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Author: 
 
 Saley, Met Lawson 
 
 Title: 
 
 Realm of the retailer 
 
 Place: 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Date: 
 
 1902 
 
MASTER NEGATIVE # 
 
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 PRESERVATION DIVISION 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET 
 
 ORIGINAL MATERIAL AS FILMED - EXISTING BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD 
 
 
 Saley, Met Lawson, 1845- 
 
 Realni of tlio retailer ; the retail lumber trade, its diffi- 
 culties and successes, its humor and philosophy, its theory 
 and practice, witli practical yard ideas. By Met L. Saley 
 . . . Comp. from * * Tlie roalm of the retailer ' ' as published 
 in the American lumlxMinan. Chicago, The American 
 lumberman, 1902. 
 
 386 p. front, (port,) illus. 22"». 
 
 1. Lumber trade— U. S. I. Title. 
 
 Library of Congress 
 Copyriftbt A 33730 
 
 C 
 
 f HF6201.L7S2 
 
 2—16235 
 
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Columtna Winibtviitp 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 School of Business 
 
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 REALM OF THE RETAILER 
 
 THE RETAIL LUMBER TRADE, ITS DIFFICULTIES AND 
 
 SUCCESSES, ITS HUMOR AND PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE, 
 
 WITH PRACTICAL YARD 
 
 IDEAS. 
 
 By MET L. SALEY 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE RETAIL LUMBER DEALERS 
 OP THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Compiled from 'The Realm of the Retailer" as Published in 
 The American Lumberman 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE AMERICAN LUMBERMAN 
 
 1902 
 
 
A 
 
 or 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 '/ 
 
 Copyright. A. D., 1902 
 BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN LUMBERMAN 
 
 "O 
 
 
 Page 
 
 The New Year 1 1 
 
 Qualifications of a Good Lumberman 12 
 
 Different Types of Competitors 14 
 
 The Art of Looking at Things 17 
 
 Excuses for Scrapping 21 
 
 An Advertising Suggestion 22 
 
 Knowing What Lumber is Wanted for 25 
 
 Shed Defects 27 
 
 Mixing Implements and Lumber 35 
 
 Characteristics of Trade 38 
 
 Value of Appearance 43 
 
 Prompt Payment and Otherwise 45 
 
 Bills Should Go With Lumber 47 
 
 Comfortable Offices 52 
 
 An Easy Way to Hang Doors 54 
 
 An Eye on the Prices of Others 55 
 
 Politics in Trade 58 
 
 Where to Get Trade 62 
 
 Things Which Exasperate Must Be Expected 67 
 
 A Labor Saver 70 
 
 Selling for Cash 73 
 
 Handling Hardware 77 
 
 Steady Prices Wanted 81 
 
 How Your Customers Grade 83 
 
 Defects in a Coal House 87 
 
 Approaching Dullness 88 
 
 Lending Lumber 92 
 
 Open and Closed Sheds 94 
 
 Hypnotic Power ^ 96 
 
 Handling Town and Country Trade 99 
 
 Keeping the Poacher Out 102 
 
 Selling Lumber from Sample 105 
 
 The School That Would Please the Yard Man 107 
 
 Grades in Yard Men 108 
 
 The Rage for Big Towns no 
 
 Methods of Buying Yards 112 
 
 The Arbitration Idea 114 
 
 Division of Shed Bins 117 
 
 Pleasing the Farmer Customer 1 18 
 
 Many New Yards 121 
 
 The Wholesale Dealers' Complaint 124 
 
 Tricks of Wholesale Men 126 
 
 Forgetfulness in Charging 128 
 
 Perfect Balances 130 
 
 Cogs Which Do Not Mesh I33 
 
 Different Qualif cations of Partners 136 
 
 ( 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Farmer Yards 138 
 
 Standing in with Contractors 140 
 
 A Handy Door Rack 142 
 
 The Glorious Fourth I44 
 
 From Country to City I45 
 
 How the Poor Swede Bit 148 
 
 More or Fewer Yards I49 
 
 The Prudent Schemer 152 
 
 Where Carelessness May Succeed 156 
 
 The Contractor as a Factor I57 
 
 Disadvantages of Small Stock Rooms IS9 
 
 A Pessimistic Lumber Seller 162 
 
 Points on Collecting 166 
 
 The Art of Buying Right. 168 
 
 Increasing Profits by Glazing 170 
 
 Kodak as a Trade Winner i?' 
 
 Side Lines I74 
 
 A Device for Hanging Doors I77 
 
 Ruinous Wrangling 179 
 
 The Kind of a Letter to Write 181 
 
 Concerning Minor Things 182 
 
 To Protect the Edges of Loads 185 
 
 Keeping Tab on Yard Hands 186 
 
 In Fear of the Line Yard Men 187 
 
 Mood as a Motive 190 
 
 Opposed to Retail Association 192 
 
 An Improved Bolster I95 
 
 Read and You Will Know 196 
 
 An Effective Door Fastener 200 
 
 Material That Is Returned 201 
 
 Staving Off Collections 203 
 
 Change in Yard Managers 205 
 
 Cheap Shed Gutter ao6 
 
 Patent Lath 207 
 
 Cost of Selling Lumber 209 
 
 To Help from Car to Shed • 211 
 
 Off to the Ball Game 212 
 
 Eaves Troughs on Shed Hoods 215 
 
 A Bill in Detail Wanted 216 
 
 Lumber's Flight 218 
 
 A Novel Lime House 220 
 
 Our Little Differences 221 
 
 A Case of Screens 225 
 
 Should He Sell Hemlock? 228 
 
 A Shingle Display 231 
 
 Knowing One's Business 232 
 
 The Man In the Yard 234 
 
 A Pile Binder 237 
 
 Inadequate Office and Yard Help 238 
 
 Getting Out Mill Work 242 
 
 Maple and Birch Flooring 246 
 
 Unevenness of Trade 247 
 
 Wagon Stakes 250 
 
 The Two Kinds 252 
 
 Reasons for Thanks 255 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Picking Over Stock 259 
 
 Locating on Track 261 
 
 The Virtue of Relaxation 263 
 
 Price Lists 265 
 
 How to Pile Drain Pipe 269 
 
 A Swell Pronunciation 271 
 
 Selling Out-of-Date Stock 271 
 
 Duplicate Receipts 273 
 
 Cramped Quarters 276 
 
 Preserving the Fresh Look 277 
 
 The Square Man 279 
 
 Fallacy of Saying *'No" 281 
 
 The Man Who Knows It All 283 
 
 Blind Yards 287 
 
 Objections to Small Stocks ^. 290 
 
 Legal Kinks 291 
 
 Light Rigs For Light Work 293 
 
 Handy For the Delivery Man - 295 
 
 The Set Jaw 296 
 
 Woes of the Coal Man 298 
 
 Converted to Reasonable Prices 301 
 
 Oak for Bridges 304 
 
 Getting a Customer's Standing 306 
 
 Out of His Place 309 
 
 Gates and Doors 3^3 
 
 Taking Winter Easy 3io 
 
 Senseless Objection to Doors 3i8 
 
 Canceling and Registering Orders 320 
 
 Salt in Shed Alleys 324 
 
 On the Alert for Trouble 320 
 
 A Trade Puller 329 
 
 Storm Doors 330 
 
 Location and Competition 332 
 
 Slow Paying Farmers 335 
 
 The Right Kind of Stationery 33© 
 
 An Over-Active Retailer 339 
 
 The Scarcity of Lath 343 
 
 Encouraging to Beginners '• • • 345 
 
 Handy Little Book 347 
 
 A Contractor's Dilemma 350 
 
 Keeping Comfortable 354 
 
 Prairie Fences 35o 
 
 Low Prices Their Salvation 359 
 
 A Lumber Jack 303 
 
 The Winning Twain 304 
 
 The Religion of Difference 300 
 
 A Labor Saving Device 307 
 
 Yard Man's Opinion of Bull Methods 3^9 
 
 Lumber Sheds • 373 
 
 Index 381 
 
PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 One of the most valued departments in the American Lumberman 
 has been the "Realm of the Retailer," contributed by Met L. Saley. It has 
 been a department to which many readers of the paper, not only in the 
 retail lumber business but in other branches of the lumber trade, have 
 first turned. It abounded in dry humor and quaint philosophy, but, more 
 than that, was a compendium of practical information in regard to the 
 technique of the retail lumber business. It gave wide circulation to the 
 multitudes of valuable ideas, methods and devices whic!i, but for that 
 department, would have remained the sole property of those who invented 
 or adopted them. 
 
 It seemed worth while, therefore to select from that which has ap- 
 peared in this department during the last three years enough to make 
 this book. No attempt has been made at arrangement according to sub- 
 jects, though an index at the back will be a clew to some of the more 
 important ones. The book embodies the results of years of study of the 
 retail trade and of much of the best thought and experience of success- 
 ful retailers. It is both theoretical and practical. 
 
 The first use of the department title ''Realm of the Retailer" was in 
 one of the predecessors of the American Lumberman, on November lo, 
 1894, and placed by the editor over matter prepared by. Mr. J. Newton 
 Nind, since which time is has continuously appeared, of late years over 
 the signature of Mr. Met L. Saley. In putting into this more 
 permanent form much of the best of this department it is hoped 
 that a real service has been done to the retail trade of the United States 
 and that it will be doubly welcome, not only as a storehouse of useful 
 and practical ideas but for the homely philosophy and witty aphorisms 
 with which it is enlivened. 
 
 THE AMERICAN LUMBERMAN. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The "foreword" of an author is of less importance than the afterword 
 of the reader ; still, it has become a habit to think that the reading public 
 would not know that a book was to be thrown at its head unless this 
 •'foreword" were spoken. It serves as a front door bell to announce that 
 a book is waiting to come in. If you think the personality of the author 
 is prominent I am glad you think so. That was the aim. It is as near 
 my book as it could be made. It is a record of what I have seen, thought 
 and heard. Notwithstanding the quoted opinions cross and recross, being 
 born of the observations of representative men, made from different stand- 
 points, they are of rare value. It will also be observed that my own 
 opinions and ideas do not always run along parallel lines. This is what 
 happens when a man tries to astonish the world with big thoughts. One 
 big thought will challenge another and a pitched battle follows. If in 
 this book there is not so much fighting by these thoughts that the commo- 
 tion will disturb at night the household in which it may be admitted, I 
 shall be glad to know it. The only way for a man to be thoroughly con- 
 sistent in the opinions of all others is to say nothing. 
 
 Too much cannot be said in praise of the illustrations. It is necessary 
 for an artist to be versatile and study a subject from every side, else he 
 is not a great artist. The artists whose efforts illumine these articles 
 must have looked at me from every angle, and found every angle. On 
 the authority of these artists I am a sort of chameleon-like human being 
 who changes his appearance every new moon. I never knew myself so 
 well as I did after seeing these pictures. I feel grateful to the makers 
 of them. 
 
 These phases of the subject, however, amount to little. Above all, it is 
 my earnest desire that the result of what has been wriften may be to ease 
 the way of some man who is selling lumber. 
 
 ^ 
 
Realm of the Retailer. 
 
 THE NEW YEAR. 
 
 I hope you are satisfied with your year's work. In the 
 lumber Hne it has been one of the most phenomenal that 
 even the oldest of us has ever experienced, and if you have 
 shuffled your cards skillfully you have made some money. 
 The conditions have been unexpected. No doubt the proper 
 thing for a man to do is to be prepared for the exceptional. 
 The usual will generally take care of itself. 
 
 Having made money or not, if we are still in the land 
 of the living we ought not to be growling. I saw a funeral 
 procession going to the cemetery the other day, and I would 
 not have changed places with the body in the box for all 
 the money there is in the land. 
 
 I hope that during the year we have all paid and received 
 our just dues, treated everybody as we would like to be 
 treated, and that we have grown a little intellectually and 
 spiritually. When a yard man takes an inventory at the 
 end of the year he should not forget to include himself in 
 his assets. He ought to size himself up and ascertain if 
 there is more of him this year than there was last. If not 
 he is not getting on swimmingly, no matter if he has sold 
 all the lumber of the town. Your lumber yard is nothing 
 as compared with you. You can pace oflf your yard and 
 arrive at its exact size. You can count up your pieces of 
 boards and timber, your bunches of shingles and bundles of 
 lath, and know precisely what they all amount to, but there 
 is no way by which you can arrive at your own worth and 
 capabilities. You are past all comprehension. It seems to 
 
 II 
 
12 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 13 
 
 me that if we knew more about ourselves, fully understood 
 that we are a spark of the Divine, we would try to make 
 more of our opportunities. 
 
 I have seen a large 
 number of yard men in 
 the past twelve months, 
 have eaten at the tables 
 of some of them, slept 
 under their roofs, ridden 
 after their horses, and 
 right here I want to 
 thank them one and all. 
 These men have striven 
 to make my journeys 
 among them as pleasant 
 as possible. And now let 
 us go into the new year 
 — that year that will look 
 so funny written 1902 — 
 in peace with ourselves 
 and the world. Let us 
 gird up our loins, as Ar- 
 temus Ward was wont 
 to say, and march on, 
 striving to improve a little on the year that is so fast dis- 
 appearing. At 12 o'clock on New Year's day I will drink 
 a cocktail to the long life, health and happiness of every 
 one of you. 
 
 "Will drink a cocktail 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS OF A GOOD LUMBERMAN. 
 
 I had been caught in the lumberman's office during the 
 shower, and following the downpour the yard man might 
 as well talk, for it was not observable that he had anything 
 else to do. No customer was in sight, the entire community 
 being at home resuscitating their drowned chickens, so I 
 tipped my chair against the wall, the yard man gracefully 
 
 piled his feet on the table, and we touched on more sub- 
 jects than you could shake a lath at. Of course, the weather 
 came in for a share of our attention, one telling the other 
 what he knew perfectly well before, namely, that it had 
 been a very wet season, the other in turn remarking that it 
 didn't look as though the rain was over yet. Such conver- 
 sation as that emanates from a 22-caliber man, I suppose; 
 nevertheless, in this world of frivolities it appears to be 
 necessary. I once fell in with a fellow who evidently had 
 decided in the interest of a high order of intelligence that 
 when he opened his mouth he would say something. I never 
 heard him remark it was a hot day, a cold day or anything 
 similar. And right between us I would rather visit with a 
 bump on a log any day than with him. He was so wise 
 and exact and towered so mightily above the herd that it 
 set my teeth on edge to listen to him. I knew all the time 
 that he was an affected donkey, but he thought he was pass- 
 ing for a very superior individual. 
 
 If you set this yard dealer down for a 22-caliber man, 
 however, you would get left in the estimate. He could 
 indulge in small talk, but when the proper time came he 
 could let fly big bullets. 
 
 "I do not wonder," he remarked, "that there are not 
 more good all around lumbermen. There are unusual duties 
 which demand our attention. Do you use a typewriter? 
 Yes? Well, then, you know there are some combinations 
 of characters which invariably bother you a little because 
 you do not use them frequently. To run them in on a 
 jump is out of the question — ^that is, unless you are an 
 expert, and I take it you are not, for we are not experts 
 except in about one line." I tipped my hat to him and he 
 continued. "As it is with your writing machine so it is 
 with the retail lumberman. Take the lien law, for instance. 
 The average dealer does not have anything to do 
 with the lien law once in twelve months, and when he does 
 is it a bit surprising that he can't go at it slap bang? He 
 isn't used to it. It is so in a dozen things I could name." 
 
14 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 15 
 
 ll 
 
 "What qualifications do you regard as prime ones in a 
 retail lumberman?" I asked. 
 
 "Well, by jingo, I don't know," he answered, thought- 
 fully. "It's a great thing to be a good buyer — to know 
 when to buy, how to buy, where to buy. There are lum- 
 bermen who know little more about buying than my boy 
 there. They never catch the spirit of the market except 
 as it is told them by some wily salesman. Then it is a 
 great thing to be a good collector, and perhaps equally as 
 important to be a good salesman, for a good salesman can 
 make easy collecting. Come to think of it, I don't know 
 as there is ^ny one prime qualification. To pay more than 
 lumber can be bought for is not the thing to do, but it is as 
 sensible as it is to sell to irresponsible people and have the 
 book account everlastingly standing. The man who does 
 one I think has no reason to brag over the other." 
 
 By this time the water was so far gone from the streets 
 that I could pick my way to the hotel without wetting my 
 feet in my patent leather pumps, and having reached the 
 place I labored for half an hour with a steak that I know 
 was cut from some old cow that was born before I was. 
 
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMPETITORS. 
 
 The majority of business men are constantly in fear 
 there may come in some competition that will knock 
 them out. It is for this reason that we have so many com- 
 binations and trusts against which politicians and news- 
 papers howl, but in which all of them would like an interest 
 if they could have it. It is perfectly natural for us to score 
 those men who are more successful in business than we are. 
 Every under dog howls with discomfiture, and every one of 
 them would be on top if he could. 
 
 There are today 50,000 retail lumbermen in the country 
 who will go to bed tonight fearful there may be new yards 
 located in their towns tomorrow. Then the competition 
 
 they already have is rarely of a tiature to suit them. There 
 are yard men doing business alongside of individual yards 
 who wish that those yards would pass into the hands of line 
 men, and there are others who have line yard competitors 
 and wish they would sell out to individuals. You couldn't 
 in a hundred years find the man who is entirely satisfied 
 with the trade conditions surrounding him and it is a glori- 
 ous thing it is so, for with satisfaction there would be no 
 eflfort and consequently no advancement. It is this desire 
 to better ourselves that puts the spikes in our shoes which 
 enable us to keep our footing on life's slippery paths without 
 falling. 
 
 Undoubtedly the best thing for us to do is to make the 
 best of the competition we have and not worry our heads oflf 
 over it. We don't like it of course — we don't like to have 
 the poacher watching every corner to get in his wedge. If 
 we are poor we are not in love with the rich dealer who if he 
 takes a notion can sell lumber at cost or below with the 
 eflfect, as we think, of cutting our throats and not materially 
 injuring him. If we are rich we stand in fear of the 
 poor dealer who has nothing to lose but who can keep us in 
 hot water. And above all have we reason to dislike the 
 competitor who will not affiliate ; who will not even use good 
 horse sense, who wants the whole earth and goes on bull- 
 headed to the end, permitting no one else to make money 
 and making none himself. That is the kind of competitor 
 that the sooner he gets out the sooner the trade of the town 
 will assume normal proportions. 
 
 A pioneer yard man told me he had settled down to the 
 conclusion to make the best of the competition that he had, 
 as he had never succeeded in working a change that was an 
 improvement. Another dealer told a story along this line, 
 the incident he related being so far back that the wound had 
 entirely healed. "I had a competitor who was meaner than 
 a hog," he said. "I sold my share of lumber, but my dis- 
 like for the blank fool was so intense that I would like to 
 have kicked him oflF the face of the earth. He was no re- 
 
) 
 
 i6 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 specter of his word, or of anything else so far as I ever 
 learned. It was a two-yard town; I knew that one yard 
 would never be permitted to monopolize the business, else I 
 would have bought him out. I ought to have bought him 
 out and run a blind, but I wasn't up to things in those days. 
 So I kept my eye out for somebody to buy the villain out. 
 One spring day there came along a quiet young fellow who 
 suggested that he might go into the lumber trade if he found 
 an opening to suit him. I tried to impress on his mind that 
 there was no better opening than right in that town. I told 
 him how many carloads the two yards sold and gave 
 
 "Tried to impress on his mind." 
 
 him other pointers that I would be very shy about giving 
 anyone these days. Would I sell out? Well, hardly, but 
 he might try the other fellow. He wandered over to the 
 other fellow's yard, and the first I heard around town was 
 that he had bought it. I jumped up and cracked my heels 
 together. Finally the scamp was going! The young chap 
 came on and his first move was to put in a delivery wagon. 
 Of course I had to follow. Then he put in improvements 
 around his premises and I, feeling greener than a fool, 
 trailed along after him. I have noticed since that it is the 
 original fellow that generally gets there, and in a short 
 time I discovered that was just what he was doing. Always 
 gentlemanly, always honorable, but he was a taking chap. 
 
 (79 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 17 
 
 To tell the truth he outclassed me, and before the end of two 
 years I wished that the old liar and hypocrite that I had 
 been the means of getting out of town was back again. 
 Three years from the time my new competitor started in he 
 died, and I tell you there was put under the ground a 
 decent man." 
 
 This was kind of a solemn ending of the recital, so I 
 threw my overcoat over my shoulder and went up the street 
 to the hotel to see what I could find good to eat. 
 
 THE ART OF LOOKING AT THINGS. 
 
 We have all noticed that at times we go as though the 
 rails of life were oiled especially for us; good health, pros- 
 perous business, sunshine and refreshing dews all come our 
 way, but of a sudden the wind will go out of our sails and 
 sickness, financial loss and other unfavorable conditions will 
 follow. In plain language, things seem to be going to the 
 dogs. I have noticed that for days at a stretch I have 
 seen yard man after yard man, and while they would be 
 courteous, friendly and all that, they wouldn't talk right 
 from the bottom of the business. When following the 
 storm the yard man opened up as he did I said, "Now we 
 have reached another period of talk ;" and sure enough the 
 •very next man I saw went on to philosophize like a second 
 Plato. 
 
 *T have read," he observed, "what you have said about 
 some dealers being unable to find suitable yards to buy. 
 They never will find them by sitting down at home. If I 
 should want to buy a yard I should expect to find one, but. 
 not without looking it up. It is here as it is up in the Klon- 
 dike — if a fellow finds a rich strike he must hunt for it. 
 There is no telling how much we may find in this world if 
 we will only hunt for it. 
 
 "There are plenty of dealers who never seem to look for 
 bargains when they are buying. There are housewives 
 
i8 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 19 
 
 who never know they want sugar or tea until the last 
 spoonful is gone, and that is the way with some retail deal- 
 ers regarding stock. They do not think of ordering an 
 item until they are out of it, and then they want it quick, 
 and consequently have no time to look around to buy to 
 advantage. When a man sees he is running low on a cer- 
 tain grade of stuff he ought to begin to beat around and 
 see where he can pick it up at prices which are right. The 
 
 "As it is up in the Klondike." 
 
 time to buy lumber is when the buyer is not in a hurry, but 
 when the seller is. That is when you get your dollar's 
 worth. I don't care how stiff prices are, give me time to 
 hunt a little and if I don't buy so as to make 6 percent on 
 my money, figuring on the basis of the list, I don't count 
 .myself in it. 
 
 "Suppose I am running a yard here and you are running 
 one down on the other track. I pay the list price; you 
 shave those prices to an extent that the reduction amounts 
 to 6 percent on your money. As compared with me you 
 have alreadv made 6 percent, and why shouldn't you feel 
 easy? You really have made a fair investment, and then 
 
 right on top of that you will begin to rake in your profits on 
 sales. I have made no investment that is paying me, and 
 in order to make a cent I must begin to turn my lumber 
 over. Or, look at it in another way : You have already 
 made a profit of 6 percent over me. We are selling at, say, 
 a profit of 10 percent. Every time I sell I make 10 percent; 
 every time you make a sale you clear up a 16 percent. Do 
 you see that if it should come to a rub you could knock me 
 galley west? Other things being equal, the leverage you 
 had on me would lift me out of your way. 
 
 "I never could get along w'ithout hunting for customers. 
 I want to be on the lookout for them at every turn. They 
 must be baited and rebaited. Have you ever tried to trap 
 a rat when you have given up hopes almost that you would 
 get him ? Night after night he would sniff around the bait 
 and never touch it ; then unexpectedly you would hear a 
 squeal and you would know you had him. In an effort to 
 draw customers we should not let up a minute, and if the 
 bait is made seductive enough we will get them sure. You 
 can't help getting them. I am a kind of an affinity feller. 
 Under certain conditions people must buy lumber of you, of 
 me, of somebody who is operating a yard. It becomes a 
 matter of gravity. The next consideration is, do we know 
 enough, and will we be to the trouble, to make the condi- 
 tions? 
 
 "Wliat are the conditions? Well, there is a lot of 'em. 
 Good buying, location, prices, good nature, figure in the con- 
 ditions. For a year and a half I passed a grocer's door. I 
 had never bought a cent's worth of the man and never 
 expected to. But when he was out in front of his place 
 and saw me pass he always knew me. He didn't seem to 
 say, Tay me your money, and I'll be your friend ; but we 
 will be friends, anyway.' Up town where I left my order 
 the grocer would nod good morning, mechanically jerk out 
 his pencil and write down the items. One day the thought 
 came to me. That man seems to take it as a matter of 
 course that I should drive up to his place every morning and 
 
20 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 leave my order/ Now, if there is anything I don't like it 
 is this matter-of-course business. Every tradesman should 
 be grateful for the patronage he receives, and he should let 
 it be known, too. Unless we make it an object for it to do 
 so the community is under no more obligations to buy lumber 
 of us than water is to run up hill. I wish every young man 
 who went into business would get it into his head that if 
 he gets trade he must win it, and be worthy of it, too. The 
 good natured fellow who sold potatoes and pickles won me 
 over, and I have been trading with him for two years. And 
 I feel confident that should I go elsewhere to buy my stuflF 
 this man would appear just as friendly as he does today. 
 The community likes such a man. When a fellow shows 
 that he is for nothing but self nobody cares for him. I tell 
 you in front we ought to put on : When we see a man 
 driving past our place with a load of lumber salute and 
 treat him just as friendly as though the lumber came out of 
 our own yards. Believe me, he will remember it. It is a 
 cheap way of sowing a seed that may bear many fold." 
 
 I guess the dealer thought he had pumped all the lumber 
 lore into me that I could hold at one time, for suddenly look- 
 ing at his watch he said there was a ball game in town that 
 afternoon, and if it would suit me we would "go out and 
 see 'em muff 'em." 
 
 Didn't this dealer get off some good ideas ? Don't you 
 think that if every yard man should paste in his hat the little 
 remark, "The time to buy lumber is when the buyer is not 
 m a hurry, but when the seller is," and act on it,' it would 
 make him enough money to build a mansion? What do 
 you thmk about the affinity idea? Do you think that if we 
 only made the conditions right trade would come to us as a 
 matter of gravity? You will readily see those are not 
 thoughts which chumps think, no matter whether they dove- 
 tail with our ideas or not. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 21 
 
 EXCUSES FOR SCRAPPING. 
 
 There is a lot of fighting these days. Several towns could 
 be named where competition in trade is as hot as the 
 weather. I never like to see this condition, but if it must be 
 I do enjoy listening to what the contestants have to say 
 about it. 
 
