Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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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

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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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the way they came. We were in with hands and feet; ensnared if you please. Luckily the lady he had called was still busy, and this looked like a loop-hole for us, consequently we tried to make an excuse and get off this floor; but the manager immediately called a saleslady who was not busy. He said to her, “Show’ these gentlemen a suit,” acting very nicely about it, and we wondered whether he was doing this to try our mettle or to give us information. Then the fear came that maybe he thought we were “sharps” and not believing our account, had seut for an officer to arrest us. We were taken to the front of the floor, where we were asked to sit down; next a big chair was set before us, on which the suits we were shown were laid. Of course we had to act seriously about our pretended purchase. We had now' more than “Double double, toil and trouble.” We had treble. We were still afraid of being considered suspicious characters; we feared making ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the saleslady who was really pretty, hence attractive; but most of all we feared that our “practical lesson” might turn out a failure. So we went headlong at our task of testing the art of salesmanship. My classmate and I posed as brothers although at one glance people would say, we do not in the least look alike. Acting seriously all along, we told the saleslady we wanted to buy a suit for mother. First of all we were shown a linen suit wrhich was valued at $45.00. We were told that a great many linen suits were worn by people who travel. After we had looked at the goods awhile, the saleslady happened to ask what size our mother wore. My supposed elder brother said, thirty-eight as soon as the question came. Wise boy! How could he happen to strike just the right size, for the saleslady seemed satisfied that that was a good number. I admired his resourcefulness, until I happened to glance at a ladies’ coat that he was studying closely, and saw in the label “Price $40.00, Size 38.” Then came suits galore. We told the saleslady we wanted to buy a black suit for mother. And although she had been tempting us with a navy blue suit, she immediately said that “ladies always looked well in black.” Finally the saleslady picked out a black suit, and told us this one would be suitable for our mother and cost $25.00. If I had told her what I judged it was worth, she would probably have told me something of the value of serges, but I let the opportunity pass. She saw that we seemed still undecided and told us that they had run out of suits to some extent, but she could show us some fine cloaks. By the looks of the big pile of suits she bad brought out, I thought she ought to learn how to count; but we told her we were interested in a suit not a cloak. This buying business was now going so far that we were on the verge of buying the suit. At least she seemed to think so, and I know if I had had twenty-five dollars, she would have had a real instead of a near customer. However for various reasons we refrained from buying and told her we thought we had better bring our mother to the store. She agreed with us saying that it would be better to have the coat tried on and fitted. We promised to bring mother down the following day in a wagon, since as an excuse for our looking, we had intimated that our mother was practically an invalid. 135