shoes by giving dolls and sleds, ready-made clothing by a prize of a
Waterbury watch, and soap by giving jewelry. Nowadays a dealer don't
ask you about the quality of your goods, but about the scheme you've
got to sell them. It's a demoralizing way of doing business, and
ruining trade."

"That's so! That's so!" was echoed from all sides.




CHAPTER XII.


Stepping into a hardware store early the next morning, after
introducing myself I was handed a letter sent to me in the care of the
firm. I was very glad to receive it, and accepted the pleasantly given
invitation to sit down and read it.

No man should greet a letter with more welcome than a traveling
salesman. It is a tie that connects him with home, he who is so wholly
disconnected. He is always wondering what his house may think of this
sale, or that price, or this failure to sell, and be he never so sure
that he has done well, still the assurance from home that they
recognize his success makes him happier.

Houses differ much in their manner of writing to their traveling men.
A friend of mine who lately made a change told me his principal reason
for leaving the old house was the letters they wrote him. "I never cut
a price in the world, unless I had to do it to meet a competitor; but