 One yard man said : "I started in here to do a fair and 
 square business. It was not my intention to cut prices, 
 and I made no demand for any portion of the trade. The 
 trade I could get on legitimate grounds I thought I would 
 be entitled to, and with that trade I should be satisfied, but 
 So-and-So at once dropped the price of several items to the 
 cost mark, to crowd me out. I had to follow suit, and here 
 we are. You know a hog won't drive worth a continental. 
 Maybe you can go along ahead of him and coax him with 
 an ear of corn, but you can't drive him. I don't know that 
 it would suit me for anybody else to call me a hog ; but that 
 is the position. I do not expect to stay a thousand years, 
 but put it down that, the Lord willing, I will be here a 
 long time after the other fellow has got tired." 
 
 The "other fellow" was seen, and he took it as a matter 
 of course that he should do his best to lift his competitor 
 out. "There was no place here for another yard," was his 
 excuse. 
 
 Who showed the Christian spirit in the matter? If the 
 new man had a mind to put a new yard in that town whose 
 business was it except his own? The idea entertained by 
 so many yard men that they are exclusive owners of the 
 trade of any territory is erroneous, from the fact that so 
 many of them wake up some fine morning to find out they 
 do not own it. The business man may as well make up his 
 mind to meet competition, for he will be obliged to meet it. 
 The dropping of prices to cost by the man who has been 
 longest on the ground was an act of shortsightedness. The 
 better way would have been to meet the new comer as one 
 man should meet another, discuss the situation and, having 
 
 i 
 
 r. 
 
22 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 discussed it, make the best of it. Not infrequently the 
 other fellow is as reasonable as we are. 
 
 Another yard man was telling me how he would conduct 
 the campaign. "I am going to sell as little lumber as possi- 
 ble," said he. '*I will let the others sell it. I will bid on 
 bills to a point where I can save myself, and then quit." 
 
 Maybe this will work and maybe it won't. It recalled 
 to mind the comments on the same subject by a veteran in 
 the retail trade who, by the way, has stayed out several 
 scraps. "If it is a fight it must be a fight," he remarked. 
 "The public knows pretty well whether a man is putting up 
 a good stiff fight or sneaking around the corners. I would 
 never think of going into a fight unless I could sell at least 
 as many bills as my competitor did. If I let the bills go by 
 me the people will begin to say, *He can't figure on lumber; 
 the other fellows beat him every time ;* and by and by when 
 they want lumber they will go to the other dealers, expect- 
 ing to get it cheaper of them than they could of me. No, 
 sir! I wouldn't fight unless I expected to sell the stuff." 
 
 If you have a fight in prospect, so far as these opinions 
 are concerned you can pay your money and take your 
 choice. The best way, however, is not to fight if you can 
 help it. If you do scrap with much earnestness I will bet 
 you a hat that sooner or later you will regret it. If you 
 get the worst of it you will surely regret it. 
 
 AN ADVERTISING SUGGESTION. 
 
 It ought to require no argument these days to show that 
 the business man who does not advertise is not making the 
 most of his opportunities, yet there arc thousands of men 
 selling goods of every kind who have no idea what a trade- 
 getter the right kind of advertising is. At the same time a 
 man can slip up on advertising as easily as he can on glare 
 ice. Three months ago I saw the ad of a yard man in a 
 local paper, and last week T saw that same ad again — the 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 23 
 
 same old thing, word for word. The yard man paid for the 
 space in the paper hoping, of course, that it would do him 
 good. He naturally expected to be benefited by it, but he 
 probably was not to any great extent. The world is full 
 of people who will not read the same ad the second time 
 any more than they will read the same piece of news twice. 
 You know you won't; I know I won't, and we must judge 
 others by ourselves. Then when we consider that month after 
 month the same readers peruse the local paper we can under- 
 stand how senseless it is to lay before them an unattractive 
 ad that typographically or otherwise is not changed the year 
 
 'It interests the household." 
 
 round. Instead of keeping a standing ad for three months 
 this lumberman ought every week to be firing a new kind of 
 shot into the farmers and carpenters. He ought to be work- 
 ing his thinker a good many minutes every day concocting 
 the best possible things to say to the lumber-buying public. 
 If necessary he should get right down on his haunches to 
 do this thinking ; he should be willing to work as hard at 
 it as he would unloading a car of lumber. 
 
 When you buy space in a ne\yspaper you have simply 
 the foundation. On that foundation you can raise a beauti- 
 
 i\ 
 
24 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ful structure composed of fancy and facts— a structure that 
 the reader will stop to look at, as the traveler will stop to 
 look at a large, unique or beautiful building by the way- 
 side. 
 
 I have spoken before about getting the addresses of 
 the farmers in the territory that you might hope to reach, 
 and mailing them lumber literature. It is a good idea. The 
 very mail feature of it is of value. There are farmers who 
 are not heavy patrons of the postoffice. They may, or may 
 not, take a local paper. When they come home from town 
 and pull a piece of mail from their pocket it is a sort of 
 innovation. It interests the household. The old lady wants 
 to read every word there is in it. The farmer, himself, feels 
 a little elated that he should have something fired right at 
 him direct. Then, do not have the subject matter in these 
 circulars too meager. The mere announcement that you 
 sell lumber is not enough. Talk to the farmer. Chat with 
 him on paper just as you would were you sitting on his 
 doorstep. Make him feel proud that he is a farmer. Make 
 the circular a sort of magnet that will draw him to your 
 office whether he wants any lumber or not. 
 
 Do you know there is a good point to {hat— this draw- 
 ing people to you? A yard man recently said to me he 
 could not understand how a man could make a big success 
 of the lumber business unless he knew a good deal more 
 than lumber. This man keeps posted on the markets. The 
 farmer who drops in to see him can get the freshest news 
 concerning the cattle, hog and corn markets. He makes 
 himself useful to the farmer— that, is the idea. You know 
 how we run after a man when we think he can be of service 
 to us. This yard man also tells me that he never rides- to 
 solicit trade, and rarely outside of his office approaches a 
 man on the subject of buying lumber. The farmers come to 
 him, and in this way he learns what they are intending to do 
 and what their neighbors are expecting to do. 
 
 To return to the mail business : Maybe I can give you 
 a pointer that will be worth a cent to you. A yard man 
 
 25 
 
 who has brains to burn told me that he sent a man out to 
 canvass his territory — his own county and those adjoining 
 It — for the correct names and postoffice addresses of the 
 farmers. It would take some money, you know, to do that. 
 It would involve the services of a man and a horse for sev- 
 eral days, and I do not suppose that nine in ten of the retail 
 dealers of the country would any more think of doing it than 
 they would think of slapping say a hundred dollar bill into 
 the missionary contribution box. But note the outcome 
 of it. Having used the list for his trade benefit he sold it to 
 eastern houses which do a mail business to such advantage 
 that he made $100 over and above all expenses. Now and 
 then the farmer receives circulars from houses in Maine, 
 New York, Boston and elsewhere, calling his attention to 
 everything from a worthless gimcrack to a piano or wagon, 
 and he pulls a hayseed from his whiskers and wonders how 
 those fellows knew anything about him. They get his name 
 from these lists they buy, and this yard man was "onto it." 
 The way that a brainy man will work things surpasseth the 
 understanding of the man whose head is filled with saw- 
 dust. 
 
 KNOWING WHAT LUMBER IS WANTED FOR. 
 
 Although the day was as hot as a pepper pod I stripped 
 oflF my coat and helped to shove on a jag of lumber. I fre- 
 quently do this, so that when I am out among the wholesale 
 men and am asked if I am a practical lumberman that I 
 should be talking about the retail lumber business all the 
 time, and advising the yard men how to run their yards, 
 I can tell them I work at it right along. Only yesterday 
 I was in a yard and threw on a bundle of lath; the day 
 before I loaded a post or two, and in that way I keep my 
 hand in and make myself useful to the men whose yards 
 I visit. 
 
 A carpenter was after that stuff I was helping to load 
 and we had a great time fitting him out with what he 
 
 li! 
 
 i 
 
26 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ' 
 
 11 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 if 
 
 wanted. We pulled out this board and that one, but it did 
 not just suit him. Then- it occurred to the yard man to 
 ask him what he wanted those few particular boards for, 
 and he said for stairs. It was then easy sailing. The car- 
 penter,, who might have known more about lumber than he 
 did, was callitig for D select, and I think we handled over 
 nearly all the lumber of that grade in the yard trying to 
 please him. Once known what the lumber was for, the 
 yard man went to his pile of C select, and the carpenter 
 really seemed pleased that he was helped out. 
 
 This was no staggering event of itself, yet it illustrates 
 the fact that for the interest of evcryl)ody concerned it is 
 best for the yard man to know to what use the lumber called 
 for is to be put. It saves time, often pleases the customer, 
 and not infrequently makes a little money. It does not 
 take long to ask the question. For myself. I have great 
 faith in the judgment of the average yard man when it 
 comes to a knowledge of the kind of board that will prop- 
 erly fit a certain place. So far as the eternal fitness of 
 things is concerned the carpenter isn't in it with him. The 
 carpenter has one or two jobs in the season ; the yard man 
 is coming in contact with builders all the time, and generally 
 knows the grade of lumber used by them for specific pur- 
 poses. The yard man lacks only the mechanical training 
 to make a successful builder. 
 
 After we had got the jag of lumber oflF we went down 
 the street to a restaurant, filled up on pop, came back, stuck 
 some excellent cigars between our teeth and. leaning back 
 with our feet on the window sill, entered into that sweet, 
 independent repose which comes— and I may say comes 
 only — to the man who labors. 
 
 •oJka 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 27 
 
 SHED DEFECTS. 
 
 This shed question will never down in the lumber world. 
 It is as live as a hornet. Yard rnen talk about sheds wher- 
 ever I go. No doubt two-thirds of the retail lumbermen of 
 these great prairie states have shed on the brain. They 
 want to know the right kind to build, and many a man who 
 already has a shed wishes the blamed thing was in tophet, 
 so that the next time he could do better. "You seem to be 
 a man of positive opinions," a retail dealer wrote me a few 
 weeks ago. That is so, probably. My best girl says that 
 once my mind is set I am hard headed ; and she knows me. 
 I am not hard headed on the shed question, however, for I 
 couldn't picture the ideal shed if I should try. I have seen 
 hundreds of them, but my mind isn't made up yet. I have 
 traveled thousands of miles to see sheds. 
 
 You know yourself how it is in the girl* line ; a fellow 
 will tell you that some particular girl is pretty — he will un- 
 doubtedly say she is a peach. When you get the chance you 
 look her over. You may detect that she has bad teeth ; that 
 she followed the heathenish custom of punching holes in 
 her ears so that gold washed trinkets may dangle from them ; 
 that she has been so fond of the hugging act that she has 
 worn corsets which have brought her waist down to the size 
 of an angleworm ; and you say, "No, those things do not go 
 with beauty.'* 
 
 It is something like that with sheds. There is generally 
 some defect. I have seen comparatively few sheds the own- 
 ers of which did not declare they would change in some 
 respects if they could. Within a week four of these com- 
 plaints have been registered. One dealer said they might 
 talk about high sheds all they wanted to, but he did not 
 want another. He wanted his work down to earth. **That 
 upper story is a bugbear to me," said he. "The idea of 
 shoving lumber up and up and up !" 
 
 Another yard man has a flat roof on his shed, and he 
 swore — actually swore — that he would never have another. 
 
 
2S 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 "Take such weather as we have had this season and you 
 might as well be under a sun glass," was the way he put it. 
 Still another who had built the bents sixteen and twenty 
 feet wide was wondering \vhat kind of a "jackass" he was 
 when he was doing it. Mind you, I do not call him that 
 long eared animal; he applied the name himself. 'The 
 next time I would make them seventeen and twenty-one, so 
 that i6 and 20-foot stuff could be accommodated without a 
 
 foot of it protruding 
 into the alley as it 
 does now," he ex- 
 plained. 
 
 In another shed 
 the owner lifted up 
 some boards which 
 were damp and 
 stained. "We have 
 been obliged to take 
 lumber out of here to 
 keep it from spoil- 
 ing," he said. 
 
 The yard men 
 who protest openly in 
 this way are frank in- 
 dividuals. There are 
 others not so frank 
 who grin and bear 
 It. The world is not full of people who would have us 
 infer that they never make a mistake, but there are many 
 of them. Your eyes, however, settle the question. You 
 see at a glance, as the poet said, that "someone has blun- 
 dered." "How do you get those timbers in there?*' I asked 
 a yard man who was showing me his place. 
 
 "By main strength and awkwardness, blank it !" was the 
 reply. 
 
 "And how would you remedy it?" was asked. 
 
 "Easy enough. Any man who builds a shed minus out- 
 
 "Kiss ray family good bye. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 29 
 
 side doors through which to shove stuff has not learned the 
 a b c of the shed religion." 
 
 One point in proper shed building is such an arrange- 
 ment that the material housed in it can be handled with the 
 greatest possible ease. In fewer words, the shed should be 
 convenient. As the lawyers say, that may seem to you like 
 a self-evident fact, but it will bear saying. In a large shed a 
 prospective customer wanted to see a certain grade of lum- 
 ber, and telling him to "come on" the yard man led the way 
 up toward the loft. He climbed to the platform and then 
 up another ladder he went. "Are you going up to heaven?" 
 the customer asked. I gently put the question to the dealer, 
 how he liked such climbing, and he shook his head and, 
 switching a handkerchief from his hip pocket, wiped the 
 perspiration from his forehead. He didn't act as though it 
 was any fun to show lumber under such circumstances. He 
 did not say that a man to run such a place should be half 
 man and half squirrel, but he looked it. I have reached the 
 point that my faith is not much larger than a mustard seed 
 in the shed that looms up like the Washington monument. 
 I have heard yard men who have this kind of shed deplore 
 the fact that their lumber could not be elevated by other 
 than man power. If they could have water, electric or horse 
 power they would be happier. 
 
 Then there is another great desideratum, and that is 
 ventilation. Many a shed is deficient in this. Within a 
 month I saw a shed that when the doors were closed had no 
 more ventilation than a barn. "We depend on the doors in 
 each end," the yard man said. 
 
 "Do you keep the doors open all winter ?" was asked. I 
 was conscious that the question partook of the caustic, but 
 the fellow was not very social, and I didn't much care what 
 I did say to him. When a man has not at least a pint of the 
 milk of human kindness in him I would as soon as not put a 
 little blister plaster on him. 
 
 You know we Americans who so delight to go head on 
 are great on the abstract. I don't say we don't 
 
30 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 think, but we don't think enough. "A shed! a 
 shed!" is the cry of a thousand and one yard 
 men, but they are considering the shed only in the ab- 
 stract. To those details which should make a lumber shed 
 worthy of the name they give little thought. Their object 
 is reached when they have a roofed structure. Be not de- 
 ceived, beloved, in this regard. You may have some plan 
 that looks nice on paper, but ten to one the worm that causes 
 the canker is lurking in it. Knowing as little about sheds 
 as I do, if I were you and intending to build a shed that 
 was to cost from $i,ooo up to four times that amount, I 
 would pack my grip, bone the railroad over which I shipjied 
 for a pass, kiss my family good-bye, start out and see every 
 shed I could. I was talking with a professor of music last 
 night who is in quest of a good violin and who has received 
 an instrument on trial from a New York music house. "I 
 told them," he said, "that I must keep the instrument at 
 least a month before I would decide whether I want it. If 
 purchased hastily I might tire of it ; and it is easier to buy a 
 violin than it is to sell it." 
 
 There is a heap of common sense in that, remark. It 
 is awfully easy to buy a thing if we have the money. It is 
 easy building a shed if we have the money, but it is prob- 
 ably something that will stay by us for years, and we want 
 it built about right. 
 
 The anti-shed men grasp every objection to a shed that 
 comes to the surface and exclaim: **Didn't I tell you so?" 
 There are doubtless those among them who will frame the 
 objections cited above and hang them up in their offices. 
 There is one of these men in Wisconsin who, I believe, dis- 
 likes me for the reason that I have now and then held that 
 the closed shed is the proper thing. That is, he dislikes me 
 m that spot. Otherwise we get along capitally. He sets up 
 the cigars and things, takes me around town behind his fast 
 pacer and has asked me a half dozen times to come and see 
 him since I was there the last time. At that time he re- 
 quested me to take off my hat in his office, and when I had 
 
 I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 31 
 
 politely done so he said it was a mystery to him how any 
 man whose brow was so high as mine and whose ears were 
 as small could, from a business standpoint, advocate the 
 putting of say $2,5CX) in a lumber shed when the most of 
 that expense could be avoided and the lumber just as well, 
 if not better, cared for. If everything hinged on the cost 
 I asked him why he didn't wear a hickory shirt that would 
 cost 50 cents instead of the white one made to order with the 
 big diamond blazing from the front of it. And there the 
 matter dropped. 
 
 So much depends on 
 taste. Some of the promi- 
 nent firms in the big cities 
 erect palatial business places 
 when no doubt thev could 
 have got along if they had 
 continued in more modest 
 quarters. There are men, 
 however, who are proud of 
 their business, proud of 
 the success they have made 
 of it, and they want other 
 folks to know it. I could 
 almost see the bosom of a 
 yard man swell with pride 
 
 who was recently showinc «<a u- j- in- e • „ 
 
 ' ^''^^^" s A big diamond blazing from it. 
 
 me his shed. Down the 
 
 street were his neighbors, who were selling merchandise in 
 good buildings, and he too, was selling lumber in a good 
 one. He wanted to size up creditably with his fellow- 
 citizens. That is an ambition that some men have, you 
 know, and there is nothing wrong in it, either, that I see. 
 
 All that sounds well enough, but the rights and priv- 
 ileges of those business men who regard the matter in the 
 light of what they call extravagant surroundings must be 
 respected and protected. Not long ago an open-shed advo- 
 cate was explaining to me how he could build a shed that in 
 
32 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 33 
 
 his opinion would answer every purpose for $i a lineal foot. 
 That was without the battens for the roof; if battens are 
 used the cost would be lo cents a foot extra. I took delight 
 in seeing this man figure it out. He is going his own way, 
 and he is going it the best he knows how. Wanting open 
 sheds, it is his intention that they shall cost the least possible 
 amount of money. 
 
 The man who explained the dollar-a-foot shed is a crack- 
 erjack of a lumberman, and it occurred to me I should like 
 to see him established in business alongside of a man who 
 was also a crackerjack— one with a shed costing $i a foot 
 and the other with a fine modem enclosed shed, and, other 
 thmgs being equal, see which would pull the larger trade. 
 Of course, in a sense the above statement is rank nonsense, 
 as there is no such condition as "other things being equal." 
 The most of us are in the habit of using the term, but as no 
 two things or conditions are exactly alike they cannot be 
 equal. But to drop this splitting of hairs, who do you think 
 would come out winner? 
 
 The largest retail business in the northwest, in the terri- 
 tory over which I have traveled, is from a closed shed. This 
 of course proves nothing, yet it is a straw to which a closed 
 shed advocate might point. Maybe he might say: 'There, 
 doesn't the boss lumberman know his business?" The closed 
 shed is no doubt a trade puller. Scores of these sheds have 
 their defects, but the virtue of drawing trade must be en- 
 tered to their credit. Particularly does a farmer want to 
 know that he is getting dry lumber. I hope not a man of 
 you takes a mean advantage of your customers, but if you 
 have a shed and incidentally say to a man who is looking 
 around with the intention of buying lumber that your stock 
 is all kept under roof and is therefore bright and dry, don't 
 you think that your competitor who has open sheds, with his 
 coarse stock piled on the prairie with nothing to shelter it 
 from rain and wind, would have to do some shouting to 
 overcome the argument? That, however, is not a mean ad- 
 vantage to take of a customer, for you are probably speak- 
 
 ing the truth and at the same time not saying a word against 
 the quality of your neighbor's stock. 
 
 A yard man told me the other day that his figures on a 
 bill were $8 more than those of his neighbor, yet he sold 
 the lumber, the closed shed argument doing the work. Not 
 long ago when sitting in a shed reducing a lath to shavings 
 while the yard man went to talk business with a granger 
 who had the building of a bam in view, I overheard the 
 yard man say that his dimension, being kept under cover, 
 was straight and dry and therefore a frame could be put up 
 from it that was right. 
 
 That is an argument that a man who is in quest of lum- 
 ber does not let in at one ear and out of the other. It ap- 
 peals to all the common sense he has. You or I might think 
 there was not much in it, but the man who is intending to 
 put up the frame is not looking through our eyes. He sees 
 your dimension under cover and your neighbor's piled in 
 the open air, and he must indeed be a person of thick skull 
 if he does not reason from cause to effect. He can plainly 
 see that no rain falls upon the dimension that is under roof, 
 and that the dimension in the other yard is out in every rain- 
 storm that comes that way. To tell which lumber under 
 these circumstances he will favor is nearly as easy as tum- 
 bling off a log. 
 
 You know the characteristics of the red cedar shingle. 
 Water can no more injure it than it can a duck. By many 
 builders the hose is turned on this shingle before it is nailed 
 to the roof. An occasional rainstorm would do a pile of red 
 cedars good. A lumberman told me the other day, however, 
 that from a commercial point of view the place to keep the 
 red cedar shingles is under cover. "Farmers will buy them 
 quicker," said he. "They do not want to see a shingle lying 
 out in the sun and rain. They think it is being abused and 
 that such treatment will deteriorate it." 
 
 There are yard men who swear by open sheds who are 
 not aware, I believe, that their competitors who have modern 
 sheds are piling up arguments every day in favor of lumber 
 that is under roof; but they are. "In advertising the shed 
 
34 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 is my catchword," said a yard man who has a shed which 
 even a bkie-blooded himberman oui^ht to feel was good 
 enough for him. When this yard man advertises in his local 
 papers he calls attention to the fact that his lumber is kept 
 under cover and is consequently dry. 
 
 A yard man who has a shed that is enclosed went with 
 me to the yard of one of his neighbors and, finding it run- 
 ning itself, we walked out through the alleys and spied out 
 the country. "Gee !" remarked the yard man, **see the shape 
 the lumber on top of those piles is in !" 
 
 And sure cnoujn;h it was in bad shape. This season in 
 this section has been one d the worst on record for lumber. 
 For a long time it rained nearly every night, and then it 
 would be hot enough the next day to hatch eggs. To keep 
 lumber in decent shape it was necessary to go over the piles 
 often and turn the top boards. This duty has been neg- 
 lected in the yard in question, and the result was an eyesore. 
 "When I see a thing like that I thank my stars that I have 
 a shed," the yard man remarked. 
 
 Then we came upon a pile of 8x8 timber, some of the 
 pieces badly warped. "No doubt those timbers have lain 
 there two years, and what are they good for? Nothing, if 
 length is required, for all that can be done with them is to 
 saw them up into short lengths. I used to keep timber that 
 way, but I don't do it any more." 
 
 Rather pertinent suggestions these were, and they could 
 be taken home by more than one retail lumberman of this 
 glorious country. I wish I had kept tab on the number of 
 yards visited in which I have seen timbers warped out of 
 shape. Too often they are thrown down at one side of the 
 yard and left to shift for themselves. Yard men who call 
 themselves up to snuff do this, too. The timber screw is 
 loose in their heads. In one yard the timber was nicely 
 stuck and covered with cheap boards. 'Those No. 4 boards 
 are less valuable than the tim.ber," was the way the yard 
 man put it. 
 
 We had held down the office chairs a few minutes when 
 the rightful owner came gliding down the street on his bike, 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 35 
 
 and said he was glad to see us. He said his man was sick 
 that day, a carpenter was working at his house and he didn't 
 know which end he stood on. 
 
 "I have been thinking about building a shed," he re- 
 marked, after he had settled down, "but don't know just how 
 to go at it. There are sheds not a hundred miles from here 
 that are flat faikires, as I look at it. There is no sense put- 
 ting hundreds of dollars into a shed unless it will do the 
 business." I told him that his head was plumb. Then we 
 talked shed for a straight hour. We discussed the high and 
 low, long and short, ventilated and unventilated sheds. He 
 said he was going to think the matter over. 
 
 MIXING IMPLEMENTS AND LUMBER. 
 
 I have never happened to hear a yard man brag of 
 the profits made in the agricultural implement trade. Years 
 ago when the western farmer was poorer than Job's old 
 turkey and had to pay three prices for his machinery the 
 middle man had a bonanza. In those days the yard man 
 would sell a harvester and bank a clean $100 as the result. 
 That was a historic period, however, and may its like never 
 show its face again. When a lot of us nabobs take undue 
 advantage of our neighbors in the matter of prices, roll up 
 wealth and live higher than we are entitled to somebody 
 unjustly suffers. That is a social law that no logic can 
 down. There are the great scales forever hanging in place 
 and unless they balance some one is getting an unjust deal. 
 The affairs of life are so complicated that we may be unable 
 to single out that some one, but he is somewhere. 
 
 When I hear of the prices which the farmers in an 
 earlier day in this western country were obliged to pay for 
 the necessaries of life I do not wonder they have so often 
 waged war on the middle man. And prices on many arti- 
 cles of merchandise out here even now are nearly high 
 enough, thank you. I was recently obliged to sit in court 
 
36 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER 
 
 17 
 
 I 
 
 where stolen merchandise was identified, and during the 
 process the tradesmen from whom the goods were taken 
 had to disclose the cost mark as well as the retail price, and 
 the difference between the two was often a round lOO per- 
 cent. Now I am not going to pay a merchant lOO percent 
 profit if I can get the same goods for less money, are you? 
 Without asking the question I know you are not. You see 
 if we are not just to others; if when dealing with them we 
 
 "They make my eyes stick out." 
 
 dig a hole in the ground and bury the golden rule as sure 
 as you live some day they will turn on us and nip our heels. 
 
 I recently had a chat with a yard man who handles 
 farm implements and he was telling the same story I have 
 heard so many times that from a financial standpoint it was 
 not highly satisfactory. There are yard men who may 
 think I am impudent, but in order to get at the true inward- 
 ness of some things and often at the hocus pocus of other 
 things, questions must be asked which may appear out of 
 place, unwarranted and even silly. I once heard this de- 
 nominated as "blank newspaper cheek." All my friends 
 have to do in such cases, however, is to forgive me, and then 
 we will go right along again as though the thing had never 
 happened. 
 
 This yard man was asked if the selling of farm machin- 
 
 ery went so against the grain why he continued to sell it 
 year after year. Of course it was really none of my busi- 
 ness why he continued to sell it, but the reply brought out 
 an answer that may be of interest to you. There was some 
 common sense in it, too, I thought. 'The bother of it," he 
 said, "outweighs the direct profit, I am inclined to think, 
 but competition in lumber in this little town is pretty hot. I 
 am the only man here who sells farm machinery, and I con- 
 tinue to sell it for the reason that it brings me in touch with 
 men of whom otherwise I would see little. First and last 
 nearly all the farmers in this territory drift in here, and I 
 am all the time feeling of them to find out if they are intend- 
 ing to do anything in the way of building. I sell all the 
 machinery, and I know I sell my full share of lumber. Now 
 I don't stick the top notch price on my implements. I would 
 rather a man would get the impression that he can buy a 
 plow or mower a little cheaper of me than he can buy it over 
 to the next town. Once a farmer finds that out he is in- 
 clined to think that if I sell implements worth the money I 
 will also sell lumber worth the money. It does not always 
 follow of course, but I would rather the farmers would 
 thinic that way than otherwise." 
 
