branch quite willingly. It is being managed on the basis of brag
rather than that of brains. Any fool can sell a revolver at 92 cents
that cost him 90, or a gun for $7.50 that cost him $7. No brains are
required to do that. The poorest salesman I have on the road sells the
most goods and makes me the least money. The gun business has got into
the hands of men who have just brains enough to run a ten-cent counter
store."

"Is it not about as bad in other lines?" I asked.

"No, not quite. There is much more detail to other lines. The gun
business is compact and the line small. Consumers pick up names of
makers quicker, and post themselves easier. A man buys a pistol or gun
but once or twice in his life, and he gives the matter considerable
study and shops around a good deal. Fifteen years ago Kittridge of
Cincinnati used to be the champion cutter, but either he is out of
business or has changed his tactics; now St. Louis and Chicago have
gone into the postal card business and struck the 'Me Big Injun!'
attitude. Here is a card one of my men sent in from a little town
to-day. Shot quoted 80 bags $1.16! The man can't buy 80 bags in 80
months, and the house sending the card to him knows it, but it gives
him a basis to work on us, and hurts us without helping anyone."

"Yet you buy of these card men?"

"No, I don't, d--n them; I'd shut up shop sooner. There is no reason
in the world for wholesale gun stores; the business ought to be
handled by the wholesale hardware trade, and ought to be done in a
legitimate way on a legitimate profit. But some idiotic manufacturer,
either being hard up for money, or envious of a competitor, goes to