Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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Poor old Henry’s knees shook under him and his eyes could find nothing to look at but the floor and for some reason or other he felt that the blow was yet to come. Aunt Sallie put her hands on her hips and continued her speech. “What you s’pose the Lawd made you fort Jes to look at? Answer me dat nigger! Lawdy no! He doan make ugly niggers jes to look at,” and as if to give the effect of her words the greater strength, the knot of wool on the back of her head, which was already fairly tight, she wound up with such a vicious twist that her skull, had it been able, would have shrieked the protest it must have felt. In the midst of this action she finished her tirade. “He made ’em to work an’ dat’s jes what you is gwin to do.’’ “Now—Now—jes let—jes—why—” “Shet up your inawf till I gets done talkin’.” “Sallie, I’se been a-” “Shet up I tell you! When I gets my say all done you wont want no say. Mas’r Henry he come down here dis berry mawnin’ for you. He says no reason why you can’t work at his stables an I jes said as how you’d be up dar bright an early in the mawnin’.” Henry’s mouth gaped wide open and his eyes seemed to start from his head. Henry hadn’t worked regularly for two hours, continuous labor, since he married Aunt Sallie and it was certainly a great blow to his pride to be sent to work after being supported by his wife so long. Ilis hands went to his head to be sure he wasn’t dreaming and when he decided that he must be awake, he heard her say, “Youse a goin’ nigger! Youse a goin’.” Then her face softened and she spoke in a tone more like the one she ordinarily used. “Secin’ how early you’ll hab to get up an how hard you'll hab to work you ken jes set down an hab some suppah wid Jim an me.” Henry shuffled to the table and sat down mechanically. Aunt Sallie could certainly not have dreamed of more satisfactory results for Henry was completely cowed. Do what he would that awful word—WORK—stared him in the face. He was so thoroughly shocked at the turn affairs had taken that he forgot to eat until Aunt Sallie shoved a heaped plate before him and reminded him of his natural appetite for chicken, by saying: “Eat hearty ole man, it’s the berry last meal your Aunt Sallie's gwan to earn for you! You’ll do the bread earnin’ from dis day on.” Jim’s eyes were full of unshed tears for he had never known his grandfather to do a half day’s work. He soon noticed that in spite of the fact that Henry hated work as a cat hates a cold shower bath, he was enjoying Aunt Sal-lie’s chicken supper. Jim’s dear little heart beat with joy, for after all he loved both his grandparents dearly and he reasoned that work was not such a terrible thing for Pop Henry, after all, since he seemed to forget all about its terror as he bent his energies on Aunt Sallie's chicken supper. ALVERNA RUSSELL. 1913. 133

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at which Henry sat in his corner, on a cane seated chair. The chair was, however, minus the cane seat with the exception of a fringe around the inside of the frame. Aunt Sal lie arranged the tempting dishes on the crimson table cloth, and after a self-satisfied look at the result she turned to Jim. “Jim, you has been a good chile an your ole mammy is mighty proud ob you. Jes pull your chair up to dis heah table an I’ll git you some ob dis chicken.” A cunning smile played round the corner of her mouth and a queer light shone in her eyes. Now if Jim had been anxious before, he was astonished this time for Henry had always been the first told, that he should come to the table and Jim always followed. His face nowr took on a troubled, anxious look, at he stood on one foot by his chair. “Set down chile, set down! I reckon you doan eat your supper standin’ dat 'ar way.” Aunt Sallie smiled wickedly as she seated herself and urged Jim to eat. “Neber ’fore dis time did I ebber hab sech a fat tendah fowl as what dat one am.” As she spoke thus to Jim she watched Henry, out of the corner of her eye, to see just what effect her words had on him. Henry was gazing longingly at the delicious bite that Jim was just about to put into his mouth. She was satisfied with Henry but believed that he needed still more practical admonition. “Hab some ob dis graby on your taters, Jimf It’ll make your mawf wattah all over your face. It jes does my heart good to see you eat dat ’ar way. —Um! ----! dat am a sure ’nuff fine bird.” Jim’s eye happened to catch sight of Henry’s face and a guilty look flashed over his own. For a minute he was decidedly uncomfortable but consoled himself with the thought that it was all Aunt Sallie’s doing. Nevertheless, the next bite of chicken was mighty hard to swallow. To see Aunt Sallie and Jim devouring this delicious meal was more then Henry could stand. He could wait no longer but cautiously drew his chair toward the table. “Nigger,” yelled Aunt Sallie, holding her head as high as her thick, short neck permitted. “You jes gwan out in dat ’ar kitchen. You can hab your suppah out dar. We doan want none ob you in dis room!” “Now—now’—jes you let me set here long side ob you Sallie, you done cooked a mighty fine suppah you has.” His attempt to pacify his irate spouse was indeed in vain for she had seemingly determined not to be pacified. “You done run roun’ dat town all day an’ you aint eben chopped a stick ob wood for my fiah! I aint got no call for to keep sech a lazy nigger. You jes gwan back to town an ax them to gib you some suppah. I’se jes gwan to quit dis workin’ all day to keep the likes ob you.” 132

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ffiatuiratarg 9al?0man0i?tp MR. HOOVER, having just completed a most satisfactory term’s work in salesmanship, closed the book and said to the pupils, “Do you know what salesmanship is like now?” The pupils unanimously agreed that they knew all there was to salesmanship. “And now',” said Mr. Hoover, after giving the class a few final suggestions about the subject, “to apply your knowledge, you may make an actual test of progressive salesmanship. The class will meet me tomorrow at Blank’s store and there study actual sales and report thereon for the concluding lesson on this important subject.” On the next morning, therefore, which happened to be a pleasant morning in February, the class of which I was a member, visited one of the largest stores in the city. As we arrived at the place, a classmate and I w-ere told to visit three salesmen. Of course we were given instructions first, by Mr. Hoover, who never fails in directions of how to do things. One of the instructions was. “Go and see how they sell things, but do not buy anything.” As this looked cheap, (if I may use the word), we decided to go to a lady we knew’, (for convenience I will call her Miss Myth) and have her refer us to some saleslady, who could tell us how she approached a customer; this would save us the embarrassment of getting information free of charge; but to our great disappointment, Miss Myth was not, at that time, on this floor. Consequently we went down to another floor where she was supposed to be, and waited for her. As we left the elevator the floor manager asked us w'hat we wanted. Before I go any farther. I must tell you, this floor was devoted entirely to women’s gowns, suits and cloaks. Can you imagine how we two boys felt, waiting on THIS FLOOR! The floor manager did all he could toward finding our saleslady for us, but he could not locate her. Time flew by. No skyrocket ever went faster. We thought the manager took us for some suspicious characters, for he passed us so continuously, and every time eyed us closely. When by chance we happened to see three lamps, above the clock, suddenly light, we thought this was surely the signal for a detective. Now the detective of this store is a woman, and we were beginning to feel more than a little nervous, for what can a woman not detect! To save ourselves from further surveillance we told the manager just why we wanted to see this special lady. Yes we made a clean breast of it and told him that we were from the High School of Commerce and that we were to study salesmanship first hand from three salesmen, who strange to say in this case were salesladies. The floor manager won our hearts by his sympathizing manner. He immediately called a saleslady and told her in a way that meant business, to wait on us, and show us that they had goods worth buying. This was a great surprise to both of us, as we are not at the present time greatly interested in ladies’ suits. But we could not get out of the dilemma, so we decided to take things in 134