Medina High School - Mirror Yearbook (Medina, NY)

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Zlibe jllllirrnr wade into me like that. Why. I could have you arrested for slander. Sproul snapped his lingers, 't'Faugh! What I had better get is a wet blanket before I try dealing with babies like you. Linden, this is just what you need. You think you know the selling game. Really you're the dumbest of the dumb. You seem to think you can work the game of bluff. Lad, it simply isn't done. You're up against facts, cold hard unyielding facts. You 're a rotter. Within a year, unless you reform, you will form apart of the scum which covers our alleys and back streets. You resemble a rocket. Up with a glorious, flaming, hissing bank! Bursting like a fairy bubble, then ll0VV11 you come like the stick. Oh boy! Wake up, stop blatting about what you 're going to do. Get d0W1l and really show us. What do you say? , Dale looked toward the hard featured man before him then toward the open door and the cool peaceful stairway beyond. That night Aneswoi th, a veteran knight of theroad found an order pad on tl1e floor. He handel it to a clerk. Here is young Linden's order pad. He must have lost it. i The clerk stopped a moment, lt's 110 good. Linden and tl1e boss had a 'chew' today. Linden quit. The clerk Went on his errand. The matter was settled so far as he was concerned. Witllill a year Dale obtained nine positions. He managed to hold one for three months, selling cigars in a tiny joint. His salary was eighteen dollars a weekp Later, l1e decided to learn wireless teleg- raphy. Wireless operators didn't earn very much, but it was a great business. There wasn't any fussy detail about this. All you had to do was pound a little key now and then and look real professional and scientific. He started to learn in a radio school but before he had half finished the course, he ruined a five hundred dollar radio set. One day he didn 't bother to throw the switch before trying to send. Tl1e cur- rent passed through the delicate receiving instruments and burned out the coils. Meanwhile an aunt of llale's who lived out in the country, oblig- ingly died, leaving her beloved nephew her estate, providing that he would come and live on it. It was soon settled that Dale should live in the country. The cool fresh air would do him good, and the health- ful exercise would make a man of l1in1. Three days later he left the city. In his trunk were several pair of overalls, a sporting rifle, a forty dollar fishing tackle outfit, a butterfly net, and several seed cat- alogues. Some time afterward his parents learned that he had left the farm and gone into the mercantile business. Farming was all right for illiter- ates but it was an insult to a clever business man like him. 'F is 'lf X Ill' ilk ik 'lk if 7 The years slipped by. Aaron Sproul was enjoying a 1o11g distance iii I-un nn- I ' 1 , l W' Ml Eleven

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ill , . . The Mirror boss and I eouldn't get along together. He was too fussy. I tell you a fellow ean't bother with the little things in this world, life is too short. The next day he went on the road. For a week things went nicely. Mercliants fairly oyerstocked their stores, he was so polite and per- suasive. By the end of the second week things were harder. The third week the firm transferred him to a new territory. Six weeks passed. Then one day there came a call for Mr. Linden. For the first time in his life Dale felt nervous as he approached the office marked Private, He hadn't done extra well during the past week, but thunder! Didn't he have a harder line than some of the guys? And besides he hadn't been feeling well during the week. But that wasn't anything that he couldn't remedy. Perhaps the boss might even be planning to give him a raise Wlien he opened the door, he got one, though not the kind he had expected. Aaron Fproul was seated at his desk, dictating a letter. He saw Dale enter. Sit down, he grunted, then he went on with his letter. Dale carefully selected a chair, leaned back comfortably, and assumed a sang-froid manner. Sproul finished his dictating, That will he all, Miss Nowel. ' The stenographer left the room. Spinning around in his chair, he eyed Dale with a sardonic smile. Well, well, l see 'ittle tootsie is able to be out this morning. Poor dear 'ittle thing. Dale stared, You, you talking to me? Certainly you tomato top? Say, kid, l'll give you credit for putting it over on me. Wlien l hired you, I thought I was getting something. I did. Shades of Jasper! Look at these slips. He grabbed up a bunch of blue papers from his desk. They were canceled and blank orders. Dale knew they were his, but he hadn't realized that they had counted up so fast. Fifteen of them shot. VVhat the matter? Have you been down at Panama for the week-end? Of course I know a simple little job like this isn't anything. I am sure you have something up your sleeve. Probably you expect the president will take you in as a partner- Say, you little sawed-off brat. You've got a hump on your head like Mount Vesuvius, and it's swelling every day. Quit spilling lava for awhile. Get down to business and make up your mind to do some- thing. You seem to have the idea that this company is a nursemaid's charity organization that furnishes the bottles for young calves like you to suck upon. Bur-r-r, look at those orders. How would you like me to frame 'e1n, hang them up where the boys can see what a smart young salesman we have? Dale was speechless for a moment. Then, wiping a perspiring bI'ow, his old swagger came back. Huh, I guess you haven't any cause to 'Fen rd- ' 4 P+- rn .Q M A .. A ,p

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if uni li ffl, silllbe Mirror - - - automobile tour. Twenty years of earnest, intelligent labor had earned its reward. He was now president of the Equity Wholesale Company. At this time he was taking the first vacation of his life. He had been traveling for a week, taking in the general boundaries of the Equity territory. About seven o'cloek one foggy spring evening he entered the small town of Casinola. The view which met his eyes was certainly not a tempting one. The streets were ploughed with ruts enough to have represented all the vehicles.,which had passed since the year one. Some of the houses were staunch brick or stone buildings, but the majority were only flabby frame structures, bleached by so many storms that they appeared as stark dreary ghosts in the center of the dried grass lots. Sproul motored along until he came to the general store and post office at Casinola. Hc decided to stop and replenish the fuel supply which he had neglected during the day. For the sake of the uninitiated, let it be known that the cross-road's store is the local associated press. It is the dynamic center around which the whole world revolves. It is the breeding place of avarice, rebellion, envy and unjust criticism. The general store is one of the vital capillary nerves of a nation. It is found, from Greenlan'i's icy mountains to India's coral strand. The building at Casinola was a remarkable wooden affair of no par- ticular color. With its sagging poreh plastered with ancient advertise- ments and decorated with countless bottles, boxes and tin cans, one might have mistaken it for a rheumatic old peddler of notions. Inside. the big stove occupied the center of the room, while around it like stal- actites were counters, barrels, oil cans, boxes, cheese, soap, flour and innumerable other articles. However, the most important objects in the room were those knights of the two legged, bottomless chair and the empty soap box. As Aaron Sproul opened the door, and gazed upon these degen- erate specimens of humanity, he felt a sickening disgust for them and their dusty shrine. He fought his way to the greasy counter through the fog caused by ten good cigars under forced draft. Facing him was a shirt-sleeved, unkempt, unshaven, individual. Try as he would, Sproul could not catch the weak, shifty eyes hidden under a mass of matted black hair. At last, securing his gasoline, Sproul made haste to leave the village of Casinola far behind, but as he sped on, something seemed to haunt him. Where had he seen that man before? Back in the store Lem Burkee shambled over to the counter. Heh, gimme my paper. As the proprietor handed over the denied paper, he said Did you notice that city feller in here a minute ago. 1 3. 1 1 I Twelve LM.