 "Then your implement business is more than anything 
 else a feeder to your lumber traffic ?" 
 
 "That is it exactly. If it wasn't for that I would sell out 
 the machinery as fast as I could, and stay out. I might run 
 it as an independent business if I had nothing else on hand, 
 but I wouldn't mix it with lumber unless I thought it helped 
 my lumber trade." 
 
 Evidently this man's first love is lumber, and all this 
 time he is manipulating the machinery deal to help his lum- 
 ber trade. His idea, as you have seen, is to get the farmers 
 to come to his place and then talk crib, barn and house to 
 them. No doubt his implement business makes him sonie 
 money. It may give him bother, but I hardly think that all 
 these years he would be sending good dollars after poor 
 ones. He ranks his machinery, however, as the grocer 
 
38 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ranks his sugar boxes or the dry goods man his pile of 
 sheeting — as leaders. This man sells a large amount of 
 lumber and how much of his lumber trade is due to his 
 traffic in implements would of course be past finding out. 
 It is a sort of advertising proposition. If you advertise in 
 your local papers and during that time build up a good trade 
 it is impossible to tell how much of that trade is a result of 
 advertising. The direct results of any species of advertis- 
 ing can rarely be reached ; but if you have the trade you are 
 satisfied. Moreover, this yard man in lumber and imple- 
 ments has hustled together thousands of dollars, and that is 
 what tells the business end of the story. 
 
 H 
 
 W' 
 
 ip:| 
 
 
 If 
 p 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADE. 
 
 Having hung my overcoat on the back of a chair, we 
 had not chatted five minutes before the yard man asked 
 me to see the business he had done during the year. Then 
 he opened his books and showed me his sales month by 
 month. They were heavier than at the first of the year 
 he expected they would be and as a result he was feeling 
 good. So did I. I regard the retailers of the country 
 as one big family and never hear of their prosperity without 
 rejoicing with them. 
 
 This same man is a crackerjack of a lumberman — 
 you are safe to wager your new hat on that. He has 
 learned the business from a to z; and to start with he 
 had the head to learn it. No matter how enthusiastic in 
 our business we may be we must have the head, or we will 
 never make progress that will stun a community. A head 
 is a necessary foundation for any business. 
 
 As we were spreading ourselves around a hot stove this 
 yard man gave expression to a bit of shrewd retail lore. 
 
 If you didn't know what this man was up to you might 
 call him a dimension crank. He appears to be positively 
 gone on fine piece stuff. If he were offered a low grade 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 39 
 
 of No. I at a price that might cause us to jump for it as a 
 trout would jump for a fly he would sit back in his chair 
 and not show a sign. Offer to give him No. 2 dimension 
 and he wouldn't take it if a condition was that he must 
 retail it from his yard. This man has not been in his pres- 
 ent location long and he has set about to build up a trade 
 along the lines which please his customers. There are sev- 
 eral of us who appear to be ignorant of the fact, or to forget 
 it, that there are trade methods of that nature. Our inten- 
 tion to please may be all right but we do not make a study of 
 what will please. 
 
 A month ago I was in an office when a customer was 
 settling his bill that amounted to sixty odd dollars, and a 
 discussion arose over some item that was charged at $1.25. 
 I should judge from the cut of this man's jib that he might 
 live in town and had been making improvements in his 
 house. Notwithstanding who he was, I know that some 
 men are mighty provoking when they come to settle their 
 bills. Thev will walk on our necks if we will let them. 
 This customer strenuously objected to the charge and he 
 looked as though he was honest in it. What I disliked, 
 however, was to see the yard man go up in the air, as we say 
 of trotting horses. Just at the time when his temper should 
 have done him good service it went on a strike. He did 
 not bluster and blow and swear, but it was plain that in- 
 ternally he was a good deal agitated. He forgot to be a 
 diplomat. He slammed the book shut and said in a crisp 
 way that it wouldn't make any great difference to him a 
 hundred years from now ! It is very hard for average 
 people to understand sarcasm and irony. They take you 
 as you say, or they don't take you as you mean, and every- 
 thing considered it is perhaps as well in every day business 
 life to talk good plain English. It carries farther than the 
 whole batch of the other ways of expression. 
 
 This office was close to a railroad track and across the 
 street I could sec from where I sat a horse hitched to a post. 
 A locomotive came puffing along and this horse stuck up his 
 
 jl 
 
 ii t 
 
40 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 head and started in to dance a jig. Some well meaning 
 man who was passing took the horse by the bit and patted 
 and stroked his neck. He no doubt spoke kind and sooth- 
 ing words to him, but those I could not hear. The effect of 
 such treatment is generally the same whether on man or 
 beast. The horse cooled down. The yard man ought to 
 have handled this customer in some such way as that. The 
 customer was a little putchy, as we used to say back east 
 when we were boys, but no doubt he could have been cooled 
 down in three minutes. All on account of that little feel- 
 ing over that insignificant $1.25 the yard man may have lost 
 
 "Patted and stroked his neck." 
 a customer. I do not claim for a minute that the yard man 
 should have knuckled to this customer and thrown of! the 
 item when he knew he had the goods ; what I objected to 
 was the spirit he showed in the matter. In the ordinary 
 trade dealings it ought to take more than $1.25 to make us 
 mad. That amount will not pay for the wear and tear. To 
 be hired I wouldn't get mad this minute for a $10 bill, for if 
 I should the chances are I would kick my old typewriter 
 out the window, and it would take more money than I 
 would get in the next week to have it put in shape again. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 41 
 
 Firmness, when backed by kindness, goes a long way. 
 When we let any man run over us any one minute in the 
 year we make a mistake, and when we show a disposition 
 that may lead others to think that we would run over them 
 it is another mistake. It is surprising how differences can 
 be adjusted if we go at it in the right spirit. But when we 
 are mad we don't know who we are or where we are at. 
 
 Now we will bring up the yard man who for the time 
 being was sidetracked. I knew his passion for fine dimen- 
 sion, but had not up to that date gotten at the true inward- 
 ness of it. You know that a man who will not tell you a 
 thing today may tell it to you tomorrow. Today he may 
 think it of no consequence to tell you, or he may not be in 
 the mood. In company with the little spider we must try, 
 try again. That is the way we fellows who are on a sly 
 hunt for something which we hope may interest you have 
 to angle around. One day when the hook is thrown into a 
 hole there isn't a nibble ; the next day the whole outfit, bob, 
 hook and sinker, is swallowed. This yard man was feeling 
 first rate over the year's business ; sitting there by the stove 
 with the cold December winds beating against the windows 
 a sense of comfort cheered him; and then I guess we were 
 glad to see each other. I know I was glad to see him. 
 These things tend to open a man's heart. And you know^ it 
 makes a vast difference whether a man's heart is opened or 
 whether it is only his mouth. I wouldn't give a cent to talk 
 all day with the best lumberman in North America who 
 would just talk with his mouth. 
 
 "I want none but fine dimension in my shed," said this 
 yard man. "When a farmer comes in to buy lumber it is 
 the dimension he looks at. If it is bright and straight and 
 clean he thinks you have a great stock of lumber. He does 
 not expect to be shown the finishing stuff, for he doesn't 
 know anything about finish. What does he know about 
 letters of the alphabet when they are used to designate 
 grades of lumber? Then it is the finish — the very lumber 
 
 11 
 
42 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 that the farmer does not want to see — that can be manipu- 
 lated so there is money in it !" 
 
 I do not know what your verdict may be, but I call 
 that shrewd. 
 
 Along the line of the above, namely, that of pleasing 
 customers, I want to add another illustration. The most of 
 us are anxious to sell as many dollars' worth of lumber as 
 we possibly can. If a farmer, worth his fine farm all paid 
 for, should come in with a large barn bill calling for, say, 
 $900 worth of material we would like his account to run up 
 to those figures. That is as natural as it is to breathe. But 
 all rules have their exceptions. A barn bill of this charac- 
 ter was presented to these men alluded to and one of them, 
 being posted on the various methods of construction, said 
 to the farmer that he was on the road to paying too much 
 money for his barn. Then he figured out to him how much 
 could be saved. Where he thought the plan needed chang- 
 ing he changed it. He reduced the size of some of the 
 dimension. He put in box sills instead of solid timbers. 
 Where the specifications called for C finish for frames and 
 doors he led the farmer to see clearly that a lower grade of 
 lumber would answer as well. When all these changes had 
 been made the farmer found that he was in pocket about an 
 even $100. 
 
 What would you think of a man who would spend hours 
 of his time showing you how you could save $100? And 
 this, too, where you had not the slightest idea it could be 
 saved? Wouldn't you tie to him? Wouldn't you say to 
 your neighbors that there was the man for them to deal 
 with? You would sing his praises every opportunity you 
 had. He would own your trade as long as you bought lum- 
 ber and he sold it. 
 
 There is many a tradesman in and out of the lumber 
 business whose aim it is to make the most money possible 
 out of every individual deal. Rut that isn't the way to build 
 up a trade that will stay by you. David Harum*s injunc- 
 tion, "Do unto the other feller as he would do unto you^* 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 43 
 
 and do it fust," is both unique and amusing, but it is 
 neither honest nor good business. If it is a man's intention 
 to get all the money, honestly or otherwise, that he can he 
 may as well go out the first dark night and rob a bank. 
 When we have made the last analysis it is as much our duty 
 to look out for the interest of the other fellow as it is to 
 protect our own. I do not suppose that all of us sell lumber 
 on this principle every day, but we ought to. The old 
 golden rule is a good enough guide board for anybody. 
 And it has this advantage : If we go in the way it points we 
 never regret it. 
 
 VALUE OF APPEARANCE. 
 
 Do you ever stop to reflect what a factor appearance 
 is in human affairs? Did it not have nearly all to do 
 with the selection of the town in which you decided to 
 make your home, and even with the selection of your wife? 
 It is fairly safe to say that if the contour of the face of 
 the girl you married had been slightly different, her eyes 
 or hair another color, she would have fried bacon for some 
 other fellow. We like to have it thought that we fell in 
 love with our wives because of their angelic temper, but 
 the cold fact is that nine-tenths of us were dead in love 
 with them before we knew they had a temper. At the start 
 the attraction was physical, and if they turned out to have 
 angelic tempers all the better for us. 
 
 When we know that it is really the influence of ap- 
 pearance that moves the world, why should we not have 
 the srood sense to carrv the idea into our business? A few 
 days ago I visited a town in which there are two yards. At 
 one of them I chatted awhile, and then went across town 
 to the other. In front of the latter was a pond of water 
 which started at the office and stretched along in front of 
 the yard. When a team drove in or out of the yard it was 
 splash, splash, splash ! When I visited the first yard and 
 saw it graded up around the premises and everything high 
 
 
 \\ 
 
44 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 and dry above the water, which on every hand was accumu- 
 lating from the mehing snow, I didn't give it particular 
 thought until I saw the neighbor's premises. We know 
 little except by comparison. Had there been none but white 
 men in the world the idea of calling us white would never 
 have occurred, and were there no bad men the idea of 
 calhng us good would not have entered the heads of all 
 those who know us. We are known as good simply be- 
 cause others are known as bad ; tlierefore it seems to me 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 45 
 
 "Located on Lake Mud." 
 
 that we nuglit not to hear down on onr opposites too roundly 
 for were it not for ihcm it would never be known what vir- 
 tuous fellow^s we are. 
 
 This last yard man was of course consoling himself 
 with the thought that the water in front of his place 
 would not be there long. In a few days at the loni^est 
 none of it would be seen. He said : "It is awfullv mtuldv 
 arotind here just now!'' But there it is in the spring, falj 
 and following tlie heavy rains in the summer. I asked this 
 dealer how lono he had sold lumber at that stand and 
 he said SIX years. No doubt for six years he has endured 
 
 the mud puddle. 1 hope you will not think I am finnicky 
 about these things. It is none of my business whether a 
 man has one or four little ponds in front of his lumber yard. 
 But here is the point — on my rounds I can't help noticing 
 these things. If I were the only man who saw them I 
 would keep still, but there are others who see them as 
 quickly as I do. No doubt a hundred people had noticed 
 that puddle of water and thought, and perhaps said, it was 
 a case of shiftlessness. 
 
 The man whose yard is located on Lake Mud is not 
 the leader of trade in his line in that tow^n ; and do you 
 know why he should be? We will imagine he is as much 
 off in a few other things as he is in this — don't you see 
 how trade would be diverted from him? Why, bless you, 
 we are right here touching on a law that is as inevitable 
 as were those of the Medes and Persians. Socially this 
 yard man is a good fellow. He couldn't have treated the 
 assessor better than he did me, and I hope he will not know 
 who I am singling out in this little article. To throw him 
 off the track I will say that during this wet spring weather 
 I have seen several mud puddles in front of lumber offices. 
 Wherever they may be, however, the yard man would better 
 haul in a few loads of gravel. 
 
 PROMPT PAYMENT AND OTHERWISE. 
 
 There are many varieties of payments. Some of us 
 hardly do enough cash business to make a man wink if it 
 were put in his eye. Then there are time payments stretch- 
 ing from thirty days to eternity. 
 
 As you are paid promptly and otherwise, so undoubt- 
 edly you pay in the same way. In common with thou- 
 sands of other things, the matter of payment becomes a 
 habit. I know a yard man who is backed with a load of 
 money, yet he never thinks of discounting a bill. He will 
 even ask extensions, and has been so glacial-like that there 
 
 . ', 
 
46 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 are salesmen who do not try to sell him at all. I believe 
 this is due largely to a habit of procrastination. This dealer 
 expects to pay some time, of course — knows he will have 
 to pay — but he puts oflF drawing the check from one hour 
 to another, from one day to another, and thus time slides 
 away from him. I may not be right in this diagnosis, but I 
 am willing to think it is so. When we know a good fellow 
 and he has a fault or two I believe we should be very chari- 
 table in dealing with him, especially when it doesn't cost us 
 
 "The way he wore his hat." 
 
 anything, for the first we may know we may want him 
 to be overlooking some little rot spot in ourselves. We 
 all have them, and somebody knows about them, too. 
 
 A yard man discussed the subject of prompt payment. 
 "My discounts amount to $600 or $800 a year, and will 
 about pay a good man," said he. ''If I want money I can 
 go to my bank and get it. They know what I am doing and 
 how I am fixed. If I want a loan they know it is because 
 for the time being I cannot swing things to my satisfaction. 
 If I should go to staving bills off with the men of whom I 
 buy my lumber they would not know what the matter was." 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 47 
 
 This is undoubtedly good business policy, but it is not every- 
 body who believes in it, however. 
 
 I was in a yard the proprietor of which wore his hat 
 tipped forward, which means that he is a man of marked 
 characteristics. The man who goes around with his hat 
 pulled down over his eyes is independent, pugnacious, secret- 
 ive, and sometimes mean. I do not say it invariably indi- 
 cates a mean streak, for maybe a few readers of this chapter 
 wear their hats in that way. This dealer touched on the 
 question of payments. "The matter of pa3'ments causes me 
 no worry," said he. *T pay my debtr^ sometime — that is 
 dead sure. If I pay in thirty days it is all right— if not, it 
 is all right. The wholesale merchant who is particular as 
 to this is not obliged to sell me lumber. Today I have 
 $9,oco on my books that is as good as the wheat, but to get 
 that money witliin thirty days would be an impossibility. 
 And when Mr. Wholesaler has bills on his books which he 
 knows will come I don't know why a little time should make 
 any more difference with him than it does with me. He 
 probably does not want to use the money that is due him 
 any more than I do the money that is due me." 
 
 I had never heard a yard man talk precisely like this be- 
 fore, and I attributed it to the way he wore his hat. 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 BILLS SHOULD GO WITH THE LUMBER. 
 
 There was no one in the office when I went in, so I 
 arranged my new red necktie, pulled my pants up so 
 they wouldn't get strained at the knee and waited for 
 somebody to put in an appearance. I could hear two men 
 talking in another room about the difference in the price 
 of something. They did not get excited, but one said he 
 was sure that was the price named to him, and the other 
 one said he would never think of making such a price to 
 anybody. I couldn't get the whole drift of the conversa- 
 tion and didn't want to. A fellow feels like a thief in the 
 
48 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ill 
 
 nig:ht when he is ohHged to sit and Hsten to a conversation 
 that is intended to be private. I almost feU Hke whittlinjr 
 out some wooden phig-s and stickin^^: them in my ears. 
 
 In a few minutes the yard man and his customer came 
 from the private office. The customer unhitched his horse 
 and drove away and, as }::^ood hick would have it, if! less 
 than five minutes the lumberman touched upon the private 
 office episode. 
 
 li 
 
 "Waited for somebody to come in." 
 
 "That man that just left here made some repairs on his 
 house last summer," he explained. "Among other things 
 he put in a new front door. The price of it was $4.50. 
 He insisted that I priced it to him at $2.50. I had a door 
 at that price, no doubt showed it to him and he got them 
 mixed. It has been nearly four months now since the stuflF 
 was bought, and a man can forget and mix up a great many 
 things in that time. There was a lot of porch material, 
 maple flooring etc., and he had the prices of them all 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 49 
 
 down pat. What did I do? Allowed it of course. Don't 
 know as I ought to, but he is one of those positive men 
 who think they know as much as anybody, and in addi- 
 tion he is buying stufif of me right along. I am putting him 
 in his winter's coal todav." 
 
 You can see how the yard man felt. He was dealing 
 with a good customer, and he thought that should he insist 
 on the payment of the $2 the customer might be lost to 
 him. You might have taken another course; you might 
 have convinced the man that he was wrong. That is the 
 way it goes; what one man does not feel like doing the 
 next one would do with all his might. 
 
 I suggested that, as I looked at it, the only safe way 
 when selling goods on credit is to furnish a bill to the 
 purchaser, and the sooner after the sale is made the bet- 
 ter, as then there can be no excuse for any misunderstand- 
 ing. "You are not dealing with another merchant," I said. 
 "The average buyer of lumber has not been trained in busi- 
 ness methods. If he is bungle-headed and feels like dis- 
 puting your bill he is going to do it." 
 
 "Blank it," he replied, "I know that is the way to do. In 
 less than five minutes I could have given him a bill of 
 that StuflF, and then it would have been all straight." 
 
 It will be no news to you if I say that the retail lum- 
 bermen do a sight of haphazard work in this direction. 
 There is probably not one dealer -in a dozen who thinks of 
 rendering a bill when the goods are delivered. The lumber 
 is strung along to a job, the builder does not know how 
 much lumber he is getting, further than that he supposes 
 that his order is being filled. It is not, however, always 
 being filled. For some reason it may not suit the conven- 
 ience of the yard man to deliver all of it at the same time. 
 He may be waiting for another car. The yard foreman may 
 have made a mistake in tallying out the lumber. You will 
 readily understand there mav be a score of reasons whv 
 you would not immediately deliver entire a house or bam 
 bill. You don't often do it. But if a bill is rendered for 
 
 \ 
 
 , 
 
 ! 
 
 
\ 
 
 50 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 
 every load that goes out— sent by the drayman, and by him 
 given to the man for whom the himber is intended, and the 
 drayman takes a receipt back— then the yard man has done 
 his duty, and he has done precisely what he should do 
 if he aspires to do business on business principles. If the 
 carpenter is on the house insist that he come down and see 
 that he gets what the bill calls for. If he is not there have 
 his best man attend to it. I know of no other way of clean- 
 ing up the thing as you go along, in order that it mav be 
 perfectly satisfactory t9 both parties once and for all. Tt 
 requires a little work. Of course it does. But have you 
 ever got into a snarl when you did not wish you had given 
 the little work which would have prevented it? 
 
 An experience of this kind served to impress the im- 
 portance of this bill business firmly in my mind. One fall 
 when I bought coal in Chicago I received by mail the next 
 morning a bill for it. The pile of coal and the amount billed 
 did not, in my judgment, tally. I immediately saw the coal 
 man, told him there was a mistake, that onlv two or three 
 hodsful had been taken from the pile, and I wanted him to 
 go and look at it. Pie knew me pretty well, for I had bought 
 considerable coal of him, still he looked as though he 
 thought I might be crazy or otherwise out of shape. It was 
 of course running through the dealer's head that when a 
 certain number of tons of coal was ordered at his oflfice 
 there was no good reason why that number should not have 
 been delivered from his yards. He went over with me to 
 look at the coal. "By George! That is right. There is no 
 such amount of coal there. I think vou have got about half 
 the coal you ought to have," he said. He went back, inves- 
 tigated, and discovered that while five loads should have 
 gone to my house only three were delivered. There was a 
 hitch in the delivery system— simply one of those little mis- 
 takes that is liable to occur in the best of families. 
 
 Now what if no bill had been rendered ? I should have 
 thought that the coal man would put in the balance of the 
 coal when he got around to it. At the end of thirty days 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 51 
 
 I should have gone to his office to pay for the coal I had. 
 Ten tons at $6 a ton ! 
 
 "Oh, no, but I didn't have that amount !" 
 Then how many things the coal man might have thought. 
 He might have thought that the coal had been burned, 
 stolen, that the Dutch hired girl had swapped it for loud 
 striped hosiery — there would be no end to the things he 
 might have thought. The chances are that he would not 
 
 "Swapped it for loud striped hosiery." 
 
 have been satisfied, neither would I. Very likely the next 
 time some other dealer would have sold me my winter's 
 coaL The bill was really the means of keeping us good 
 business friends. 
 
 We must remember that in order to do business suc- 
 cessfully there ought to be two satisfied parties to every 
 transaction, the man who sells the goods and the man who 
 buys them. There must at any rate be one— the man who 
 buys them — else he will not come our way the next time. 
 
52 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 COMFORTABLE OFFICES. 
 
 The yard man was fitting storm sash, and he said he 
 was going to see if he couldn't occupy his office this winter 
 with some comfort. "Year after year I have nearly frozen 
 out of here," he said. 
 
 It is surprising how many lumber offices there are which 
 are the merest plugs. They are suited for neither warm nor 
 cold weather. So located that they get the full blaze of 
 the sun, without an awning or a friendly tree to give shade, 
 in hot weather they are ovens ; and without storm windows 
 or even weather strips to keep the gale from whistling 
 through numerous cracks in winter they breed chills up the 
 backbone. 
 
 When I travel from a few to a good many miles to see 
 a dealer I naturally like to sit and chat in a comfortable 
 place. I k-now, however, there will be no stopping of holes 
 and cracks for my convenience. There ought to be, though, 
 for the comfort of the men who stay in the offices the year 
 round. It will take none of the fat oflF our bones if as we 
 go along we avail ourselves of all the little comforts which 
 come our way. There was a lounge in the private office of 
 one place visited. The day was as hot as a mustard plaster, 
 and as I stripped off my coat and with utter abandon threw 
 myself on the couch I couldn't help remarking to the yard 
 man that that was the stuff. 
 
 Not long ago I was in an office and there was not a 
 chair to sit in except old-fashioned wooden bottom affairs. 
 Don't think that I am complaining on my account. It is on 
 account of the lumberman who is growing old, and who 
 when he feels like sitting for a few minutes has not an easy 
 arm chair to drop into. This yard man fired up his pipe, 
 and to see him smoking and sitting in an old kitchen chair 
 that didn't cost to exceed 39 cents at the bargain counter 
 did not tally with the eternal fitness of things. A pipe of 
 tobacco calls for an easy chair. Our great thinkers don't 
 meditate with a pipe in their mouths when sitting on a 
 
 H'i 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 53 
 
 plank. The accompanying slivers and ache would surely 
 shut out great thought. 
 
 There are people who say that in order to be good we 
 must do penance; that we should go through life with, 
 say, something like a kernel of wheat in our stocking, or a 
 pin with which we have tried to close up a rip in our pants 
 pricking us at every step. It does not seem to me that such 
 philosophy is ripe. That warm spell, a couple of weeks 
 ago, I was out among my trees, and feeling a touch of that 
 natural tiredness which at times both attacks and afflicts me, 
 I threw myself upon a bunch of fallen leaves that the wind 
 had left in a pile and tried to get right down close to mother 
 earth just like a gopher. We don't live near enough to 
 mother earth, do you know it? We get away from it and 
 its magnificent teachings, and become unnatural and stuck 
 up, shriveled. It seems to me that I have gathered some of 
 my most consoling thoughts from a contemplation of the 
 earth. Its sermons are wiser than any man's. But as I 
 was saying, I laid on those leaves in a condition of mental 
 bliss. There was not a pain anywhere about me. There 
 was a chicken pie provided for dinner. My children were 
 at school studying so they might become presidents. My 
 best girl was as happy as any woman well can be. The air 
 was balmy. The leaves were rustling as if they were sing- 
 ing to me a lullaby. What if out from those leaves had 
 crawled a bumblebee or wasp and given it to me? My 
 world of bliss would have been punctured. No. I'll not 
 take any of those things as a matter of choice. We'll get 
 plenty of them without hunting them up. I am going to 
 sit on a cushioned seat if I can, and the other fellow may 
 sit on tacks if he wants to. 
 
 
If 
 
 54 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 AN EASY WAY TO HANG POORS. 
 
 \ 
 
 Aa// 
 
 
 ^■'j 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^m 
 
 ~f — r 
 
 -^ 
 
 4- 
 
 \ 
 
 5^ 
 
 .^TAo 
 
 If you were to bet your last dollar that there were not a 
 dozen yard men in the country who hang samples of their 
 front doors so they may easily and quickly be inspected 
 by the customer you would retain your money and win the 
 other fellow's. It might be safe to bet ten to one that not 
 half that number, except in the old-fashioned way invented 
 
 by your grandfather 
 and mine, namely, no 
 way at all, exhibit their 
 doors. I know only two 
 dealers who show their 
 doors in any but this old- 
 style way. Nine-tenths 
 of us can imagine that 
 if our fancy doors were 
 so hung that a child 
 could swing them back 
 and forth, thus showing 
 both sides, with no lift- 
 ing, no marring, no 
 knocking off the legs of 
 a customer in an endeav- 
 or to haul another door 
 from the common pile, 
 it would be a good thing. 
 We know well enough 
 that when our doors are setting around promiscuously in 
 the storeroom they cannot be shown to either their credit or 
 ours. Especially to ours. 
 
