TALES OF "THE ROAD."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17654, 2 September 1919, Page 9

TALES OF "THE ROAD."

TOLD BY COMMERCIAL TRAVEL-

LERS

The lot of the married commercial, like that of the policeman, is not always a happy one. He sametimesscarcely knoAvs his own children, and they look upon him as a stranger. A boy came crying to his mother, saying a manjiad beaten him for climbing over the railings. "Who was the man?" asked the mother. " I don't know," was" the reply, " but he sometimes stays here on Sundays/ AN ORDER OUT OF CHAOS. j An uneducated applicant for the post of a traveller was told that his predecessor had got his business in such a tangle that he would find much difficulty in getting order out1 of chaos, "I don't know who chaos is," put in -the new-man, "but I'll bet I get an order out of him if I have to hang on for a week!" - TRICKED 1 »■ A traveller in the lubricating oil trade tells haw he called upon a boner manufacturer, who had the.reputation of be* ing a large buyer, but a hard man to deal with. "I was surprised in consequence/' 3 he says, "at the kindly way ho recived me." " 'Yon interest me very, much,' he said. 'Come with me to the workshop, and then you can better explain it.' "He walked away hurriedly, and 1 followed him, until at last he flung open a door. It was the boiler shop, and the din was terrible—a thousand hammers beating rivets at'the same time. I saw his lips move, and, by placing two hands to my ears, managed; with difficulty, to catch his words above the deafening noise. 'Now tell me all about it.' His sardonic smile as he said this made me feel, as T walked away, that I could have knocked him down." /> THE WAY TO TALK. For nearly an hour the commercial had been talking his hardest, eloquently and persuasively, to a shrewd old country business man. The old fellow seemed convinced and pleased, and the traveller thought he was sure of an order. But the old man said: . "There's me lad, Henry. Ah, I'd loike him to hear what ye-have to say. Will ye coom this afternoon and go oye.r your talk again ?'\ "Certainly sir, with pleasure," replied the travelle- heartily, and at the hour appointed presented himself again for the interview with father and sOn.^Again iie -went ever the points of^ the article he had to sell—forcibly, eloquently. T>ersuasivelv Never had he acquitted himself of a finer "selling talk." When.lie had finished, the old man turned to his son and said, enthusiastically:— "Do you hear that. Henry? Well, now, that's the way I want ye to sell our goods when you go on the road." FINE FEATHERS. A commercial for a well-known firm secured an order for £1,000 in the West of England/and, asit was not duly acknowledged, wrote a letter to his firm, calling special attention to,it, saying: "I thougiit you'would-consider such an order quite a feather in, my cap." A few days later he received this reply: "The people who gave you the j £1^)00 order have failed; and we lose j our goods. We have this day sent you a bagful of feathers for you to fly home with, as we do not want you out on the road for us any more."