he, ‘Fritz (the sample clerk) is going out on the road for us next week. I have decided to let you take his place here in the house. You are pretty young but we think you can do it.’
“I tried to answer back, ‘I’ll do my best,’ but I couldn’t say a word. I only choked. The old gentleman had to turn away from me; it was too much for him, too. After he stepped on the elevator, he turned around and smiled at me. I heard him blow his nose after the elevator sunk out of sight. I knew then that he believed in me and I said to myself, ‘He shall never lose his faith.’
“In a few days Fritz had gone out on his trip and I was left alone to do his work, the old gentleman handed me a sample book one afternoon near closing time. ‘Billie,’ says he, ‘Gregory is in a hurry for his samples. Express them to Fayetteville.’ He had merely written the stock numbers in the book. It was up to me to fill in on the sample book the description of the goods and the prices. This I did that night at home from memory. I had learned the stock that well. I also wrote the sample tickets. It took me until after midnight. Next morning I was waiting at the front door when the early man came to unlock it. That night the samples went to Fayetteville.
“Two days afterward the old gentleman called me to the office and asked me: ‘When can Gregory expect his samples? He’s in a big hurry.’
“‘I sent them Wednesday night, sir,’ said I.
“‘Wednesday night! Why it was Tuesday night when I gave you the sample book!’
“‘I’m sure they went,’ said I, ‘because I saw the cases go into the express wagon.’
“‘All right,’ said the old gentleman; and he smiled at me again the same way he did the morning he made me the sample clerk, a smile which told me I had his heart, and I have it to this day.
“Next morning he sent up to me a letter from Gregory, who wrote that the samples came to him in better shape than ever before. At the end of that year I got a check for $150 back pay, and my salary was raised again. At the end of the third year the old gentleman gave me more back pay and another raise, saying to me: ‘Billie, I have decided to put you on the road over Moore’s old territory. He is not going to be with us any more. Be ready to start January 1st.’ I was the youngest man that firm ever put out. I was with them sixteen years and it almost broke my heart to leave them.”