 If you have the space, with the desire to do so as an 
 annex, here is a plan that will enable you at practically 
 no expense to hang your doors so they may be inspected 
 quickly by the man who wants to buy. The materials 
 required are two pieces of inch boards, five or six inches 
 long and an inch and a half or two inches wide. Bore a 
 
 Or 
 
 /l^ai/ uutff* head cut off ^ 
 
 "May be inspected quickly 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 55 
 
 quarter-inch hole through each of these, say about midway, 
 and then securely fasten them to the wall, the top one as 
 far above the one beneath as the door is long. Drive a 
 headless nail into the bottom of the door, two inches from the 
 edge, and then another nail through the hole in the upper 
 piece into the door. You will understand it will not be 
 necessary to drive either nail into the door so far that it 
 cannot readily be withdrawn. 
 
 AN EYE ON THE PRICES OF OTHERS. 
 
 The question of prices is one that worries many a 
 lumberman. To get a profit, yet not to pitch prices so 
 high that competitors will take advantage of them, is 
 more of a trick than a beginner might imagine. The prices 
 at which a yard man sells have much to do with his success. 
 He can use them as a corkscrew and worm into the good 
 graces of the public, or he may so elevate them that they 
 may knock him out completely. No buyer is going to stand 
 what he calls exorbitant prices the second time if he can 
 help himself, and he generally can. In a spasm of confi- 
 dence a dealer said to me that one of the greatest mistakes 
 he had made in business was once when he thought he had 
 it all his own way he "tucked on the price," as he expressed 
 it. "If I had been content to let well enough alone," he said, 
 "I could have had one of the finest trades any man ever had, 
 but as it was a fellow came in, cut it in two, and gave me the 
 smaller part." 
 
 A dealer of many years' experience recently said, "I have 
 sold lumber under a good many conditions — in a pool and 
 out of it; with no competition nearer than ten miles, and 
 with three competitors within that number of blocks. When 
 it is put up between the dealers and there is a mutual list 
 there is less anxiety, but when it is every man for himself, 
 the devil catch the man that lags, and every buyer looking 
 for the best bargain he can find — why, that keeps a man 
 
i 
 
 ij 
 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 i 
 
 . I ^^^ 
 
 l: 
 
 56 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 thinking. I have seen the time when I would have given a 
 man $50 if he could have told me the prices my competitors 
 were getting. There is nothing like getting in under the 
 skin of your competitors in prices. We do not often pity 
 our competitors, but I once had one that I did actually pity. 
 I like to see a man have some chance for his life, and he had 
 none. There was not much merchant to him. He inherited 
 a little money and then set up bigger than life in the lumber 
 business. All he knew about buying was to pay such prices 
 as anybody might ask him. It was not unusual for me to 
 buy for from $1 to $4 under him, and then to see him floun- 
 der around trying to do me up was both amusing and piti- 
 able. He didn't appear to know that I had a codfish hook 
 right in his gills all the time. I>epend on good buying? I 
 should say I do. You have said a good deal about buying 
 lumber worth the money, and for the good of the new re- 
 tailer you can't harp on that string too much. The right 
 kind of buying is the keystone that holds the arch of success 
 in place. I believe there are more slobber heel buyers in the 
 lumber business than in any other line. The manufacturers 
 try to pull the wool over their eyes. They make a combina- 
 tion list, put up a bold front and say, 'Nobody breaks 
 through this list !' Why, the very fact that the list is pub- 
 lished is ninety-nine times in a hundred proof that some- 
 body does break through it. You know as well as I do that 
 not once in a hundred times does a list represent minimum 
 prices. I have seen lists when it was impossible to get 
 under them, but it was when lumber was on the jump and 
 everybody was taking oflf his hat to Old Prosperity. That 
 doesn't come our way three times in a lifetime, though. 
 
 "In my opinion there are dealers who at times make 
 mistakes in setting too high a price on those goods which 
 it is generally supposed should pay a round profit. I have 
 in mind a case of that kind. A man in this town was reor- 
 ganizing the front of his house a little and wanted a door. 
 He came in, pointed out the door he wanted, and from the 
 readiness with which he did it I felt convinced he had seen 
 
 J 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 57 
 
 (( 
 
 (( 
 
 the same door at the other place, and I happened to know 
 that at that place they were selling the door for $375. 
 
 " 'What is the price of that door?' he asked. 
 Two and a half,' I said. 
 
 'How much?' he asked, as though he hadn't under- 
 stood me. 
 
 " 'Two and a half,' I said again. Then he couldn't hold 
 in any longer. 'Two and a half! Why, So-and-so asked me 
 $375 ^or th^^ identical door.' 
 
 '"Is it possible?' I said. 'Well, I would be glad to sell 
 you all I have got for $2.50 each.' 
 
 "Don't you see that right there in that little deal I gave 
 my dear brother dealer a blank black eye ? I set that man to 
 
 "What is the price of that door?** 
 
 thinking that my competitor wasn't in it when it came to 
 prices. If to start with I had told him the price of the door 
 was $3.75 and had then dropped to $2.50 it wouldn't have 
 done. That wouldn't have had the right effect. What I 
 was after was to lead the man to think that right along as a 
 steady diet I was knocking the spots off the other dealer in 
 prices. Now, the next time that man wanted anything in 
 the lumber line where would he naturally go? Could you 
 
 »l 
 
 ii,[ 
 
 S 
 
li^ 
 
 58 
 
 |i 5 1 
 
 11: 
 
 i 
 
 I I 
 
 it 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ch,h, ZZ °'"" '° '^' °"'" P'''"- Not with two 
 clubs. Wuhin two months he built an immense barn out on 
 
 h.s farm, and I felt sure from the way he ordered the lum- 
 ber that nobody else had had a chance at it. He droveTp 
 in i^ront of the office, informed me what he was going to do 
 sa,d he supposed I would sell him the lumber right and on 
 bemg assured that I would, said that the coming week 'his 
 man on the farm would bring me in a memorandum of the 
 lumber wanted and would begin to haul the material out. 
 That was all the talk there was about it. His horse wasn't 
 standmg m front of my office three minutes by the watch 
 No doubt the door was at the bottom of this deal. And you 
 bet he got the lumber right, too. When a man reposes that 
 
 mvSf "' TV T ," i '''"■' "■'"* •'™ "^"'t I -°«><' ^hoot 
 myself. This httle deal impressed on my mind the policy of 
 not overcharging on any item." 
 
 POLITICS IN TRADE. 
 
 The assemblage was composed of a yard man whose 
 mustache showed years, a salesman who could not get out 
 of town for four hours and your humble servant. You 
 have noticed that men will tire of talking of the same thing 
 for any great length of time. They like to change their 
 gait so as to rest. You have probably seen horses do this 
 It was atnck of Goldsmith Maid, who in her day was with- 
 out a peer on the track. Suddenly she would break into a 
 run and go hke a deer until she was rested, when she would 
 as suddenly drop back into a trot without having lost or 
 gamed a foot She had been trained to do it and showed 
 herself an artist. 
 
 A man cannot think consecutively for any great length 
 of t.me^ We sometimes hear it said of a man that he if a 
 tE '^'")'!-'^'' ^' '^ ^" "^« ""le thinking about some- 
 
 Ih^^v'u , '"""■'' ''^''^ P"°P'^ '"^ ''^'■■^^^ th^t this man 
 who thmks keeps at it from morning till night. He doesn't • 
 
 fi 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 59 
 
 it isn't possible for a man to do it. A business or profes- 
 sional man may sit at his desk all day, but don't let it enter 
 your mind that he is steadily thinking all the time ; that is, 
 that he is doing "heavy thinking" all day long. He thinks 
 for a while, and then his thinking apparatus stops and rests. 
 His mind, as it were, becomes blank for a little time. He 
 has changed his gait, you see, and then is ready to go on 
 again. H a man imagines that his thinker is tireless let him 
 put it to a test. There is only one way to do this that L 
 know of, and that is to write or dictate original matter. If 
 
 **Sawing on the old fiddle." 
 
 he does that you know his mind is not loafing, for if he does 
 not think coherently, logically, does not choose his words 
 well, his work is the telltale clock that denotes it. And how 
 long do you think that even a disciplined mind can do that 
 kind of thinking? Three hours — ^that is all. I don't mean 
 dictating letters, or any such child's play as that, but turn- 
 ing out great thoughts which will go rumbling down the 
 grooves of time. It is recognized in newspaper and literary- 
 circles that after a man has done exact, close, steady mental 
 work for three hours the quality of the work will begin to 
 
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 i 
 
 ( f 
 
6o 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 m 
 
 ; 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 deteriorate. In other words he has done a day's work. The 
 world at large does not understand this. Thus, when im- 
 mediately following breakfast I get right down to work and 
 quit at ten, having in the meantime thrown off 2,000 to 3,00c 
 words of my bright stuff, and then don my society clothes 
 and lie around all day, lolling on the porch or lawn, capering 
 with the boys and dog, or sawing on the old fiddle, I know 
 I have neighbors who think I am the laziest jackass that has 
 ever kicked up his heels among them. The fact is, before 
 they were fairly astir I had done a day's work that had 
 drawn on my physical reserve to as great extent as would 
 digging a ditch from 7 in the morning until 6 at night. 
 
 As said, the three of us had talked shop until we had tired 
 of it. The yard man had told us some of his old tricks and 
 some of his new ones. The salesman had informed us 
 about the condition of stocks at headquarters and what he 
 thought about the future of prices; and between them it 
 had kept me busy listening. Of a sudden the yard man 
 switched onto politics, and we discovered that we were three 
 of a kind. Then the salesman had occasion to remark that 
 in his opinion it did a man in trade no good to show his 
 hand in either politics or religion. *'Saw wood," said he 
 -and let the other fellows spout." He asked me if I didn't 
 think that was the stuff. I cleared my throat and told him 
 that I regarded it as my great American privilege to enter- 
 tain any political or religious belief that I had honestly ar- 
 rived at, that I didn't care who knew it, and that on the 
 other hand I wanted others to feel no concern if I knew their 
 belief. 
 
 "That's me," said the yard man. "I once had a partner 
 who was a genuine mouse. It would distress him because 
 I would go out and hurrah and carry a torch in a procession 
 He thought it would go against our business. I don't sup- 
 pose it lost us the sale of a foot of lumber, but even if it did 
 when I can't sell lumber except by prostituting my convic- 
 tions I'll quit and go to the almshouse, if necessary." 
 
 That expressed my views so exactly that I told the 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 61 
 
 gentlemen I would treat if they would run over into the 
 next state with me, where we could find a public bar. I 
 said to them it was against my principles to sneak into a 
 drug store ; that when my inner nature called for a cocktail 
 I wanted to buy it legally, and if there were those who 
 wanted to see it run down my throat they were as welcome 
 
 "Rattle away like a Kaffir drummer." 
 
 to do so as they were welcome to know my political and 
 religious belief. The remark seemed to strike the high C 
 note of the salesman's gamut. He slapped me on the 
 shoulder and then sailed red hot into the idea of doing 
 away with saloons. I laughed in both sleeves. He did not 
 think it was good policy publicly to talk politics, but when 
 it came to the saloon proposition he was as alert as a weasel 
 and could rattle away like a Kaffir drummer. That is the 
 unreasonable, lopsided creature the most of us are. 
 
62 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 WHERE TO GET TRADE. 
 
 I boarded the train with a yard man who was going 
 twenty miles my way ; on the car we were so fortunate as 
 to find another retail man, so we turned a seat and made a 
 chatting, happy trio. The first station was a one-yard burg, 
 of 400 souls perhaps, and the conversation led up to the sub- 
 ject of new yards in new towns. We especially mentioned 
 the line yard concerns which have followed up the new rail- 
 roads, putting in a yard wherever they could. "Let them 
 put 'em in," remarked one of the yard men. 
 "I don't want any of them in mine." 
 "Nor I," said No. 2. 
 
 ''Because why?" I asked, as the train fiend shook a 
 basket of crackerjack under our noses to tempt us to buy. 
 
 "For the reason," said the first speaker, "that I had 
 rather take my chances in a bigger town. I know it sounds 
 all right to talk about getting into a new town, but some- 
 times the sound is hollow. I don't say it is not at times a 
 good place to be. No one man has a monopoly of getting 
 into a new town, though, and others are liable to be there as 
 soon as you are. That is generally the trouble, it is over- 
 done. One yard in a little new town may be all right, two 
 don't go so well, and three are worse yet. The spurt trade 
 in a lively new town is all right, but I have never seen the 
 time when there were not plenty of dealers to sell the lum- 
 ber for that trade. Then, no man can tell whether a new 
 town will ever amount to a hill of beans or not. At one time 
 somebody thought that every town in the state of Iowa 
 would amount to something. Take it along this road, for 
 instance Let's see; there are nine towns worth talking 
 about in a distance of 200 miles, and you will not find them 
 stuck in much thicker than that on any road. At least two 
 in three new towns are not going to amount to any great 
 sum. So when you locate in a new town you stand one 
 chance in three to grow up with a pretty decent town. 
 "Now let us look at it in another light. The dealer is a 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 63 
 
 dandy who reaches out more than six miles for trade. The 
 most of us are brought up short by the time we have got 
 out from three to five miles. New town or old town, it 
 makes little difference in this respect. Of course the man 
 in the new town, supposing there is only one yard, has the 
 pull on the country trade surrounding him. In that respect 
 the new-town man has the advantage of the one in the big- 
 ger town. But now, in the next heat, as we will say, seeing 
 we have just been to the races, you will see that the new- 
 town dealer loses ground. In these larger towns men- 
 tioned along the line you would probably find that every 
 yard supplies about 2,000 people in town, and also does its 
 share of business in the surrounding territory. I should say 
 that 75 percent of the lumber sold by the dealers in these 
 towns mentioned does not cross the city limits. A town of 
 2,000 people would be called a good one-yard town, 
 wouldn't it? I do not know where the town of that size is 
 which has not two or more yards. If a man is after a 
 decent volume of trade he wants to pitch his tent in a good 
 sized town. The larger the town the fewer yards in pro- 
 portion to the population there are, too. No, if I expect 
 trade I want to live where there are folks." 
 
 Just then the whistle screeched, and the yard man said it 
 was his stopping place. No. 2 got off the train at the next 
 station, and I was left alone with my thoughts and the dark 
 night. 
 
 Depositing my big feet on the seat recently occupied by 
 my traveling companions, I pulled my hat over my eyes and 
 tried to digest the logic that had been poured into me by the 
 yard man. As regards the volume of trade in the larger 
 town there can be no question ; but a big volume of trade is 
 not everything. In a town of 35,000 inhabitants a yard 
 man said to me, "It costs so like thunder to do business 
 here!" He keeps several teams, three men in the yard, a 
 bookkeeper, a pretty girl stenographer and a big boy who 
 collects and runs on errands. He rents his yard, and the price 
 must be a round one as it is on valuable ground. Then, 
 
 1 
 
 
64 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 65 
 
 : 
 
 undoubtedly, his taxes are enough to make a man's hair 
 stand on end. Outside of all these specified expenses the 
 incidentals which must be met in such a business are enough 
 to make a book. It is strive and struggle with this man — 
 you can smell it in the atmosphere before you have been on 
 the premises thirty minutes. 
 
 As against this yard business that in a little town of 500 
 people may be mentioned. This man is not doing a big 
 trade, and to make fair money, in slang language, he doesn't 
 have to. He owns the land on which his yard is located 
 which is worth, possibly $400, and his office and shed cost 
 him say $300 more. The interest on $700 is not large — at 
 the rate at which money can be had these days it would 
 amount to less than $50. Taxes cut no great figure. When 
 business is at its best, or when there are cars to be unloaded, 
 a man is hired for a few days at a time. With this excep- 
 tion no money goes for labor, the man and his wife doing 
 the work. The wife puts in a few hours daily, keeping the 
 books, and at the same time keeping her husband company 
 so he will not get lonesome. You might object to this ; you 
 might want your wife interested head over heels in social 
 functions, cutting a swell. That, however, is a matter of 
 taste. This man's wife is as good as anybody's wife; she 
 has no baj)ies at home to take care of, and may as well be 
 helping her husband in his business as working flowers, 
 birds and poodle dogs in crewel at home or attending live 
 poodle dogs. No man or woman was ever yet lowered in 
 the estimation of sensible people by doing any work that is 
 necessary to be done. 
 
 This man seemed so proud of the way he is getting 
 along that he opened his books to me, and while I was read- 
 ing the results his wife stood by me with a smile of satis- 
 faction on her face. Of course it would not have been in 
 good form for me to slap her on the back, and say, "Good 
 for you, Maria !" but honestly I felt like doing it, and seeing 
 they are young people, and that years are beginning to ripen 
 my raven locks by turning them blonde, I took the liberty to 
 
 say to them that they were getting along first rate. And 
 then we went up to the house and had one of the nicest sup- 
 pers you ever saw — potatoes in cream, toast, iced tea, toma- 
 toes, canned salmon on dishes that shone and on linen that 
 was whiter than my shirt front. After supper the yard man 
 and his wife, accompanied by the organ, sang some good 
 old hymns, and I felt so happy that I fell in to help them 
 along, and made about the worst discord you ever listened 
 to. They said it had done them good — my coming — and I 
 
 "I walked down the street between them.** 
 
 told them it had done me good. When it came train time 
 they went to see me off, and as in a fatherly way I walked 
 down the street between them the loungers out in front of 
 the stores stared as though I might be a superannuated 
 preacher who was being showed the town by some of his 
 old flock. 
 
 This yard man does not owe a cent on his stock, he 
 discounts every bill and is clearing a nice amount yearly. In 
 a few years, if he keeps on at this rate, he will be well fixed 
 — that is, for his town. He could not go into Chicago and 
 
66 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 67 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 ill 
 
 support a marble front on the boulevard and pay $icx) each 
 for his wife's dresses — and let us right here in concert thank 
 the Lord that we are not obliged to do these things. And 
 over and above all, this yard man is evidently happy ; and 
 happiness is the ultimatum of life. No matter how much 
 money we may scrape together, or how many positions of 
 alleged honor we may fill, if happiness is lacking in reality 
 we are as a stork in a desert, with the sand drifting into our 
 eyes, and gasping for a breath of fresh air. 
 
 As the train was whirling along in the moonlight past 
 the big cornfields, I thought of these two cases — the yard 
 man in the big town and the other in the little town. They 
 are of course extremes, but to arrive at a mean it is always 
 necessary to consider extremes. If at that moment I could 
 have stepped into the shoes of the yard man in the big town, 
 with his large expense account, with the hottest kind of 
 competition beating him hither and thither, not really know- 
 ing from one month to another where he is; or into the 
 shoes of the man in the little burg who is doing a safe and 
 profitable business, and who is doing it with so little friction 
 that the scowl does not come to his brow, nor the seams to 
 his forehead, I felt as the drummer asked me if that scat was 
 engaged and slid in by my side that I would ask the little 
 town man to take oflF his shoes that I might put them on. 
 
 When the town of my destination had been called, the 
 old bus had trundled me to the hotel and I had crept into 
 my little bed this thought of big and little town dealers still 
 held the fort. Then, as the stars twinkled through the open 
 window, it seemed all right after all. There are those who 
 prefer large towns in which to d© business, and they can 
 have them ; others prefer small towns, and they can follow 
 their bent. What if all preferred large towns, or small 
 ones ? The lumber business would be so unbalanced that in 
 great sections there would be a scarcity of building material 
 and in others a surplus. There would be so many yards ii^ 
 every town of much size that all of them would be on the 
 ragged edge. This variety of taste is a saving grace. 
 
 Some powerful, unseen hand has fixed the thing better than 
 all of us combined could fix it in a million years. When 
 we spread a piece of bread with butter we want it done 
 evenly. It does not answer to have all the butter in a lump 
 on one side of the bread. It seems to mc that this great hand 
 has spread humanity over the face of the earth as we would 
 have the butter spread on our bread. Every pore is filled. 
 In the lumber world there are the logger, manufacturer, 
 wholesale man and retail man, one nearly balancing the 
 other. 
 
 As sleep was sealing my eyelids, as the poet so beauti- 
 fully puts it, are you of the opinion that my last thought 
 was of this great and wise plan which so redounds to 
 the benefit of us all? Not a bit of it. My last conscious 
 thought was that I hoped the hotel man would set up a 
 tender steak and good cup of coflFee for breakfast. So long 
 as we are earthy it is impossible for us to get away from 
 the earth ; and I think not many of us want to. 
 
 THINGS WHICH EXASPERATE MUST BE 
 
 EXPECTED. 
 
 Like the gentleman that he is, the yard man went at 
 it like a hired man to show and tell me everything he could. 
 We went into the yard and talked about this and that, but 
 there seemed to be no handle to get hold of. If all the yard 
 men conducted their business exactly alike my occupation 
 would be gone and I should have to go to w^ork for a living. 
 I could discover nothing worth talking about around these 
 premises. It was simply a nicely kept yard, with no em- 
 phasized features. 
 
 If I had gone away from this yard and seen nothing I 
 thought was worth mentioning the yard man might have 
 felt hurt. He might have said, "Dam him, he came here to 
 see me; I showed him all I had, and then he didn't say a 
 word about it!" Moreover, he treated me as well as one 
 
68 
 
 I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I! 
 
 ! 1< 
 
 fellow can treat another. He sent his man over to the 
 store to get some cigars, and told him to get "good ones," 
 too. Then he insisted that I should not pay for my dinner 
 at the hotel. He said it would be a great idea for me to 
 come twenty-five miles to see him, and then pay for my 
 grub ! "You wouldn't let me do that, would you ?" he asked, 
 and of course I told him no and that settled it. He hailed 
 
 69 
 
 'He hailed the 'bus man." 
 
 the 'busman and told him to call right at his office for me. 
 You can't help liking such a man. If he will come and 
 see me he shall have the softest bed in the house if I have 
 to sleep with my dog under the front steps and help to 
 watch burglars. 
 
 The cold fact is there is nothing of public interest that 
 can be said about many of the yard men and their yards. 
 Don't you know that there are no knobs on some men ? The 
 other day I had a chat of two hours with an old yard man 
 who is having a good trade, has got rich, yet the point of 
 
 my little 2-cent pencil was not worn off to an infinitesimal 
 degree writing down a thing he said. He is not to blame 
 for it, either. He didn't happen to let out what was wanted 
 —and I couldn't drag it out of him. Sometimes I visit all 
 the yards in a town and go away as empty as I came, and 
 no record is made thereof. I am not complaining, for these 
 things are, and whatever is can't be helped. Almost as by 
 accident I ran into a lumber office not long ago and the oc- 
 cupant of it kept me hustling mentally, arranging and re- 
 membering the good things he said. There were knobs all 
 over him. In less than thirty minutes he had said a dozen 
 things that I was convinced would be of interest to 50,00c 
 readers. You see I had struck a "good hole," as we used to 
 say when as boys we went a-fishing. 
 
 This yard man had pulled open all the big faucets, and 
 then toward the last he incidentally opened a little one, as 
 he supposed, yet in my opinion, it was the biggest of them 
 all. 
 
 "Some dealers," said he, "will sell a bill to a contractor, 
 expecting that everything will go without friction. There 
 will be no extra carting, no dissatisfaction, no knock off on 
 this or that, they think, and they make their figures accord- 
 ingly. To start with, you would think they were going to 
 shoot chutes that were thoroughly oiled and the lower end 
 of which would be easily reached by gravity. Then actual 
 trade life is experienced and the moonshine fades away. The 
 contractor becomes a little unreasonable in some things per- 
 haps, and the lumberman loses his good temper. The end 
 is hard feelings, and possibly an open break. Now herein 
 is where I blame the lumberman : He goes at the business 
 as though he were a dreamer. He ought to anticipate the 
 annoyances and when they come meet them philosophically. 
 I have a house bill on hand now. At first it was the inten- 
 tion to cover with the ordinary width clapboards, but the 
 other morning the contractor came in and said the builder 
 had changed his plans and wanted to cover with narrow 
 stuff. The clapboards were already on the ground and to 
 
 in 
 
70 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 cart them back was work and some risk, for if you can cart 
 clapboards all around the country without now and then 
 damaging a board I have not yet found it out. I might have 
 gone and hired a hall and delivered a lecture on Teople 
 Who Don't Know What They Want !' What good would 
 It have done? Wouldn't it have done harm? The con- 
 tractor was no more to blame than I was. I told him we 
 had got to accommodate our friends, and the narrow stuff 
 went over and the other came back. 
 
 "Have you ever successfully done many jobs which 
 didn t take more work than you thought they would when 
 you started in ? That is the basis we should all start out 
 on. Lay out for the extra work and tribulations before- 
 hand, and then if they don't come we can count ourselves so 
 much ahead." 
 
 I felt like saying, -Qld man, your head is plumb there " 
 but mstead I tumbled into the old 'bus after the driver had 
 held the door open fully three minutes for me, to meet the 
 cold gaze of a woman in spectacles who no doubt thought J 
 was as slow as syrup in January. 
 
 71 
 
 A LABOR SAVER. 
 
 The day has gone by when it is any credit to a man to 
 want to lift his liver out. Some of our forefathers defined 
 work as severe physical effort, and thev thought that any 
 man who did not indulge in this particular kind of effort 
 was a sort of dewdrop that the sun of prosperity ought to 
 dissipate. The great majority of farmers were of this 
 opinion, but the world is moving all the time. The farmers 
 these days, in this section of the country, are no more anx- 
 ious to strain their muscles than are the rest of us. They 
 want machinery to do the hard work. In labor saving ap- 
 pliances the agricultural world is rich. The farmer can 
 ride the plow, cultivator, mower and harvester.* He can 
 load his hay by machinery, and horse power elevates it to the 
 
 stack or into the barn. For one I am glad to see this. The 
 coming generations of farmers will be better preserved than 
 their ancestors were. Their knuckles will be less promi- 
 nent and their shoulders will be less stooped. They will feel 
 themselves better men, for it is only when we are in har- 
 mony with nature that we are fully aware of our high es- 
 tate. When our bodies or minds are out of shape we feel 
 our belittlement. If any man thinks it is a credit to him to 
 lift and tug until the human form divine is misshapen, or 
 to mold his mind into that shape dictated by this or that 
 creed or party until he can see only in that one direction he 
 is making a huge mistake. The march of the soul of man 
 
 *The farmer can ride the plow." 
 
 is ever onward, and the more in that onward course it 
 branches off into the paths of error the more ground it will 
 Have to retrace. I saw a thousand men in a penitentiary, 
 and the thought that came to me was that all these men were 
 retracing their steps ; they had got into the byway, and must 
 get back on to the great highway that leads toward the 
 brilliant sun of perfection. And do not let us dope our 
 souls with the thought, beloved, that the steps retraced are 
 those of the convict only. The laws of the Almighty do not 
 recognize the name of convict. The man, convict or not, 
 who violates them will be gone after as with a red-hot poker. 
 I want all of us to preserve our youth. Personally I feel 
 so elastic this morning it would be a treat to go out and 
 chase bumblebees. Let's aim to live in concert in this regard. 
 
