Commerce High School - Commerce Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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We left the floor with all the salesladies looking at us and laughing. After leaving this floor we visited the fob and glove departments, but were not treated as well as in the ladies’ suit department. We found that salesmanship was not an easy job and fo be a good saleslady one had to attend strictly to business, as did the lady in the ladies' suit department. OTTO J. BARTUNEK, 1912. Eljr (Uijarartmatirfi af “(Emnmrrrr” [TOR he’s a jolly good fellow,” sang the chorus as they hung around their A- wounded hero of nineteen eleven, Commerce High. lie sat. soberly viewing, with troubled eyes, the numerous kicks and bruises with which he was covered, and occasionally nursing a battered shin, while his comrades tenderly bandaged, with great solicitude, his wounded members. However, he was not one to bemoan his fate because he had not been the winner, but painfully he arose amidst the cheers of his comrades and, assisted by the eager hands and welcome shoulders of the boys, he was carried back to the field of battle, “with blood in his eye” and the determination to win in his heart, and win he did—in strength and agility; yet not a single victory came to him in the whole year. But his pluck never failed him and, in the next battles waged, in the year nineteen hundred and twelve, many a time he tasted victory. He always played a square game, and then, having won, he insisted upon sharing his hard-earned laurels and fame with his boon companion. School Spirit, whose little sister, Rooters’ Club, had helped him along immensely by coming to witness the fight. Bravely standing on her rather weak little limbs, almost wholly supported by School Spirit, she cheered him valiantly, never once wavering in her applause whether he was the victor or the good loser. Somehow Commerce was very popular wherever he went; the girls all loved him because, though he was at this stage, only a rather tall, angular youth, still he wras so gallant and always “on the job” and on time! Seeing this, the girls never kept him waiting while they curled their hair, or powdered their noses. The fellows liked him because he always held his own, and if he won, he never outgrew his hat and never neglected to treat. If he lost, he never said anything except in praise of his opponents and he set up the ice cream soda all the same. But there was one thing in which young Commerce excelled—Debate. Here he won in every contest and thus earned the “New’s Trophy.” Oh. how he loved to stand up before the audience, friends and foes alike, and state, with great distinctness, his side of the argument! Truly ’twas said, that he presented his case like a veteran lawyer. When Commerce stood on the platform and faced crowded houses, he literally took them by storm because of his manliness and the strength of his arguments. His friends trembled with delight and satisfaction, as Commerce w’ith his sincere, ringing voice gave his views of the question and made his oppon- 130

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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

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cots’ arguments stand out in all their weakness. Commerce, however, never failed to give credit for his debating prowess to Mr. McMyler, for whom he always had great respect and to whom, he claimed, all the credit of his speaking belonged. As Commerce developed more mentally, he realized that the theories with which his head had hitherto been filled were not all practical, and that he must indeed learn a great deal if he wished to make his life a success. Following up this idea he studied—no, he didn’t hurt himself and contract brain-fever—but he remembered what he was told and stored it away in a convenient place in his head, where it was always ready for use. He mounted the first step on the ladder of Success but found it to be a stiff climb. This ladder was crowded with all classes of persons, every one struggling to reach the topmost rung. Some reached it and some did not. Many of those who failed to scale the ladder at first, fell to the ground crushed, but rose up again and again, while those with less will and energy remaiued where they had fallen and the people who had once called them “Friend”, looked down at them scornfully and said to one another, “He’s a failure.” Commerce was an energetic young man, but he was pushed back more than once from this goal, Success. Hut nobody got an opportunity to brand him “a failure”, because he didn’t stay down long enough. His training on the losing team had taught him that he should never give up no matter what the odds. Always a determined youth, and ambitious, he climbed steadily upward uutil some years later, in fact in 1920, to be accurate, when Cleveland had become the second city in the United States, we find him managing and practically controlling the commerce, not only of this city but of the world. And as “Commerce” goes steadily forward, the whole world sings the song, “For he’s a jolly good fellow.” DORIS NOBLE. 1913. 137