 \\\ 
 
72 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 fl ,:'!■ 
 
 ! 
 
 and if we do so, we must not do violence to that wonder- 
 ful house in which we live. The ultimatum to be reached 
 in this world is happiness, and health is one of the com- 
 ponent parts of happiness. In our abnormal moments we 
 think that money or power is the great object in life, but 
 we are thinking wild. There is no millionaire in this coun- 
 try or out of it, no ruler of any government, who today is 
 getting so much out of life as is that little four-year-old, 
 barefoot boy out there in front of my house whose very ex- 
 istence is so perfect that it is a poem. By and by that per- 
 fect little poem will become a jagged piece of common prose. 
 That beautiful naturalness that becomes him so well will 
 have disappeared. He will imbibe the caste idea of society 
 and will be one who will be looked down upon or who will 
 look down upon others. He will absorb absurd religious 
 notions. In business he will pitch in with the idea of doing 
 up somebody. If he is made of fine material he will feel 
 ashamed of himself every twenty-four hours of his life. If 
 he becomes rich he will find it will not add to his happiness, 
 and if he is elected state senator or appointed postmaster 
 it will fill no aching void in his breast. He will decide that 
 the goal is happiness, and that only a natural life and honest 
 purpose can bring it. If we are capable of analyzing we find 
 out these things as years come to us. 
 
 I saw a yard man putting some heavy timbers in his shed. 
 He tugged and wiggled until his face was red as a beet, and 
 the perspiration dropped from his nose. His man was strug- 
 gling with him. Then I thought of a little appliance I saw 
 in a Wisconsin yard— simply a wooden roller, maybe 2^ 
 inches in diameter and 15 inches long. You will understand 
 it from the accompanying diagram. 
 
 The bottom of the appliance is a plank, say eight inches 
 wide, with spikes in it, so that when it is set down it will 
 stay. Now we will say you are piling timber in your shed. 
 To start with you can lay a plank down for a road bed, put 
 down not far from the end nearest you one of these little 
 giant rollers, start your timber on it, about midway put 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 73 
 
 down another roller and shove the timber where it is wanted. 
 The next time you place the rollers on the stick of timber 
 already in place and shove in timber No. 2. Keep operat- 
 ing like this and the first you will know all your timber will 
 
 be stored. You can wear your meeting shirt and do this 
 kind of work. When loading timber you can use these 
 rollers to advantage. 
 
 You are under no obligations to pay any attention to the 
 dimensions here given. You can arrange those to fit the 
 case. One lumberman told me he thought he would have 
 longer rollers of this kind arranged in front of the bins of 
 his shed so as to run the lumber over them when loading 
 on the wagon. Now this is all simple enough, and possibly 
 you may have thought it out yourself, but the point is, you 
 don't adopt it. One drawback is that the cost is so small. 
 If an agent who could talk like greased lightning should 
 come along with some appliance that would do the work of 
 these rollers and want about $10 for it I expect that some of 
 you would bite. 
 
 It won't do to let the farmer, with his facilities for avoid- 
 ing manual labor get ahead of us. Our muscle is as precious 
 as his. 
 
 SELLING FOR CASH. 
 
 It is generally thought that the ideal way of selling 
 goods is for cash, but as there are people who disagree with 
 everybody else so there are tradesmen who regard the 
 cash business man as a chump. A pioneer yard man said 
 he would have felt downhearted if on coming west he had 
 been obliged to sell for cash. 
 
I II 
 
 74 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 75 
 
 
 cf 
 
 !< 
 
 ''Why," said he, "by selling on time I could get all sorts 
 of profits. Then I gave all sorts of time, and got from i8 
 to 24 percent for the accommodation. Thirty percent on 
 lumber and 20 percent interest, bringing me 50 percent a 
 year on my money, wasn't bad as I looked at it. Of course 
 if it ran more than a year the profit was less.'*. 
 
 Such a method, however, implies that a man has plenty 
 of money to operate with. In other lines I have known 
 merchants who claimed that a credit business was the 
 moneymaker; that time payments would warrant higher 
 prices and a larger volume of sales. As said, however, the 
 most of us would like to do business on a cash basis. When 
 we exchange a day's work, a load of corn, a horse, or a 
 thousand feet of lumber for money we want the money 
 when the goods are delivered. There is sound commercial 
 sense in that, though were it carried out to the letter I don't 
 know where the immense army of bookkeepers would look 
 for a living, and possibly some of us, if we could go to bed 
 and sleep instead of worrying over our credits, would live 
 to such an age that we would become nuisances. 
 
 ''I notice that an Illinois dealer writes that he is selling 
 lumber for cash," said a yard man. "If I did not have faith 
 that the truth, and nothing but the truth, abides in my fel- 
 low dealers I should think it was a fairy tale. It is past my 
 comprehension how any man can sell lumber for cash. And 
 when I say cash I mean cash— spot cash—no halfway busi- 
 ness about it. I know that in some lines te« or thirty days 
 is called cash, but if I should say that I sell lumber for cash 
 from my retail yard I should mean that I had the money in 
 hand before the lumber left my possession. That, in a retail 
 business, is what cash means. I am glad if the Illinois 
 dealer can sell his stuflF for cash, but I would bet $1,000 
 that I couldn't do it without knocking my trade galley 
 west." 
 
 Then he actually warmed up to the subject. "If T were 
 building a house and a lumber dealer should insist that I 
 pay in advance for every load of lumber and every item 
 
 that left his yard I'll be blowed if I would buy it of him at 
 all. Last week my wife was sick, and the doctor was there 
 nearly every day. Suppose that he insisted that he be paid 
 every time before he went away? Suppose when he was 
 going to send up some medicine by one of the children he 
 should tell me to send down a quarter or half dollar before 
 it would come? Remember, I am talking about myself; I 
 am perfectly able to pay a doctor's bill, and when discussing 
 this cash lumber business it is supposed that we are talking 
 
 
 "In a crowd by the diamond.' 
 
 about men who are both able and willing to pay for all the 
 lumber they may order. No, it won't do. Look out that we 
 put our lumber where we .will get our pay for it, and then 
 decently treat the men who buy it." 
 
 In a crowd by the diamond, watching the whirling and 
 batting of the sphere, I met one of the most prominent deal- 
 ers in the west. When there was a lull I asked this dealer 
 what he thought about selling lumber for cash and, resting 
 one foot on a carriage pole, he said it would be a fine thing 
 if it could be done. Offhand I should guess that this man 
 
76 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 
 
 
 M' 
 
 carries a stock worth $20,000, and he says that his out- 
 standing accounts equal the value of his stock on hand. 
 
 "I insist on monthly settlements," said he "I get as 
 near cash as that. I once started in with $6,000 and sold 
 $65,000 worth of lumber in the year, and to do that it must 
 be necessary for a man to look out for short credits. I do 
 not see how I could do a cash business. A large share of 
 niy town orders come by telephone, and I couldn't hold 
 them and send out and collect in advance. In a new coun- 
 try, where lumber is hauled a long <listance, where people 
 are strangers and everyl,o<ly is expected to pay for what 
 lie gets, I can understand how lumber may be sold for cash " 
 "Don't believe it can be done," laconically said a dealer 
 Then he went to talking about the pacer Fitzsimmons, that 
 vve had just seen in a race, as though it would be a waste 
 of breath to discuss the selling for cash proposition. 
 
 I doubt the practicability of it," said another dealer 
 How near a man would come to it would depend on his 
 individuality and the character of his trade. My uncle" 
 -naming a leading yard man_"insists on settlements every 
 s^x months, and on such a basis the accounts would average 
 three months old. That I call good. Talking about cash, 
 we will take a house bill, for instance. A certain amount 
 of dimension goes out, and a portion of it may come back. 
 Shii^les are taken to the job two or three times, maybe, and 
 finally some of them are returned. I can hardiv see how 
 you are going to make it a cash deal. If a dealer says to 
 a btulder that he would require a payment when, say, half 
 of the material is delivered, that is sensible and all rieht 
 but at the same time that is a long way from the cash prop- 
 osition. ^ ^ 
 
 "Not under the present conditions," said a line yard 
 manager. One of our yards is practically selling for cash, 
 by offenngr a discount of $2 a thousand as an inducement. 
 There will come a time, I think, when it will be possible to 
 sell for nearly cash. But when that time comes trade will 
 be conducted differently from what it is now. I look for 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 77 
 
 yards carrying stocks worth $25,000 to take the places of 
 the many small ones we have now. If that time shall come, 
 with the right kind of understanding locally between the 
 dealers it would be possible to sell practically for cash. 
 When that time arrives lumber will not go out in driblets 
 as it does now to a job." 
 
 I could quote a dozen more opinions on the subject, but 
 it would be filling space for naught, as really they would 
 cover the ground already gone over. I should feel safe to 
 guarantee that a thorough canvass of the country would not 
 disclose a half dozen dealers who would say that it is prac- 
 ticable to sell lumber for strictly cash. A dealer put a 
 good deal of meat into the statement: ''I shouldn't expect 
 a man who is building a house to stand around my office 
 all the time with his weazle drawn simply to accommodate 
 my notion as to terms of payment." 
 
 HANDLING HARDWARE. 
 
 The yard man said that when he was doing business in 
 Kansas he sold hardware in connection with lumber, and 
 that he went into it as a defensive measure, namely, for the 
 purpose of getting even with the regular hardware dealers 
 who insisted on selling screen doors and windows and 
 building paper, and furthermore that the scheme carried. 
 "And I believe in the same way we could stop them from 
 sucking eggs here !" he remarked, speaking of the town in 
 which he is now doing business. 
 
 "How did you like the hardware deal?" he was asked. 
 
 Then he stated his objections to it. He said to start 
 w^ith it took extra help when hardware was handled. A 
 man may be out in the yard, busy selling a bill, somebody 
 will want a pound or two of nails, and if it is your business 
 to sell nails you must weigh out that pound or two with all 
 the promptness that you would go out to throw a barrel of 
 lime into a customer's wagon. Then no tasty bookkeeper 
 
'* 
 
 !li 
 
 I! 
 
 J '■ 
 
 |( 
 
 78 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 wants to transfer the smut of the nails to his books. Nails 
 were sold as leaders, but other articles paid well 
 
 As yoi, have observed, this man's chief objection to han- 
 dling hanlware is that extra help is required. Ordinarily 
 I don t know about that. Take a yard in which, say, two 
 men are employed, one outside to attend to the piling, load- 
 ing and shckmg up, and the other on the inside to look 
 after the customers and books, and I think that the inside 
 man could squeeze out time to wait on the hardware cus- 
 
 A girl typewriter." 
 
 Tord'on'the^r T'"" ' '"P ^' ^^"^^ ^''^ ^^-- heels 
 cocked on the table, don't you know they do> 
 
 When It comes to the yard that is operated by one man 
 
 sold lumber, coal, pamt, agricultural implements, bought 
 hogs and corn, and if there was a blessed soul ar;und fhe 
 place except himself I did not become aware ofT He 
 
 into the office when he heard the telephone dingling I 
 was there two hours and I talked wifh h;«, f • 
 
 Hp Qijiri u^ ,. *• "" "*"^ *wo mmutes. 
 
 He said he got time to read this yard literature on Sunday, 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 79 
 
 but just at that time he was so busy he couldn't talk with his 
 grandmother. I don't know why he should take me for his 
 grandmother, but that is what he said. 
 
 I cannot find it in my heart to shout long and loud for 
 the one man power in the lumber yard. When one man 
 must pile the lumber, sell it, keep the books and do all the 
 smoking his hands are more than full. Of course there 
 are yards in little burgs which can be cared for by one 
 man, and even then that man can take a nap after dinner, 
 but we will leave this class of yards out of the calculation. 
 There is here and there a man who imagines he is just 
 old lightning, and boasts how much business he does all 
 alone. Recently I was in the office of one of these men. He 
 was showing his lumber to a farmer, and from the time he 
 was in the yard I should think he showed him all he had. 
 Two men stuck their heads in at the office door while I was 
 holding down the old wooden bottom chair, and not seeing 
 the boss went on. Maybe they didn't want a thing and 
 maybe they did. I am not in the field to force my opinions 
 upon you, but to tell you the opinions of your brother 
 dealers and how they are getting along; but on this one 
 occasion I am moved to say that it is an excellent thing to 
 have somebody around a business place to see what is 
 wanted. In an office in which I recently called the only 
 visible human being was a girl typewriter— a pretty type- 
 writer of course ; that is what the newspapers always say. 
 I didn't care because this girl typewriter was holding down 
 the office. I tipped my 75-cent hat to her, and then we 
 went to talking about the merits of the different writing 
 machines. Just as I was telling her that I used a Blick- 
 ensderfer — a EHitch machine — and that often my words 
 were not correctly spelled for the reason that the blamed 
 Dutch thing had not yet learned the English language, the 
 yard man came in. The girl was laughing at what I said 
 about my machine, and when her employer suddenly made 
 his appearance through the back door she went to blushing, 
 for no reason so far as I know but that she was laughing. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
8o 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 M 
 
 I ' 
 
 Under those circumstances I had to introduce myself to 
 the head of the house. Even innocence will sometimes give 
 
 thi:"L;:r ' •^-•^ ''- -'" ^-"^ -p'--- -tterf to 
 
 Last winter I spent three or four hours in a lumber 
 office m wh,ch hardware is sold and saw the way it is done 
 there. Once the bookkeeper waited on a customer who 
 
 d,J nl H "If u°"* °^ "'^ ^'^ '"'« 'he scales scoop, and 
 d.d not handle them except to throw a few back which were 
 not wanted. Then he brushed his hands together, chared 
 the na.ls on the day book and went back to his ledX 
 Therem comes a part of the fun-to sell two pounds of 
 
 caterer "'' '"'"l- '^''^" ''"^ ''°°'^'^-P- '^ « » a 
 Z The""' '" ,'",' T'"' ' "' °^ ^°"^- ^- - ^rn 
 
 work in .h T"'' r ^ "'"' ^'^ ^'""^ ^""'^ •<>■"'> °f office 
 work m the place adjusted her hair, tripped around behind 
 
 for :he""carn"/'T' ul "" ^'^"^'"^ °" ^^^- -<^ ^ait^d 
 for the carpenter to tell her where the rollers were. Then 
 
 she bundled them up, using four times as much paper an" 
 So'n' ^^I^-^hyo. -d tripped back behind'th'e glass 
 
 Whether a yard man sells hardware in connection with 
 h.s lumber or not largely depends on his taste and his en 
 v.ronments. If there is a good understanding between 
 ire o'h • T?^^''"-^ *"des the lumberman has no de" 
 sire to d.p mto hardware. Probably nine-tenths of the retail 
 ^mbermen sell coal, yet I heard a yard man express ht.- 
 
 blank stuff ! If a retad man can sell lumber and coal and 
 niake a success of it I am of the opinion that he can sell 
 hardware, provided he wants to. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 STEADY PRICES WANTED. 
 
 8i 
 
 A yard man poised his penholder between his fingers 
 and said he did not know whether to order a car of yellow 
 pine flooring or not. He had no faith in the stability of 
 prices. They had been away up ; now they had come down 
 part way, and he did not know but in two weeks he would 
 be able to buy cheaper than he could then. 
 
 If you will permit me to speak in the language of the 
 classics, there apparently has been more monkeying with 
 prices than suits the yard men. I hear nothing in trade 
 
 "I was in his billiard room." 
 
 circles oftener than that. The yard men are very much at 
 sea. They do not know whether they are skating on their 
 ears or, in trying to keep on their feet, are running their 
 shoes down at the heels. 
 
 Maybe at this juncture some of you unsympathizing 
 autocrats in the wholesale branch of the business will speak 
 up and say, "That is the way with them always. They want 
 prices lower than a driven well !" If you say that I am 
 going to say back that you do not know the retail men of 
 
83 
 
 'it 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 )i ; 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the country. They are not praying for low prices-they 
 want steady prices. Not those which will go up and shake 
 hands with the king of Mars today and go down to the 
 other end of the gamut tomorrow. Ask them when they 
 come mto your office to buy if this is not what they want ■ 
 and If they say it is not you may give me the best cigar in 
 your case the next time we meet. 
 
 The great merchant does not want steady prices. Such 
 prices give him no opportunity to make his foresight pay 
 hmi. Such prices would keep him on the level with other 
 mortals. The great merchant lavs hold of the future dis- 
 sects and analyzes it. The problem of cost and production, 
 supply and demand are ever before him. He sees away on 
 ahead and buys accordingly. A friend of mine in the mer- 
 cantile business discovered that a line of goods was selling 
 below the point of cost of production. Maybe they were 
 put out as a leader, maybe to knock some other fellow off 
 the track— this merchant didn't care why they were so sell- 
 ing. He took all of his own ready money, borrowed more 
 rented warehouses and bought and stored. His wife came 
 near having the hysterics. She could see about an inch 
 from her nose and thought that her husband was going 
 head to on a rock that woul<l lay their craft open from bow 
 to stern. Woman is an intuitive creature ; she is an angel 
 by the side of us fellows who have to shave, but when it 
 comes to reasoning out great financial problems she was 
 not born for it. She was bom for greater tilings than that. 
 While this man was waiting for a rise I was in his 
 billiard room one evening. He stepped around the table as 
 spry as a steel trap and as gay as a meadow lark. Three 
 times in as many hours he went into the basement, came 
 up and pulled a cork. He was enthusiastic ; and in passing 
 kt me say I like to associate with men of such enthusiasm. 
 He felt, as we say in polite society, that he had the worid by 
 the caudal appendage. He waited patientlv for a few 
 months and the value of the goods in which he had invested 
 began to seek its level. This is a good thing for us to bear 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 83 
 
 in mind always — that sooner or later values of all things — 
 goods, character, effort — seek their level. You can neither 
 keep them up with balloons nor down by tying millstones 
 to their necks. Up, up the price went, and when it had 
 reached a point to suit the merchant he let go. "I cleaned 
 up $90,000," he said to me. That man was betting on a 
 sure thing, speculator though he ordinarily would be called. 
 If he had not kept an eye on the cost of production he never 
 could have taken the advantage of the market he did. 
 
 All the yard men, however, are not capable merchants. 
 You, and you and you are, but some of the fellows over in 
 the next county are not. Possibly over in the next county 
 there are not more than two or three who can read the 
 future of events and plan accordingly. Therefore, what is 
 it that the most of them want ? Why, steady prices. 
 
 :l! 
 
 •> 
 
 \i 
 
 M 
 
 HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS GRADE. 
 
 The yard man was wideawake in more directions than 
 one. Very likely there is not one in a hundred of us who 
 studies all the phases of the business. I have yet to find a 
 man who, in my opinion, is complete master of his calling. 
 They know a great deal about it, many of them, but talk 
 with them for twenty-five minutes, take a look around the 
 premises, and it is discovered there is some cog slipping. 
 Which is not saying a thing against a man of you, for how 
 can we expect to be perfect in this world of imperfections? 
 We don't want to get perfect, fly away and Jeave our friends 
 desolate, especially those we owe, do we ? 
 
 The retail lumberman wanted to know more about the 
 people with whom he had to deal, so he got up a rating 
 book of his own. I can't tell you what this man's name is, 
 nor where he lives, for it would not only be letting the cat 
 out of the bag but a whole litter of little kittens with her. 
 This rating book making was conducted perfectly sub rosa, 
 

 84 
 
 If 
 
 |i 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 a. 1 Ills yard man has his rat np- boolc nrinf^^ 
 
 business houses of the town. leading 
 
 I sat down with this yard man and he oointed n„f 
 
 imeTstirT'"" ^■"' '''' ^-^ -^'^^ -elrdi:;; 
 
 Jjr^d atLTt r "'"" '''''' '^^^ "^ht down fn>* 
 
 grandfather to grandson, the whole lot is no good as cus- 
 tomers A process of law cannot squeeze a cent out of hel • 
 and voluntarily they pay nothing. Then there are fam.^s' 
 
 "I sat down with this yard man/* 
 
 iiiis yard man says as a purchaser treats one tradesman in 
 town so he will treat the others. If he is slow wth you U 
 
 promptly. The conclusion reached in this matter seems 
 
 to '17'' *"f"^f ^"'^^ '^' °'d -yi"? that it is impossible 
 to t^ake a whistle out of a pig's tail. I am inclined to 
 thmk that those traits of character which are bom in us we 
 will retain through life; that we can hardly shake them 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 85 
 
 more than we can shake the physical peculiarities and char- 
 acteristics which we inherited. 
 
 This yard man gave me one of these books that I might 
 draw some conclusions from it, and an analysis shows some 
 features which may be new to some of us. 
 
 We will say that the figures representing the ratings 
 are i, 2, 3, 4 and 5. One stands for collectible and prompt 
 pay; 2 for collectible and slow pay; 3 for prompt pay; 4 
 for a risk ; 5 for as near a dead beat as you can put a finger 
 on it. You are acquainted with all these classes — the man 
 who has property and who is also a man ; the man who has 
 property, yet who staves off the paying of a debt as long 
 as he can and who, if he did not have property that could 
 be reached, would be a dead beat; the man who really be- 
 longs to the salt of the earth insomuch that the payment 
 of a bill is a matter of honor with him ; the man to whom 
 you sell half thinking you will never receive pay for your 
 goods ; and finally the man who if he gets your goods in his 
 hands you know those goods are lost to you. 
 
 Take the town in which you sell lumber, with its vicin- 
 ity, and how is the population divided as to these various 
 classes ? This is the point I have been trying to figure out. 
 There were fractions which stuck themselves in the way 
 but these were fired out of the window bodily. The yard 
 man, who has probably given more thought to this subject 
 than you and I together, is of the opinion that the town in 
 which he resides is a typical one. It was originally settled 
 by eastern people, and during the years which have fol- 
 lowed Dutchmen, Danes and others from foreign shores, 
 who know a good thing when they see it, have bought much 
 of the surrounding farm lands and are getting rich ; which 
 makes about a typical prairie state town. In this list there 
 are something less than 2,500 names, and when the per- 
 centages are cast with reference to the rating figures the 
 result shows as follows: 
 
 30 percent i — collectible and prompt pay. 
 19 percent 2 — collectible and slow pay. 
 
 1i 
 
 •J 
 
lit* 
 
 ll 
 
 86 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 .8 p'eVcem nr'" "''■ •"" "°' '°"'"*''=- 
 14 percent 5— n. g. or culls. 
 
 The people represented by the 30 percent are gilt-edee 
 customers; the next ,9 percent are all right. provSd thai 
 hfe .s not too short to wait for them ; the blowing n per 
 cent w, I pay as promptly as will the first 30. sho^ld'hcre 
 
 or death to prevent; the next 18 percent you sell at 
 your nsk; and the final 14 percent will beat you at eU 
 turn. You have before now been introduced to all theZ 
 k.nds of people, and possibly you may not be thankfu fo 
 a reintroduct.on to those who are rated as five 
 
 d.v.de the men and women of the list and see how they com- 
 14 percent 5— culls. 
 
 ,„H°" lu' "'* *''''' ^'^ *^^ "^""^^ °^ -"o^e than 200 women 
 and. as they usually do. they shine as planets, while we fct 
 
 bws who are so proud to have it known that we wear pants 
 made from .mported cassimere glimmer as third-class stars, 
 nere is the women s record: 
 
 37 Percent i_colIectib!e and prompt pay 
 13 percent 2-collectibIe and slow pay 
 
 «3 percent 5-no good, from a financial point of course. 
 
 .n^?^ ""Tu^ '^°'^ composing the 37 percent are widows 
 and to read between the lines we must reach the conclusbn 
 that havtng been left in comfortable circumstances they are 
 more prompt to pay their debts than their departed hus- 
 bands were. f this were not so the percentage of i would 
 be lowered and that of . made larger, as it isfn the c^eof 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 87 
 
 Then observe the number of women who pay their debts 
 when legally not a cent can be collected from them. I 
 called my best girl's attention to this fact, and she calmly 
 replied: "Why, of course!" In the risky class there are 
 two men to one woman, but when it comes to worthless 
 culls I am sorry to say that the sexes run about neck and 
 neck, with i percent in favor of the women. But, Lord 
 bless them, they lead us so far in other respects it seems 
 mean to mention this latter fact. 
 
 DEFECTS IN A COAL HOUSE. 
 
 The yard man said he built a coal house from a plan 
 published in these columns. In this house the floor sloped 
 to the front, and the builder of it said it was a capital idea, 
 but he had run against a snag. At the same time, he said, 
 he ought to have had sense to guard against it; but he 
 wanted to tell of it so that other dealers might have clear 
 sailing. I slapped him on the back and told him he was an 
 ideal man, a scholar and a philanthropist. If every yard 
 man would do that — make his co-laborers acquainted with 
 the means by which he succeeded or failed — there would be 
 less groping in the dark than there is. If you all would 
 speak right out in meetin'. tell what you know and what 
 you don't know, the selling of lumber at retail would be 
 reduced to a science in twelve months. You think that a 
 publisher can make a good lumber paper without your assist- 
 ance, but it is impossible. You are his right-hand man. I 
 should like to see the result if you would turn yourself 
 loose once. When talking with a yard man about this the 
 other day he said, ''I suppose we do know a good many 
 points about selling lumber, but we are not writers." Writ- 
 ers to the dogs! Do you know that the best writers in the 
 world are those people who have something to tell and tell 
 
88 
 
 ii 
 
 i t 
 
 
 !! 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 it in a way that others can understand it ' That U th. i 
 secret about it." '^ '"*^ ""'^ 
 
 exp'lled'^'rt" 'm' rr^ '"^" ^^° '^^'' •'"'■ft « coal house 
 ^f .K L- '° /"^"^'^^ the usual foundation for a coal house 
 of this kind, for the reason tViaf tu^ • u • 
 J- ,. -t . . reason tnat the weight is not evfnU, 
 
 ine center of gravity is by no means in the center of the 
 building. Then the house should be effectually braced in! 
 
 "Make his co-laborers acquainted." 
 
 Side. The coal pushing down in front bulged the wall and 
 
 make but lie" "7 Z ""'''" ^'^^ ^ "^^" ^^"^^^ "-^"-"y 
 make, but when a building :s put up as it ought to be it is the 
 
 APPROACHING DULLNESS. 
 It is not expected the average yard man will have 
 much to do during the winter months. In larg citil 
 he buildmg season is the year round-that is !t IZZ 
 actually comes to a standstill-but in your little b^rg a man 
 who wo,i, ,3,, ,, ,,^,, ^ ^^^^^^ ,y^^^ winter would b^ 
 branded a lower grade of lunatic. In these small town 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 89 
 
 there are men without number who will argue that the 
 proper way to build a house is to put in the foundation walls 
 in the fall and let them settle through the winter, or *Vipen," 
 as a man said to me. And that very man appeared to be a 
 good deal of a fellow on general principles, too. There is 
 no accounting for the way people will get to thinking. Smart 
 men have these little vvormholes in them. 
 
 The time of year will come when, as a rule, the yard 
 man in the small town may sit down and foot up his 
 sales for the year. He will do something after this date, 
 cell a little inside finish for jobs that are under way, and 
 driblets now and then to a farmer who is backward in 
 patching up around his premises, but the aggregate of his 
 sales will be small. A dealer told me just as last winter had 
 fairly begun that he might as well put the cork right in 
 then. 
 
 It seems to me if I were running a lumber yard I would 
 sell coal if only for the moral eflFect, namely, to keep me 
 from becoming any lazier than I am at present. A country 
 lumber office in the winter, where there is no coal being ped- 
 dled out, in matter of quietness and silence comes next to 
 the cemetery. There is no other business place in a town 
 that can match it. Last winter I sat in an office four straight 
 hours, and not a soul opened the front door. There was the 
 advantage that there was time for a good talk, but we 
 talked out — that is, in the lumber line. We ran along like 
 two old women on the gossip of the country, but that hardly 
 counts. There is a sight of difference in the way lumber- 
 men will talk. With some there is a sudden gush, and they 
 are done. They think they have told all they know. Others 
 will steadily bubble along like a spring. Then there are 
 those who are intermittent. They have their say, and then 
 having got their second wind they trill break out again. 
 
 Gathering retail lumber news is like fishing. It is 
 never known what luck is ahead. Often I have started out 
 expecting to catch a whale and not got even a minnow. I 
 have tramped until my boots leaked and got so little worth 
 
 I 
 
r> 
 
 :' 
 
 
 Jit 
 
 I i 
 
 h 
 
 liUi 
 
 \m 
 
 90 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 writing about that I expected my discharge by return mail 
 J was caning, b^t d^p^d rntlom 1 I sfy^^ ^fe ^ 
 
 Started out expecting to catch a whale." 
 business, could talk like greased lightning and every sen- 
 
 tz ziT Tf ""' ''''-^' °^ %ures:;;Lrs, 
 
 prices, names, and he would have found a close listener 
 until midnight if he had kept on. I should li^to ^et a 
 fellow of that kind that would tire me out. He said though 
 he was going to Omaha, and hroke away. I suppose "hat 
 or the next several years I will occasionally drawT Lme 
 thing that man told me. That is the way I get at^he'^ff 
 
 qTitTrtltT7 1 '. ''''I'' '''''''''' ^"^ ^' ^•^''^-' ap 
 quite right by falling into the proper place I send it back to 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 91 
 
 lie in storage for a while longer. I say, ''You blamed idea, 
 I can get along without you, and you can't show your head 
 here unless you do it in a proper way." 
 
 In one office in the dull season a friend of the yard man 
 had dropped in and they were having a game cf euchre. 
 An invitation to join was immediately issued, but I told 
 them I had never in my life run up against any game of 
 cards even for fun. except poker, and since I had children 
 
 "A country lumber office in winter." 
 
 to preach morality to I had quit even that, furthermore, that 
 in order to support a family it was necessary to have some 
 money. And right here I remember the remarks of an 
 Ohio yard man on the subject of games in the lumber office. 
 He said he would not have one of them played on his prem- 
 ises ; not even quoits in the yard. No cards, no checkers, 
 no anything. He didn't have it in for any of these games, 
 but the idea was that if you or I should drop into his place 
 he would not want it to have the appearance of a fourth- 
 class saloon with a lot of fellows sitting around playing 
 for drinks and spitting on the floor. From a high business 
 point of view I think he was right. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, for a small town dealer 
 
92 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 > 
 
 to hibernate during the winter months. The best of then, 
 will of course read the current lumber literature A , 
 man told me that he would want a I, ml ^,"'' 
 
 business opened the next sprtgT^L To'Sd ^Jo^S 
 such a man? Hitch weights to his ears and stretch tS 
 om a couple of feet long so he would pass for ^ Je S 
 orth, or what? In the winter a yard man ought to te 
 
 ltr''"^If7e'" Trr •^°"''"'°" -'^ indication he ca^ 
 earn. It I expected to bay lumber to sell at retail next vear 
 
 I should look out for the ilgtires representing the stocks on 
 hand at the end of the shipping season, and then keep posted 
 on the demand during the winter; keep an eye o„ he 
 oggmg operations, and thus try to know a th^ or two 
 when spring rolled around. The lumber barons can' iZ 
 us much If we only keep our eves open 
 
 LENDING LUMBER. 
 You have no doubt been asked to loan your lumber and 
 dmension piles. The retail lumberman is regarded as a 
 
 and the hke h.s umber may as well be pressed into service 
 hirtLe? / '?"'^ ''^' '"^ ''^-^'^ '"• --'it doesn't 
 At any rate that is the way the public is inclined to think 
 
 'Two years ago/' said the yard man, "I believe I was 
 as provoked over the Httle matter of lending lumber a" 
 have been for many years. At the fair our chnrch pe^nle 
 
 fTttnlr " ^" "'"^ ^^^"^^' ^"^ ^*^ -^ natur^l^eZgh 
 for them to come to me to borrow the lumber with which 
 
 to budd. Would r deliver it? Of course I w^uli i; 1 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 93 
 
 delivered lumber for everybody, so I took them over the 
 amount of lumber a carpenter said they wanted. It rained 
 on the afternoon of the last day of the fair, and the next 
 morning when I went over to get the stuff I saw a tough 
 looking lot of lumber. Of course the roof boards were thor- 
 oughly wet. They had made a floor of a portion of the 
 boards and this was covered with mud. The tables were 
 besmeared with coffee, pie and other eatables. I gathered 
 the lumber up and was half inclined to make a bonfire of it. 
 Got nothing for the use of it? No, not even a thank you.'* 
 "On what l)asis do you lend lumber?" a yard man was 
 asked who was loading boards for some fakirs on the fair 
 
 ground. 
 
 "Only on one basis— cash down," was the reply. "I 
 don't care who it is who wants to borrow lumber ; he pays 
 for it before it goes out of the yard. Then I am in a posi- 
 tion to adjust my claims when it is returned. Now I don't 
 care how many nail holes and cracks are in these boards 
 when these fellows are through with them, I will buy them 
 back for just what they are worth to me. Then if they for- 
 get to return them I don't care the snap of my finger." 
 
 "I do not like to lend lumber but sometimes I do," said 
 another dealer. "I draw the line, however. When it is to 
 go inside for seats or tables I let it go and take the chances, 
 but when it is to be used outdoors and is liable to be caught 
 out in the rain the people who get it must be customers, and 
 then it is understood that they must pay for any damage, and 
 you cannot think of many uses to which lumber can be put 
 and not be damaged. Often when people borrow lumber 
 they think that a few nail holes in it will do no harm, but 
 these same people would not want to buy it at full prices 
 with those holes in it. You see it makes a difference who is 
 paying the bill." 
 

 94 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 OPEN AND CLOSED SHEDS. 
 maJYstd'irf '''°"" ^'""'' =•" °P- ^•^^'••'" the yard 
 
 -; :^^d ";eL";ra i :d."-^rirerH7z- 
 
 v>cduicr. leii me how you are to k-ppn fi,„ i t. 
 open shed drv in , i • • ^ '^ lumber m an 
 
 pen sued dry m a driving rainstorm? And how does it 
 work when there comes a rip-roaring old blizzard of L 
 snowstorm ? Why. I have seen an open'shed litt^ald 
 
 i 
 
 h 
 
 {^ 
 
 "In a driving rainstorm." 
 
 with snow, and then it is such a nice inh f^ m • 
 
 wait for it to n.elt I I have so^. " ed ^at tT 1 TV^' 
 
 from, when the snow was n^.l^u^^t^^^^^^^^ 
 
 being out in a hard rainstorm nf . ^^ ^*^^ 
 
 bun, .„K ,,00.. ,„, rz, .,Sir«;t"r "no 
 
 sir ; I want none of it in mine/' ^' ^""^ 
 
 It was less than a week after Hstenin^r tr^ tu^ .u 
 ments that the other side of the stoTraVofftd The" T 
 vocate of the open shed said that men' .ightt^td ll^t 
 
 I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 95 
 
 favor of the closed shed, but the fact remained that lumber 
 would come out better from the one that is open. 
 
 No doubt this disagreement will continue. I must say 
 this, however: The closed shed men as a body talk as 
 though they were very sure of their footing. They appear 
 to be convinced that they are a step in advance of their 
 brethren who are using open sheds, and I do not remem- 
 ber having met a dealer who said he would willingly go from 
 his closed shed to an open one, while on the other hand I 
 have heard dealers who use open sheds assert that they 
 would like one that was closed. "I don't think they are to . 
 be mentioned together in the same day," was the way one 
 dealer who has close-shedded in everything laconically dis- 
 posed of the question. 
 
 Then there is the other type of shed — the one which has 
 large doors along the side, or sides, which can be opened 
 and thus during pleasant weather permit all the breezes 
 which are going to whistle through it. No rain or snow can 
 of course drive into these sheds, but all loading and unload- 
 ing must be done out of doors. The three yards in the 
 town in which I live have sheds of this character. There 
 is the old one which was the pioneer, and the other lumber- 
 men who built followed suit. I do not, however, see many 
 sheds of this kind. 
 
 I was in a yard which formed a court and around the 
 sides of it were sheds half open — that is, opening toward 
 the yard with the backs tightly boarded up. I went into 
 another yard in the same town and it had similar sheds. No. 
 3 had the same kind of sheds, as also did No. 4. The kind 
 of sheds in a town depends largely on the style the first fel- 
 low on the ground puts up. We are imitative animals and 
 are usually quite content to let somebody else do our think- 
 ing for us. 
 
 "I don't want any of those half-closed sheds," a yard 
 man remarked. "I want a shed open on both sides, and I 
 want it in the yard, clear from all fences and buildings so 
 that I can drive right around it. Here is an advantage: 
 
96 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 Suppose a team is loading from a particular bent and an- 
 other team comes in for tl,e same grade of lumber. It isn't 
 necessary for that last team to stand "around until the first 
 one .s loaded l,ut it can drive around on the opposite side of 
 
 ^f'£fi^"^°^i7 "^^' ^'■*'"" *'^^ ^^-"^ P"^- From sheds 
 
 can t' „ 7f '"""'^ '"^'■^ '"'"''^^ •" « Siy^^ t™e than 
 can be handled from any other make. And when it comes 
 
 to protecting lumber, if you have a good roof over it it is 
 pretty well cared for." 
 
 "What is the matter with my shed?" a dealer asked. 
 . who had a large closed one. with a foot of opening below 
 he s. 1. all around. "It keeps my stock well shielded from 
 Uie elements, yet I get a fine circulation of air under the 
 p Ics. To remam so? Well, no; when everything is com- 
 pleted that open ng will be closed." he laughingly remarked. 
 Th,s same unfinished condition, however, is one which some 
 dealers take to, the idea of letting air under the piles being 
 carried out by some yard men. 
 
 A retailer who has recently traveled many miles, cover- 
 ing m part a half dozen states, told me it was surprising 
 how few sheds worthy of the name he saw. He is of the 
 opinion that the average lumberman as yet lacks a great deal 
 of being up to snuflF. That has been my observation, but 
 th y are getting there all the same. It is senseless to look 
 fo a harvest until the seed is sown. The lumber shed seed 
 has begun to sprout in a healthy way. 
 
 HYPNOTIC POWER. 
 
 An acquaintance who is a close observer, having visited 
 a prominent yard man, one in fact who is known throughout 
 the retail world, was asked what was the keynote of the 
 dalers success. "Hypnotism!" he answered. 'l smiled at 
 hB^wisdom. but he may have taken it for an incredulous 
 
 "Well, what is it?" he asked. "He is full of it. I have 
 
 i 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 9/ 
 
 known men to visit his place swearing vengeance, but he 
 would shake hands with them and sell them a load of lum- 
 ber to take home." 
 
 There is no sense in making light of this element in the 
 makeup of the human animal. It is appreciably possessed 
 by many, and doubtless by all to some extent. Many of us 
 
 "There were our best girls." 
 
 have seen snakes and cats "charm" birds, as it is called, 
 and no doubt it is a species of hypnotism. 
 
 Not long ago a yard man was telling me that last fall 
 he went north expecting to buy two cars of lumber, and 
 before he had got away from a certain dealer he had been 
 induced to buy six. He said when he went away and got to 
 
• 
 
 •■tit 
 
 \im 
 
 98 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 thinking about it he was almost frightened. I asked him if 
 he didn t wish that the wholesale man had cast still more 
 of a spell over him. and he said he did. ^If I had known 
 how lumber was going I would have mortgaged my shirt 
 to buy It," he said. 
 
 No doubt this magnetic quality in a man helps him alonR 
 no matter in what business he may engage. It draws peo- 
 ple to him, and naturally we like and will favor the persons 
 or things to which we are attracted. Now there were our 
 best girls; didn't they draw us possibly miles and miles ^ 
 And for their sakes didn't we empty our pockets into the 
 money drawers of the liverymen, the ice cream parlor pro- 
 prietors and the like? When the people of a community 
 take to a dealer in lumber, when he makes of himself a 
 good fellow in their eyes and weaves over them a sort 
 of hypnotic influence, he is going to sell many a bill which 
 otherwise would have gone to the other fellow. I know as 
 many as a dealer or two who I believe would do well to 
 read this little article two or three times. It was not an 
 age ago that I heard a dealer declare with some warmth 
 that he didn't give a rap whether he sold a certain bill or 
 not. Maybe he wouldn't give a rap to sell the bill, but it 
 was mighty poor business policy for him to say so We 
 should always aim to talk in a way that people will believe 
 we mean what we say. This dealer had worked hard to get 
 the bill— so hard that it was plain he wanted it— and then 
 for him to turn around and huffily say that he didn't want 
 it did not tally with what had gone before. He ought to 
 have assumed such winning manners and treated so well 
 the fellow with whom he had been trying to deal that the 
 prospective customer would think he was committing a 
 crime if the bill was placed elsewhere. Tact ' tact » That 
 IS what we need, and if we had to buy it its weight in ^old 
 would be a small price. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 99 
 
 HANDLING TOWN AND COUNTRY TRADE. 
 
 There is difference in ginger, but not so much as there 
 is in men. All ginger was probably made for a specific pur- 
 pose, while men are adapted for all sorts of work. Where 
 ginger can fill one place man can fill places innumerable. 
 A yard man recently told me he had discovered that his 
 career as a lumberman was limited, owing to his inability 
 to get the portion of the farmer trade that he thought he 
 ought to have. He had become conscious of this, and as a 
 consequence he might, when opportunity offered, make a 
 change in his business. Town trade, he said, gave him no 
 worry. In this direction he felt able to hold his own with 
 his competitors, but when it came to dealing with the farm- 
 ers he knew he was lacking in some quality. 
 
 I want to say there is hope without end for any man 
 who will an^ilyze himself in that manner. Few do it. If 
 we do not succeed we are disposed at least to divide the 
 blame; we take the unction to our souls that if the rest 
 of humanity had come up to the scratch we would also have 
 been there. When a man will ferret out his thin places he 
 can then go to work and patch them up. 
 
 I met another dealer who said he had very little 
 country trade. He could not seem to "get hold of the 
 farmer," he said. Yet he spoke of it in a way that might 
 lead one to think that the fault, if fault there were, was with 
 the farmer and not with him. The fact is, the right kmd 
 of man will work about anything, even a farmer when the 
 farmer wants lumber. 
 
 The first dealer named was asked why he could not 
 sell to the farm trade, and in other words he said he was 
 not jockey enough. For instance, when he gave figures on 
 a bill and afterward felt convinced that a competitor had 
 underbid him he did not feel like making a smaller price 
 unless there was some excuse for it. He wanted the other 
 fellow to see there was some excuse. He wanted to pose 
 at a certain standard in the eyes of the man with whom he 
 
ICXJ 
 
 n 
 
 It 
 
 I' 
 
 r 
 
 •I: 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 was trying to deal. -The farmer." said he. "will come in 
 s.t down and keep mum as to the prices offered by a co- 
 petuor. I may feel that my prices have been beaten yet I 
 
 and W.1I knock off something. If he would only give me 
 an opening, tell me what he cotdd get the lumber for else- 
 where. It would be easy to say to him that I wanted his trade 
 and that I wasn't going to stand on a few dollars In that 
 event I would have some excuse for revising mv first bid " 
 
 asked '' *'^" ''°" """ """"^ ''""^''^^' '° '°'"' 'pe°P'«?" I 
 '•Because I can make them show their hands," he said. 
 
 ■ i.J.Tu- k"" '"'"'' ^"""'■' '^ ''"^ '° "^^ f3« that he 
 lacks the abduy to crack the farmer open as he would an 
 
 oyster shell and see what is inside of him. The farmer is 
 TouT V°° ^"'''^'"-'"^^-f- him. Too unbusinesslike 
 
 nTfJ'u''^ P""'"^ '' ■" •'^"^ ^°^ds. He will 
 
 no alk. If a busmess man he would shoot off his mouth, 
 tell the yard man that he was too high, that he could bu; 
 the same lumber elsewhere for so an.l so. Then the lumber- 
 man could get at him in a businesslike way. 
 
 I know another yard man who sells lumber to farmers 
 as naturally as sparks fly upward. He handles the rural 
 ^ade well for the reason that he has made a study of it 
 He was cut out for it. He will reach a little farther for a 
 farmer than he will for anybody else and. what is better he 
 enjoys the contact. ' 
 
 This again brings to mind the question of the quality 
 
 IS often found m a lumber yard will look around his mind 
 wdl be disabused of the idea. As in the cases cited above 
 there are men who can sell lumber to townspeople and who 
 fall down when ,t comes to dealing with farmers. There 
 are others vvhose forte is dealing with farmers. Still there 
 are others whose forte has not yet been developed. They do 
 
 to learn. They go at it m an awkward way. sell lumber 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 lOI 
 
 when they can and at other times leave somebody else to 
 sell it. They resort to no devices. To sell goods of any 
 kind successfully a man must be an inventor. He must be 
 able to orginate catchy methods, and while carrying them 
 out retain the confidence of the purchaser. 
 
 "Selling lumber," said a dealer, "is a result of keeping 
 everlastingly at it. Few of us take into account the im- 
 portance of personal influence. When I go for a house bill 
 
 "Ought to have a fine front door 
 
 I Start out with the determination that I will stick. I want 
 a buyer to feel that I want his trade, and that I will put 
 myself out to get it. I can iafford to follow him up as long 
 as my competitor can. I loiow a canvasser who says he 
 catches his victims on *pin hooks.' I sometimes think I am 
 guilty of the same thing. Last spring I was trying to sell a 
 bill for a thousand-dollar house. I had seen the fellow two 
 or three times, but didn't feel a bit contident that I would 
 get his money. One morning as he was passing the office 
 I called him in. I said to him I had been thinking that his 
 house, located as it was going to be, ought to have a fine 
 
ii 
 
 i -■ 
 
 u 
 
 1 02 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 front door, and setting out a showy one I told him I was 
 interested enough in the appearance that his house would 
 present to give that door to him if his lumber went from 
 my yard. I could see it took. Tet's see/ said he, 'how 
 much did you figure the bill ?' I turned to the estimate book 
 and gave him the amount. 'All right,' said he, 'I guess you 
 can have it." I don't suppose my competitor and myself 
 were $4 apart on the bill, and I have no doubt the gift of 
 the door settled the matter. Of course I couldn't offer a 
 door to old Banker Jones who was going to build a man- 
 sion and who knew the ways of the world. You must pick 
 your men." 
 
 KEEPING THE POACHER OUT. 
 
 The effect of the action of those dealers in Chicago and 
 elsewhere whom we call "poachers," and who so often cause 
 the yard men to sweat blood, is different on different indi- 
 viduals. Once one of these dealers ships lumber into the 
 territory of some yard men, those yard men at once apply 
 to their local or general organization and want to know 
 what can be done to head off the villains! I have heard 
 many yard men talk about the poachers, and it seemed to me 
 that very often it was random talk. The only way to keep 
 them out is to keep them out. There is territory into which 
 they never send a car. The dealers rise up and say, "Nay, 
 nay, Mr. Poacher!" and the dealers carry the day. 
 
 "I wouldn't think I had learned my business," said a 
 yard man, "if I couldn't keep the poachers out of my town. 
 How do I do it ? Keep on good terms with the contractors. 
 These contractors know every time when there is any in- 
 tention of shipping in a bill, and I believe it is rarely done 
 except on their advice. A farmer who is going to build 
 may get it into his head that he will send away for his 
 lumber just as he often sends to supply houses for other 
 goods, but he will not do it once in a million times without 
 <onsuIting his contractor or carpenter. That is where I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 103 
 
 get in my work, by being on good terms with the contractor. 
 If he says to the farmer that the poacher will manipulate 
 the grades, which he often does, or that the bill will run . 
 over or under the requirements and he will have lumber 
 left over or be obliged to fill in from the local yards, which 
 nine times in ten occurs one way or the other, the fanner 
 is discouraged. 'See' the contractor? Well, I had rather 
 'see' him to the tune of several dollars than to have a car 
 of lumber shipped in from the outside. If I couldn't play 
 checkers with the poachers I would throw up the sponge 
 
 A very prominent retail man recently said. ' So far as 
 the business of these men is concerned, if they sell to con- 
 sumers only and do not pretend to sell to the retail trade it 
 is perfectly legitimate, as I look at it, but that is not saying 
 that I want them as competitors. Not one of them has ever 
 made a shipment here, but to keep them out I have been 
 obliged to sell many bills at small profit." 
 
 This yard man voices my sentiments exactly, if these 
 men want to sell lumber to consumers the constitutiwi of 
 the United States says they may do so, but that is not say- 
 ing we do not want them out of the way. We want the 
 full swing of trade ourselves-but seeing they are m the 
 way we must make the best of it. Selfishness is at the bot- 
 tom of that great law of self preservation ; consequently if 
 we can fight the poacher off we are going to do it. 
 
 The policy quoted above is that of positive, aggressive 
 dealers who have been successful in their business. There 
 are others whose make-up does not fit them to take the bull 
 by the horns in that way. A not over confident yard man 
 talked to me as though his business would go to the dem- 
 nition bowwows because a couple of barn bills had been 
 shipped into his territory. He thought it was the one 
 deadly drawback to the lumber business. He was a young 
 man so I stroked my blond mustache and said to him that 
 he should not be ready to give up the ghost at this early 
 stage of the game. I told him that few men ever got to 
 the top of the ladder without slipping back a rung now and 
 
104 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the.! in rainy weather. It was ascertained, however that 
 h. dealer d.d not stand pat with the con'tracrorrof h 
 own. Some of the very men who could be of service to him 
 m these emergencies he had estranged. Th't™^ d" 
 
 handed out to three contract"oS ^^ to^a^tr 
 
 tot';:s CuiXi^SLt ^: r r '-'--' 
 
 "Ti / t uciii^ ntiG out to me. I said to mvself 
 
 That yard man is a good fellow;" and do you not suppo e 
 he contractors thought the same thing? ihen you'wa" 
 to catch mrce m a trap you bait it. don't you ? 
 
 This fc,nd of talk, I am aware, will not go with certain 
 
 wsest men damn anybody. Diplomacy, with rare exc' 
 t.ons, ,s better than swear words. The aveiage contmc o^ 
 Z ^' ^"f °"^ t° get along as smoothly and succ^ssfX w ^h 
 h.s work as the rest of us are. Make a comSe Ian ff 
 those who are engaged in the difTerent legitimate Snw! 
 and each man would about fit the same mcS ^" 
 
 was ont oT^^ ■'"'' """ '"^"'^■^^ '^'' ^ <^<^rtain contractor 
 was one of the meanest men to whom he had ever sold lum 
 ber, ye, he sa.d he sold more to him than to anyX 'Z 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 SELLING LUMBER FROM SAMPLE. 
 
 105 
 
 The idea has been broached by several dealers that it 
 might be a good thing to have an office in the center of 
 town where samples would be kept while the stock would 
 lie piled on cheaper ground outside. One dealer asks: ''Has 
 this system been tried?" 
 
 One dealer said : *T would have everything down town, 
 both office and lumber, but I would not separate them. To 
 follow out the modern way of handling lumber no great 
 amount of land is required. The consumer of lumber is 
 not used to purchasing from sample. I will admit he might 
 as well— but he is not used to it. If he wants only a half 
 dozen boards he wants to see piles of lumber. Piles and 
 piles of it seem to impress him. It does him good to go 
 out in the yard and have you tumble over lumber for him, 
 and then if he thinks he is getting the cream of it he is 
 jolly. I like to manage so that every one of my customers 
 thinks he is getting the cream of my stock. You can convey 
 that impression pretty often, too, if you make an eflfort in 
 
 that direction." 
 
 This is one man's opinion. It sounds sensible enough 
 and represents a judgment that for maturity is far above 
 the average ; yet if I wanted to sell lumber from a down 
 town office and store my stock on cheap ground elsewhere 
 I would be guided by no man's opinion. "Where has it 
 been done?" or "Who has tried it?" cuts no figure. The 
 man who always has an eye out for precedent never wins 
 in a big way. Genius repudiates precedent. This has been 
 proved in business life a thousand times. In the literary 
 world the great writers of our age have given it to prece- 
 dent right in the neck. If a yard man feels that 
 he has a genius to sell lumber by sample he need ask no 
 man's consent. A trial will determine whether the method 
 is practical in his case, and in no other way can it be deter- 
 mined. We must throw our personality into our work if 
 we would succeed. One man is more to himself than all 
 
I' 
 
 io6 
 
 lilt 
 
 1 
 
 
 i! 
 
 i (; 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 others can be to him. He is the ego, the power. How would 
 others do it if they were working at his job, isn't the ques- 
 tion to ask. Once a man feels that he is right he should go 
 ahead and let the world wag as it will, and let tongues also 
 wag as they will. Every man has his work to do, and if 
 he does it by reflected light it will lack character and deter- 
 mination. 
 
 "I took the bull by the liorns when I located in the center 
 of the town," said a live ^Minnesota yard man. "It was 
 tradition to establish yards on railroads, no matter if 
 the roads only touched the limits of a town, and the first 
 argument I heard was that I would have to haul all my 
 lumber from the track to my yard ! What a piece of news 
 that was ! I had become tired of selling merchandise where 
 the people would be obliged to go and look me up." 
 
 "Well, they don't have to look you up now," I re- 
 marked as I glanced up at the magnificent shed front, and 
 not half a block away saw dry goods stores with throngs of 
 women going out and in. "That was what I was after," 
 was the laconic reply. 
 
 This man felt the want and he had the courage to fill 
 it. Today his position is envied by his brother dealers. At 
 the time he broke ground for his new plant those same 
 brother dealers would have said he was a lunatic. The 
 audacity, to smash down the old orthodox fence in that 
 manner ! 
 
 The intensely personal man who does not hesitate to 
 drive new stakes is the maker of history. The world may 
 make faces at him, but he regards it as the act of vacant 
 minds. On and on he goes, and alwavs with him is that 
 satisfying thought that instead of plaving ape he is making 
 use of the ability which his Maker has placed in his keeping 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 107 
 
 THE SCHOOL THAT WOULD PLEASE THE YARD 
 
 MAN. 
 
 A retail dealer was telling me that a knowledge of human 
 nature ought to protect the lumberman from loss m his 
 dealings with people. "1 believe." he said, "that unreha- 
 bility is written on the face of every person who is not 
 reliable. I am not speaking of those people who through some 
 Misfortune cannot fay; but there are slick fellows m every 
 community who live at the expense of others and who e 
 object it is to beat their way through the world. They are 
 not known as deadbeats except by the tradesmen who have 
 learned them. They wear good clothes, pass in society, and 
 perhaps pray as loud as the rest of us. Have been caug^ 
 Ey them? I have to the tune of as many dollars as would 
 take me to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. There is 
 a lawver in this town who got into me $24 before I had 
 hardly opened my doors. You can't collect 24 cents from 
 him Yet he does business right along and passes for a 
 decent citizen. He has the art of regretting down fine 
 Suggest to him that he pay and apparently he is the sorriest 
 fellow in seven counties because he is unable to do so. I 
 can now read in his face that he never means to pay any- 
 body if he can help it. I tell you what kmd of a school 
 I wish my boy could attend-one where phrenology, physi- 
 omomv and good horse sense were taught. Let the blank 
 Sin and higlier mathematics go to thunder. The greatest 
 misfortune which has ever come to me in a busmess way 
 was due to my inability to read men Give an '"d" '"ous 
 boy a knowledge of the common school studies and men 
 and I believe he is well equipped fcr life. Somehow the 
 frills don't appear to do us much good when it comes down 
 to earning a living." 
 
 It was a short little sermon, but I know it will appeal 
 to the good sense of many a man. The most of you have 
 standing accounts on your books which will contmue to 
 stand all owing to your inability to read the faces of the 
 
io8 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 109 
 
 people whose names arc at the head of them. And after 
 
 all If we only know how to read faces very often they are as 
 
 an open book-they can readily be graded from culls to clear 
 nnisn. 
 
 GRADES IN YARD MEN. 
 
 There are grades and grades in lumber as we all know. 
 We know, too, that for years they have been deteriorating 
 right along. And while grades of lumber have gone down 
 nil the men who deal in it have been climbing up the hill 
 \\ords accurately describing the high grade lumbermen to^ 
 day would appear fulsome. Those lumbermen are reaching 
 out m more than one direction. The other day I sat down 
 with a yard man, and he filled my heart with joy It is 
 acknmviedged that he is an expert in his line, but press 
 Je right button and lo, the other side of the man appears. 
 .He ,s no longer a lumberman. He talks about music, liter- 
 ature, the destiny of the human soul. His sympathies reach 
 out and embrace the unfortunate. I wonder whv it can't 
 be so wnh more of us? I get tired of the hard features of 
 busmess life. So many imagine that '^business" must be 
 unfeeling; that it must dull our finer senses; that it does 
 not march in the procession with sentiment, heart, and the 
 golden rule; that unless we talk shop morning, noon and 
 night we are coming down from the pedestal on which the 
 uleal business man stands. That is dead wrong, mv friends. 
 We do l)usiness that we may have a livelihood. It should 
 stand in the way of neither our moral nor our intellectual 
 growth. It should not retard our preparation for the life 
 which every sane man hopes mav follow this one It is a 
 means to the end, and to a noble end, too, but when business 
 IS a great scythe that mows down the man I pity the man. 
 Then when it comes to the finesse, as we Frenchmen 
 say of the lumber business the most of it has been learned 
 within a few years comparatively. The retail men have 
 gone forward in this regard as have the wholesale men 
 
 Not many years ago lumber at both retail and wholesale 
 was sold by main strength and awkwardness. Boards— that 
 was all lumber was. The dealer did not lie awake nights 
 devising some way to manipulate those boards so they would 
 bring more money. It was not thought it was any more 
 necessary to cover piles of lumber than though they were 
 stone piles. Let the elements and thieves prey upon them. 
 I should like to see a yard of twenty years ago set down 
 alongside of one that could be selected today. How much 
 difference do you think there would be between them ? As 
 much as there is between the old Rocket and a modern loco- 
 motive that makes a mile in less than a minute. In the one 
 there would be a paucity of stocks and grades, housed under 
 the sky; in the other hundreds of items carefully selected 
 for specific purposes, and as carefully stored. In the one 
 the yard man would be pottering around, selling lumber 
 when he could, and when he ran short corresponding with 
 some one mill man for a further supply. In the other the 
 dealer would have an eye to the north, south and west for 
 the material he wanted, as well as an eye to the sash and 
 door factory that would give him the best and cheapest job 
 in finish. To be an up-to-date retail lumberman these days 
 a man must be a merchant ; if he is a slobmaguUion he will 
 lack furlongs of being up to date. To do a successful 
 retail business implies sizing up, reaching out and mastering 
 men to a certain extent. 
 
 The lumber yard will no doubt go right on improving. 
 In a certain town a visitor who was unacquainted with sheds 
 would say there was no lumber yard there. There is not a 
 board or stick of timber in sight. There is an immense 
 building that would attract attention; but tear the sign down 
 and the novice would not know but it was a structure in 
 which they stored grain or made beer. And when I went in 
 the man in charge was sweeping. Think of a house broom 
 for cleaning up a lumber shed! A few years ago they 
 wouldn't have used a scraper, to say nothing about a broom. 
 Mud, dust, dirt and rats it was thought belonged to it. 
 
I lO 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The department store idea more and more keeps running 
 through the noddles of yard men. There are leaders in the 
 business who are alive to a premonition that they will be 
 obliged to carry a more varied stock than they are now 
 carrying. There are, indeed, those who think they will be 
 forced to carry about everything in the building line. There 
 are yard men who argue that the coming yard will be less 
 numerous than is the present one, and that it will require a 
 capital of from $15,000 to $25,000 to conduct a decent lum- 
 ber business, instead of a half or a quarter of that amount as 
 is the rule today. In my opinion there will be more yards 
 instead of fewer ; still I do not claim to be able to see farther 
 into a block of granite than the rest of you. Nothing except 
 death and taxes is more certain, however, than that there 
 are men in business at this time who, if they hold a place 
 in trade, will have to pick up their ears and heels. They 
 may keep along in a one-yard town where there is no com- 
 petition, lounge around at some street corner resort and 
 talk politics, but by and by when the burg shall increase 
 in size and a live dealer shall come in the old musty bones 
 will have to hustle, else they will go underground in the 
 business graveyard. 
 
 Do you know that men are smart these days? They 
 keep an eye on the ground to learn what may be approach- 
 ing. I expect they will go on getting smarter and shrewder. 
 We have reached a point now where those qualities begin to 
 tell in our offspring. There are boys that are smarter than 
 chain lightning. It is surprising how many young men 
 control big affairs. They are slicker than the old stock, and 
 often faster. 
 
 THE RAGE FOR BIG TOWNS. 
 
 It amuses me to see how many foolish things are said by 
 the metropolitan newspapers, one reason for these foolish 
 things, no doubt, being that we, the foolish readers of them, 
 demand that they be said. Just now we are running wild 
 
 over the population of our cities. The city that has not 
 increased in size since the last census enumeration is made 
 to feel disgraced, and those which have had an increase of 
 from 75 to 200 percent are held up as fit locations for the 
 New Jerusalem. Wherein is there more honor for a city to 
 have 100,000 inhabitants than half of that number? What 
 special virtue is there in a crowd of people? Where the 
 special virtue would come in would be for a quarter of the 
 inhabitants of the big cities to get out of them. That would 
 be something worth talking about. Let them get out on 
 the broad prairies and raise corn and hogs and have enough 
 to eat the year round. There would be solid and special 
 virtue in that, but we do not have the good sense to shout 
 for it. We can shout for nothing but the big aggregation— 
 for the unnatural, the buncombe. 
 
 We are laying the emphasis on the wrong portion of our 
 people. If the country districts show no increase in popu- 
 lation no one will cry out. Not a word of regret will be 
 heard. This tends to pain me. Since I have become a 
 bloated land-owner, and in addition own an old black cow, a 
 dog and some hens and roosters, I cannot with good grace 
 hear a thing slightingly said of the man with the hoe, for ^ 
 I am somewhat he. Last spring I bought a fine hoe, with a 
 red tag on the handle, with which to hoe a patch of cabbage. 
 When I would appear dressed like a fashion plate among 
 the yard men of a town little would they think that perhaps 
 not Wenty-four hours before I was bending over the hoe. 
 I hoed the cabbage faithfully. The worms ate them all up, 
 but I saved the hoe, and I can prove it. 
 
 What you most want, beloved, is that outsiders shall let 
 your business alone and permit you to sell lumber at retail. 
 What I don't care a rap is whether one town has a citizen 
 or two more than some other town or not, but I do want 
 every town to have a good steam-heated hotel, pretty dining- 
 room girls and cushioned 'buses in which to ride to and 
 from the stations. As for myself, I have seen all the crowds 
 I want to. I wouldn't give a nickel to look upon **a sea of 
 
112 
 
 f 
 
 11 
 
 it I •'• 
 
 fill 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 upturned faces" that would cover a township. In the lives 
 of all of us, provided we do not go insane up to that time 
 there should come a period when it is more of an object to 
 pass along comfortably than it is to have our ribs stove in. 
 
 If there is enough vitality in our blood to withstand the 
 survival of the fittest, a few ages hence those in whose 
 vems It shall course will be praying for fewer people, as 
 they are m Chma today, instead of cracking their heels 
 together because their towns show a majority over some 
 other towns. I trust that our descendants may know more 
 than we do. 
 
 METHODS OF BUYING YARDS. 
 There are ways and ways of buying and selling lumber 
 yards. A retail dealer told me he could sell at 40 percent 
 premium on his inventory. You know of course what a 
 condition like that implies. The yard is doing a steady 
 and profitable business and is in every respect desirable. A 
 yard man not long ago sold at a premium of $2 a thousand 
 on the lumber in pile over and above the price it cost to 
 lay It where it was. I suppose he had on hand 400,000 feet 
 the bonus amounting to $800. Another yard man when ap- 
 proached on the subject of selling replied, "That shed there 
 cost me $250; if you want to invoice it at $1,200 we will 
 call it a go." 
 
 There are retail men who repudiate all this premium 
 business. They say that a man is not wise to pay a pre- 
 mium for a business ; that the good will of a business is an 
 asset which is of little value; that it was the man that 
 made the business and he is not sold with the outfit If 
 these men prefer to start a new yard to paying a premium 
 for one already established that is their business. There are 
 others who are willing to break into the trade on the pre- 
 mium plan. After a good deal of rubbing up against the 
 yard man and knowing the value they place on their busi- 
 ness, under ordinary circumstances I should not expect to 
 be able to buy a desirable yard in six months without paying 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. "3 
 
 more for it than the invoices of the goods showed^ I was 
 told on what short notice a yard was sold. The man who 
 bought it was a stranger in the town. He looked around, 
 saw the yard that suited him, went in and struck up a con- 
 versation with the owner. They walked around, and the 
 newcomer saw what there was in stock. Incidentally ap- 
 parently, the yard man was asked if he had any desire to sell 
 ^t, and replied he had never had anything yet, except his 
 wife and children, that he wouldn't sell. He was asked how 
 much he would take, and a lump sum was named. I will 
 take it," said the stranger. "Here is $500; draw up a con- 
 tract and I will take possession next Monday and pay you 
 the balance of the purchase price." , , r , 
 
 That was the way the bargain was f^^^lf'^^^l 
 as I have learned both parties were satisfied No doubt, 
 said a yard man who was speaking of the deal, "the original 
 owner of the yard set his price so that he was safe ; bu 
 really, how much of a figure does $500 or $600 cut when it 
 comes to buying a business that suits you? It amounts to 
 nothing. I know a dealer who was looking for a yard and 
 he tried to strike a bargain with the owner of one of the 
 best yards in his section, but a bonus of $800 was asked.- I 
 believe the other fellow offered $500. They couldn t Re 
 together and the man bought a yard in a nearby town and 
 was glad to get rid of it again in less than twelve months. 
 Then he was out again looking for another location 
 
 When speaking on this subject a yard man recited an 
 
 •„ ^ fV,ot wa« interestine— decidedly so to him at 
 experience that was imeresuug . j^,,^,. 'Snd 
 
 the time. "It was a. one-yard town," said this dealer and 
 Igood one, too. I talked purchase and found I could buy 
 ?h? vard by paying $900 more than I thought the thing was 
 woriirYou know wTn we are buying we want everything 
 i„v«ftoried low, and when we sell we want it as high as the 
 law will allow. This man owned his yard ground, with an 
 acre adjoining which he used for his horse pasture. For the 
 land he wanted a few hundred dollars more than I wanted 
 to pay Then I thought he ran his office and shed up a little 
 

 litHi 
 
 "4 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 above the nom.al. Instead of paying him his price, and 
 having the whole thing my own way, I put in a second yard 
 and was glad to get out in less than eighteen months. That 
 man stayed there for years, had a good business right along 
 and no doubt the real estate is worth four times as much 
 as It was when I was so fool-headed I did not buy it A good 
 thmg is worth a good price; when we forget that we are apt 
 to make some poor bargains." 
 
 THE ARBITRATION IDEA. 
 This idea of arbitration is becoming more and more in 
 favor. When two nations feel like givi.ig it to one another 
 under the fifth rib with powder and ball the plea is made by 
 many that it is silly to do such a thing, and that they would 
 better let some disinterested nation say how the difficulty 
 shall be settled. That is the civilized way of it, there is no 
 question about that. In our best and thoughtful moments 
 we all see it in that light. Away back they didn't think so 
 however. If we had lived then, and I had not agreed with 
 you, your friends might have poured melted lead into my 
 ears and down my throat to convince me what's what. It 
 was not uncommon for good men to fill other good men with 
 lead m that way. When we read history we see it has often 
 been reputably good men— God-fearing men— who have 
 raised special deviltry in the way of torturing and killing 
 their neighbors. I know if I had lived in those days the 
 logic of the situation would have forced me to be a holy ter- 
 ror, for then I could have avoided being tortured myself 
 and having to torture others. The worst men out of the 
 box are on record as cutting the fewest throats. 
 
 The idea of filling people with lead has followed right 
 down from those old days. When it reached a point where 
 the oflfenders could not easily be caught and the lead poured 
 mto them the gun was invented, and thus the lead was made 
 to chase them up. It is the same idea, only slightly modi- 
 fied. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. "5 
 
 I could name several places where this arbitration idea 
 ought to be in force in the retail lumber line. "I will give 
 you so much," said a yard man to me, naming an amount, 
 •'if you will get my competitors to sign a document binding 
 them to sell material at certain prices." I looked at the man. 
 He appeared sane enough ; at any rate he was out of the in- 
 sane asylum. He had a head in which, to judge from out- 
 ward appearances, there was a place for brains. If a man 
 should tell him he didn't know beans when the bag was 
 untied he would resent it as an insult. Then I went around 
 and visited his competitors. They, too, were decent lookmg 
 men They had been furnished with domes of thought like 
 the rest of us. I would guarantee that in a horse trade they 
 would be as shrewd as gypsies. One of them told me how 
 he had helped along an improvement in his town >" a cer- 
 tain direction. I know if I had been broke he would have 
 loaned me a dollar. I looked them all. over, talked with 
 them, and then went to the hotel and did a bit of musing. 
 
 "Here are three men," I thought, "who would kick me 
 out of the office if I should go back and say to them that they 
 do not know enough to eat pudding when it is set before 
 them. Surrounded by a good territory, furnishing all the 
 lumber that is consumed in a thrifty little city, yet they are 
 hauling and pulling like so many unbroken steers Ihen 
 again, they have it all to themselves-only three of them- 
 and they have the whole shooting match right m the.r hands 
 Why don't they arbitrate their differences? They neednt 
 call me, or anybody else, in to do it. If they have a spark 
 of common sense in their heads that should be the arbi- 
 trator. Why don't they ring the old town bell get together, 
 and having come together pull together?" 
 
 I thought on in this mild and inoffensive way about these 
 fellows until supper was ready. You see the Old Scratch 
 was raised when the third man came into this town. The 
 new lumberman is often a cake of yeast that will raise any- 
 thing. Do you suppose that this new man came here and 
 engaged in selling lumber just for fun? He wauld be likely 
 
 ; I; 
 
1 
 
 \ 
 
 il'- 
 
 \m 
 
 Ih 
 
 ^ 
 
 't 
 
 ii6 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 to do that very thing, wouldn't he? The two dealers thought 
 
 he had no business here and set about to crowd him out. 
 
 Why didn't they telephone him to come over, tell him they 
 
 were glad to make his acquaintance, ask him to meet them 
 
 that evening at the best restaurant in town, and then when 
 
 they were all stuffed with grub and feeling happy say to him, 
 
 "Jmi, we'll own right up it doesn't suit us your coming here! 
 
 but here you are, and we must make the best of it. We are 
 
 good Americans, good Christians; therefore it would go 
 
 against the grain to do you dirt. Now let's get together in 
 
 some way that will be fair all around, live like neighbors 
 
 and do business like sensible men." 
 
 That kind of talk would have suited Jim, or anybody 
 else. It doesn't take much of a blow to smash that icicle 
 that hangs between so many of us. Often we are offish 
 mdependent, and sag back like a balky horse, because we 
 thmk the other fellow delights in showing the same quali- 
 ties, and often he cuts up in a like manner for the purpose 
 of duplicating us. If we would walk right up and let the 
 man shine out of us instead of letting that miserable little 
 devil, selfishness, claw around in our brains and muddle 
 them, nine times in ten the other fellow would meet us half 
 way. Take that yard man who asked me to act as peace- 
 maker; he was ready to meet his competitors but he did 
 not think they were ready to meet him. For aught he knew 
 they were as ready as he was. 
 
 How I do wish that the retail lumbermen in many a 
 town could see this matter in the light as here presented. 
 I know they would feel better in every respect. Especially 
 when they invoiced, they would feel glad to know that they 
 had made more dollars than they would had they played 
 the part of the dog in the manger. Life is too short for 
 these little tuppenny trade differences and jealousies to" be 
 given rein. They should be cracked on the head every time 
 they bob up. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 DIVISION OF SHED BINS. 
 
 "7 
 
 This is the way I recently saw it done: Suppose you 
 place uprights, 2x4, or even lighter material, m the front 
 and back of your bins, thus forming divisions, each of which 
 will hold a 6, 8, 10 or 12 inch board, as the case may be. 
 You are piling, say, lo-inch finish. Instead of carrying up 
 the pile several boards wide, as is ordinarily done, you pile 
 the lumber between two of these uprights, gaged to accom- 
 modate a loinch board, and continue to pile it as high as the 
 bin if you so choose. Then you can handle your other 
 widths of finish, flooring and siding-or other grades, if you 
 desire— in the same way. 
 
 No doubt in your mind's eye you have already seen the 
 advantage. The pile is never tumbling over. It is there 
 to stay for the verv good reason that it is held m place. In 
 the hands of some men the boards in a pile of lumber seem- 
 ingly have as many legs as a caterpillar. They are all the 
 time on the move, getting out of line, and even off the pile. 
 I saw a pile of 6-inch stuff that had been put up four boards 
 wide, and possibly five feet high. In selling from this pile 
 three widths had been taken down nearly to the foundation 
 leaving the other standing, and over that had tumbled. It 
 looked like a blasted rose in January. If there had been a 
 partition between each width this would not have happened. 
 Of course, the lath for sticking will have to be cut to tally 
 with the width of the board on which it is used. 
 
 This system of piling did not appear to be regarded with 
 any particular favor in the yard in which it is used. A 
 former employee had put in the partitions-and that was 
 all there was to it. The next day I explained it to a yard 
 man fifty miles from the town in which I saw it, and be took 
 to it like a fish to water. "Why, of course, said he, that 
 is just the thing. Why didn't I think of it before? I often 
 want to keep several grades in one bin, and that system 
 solves it You can put the different grades side by side, and 
 
 im 
 
 >« 
 
ii8 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 1 
 
 they won't mix, and you know where to put your hand right 
 on them." 
 
 "Well, what are the disadvantages?" I asked, wanting to 
 get at the unfavorable side. 
 
 "I see none," was the reply, "except that piling might be 
 a trifle slower, and when loading the boards could not be 
 handled with hardly the freedom that they could when not 
 confined so closely." 
 
 You never know what will hit a man. This yard man 
 was enthusiastic over this little kink which costs to introduce 
 it only a small amount, and which will save room and labor. 
 It is good for a lazy man for he has no piles to even up. 
 Once up they are always up until they are sold and cleared 
 away. 
 
 PLEASING THE FARMER CUSTOMER. 
 
 There was no business going on and we had whittled 
 until our knives were tired out. We had told each other 
 from what section of country we hailed and how many chil- 
 dren we had. It does not take two men long when whit- 
 tling to become acquainted, even familiar, and I imagine it 
 is because they are engaged in the same democratic occu- 
 pation. If one were whittling and the other doing some- 
 thmg else it would take them longer to get together, if 
 indeed, they ever got together. It is a grand thing 'for 
 people to regard themselves as standing on common ground, 
 for it is only then that their sympathies are akin. When I 
 feel that I am on a reserved seat and you on the bleaching 
 board, or vice versa, there is a long and deep chasm be- 
 tween us. There is never the difference between us that in 
 our dejected or high-headed moments we think there is. but 
 we get it in our minds there is and act accordingly. 
 
 This yard man had something to say about the way he 
 "tickled*' his customers, as he expressed it. "Nearly all 
 my trade— or at least eight-tenths of it— is farmer trade," 
 said he, "and it requires some tact to handle it. The farmer 
 
 I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 119 
 
 is 'agin' those people who consider themselves above him 
 socially. If you notice, it is the farming community agamst 
 the town right along. Give the farmers the chance to vote 
 for somebody for local office who is not regarded as a town 
 
 "Told how many children we had." 
 
 man,' and see how quick they do it every time. One thing; 
 I have aimed to dress so that my farmer customers would 
 take no exception on that score. I don't want them to think 
 
 I am stuck up." 
 
 I felt a little uneasy during the latter part of these 
 comments. Just before I started out on that trip I had 
 bought a flaming necktie which cost me 35 cents, had the 
 creases pressed down my pants legs, and that morning had 
 paid a dime to have my shoes shined so that I could see my 
 face in them. Almost involuntarily I tucked my tie out of 
 sight down under my waistcoat, as I learned in polite 
 English society to call my vest. 
 
 "When we go in," the yard man continued, "I will show 
 you my tobacco box and pipes. I never set up the cigars, 
 as a common thing; they cost too much and don't fill the 
 bill. There are a good many pipes full of tobacco in a 
 
 

 
 120 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 quarter pound of tobacco that costs ten cents I buy a 
 cheap corncob pipe by the gross, and then when the farmer 
 has smoked Iiis fill he puts the pipe in his pocket if he 
 wants to and thinks he has been well treated. It is not 
 unusual when one of my customers comes to town for him 
 to hitch his horses, come in and get his smoke. It partakes 
 of a social feature with them. I tell the boy to watch the 
 tobacco box and see that it never runs dry. I smoke cigars 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 121 
 
 myself sometimes, but I never hesitate to hit the pipe with a 
 larmer when he comes in." 
 
 Then he branched out a little broader. "I sustain what 
 I ca.l a literary bureau," he said. "All sorts of papers cir- 
 culars and other kinds of reading matter come to me and 
 mstead of throwing them into the stove I put them on a 
 shelf and tell a farmer to fill his pocket with them I 
 throw my newspapers up there, too, when I am through 
 with them. Now pretty soon, when the evenings get a 
 httle longer, I will begin to run my literary bureau full blast 
 I have thought I would get some of the exchanges from 
 
 the local papers to give out. The average farmer does not 
 spenTmuch money on papers, but all the same he hkes to 
 reSth^m I have had the wives of some of these farmers 
 S in front of my place and ask if I had any papers o 
 soare What I want is to keep my customers thinking 
 Tout me as much as possible, and thinking that I an. reac^ 
 to show them these little favors out of my good feeling 
 toward them. I regard all this as cheap advert.smg and at 
 the same time it is what I call social advertising. By as 
 suming top-lofty airs I feel confident that a portion of my 
 Tde wouM leaJe me. If I was catering to a town trade . 
 would be an entirely different proposition. Then 1 might 
 try to work some other racket." 
 
 When we went in I took a look at the tobacco sundries. 
 The pipes cost a cent and a half each. "I suppose that $5 
 a year will run my tobacco department, and I am not sure 
 but it does me $500 worth of good. At any ^te I wouldn t 
 dispense with it if a man would give me $50, was the yard 
 man's estimate of the pipe and tobacco scheme. 
 
 "Got any more snaps hid around here?" I asked. 
 "That is all," he laughingly said. 
 On my way to the hotel I reflected how many baited 
 hooks there are thrown out for poor, weak mortals to catch 
 at; and we catch at them, too. If it is not a corn cob pipe 
 filled with cheap tobacco it is something else. We are all 
 endowed with a sort of catching nature. 
 
 MANY NEW YARDS. 
 
 "When this wave of prosperity shall have passed over 
 there will be more lumber yards for sale than you can shake 
 a stick at," a yard man remarked. 
 
 Well I am not so sure about that. Durmg thoie times 
 we call hard as much money is made in lumber as in other 
 lines of business. And when we look at it right .t is non- 
 sense for a man to get out of his regular business because 
 
 
t 
 
 122 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the times are drawing a tight rein. I heard a prominent 
 yard man talidng along this line a while ago who had a 
 
 asked. If I should want to go in again it might take a 
 long time to find a place that would suit me. A desirable 
 yard ,s not to be picked up every day. And if I should want 
 to s ay out I could not safely invest my money so that it 
 v^M bnng me more than 4 percent, and it takes a pile 
 of money at that rate of interest to support a family I 
 don t know where money can be safer than in good lumber 
 well insured, and m such book accounts as I have " 
 
 I am also of the opinion that should there come a pinch 
 .n the times and good yards were offered for sale thev would 
 be picked up on short notice. The business man' of any 
 experience has learned that these so-called hard times are 
 the pendulum swinging one way, and that soon it will come 
 back. Do you think hard times could be of such a nature 
 .n this country that they would stay for any great length of 
 nne wuh us? Again, there are men in largf numberf who 
 m the past three years have tried to buy the kind of lumber 
 yards they wanted and who failed to get them. Let good 
 yards be offered for sale and these men would rush iras 
 buyers, wilhng to wait a little while for the balance of trade 
 to come their way. 
 
 No doubt, should the times squeeze us a trifle there 
 wou d be yards .0 sell. There are yards to sell now. If you 
 want them you can be steered against them. With yards 
 .n nearly every little burg in the United States, it would be 
 smguhr If somebody did not want to sell out. But they are 
 not the crack yards. That grade of yard, if put on the 
 
 to T'r u'^' """""f °^ ^"■''' '' •"^'^'"g ^"- It seems 
 to me I have never known of so much scrapping as there 
 
 •s m the retail world this blessed minute. And much o5 
 
 It comes about because another yard has gone in. Not long 
 
 ago an individual dealer located in a town in which the"! 
 
 ■4' 
 
 ' ' REALM OF THE RETAILER. I23 
 
 wc-re three line vards, and in that town I was told of a bill 
 rhat had be n sold for $4-25 under the wholesale list, and 
 o induce the buyer to take it at that price he was presented 
 with a five dollar bill. This is one of the extreme cases 
 Z there are scores of others which are bad -°J^^ J/^ 
 the same token there will be more scrapping f«'^*e Pr^^^n 
 number of yards will certainly be mcreased. A fouple ot 
 vears aKO I had a prophetic vision that there would be this 
 nc^aSln yards, L'those yard men who di not want . 
 to come true really taunted me to my very beard! To be 
 sureHVave no beard, but it sounds dramatic -d like wa 
 o u e the expression. They said the reverse would be the 
 case that the little fellows with little money would be 
 crowded out and thus the number of yards be reduced. 
 
 Beloved, things do not come our way for the sunple rea- 
 son that w; want them to. If they did, you and I would 
 have so manv dollars that we could throw them to the wind 
 and not miss them. Instead of dictating how things shall 
 bfwe Ire often dictated to. Now, there is my acre pasture 
 out back of the barn, with my one old black cow in 1 .One 
 of my good friends has 3,000 acres just over the roll of the 
 Jarrfe'yonder. with steers on every knoll and under the 
 shade of everv tree. It would do my soul good to be such 
 f cattle king, but I haven't had the speed to get there. And 
 ; Sn't know as I am going to be held responsible because in 
 he steer line I am unable to go a 2:08 gait, either. No, 
 tSings will not come our way simply because of a desire in 
 the matter We big fellows in the retail world may want 
 In t^el tie yards tf close up shop and quit but they won' 
 do U because we want them to. They think they have a right 
 to live What if this big cattle owner should say to me 
 Le wa going to do all the cattle business in this section 
 o the count^? I would tell him to go and hang himself ; 
 that I and m'y old black cow would be right on deck yet 
 awiile. The^ small yard men will make some such reply 
 to us big mogxils when we tip our hats to them and pohtely 
 ask them if they will please be so kind as to quit. 
 
i .^ 
 
 
 iiki 
 
 ,1 
 
 
 124 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I know of no other dealer in merchandise who can 
 ra.se so much deuce to the square foot as can the retail 
 lumberman. When he gets his dan.ler up he demoralizes 
 not on y the trade of his own town but that of every town 
 around h,m I„ speaking of the disposition of so many yard 
 men to do tins an old dealer remarked : -Retail lumbermen 
 are the b.ggest fools on the face of the earth ! In this town 
 
 ZT^^ V"T ^i^-"^ '" ''°'^'' ^"'^ y^^'l improvements, 
 ?So.ooo on books-$i2s,ooo involved-vet like a lot of doK 
 in the manger we are fighting one ano'ther off and nobody 
 IS makmg a cent. You can't find another such a blank lot 
 of busmess men. At that sign that you see across the street 
 down yonder there is a new grocery, and a good-sized con- 
 cern It IS, too. But because they have started in there vou 
 can t go to the other groceries and buy tea and butter ^nd 
 flour at cos,! They aren't such blank fools as that! My 
 Idea IS that when there is a yard too many, buy it out if vou 
 can but never try to fight it out. for I have seen it demon- 
 
 another.-- " " ''°"'"' ^°'" °"' "^'" '° ^^^^^ ^« -^" ^« 
 
 The huge joke of all this scrapping business is that 
 every man engaged in it knows the remedy. It is no far- 
 ther away fron, him than the offices of his neighbors. But 
 when we get bull-headed from pri.le and selfishness, the 
 good Lord help us ! 
 
 THE WHOLESALE DEALER'S COMPLAINT. 
 
 As we were speeding along on the boulevard in a car- 
 nage wuh a monogram on the door, the wholesale man 
 had somethmg to say about the yard man who pays his bills 
 an a provokmg manner. 
 
 .^. The world is not full of people who have been trained 
 to exact busmess methods ; when we have been so trained 
 however, irregular methods are very objectionable. Now 
 there ,s my best girl. She could keep house well enough 
 for the Kmg of England ; still, the king would have to 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. i25 
 
 ■„A hU eve for if he should come into the parlor with 
 mi eet'the would shoo him o.n with a brcK>m. You 
 Tee she has an idea of the eternal fitness of thmgs. It is 
 the ame tvith this wholesale man of whom I am speakmg. 
 By tra^Lg, and possibly by nature, he is puncti.l. pays a 
 debt on the tick of a watch when it is due; and it goes 
 against the grain that others are not thus prompt. 
 ^^ne of fhe charges made was ^^ '^r^THnZ 
 naving bills too often remit personal checks. In a single 
 ca e ft does not amount to enough worth talking about, 
 ru^take say twenty such checks a day, which cost from .0 
 to 40 cents each to collect, and it counts up. he said. The 
 position was taken that it costs the yard man o^y » -ry 
 ^all amount to buy a draft, often notiiing at the bank 
 where he does his business, and that it is by draft he 
 
 should pay. • - u*. i An, not 
 
 In my opinion the wholesale man is right. I do no 
 believe it is good business form sending personal checks all 
 ov creation' If I owe you $i-and it holds true if I ow 
 you $1, Deceit seems to me that you are entitled to tha 
 
 ■ amount and when I pay you with a check tha -U cos 
 you exchange to collect I am not domg my who e duty^ I 
 Low it is done a good deal, but that has '^"'V *« ^o with 
 the custom-it does not affect the principle in the least^ 
 
 ' Another complaint was that the time of pay-n wl,,ch 
 entitles the yard man to the discount is -tended and Ae 
 discount deducted just the same. Now we anj<now there 
 
 ■ is no business in that. I know merchants who would pay 
 
 he ?ull bill instead of discounting it if the time ran twenty- 
 four hours over the ten or thirty days, as the case might 
 be That is fulfilling the spirit of the contract. You say to 
 „e "I will sell you these goods, cash sixty da3^, 2 percent, 
 ofr'in thftfy davs." The thirty days pass and I do not r<j, |{. 
 mV Maybe I want to use the money for five or ten days 
 "d at the expiration of that time I deduct the discount and 
 for^vard the balance. Don't you see my P-'''°" J J^ 
 entirely plumb? I have violated the contract. And many a 
 
 i^ 
 
126 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 man in the various lines does this, thinking the matter is 
 so sn,all that the wholesale dealer will say nothing about it • 
 
 t^lVj; '''•*''""' ^'" ^''P "P a-thinking. all the 
 same. The pomt ,s here: We should do as we agree, no 
 ma»er whether a few cents, or a million of them are in- 
 
 The wholesalers will get it in for us often enough; 
 there are those who will take advantage of us in filling or- 
 ders, but we must be square with them. And there is an- 
 other pomt: Force them to be square with us. Live up to 
 our contract, and make them live up to theirs. I am the 
 friend of the righteous kicker. Sometimes it is impossible 
 tor us to get our rights without kicking. But let us bear in 
 mind that the wholesale man is also justified in kicking 
 when his rights are not respected. 
 
 TRICKS OF WHOLESALE MEN. 
 
 Do you know what right a wholesale dealer has to fill 
 an order contrary to the letter of it.' It would require a 
 book like this m which to record all the cases of this kind 
 
 Jt7^u u'?" ':'°"^''' '"^ ""^ "'^""- It appeals to me 
 
 that these wholesale men go on the principle that the yard 
 
 men do not know what they want. It is similar to my or- 
 <lenng, say, a pair of pants from Chicago. I would meas- 
 ure the length of my legs, the big circumference of my 
 waist, send the figures along and tell the tailor that I 
 wanted a pair of all wool pants of those particular dimen- 
 sions. Back they come-three-quarters cotton, the legs four 
 inches too long and the waist so small that I have to lace 
 them up in front with shoe strings. The tailor virtually 
 says. Old man, you don't know what you want ; so I send 
 these along and I believe you will be pleased with them i" 
 I would be tickled, wouldn't I? I would take particular 
 pains to go around among my friends and say to them that 
 this Chicago tailor was the best fellow who ever made pants 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 127 
 
 for me, and they would do well to order from him, wouldn t 
 p Not on your life, as they say in cultured circles. 1 
 would have a knife up my sleeve for that Chicago tailor 
 Don't you see that this is only an exaggerated statement ot 
 what is occurring in the lumber world every day ? 
 
 Yesterday I saw a yard man who ordered a car of yel- 
 low pine, and it came stuffed to the tune of 2,000 feet. 
 Poor fellow, of course he didn't know how much yellow 
 pine he wanted. It was for the wholesale man to know 
 that • He wrote the wholesale house and got a letter in re- 
 turn that made him as mad as a wet hen. Today I saw 
 another yard man whose yellow pine order was stuffed 
 1 000 feet In addition he was given grooved back flooring 
 when flat back was ordered. "Flat back is worth $1 niore 
 to me," he said. The car stood on track, and very likely 
 the men who sold the lumber had to take it away. Soon 
 after the orders for these cars were given yellow pine lum- 
 ber declined in price $2 or $3. Pretty kettle of fish, wasnt 
 it Where were the next orders of these yard men placed ? 
 ' In contradistinction to this way of doing business I am 
 coing to tell one on a big Minneapolis company. Last week I 
 saw a yard man who does contracting. I asked him where he 
 bought his stock and he was gentleman enough to tell me. 
 He said he bought it almost exclusively of this Minneapolis 
 company. Last year he bought of the concern more than 
 100 cars I am constantly putting foolish questions, and 1 
 asked this yard man why it was thus. "It is because I get 
 what I want there," said he. "Gipson sees that I get it. 
 
 Possibly you know these people. I suppose in volume 
 of business they are the leading lumbermen of the world 
 today Stoop shouldered, gray haired old men, who have 
 worked their way up. So you might picture them but you 
 would be wrong. Young men, both of them. And how 
 have these young men managed to place their feet on the 
 topmost rung of the ladder? Capital? No! Capital can t 
 do it, else there are scores of lumber concerns with their 
 millions and millions who would have been there. These 
 
' 
 
 128 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 young men please their customers ; that is the secret of it. 
 Those firms which are stuffing orders and who, by their dis- 
 tasteful business methods, are aHenating the yard men would 
 better put this recipe for success in their pipes and smoke it. 
 
 FORGETFULNESS IN CHARGING. 
 
 To paraphrase: To charge or not to charge, that is 
 the question. Whether it is better to forget to charge and 
 thus be out of our goods as clean as though a thief had 
 taken them, or to charge and thus pursue a respected busi- 
 
 
 "We were promenading (he platform.'* 
 ness career by keeping out of the sheriff's hands— this is a 
 question which should occupy our minds. 
 
 The yard man who is growing gray in the service, and 
 who has given particular attention to this question, regards 
 It as folly for a lumberman, unless he has a thorough system 
 Jio assert that he omits putting nothing on hir^oks He 
 instanced several cases when whole wagon loacfs of lumber 
 went out scot-free. 
 
 He laughed at those people who believe they have "per- 
 fect" memories. He is of the opinion that the memory is 
 
 ■i 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 1^9 
 
 perfect when it works, but" that, like all else that .s of the 
 earth, it is liable to lapse and slip cogs. At one time he 
 boneht his meat of a butcher who did a credit business and, 
 prompted by his observation he said to this butcher that he 
 believed a large part of his profits were lost by not charging 
 meat that went out. The butcher turned up his big, fat 
 nose at this. He would wait on a string of customers, and 
 when there was a lull in trade he would go to the book and 
 charge the items. He was firmly of the opinion that he 
 missed nothing, relying as he did on that perfect memory 
 of his This yard man does not assume to guess or mter 
 that as the credit business is ordinarily run the charging of 
 many goods sold is neglected. He says he knows there is 
 this neglect. So he kept tab on the butcher so far as his 
 own trade with him was concerned, and the first week he 
 eot meat twice no record of which could be found on the 
 butcher's books. "That would have knocked all the profit 
 there was to the butcher in my trade for a week, said the 
 
 yard man. ., 
 
 Tills man explained his method of billing orders. When 
 selline a bill of lumber he makes a memorandum of every 
 item wanted before a stick is loaded. If a customer says 
 he wants two boards to patch up a hole in the shed he makes 
 a memorandum of those two boards, and then asks what 
 else is wanted. From this memorandum the items are 
 checked as they are loaded-strictly so. If shingles and 
 lime are on the memorandum they are not checked after the 
 shingles and lime are on the wagon, but as soon as the 
 shingles are thrown on that item is checked, and the same as 
 to the lime. Then if it is a cash deal he simply scribbles 
 "cash" on the slip; if it is to be charged it is so md.cated, 
 and the record is ready for the bookkeeper. 
 
 "This method has an additional advantage," said the yard 
 man when we were promenading the P'atform waiting for 
 the train that would rid the town of me. When all the 
 items are before you on a slip like that you can load to 
 better advantage. Instead of driving helter-skelter through 
 
 *i< 
 
i:.'-! 
 
 
 y 
 
 »: 
 
 130 . REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the yard, back and forth through the alleys, picking up an 
 Item here and there as the buyer thinks he may want it, you 
 know just where to drive to get the items, one after the 
 other. For instance, a man wants a few pieces of dimen- 
 sion and we throw it on. Then he wants a Httle siding and 
 we drive around in the last alley and put that on. Then it 
 occurs to the buyer that he wants some No. 4 boards, so 
 back we come next to the dimension pile and load them. 
 Even in loading it saves time, and time does not lack much 
 of being money." 
 
 Then when I had gone aboard and found a seat in the 
 crowded car the man with the goatee and heavy eyebrows 
 who sat by my side went to talking politics. I try to be 
 courteous, but I almost forget my bringing up when some 
 slobmagullion of a politician goes to bumping arguments 
 mto me which have been going the rounds of the newspapers 
 for a year, and doing it in a way that he would have a lis- 
 tener believe these arguments are original with him. It is 
 then I want to stretch myself out and rest. 
 
 PERFECT BALANCES. 
 
 "^I know from experience that I hope never to be obliged 
 to repeat in this world, or the world to come, that bookkeep- 
 ing is the measliest occupation that can be followed, at least 
 by a mortal of my temperament and taste. I pity the book- 
 keeper wherever I see him. There is that dogged, over and 
 over again, 2 and 2 are 4 business from morning till night, 
 day in and day out. Of the two I would prefer digging 
 ditches, for if doing that I could stick my spade in where I 
 had a mind to, but when keeping books you are in the never 
 ending rut from start to finish. Down in Texas I saw one of 
 the neatest looking girls you ever saw at the books in a 
 prosperous retail man's office, and if in the morning I had 
 read she had eloped I would have called her a bully old gal ! 
 A friend of mine who has a ledger in the largest wholesale 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 131 
 
 dry -oods house in Chicago looked all night for 10 cents. 
 Now? bookkeeping is an exact art-or science, if you have a 
 mind to call it such-but there should be a gram of common 
 sense voked up with everything. 1 saw a nice appearing 
 y^g^fenow pegging away on the books in a retail umber 
 officel-a fellow who on the surface was gentlemanly, mtelli. 
 eent and industrious. The boss was showing a man lumber 
 fn the yard, so this young man and myself did some chattmg 
 on ourU account' We talked about the different systems 
 of bookkeeping and incidentally he ---^^l^J^j ^^^ 7^,! 
 having some trouble with his trial balance. The fact is 
 he said, '^the average country business office is a hard plac^^ 
 to work provided exact results are expected on the books^ 
 Mr So-and-so here is liable at any time to take money from 
 ^* drawer without making any minute of it, and then o 
 course my work is unhinged. If I could handle all the 
 monev myself it would be different in this respect. 
 'Does he expect perfect balances?' 1 chipped m. 
 'He likes them pretty well," was the reply. 
 
 ti- 
 
 lt- 
 
 "Looked all night for lo cents." 
 Under such conditions no ambitious bookkeeper could do 
 the kind of work to suit him. The final result in bookkeep- 
 ing is built up; it comes from a manipulation of many fac 
 
132 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 tors, and if one of those factors is at fault of course the re- 
 sult is also at fault. One careless man handling the cash 
 will knock out the best bookkeeper who ever lived. I was 
 in this office at closing up time and I noticed the bookkeeper 
 was particular to ask both the boss and his son if they were 
 sure they had put on the ticket all the money they had taken 
 from the drawer. Both said they had. "Who paid for the 
 load of hay that was taken to your house?" the bookkeeper 
 asked. 
 
 'That is so; I didn't put that on the ticket," said the 
 yard man. 
 
 If I remember rightly the amount was something over $6. 
 If the yard man had not been questioned he would have gone 
 home and the bookkeeper might have put in extra time and 
 worry in an endeavor to find out what had become of the 
 money. 
 
 Said a yard man who has charge of his own books : "My 
 books are liable to be out of balance all the time, for when 
 settling with customers we often throw off a few cents. If a 
 yard man insisted on his customers paying to a cent they 
 would think he is small. That little bill that was just paid 
 called for $3.55. The man threw out $3.50, as much as to 
 say that ought to pay it, and I told him 'all right.' That may 
 happen several times a day. These knock offs of odd cents 
 amount to dollars every month." 
 
 It seems to me that if there is any nonsense under the 
 sun it is to keep a well-meaning man working day and 
 night on a set of books to find an amount so insignificant 
 that it would cut no figure one way or the other— an amount 
 that the average man would pay out for cigars or cocktails 
 and never give it a second thought. There is such a thing 
 as being merciful to our bookkeepers. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 COGS WHICH DO NOT MESH. 
 
 133 
 
 There is not a week but my attention is called to some 
 contention between the retail and wholesale dealers which, 
 in my opinion, ought not to exist. I do wish there were no 
 differences which would come between them. Irade tric- 
 tion is to be regretted. It is wasted power. It makes hard 
 feelings and estranges those who would otherwise be at 
 least business and possibly personal friends. 
 
 In a yard I recently saw a pile of posts and asked the 
 yard man what he could do with posts of that size m a 
 small town? I should say they would average about two 
 inches. The reply was that he couldn't do much of any- 
 thing with them ; that if he got the chance he would be 
 willing to sell them very cheap. Posts of this size will sell 
 to some extent in a large town for holding up vines, buildmg 
 chicken pens and like purposes, but the farmer has no use 
 for them The farmer wants something big for his money. 
 At times he will take a three-inch post, but he prefers a four- 
 inch The yard man told me that from a carload of alleged 
 three-inch posts he assorted nearly 500 of these small ones. 
 He objected to them, told the wholesale men of whom they 
 were purchased how they had come out, and if they were 
 not satisfied with his say-so to send on a man and inspect 
 them. Hearing nothing satisfactory he made what he 
 thought was a proper reduction in the bill and forwarded 
 the draft. "They did not even acknowledge the receipt of 
 
 the draft," said he. ,. , .. 
 
 The post men were mad-there can be little question as o 
 that Possibly they were as mad as hops, but they should 
 not 'have cut the matter off so abrviptly, it seems to me. 
 They showed poor taste in doing that. These wholesale 
 men may claim they were not aware the car was stuffed with 
 so many small posts, and possibly they were not. The man 
 who loaded them may have been the villain. I have heard 
 this excuse offered time and time again-that there was 
 some mistake in loading. These mistakes do occur, but 
 
 III 
 
 I 
 
 ( 
 
134 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 135 
 
 If! 
 
 permit me to say that any employee in a wholesale yard 
 who day after day stuffs cars does so with the knowledge 
 of his employer. Put a pin in that. If a yard manager is 
 mstructed to send out straight goods he is going to do it, 
 and if he is instructed that when he sees an opportunity he 
 can manipulate grades he is going to do that. I have never 
 known of an employee in a yard who would insist, against 
 the wishes of the men who paid him his wages, in loading 
 poorer lumber than the bill called for. Did you ? I also 
 want to ask you wholesale men, did you ? 
 
 This filling of orders is a great point. I met a commis- 
 sion man who had a string of orders on his book, and he 
 said he was going up north the next day to see about loading 
 the lumber. '1 attend to that part of the business myself," 
 said he ; and I thought he displayed a wise side of his na- 
 ture. To return to cedar posts : If custom permits the run- 
 ning into a car of posts any certain percentage of smaller 
 posts than were bought I wish the wholesale post men 
 would make it known, for certainly anything of that kind 
 is not understood by the retail yard men. I do not know 
 how many of them I have heard kicking about the small 
 posts they receive. 
 
 I like to get at the bottom of these things, so for my 
 own satisfaction I looked up the standing of the yard man 
 who had selected the small posts from the carload, and 
 there is not a breath against him. He is rated as prompt 
 pay and not as one of those few dealers who are in the habit 
 of complaining about the quality of the stock he receives, or 
 making reductions. 
 
 Not long ago a yard man told me he had received a car 
 of red cedar shingles that he would not accept. We went 
 through a bunch of them, and if ever there was an ungodly 
 shingle that was it— narrow widths, cracks, ragged butts, 
 and nearly every other defect that a shingle was ever known 
 to have. 
 
 *1 couldn't try to sell them to a customer," said the yard 
 man. 
 
 "Would you accept such a shingle as that?" he asked me 
 
 after we had looked them over ,, 
 
 "Not until the lower ^^S^^^^.^./^^f J/jJ„ of similar 
 Yet in the face of these '-d-*^^^^^^^^^^ „en who 
 
 ones which could be cited, there are wn 
 
 of this kicking-deliver ^^e g-^^ °^ f^f ^f^^J,, ,ome- 
 
 though the track were oiled for J^ occasion 
 
 boulders, and P^^^aps get ,untd into the ditch ^^^^^ 
 
 like to see all retail and ^^if «^j\^^"J„7;; ; tonight on a 
 out west there is a tent P'''^^,^' ^^t^a vholesale dealer, 
 hunting trip will sleep a yard "«" ^"^^^^'j^^ the 
 
 ^^^^11: ,11 that is the wav to live. We cannot all go 
 
 After all that "'J J ^ -^^ ^1,^ a corner of 
 
 tenting together, but if the love °i ^ ...jt^ 
 
 cur hearts we will so cond ct o^'^^^'Im tent with us, 
 whom we come in contact will wish they cou d ^^^ 
 
 and that is the next thing to domg it I w>sh m 
 would nail up the golden rule in ^"^ °«^;^' J.^^ ^J 
 nailed it up march to the tune of It. It is a m g yg 
 
 tune to march to. 
 
 III 
 
136 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 DIFFERENT QUALIFICATIONS OF PARTNERS. 
 Have you ever tried to find the man who was rounded 
 out at every point? If you made the effort you failed All 
 of us have our angles and shortcomings. 
 
 We lumbermen present all sorts of appearances. Not 
 one of us is perfect in our line. When we find one man 
 who .s a good buyer, good salesman, good collector, good 
 stockkeeper. all the rest are deficient in one or more of 
 these directions. A man who had all sorts of fine theories 
 about collecting showed an absolute misunderstanding of 
 the market last fall and winter, and held off buying expect- 
 ing that prices would break. The yard of one of the best 
 salesmen I know looks as though the tail of a cyclone had 
 switched It. I know a yard man whose bump of order is 
 evidently the only bump there is on his head. 
 
 Wise men understand this condition of affairs. A part- 
 ner in a Kansas firm remarked. "I thought it would be best 
 to join forces I do call myself a pretty good buyer, but 
 John can sell lumber all around me. He knows everybody 
 in this whole country." J warmed to him. I like the man 
 who will own right up frankly that he doesn't know it all 
 In this partnership business the bringing together of 
 two distinct qualifications is desirable. Two good office 
 men, or two good stockmen, do not fill the bill. I visited a 
 concern that is well known in the section of the country in 
 which It operates. By the mercantile agencies it is rated 
 high, financially and otherwise. A man was working in 
 the shed who was pointed out as one of the partners I 
 opened on the prospect of the wholesale lumber market but 
 evidently he was not bothered by the prospect. He had his 
 coat and vest off, wore a shirt that cost maybe 48 cents, and 
 his hands were like those of a man who works for a living 
 He was helping to load a wagon, and took right hold like 
 a hired man. He knew all about the stock in the shed, and 
 had opinions of his own as to the way stock should be 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. I37 
 
 handled. He was up to his business from the yard end 
 
 "^ The other partner talked market prospects until you 
 couldn't rest. He knew all about the low water m the M.s- 
 Sppi and the drouth out in the Dakotas. He had his 
 rrof bookkeeping and collecting. With building the 
 shed and stocking it, he said he had nothing to do. He e 
 his partner's end of the business alone, and his partner lets 
 
 his alone. That, you see, makes a g°°V'"";.1Wed mTr! 
 a..o I was in an office and the two partners talked more 
 Jhan ten minutes over the buying of less than a half dozen 
 doors One would give his opinion and then the other 
 wTuTd give his. They both acted as though they were 
 
 ^^^ l-t impression meant to be conveyed in this little piece 
 is that no retail lumberman need feel like cutting his throa 
 he is not a man of all around qualifications. We are apt 
 to expect too much of a man who is in business for himself, 
 and doing the most of the work himself. If you were m 
 a great city and wanted a position that would bnng you a 
 biff salary if you posed as an all around man you would get 
 nothTng better to'^do than to tumble around boxes and 
 barrels If you should go into an office and declare you 
 were an expert salesman, an expert buyer, an expert ac- 
 Tountant, an expert stockman, they would ask the porter o 
 show the crazy man out! You would fail to find a big 
 business man who would think for a minute that one mortal 
 
 could be all that. _ ^ . 
 
 Therefore if we are deficient in one direction, let us 
 thank the Lord that we are not deficient in all, and keep 
 right on sawing wood. 
 
I 
 
 l 
 
 138 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 FARMER YARDS. 
 
 The farmer yard is an eyesore to the other dealers who 
 do business in its territory. They object to the methods 
 pursued. It would be as reasonable to expect a healthy 
 condition of trade without profit as it would to sustain a 
 healthy body without food. In trade, profit is the food In 
 other regards we must not of course be so un-American as 
 to forget that a combination of farmers has the same right 
 to sell lumber that we would have to go to farming. If we 
 do not look out we become small in these things. Man 
 should keep growing and growing until he is a very 
 behemoth. But these yard men think they have a right to 
 object to methods which demoralize trade for a dozen towns 
 around. 
 
 In common with the rest of us, the farmer is a queer 
 duck. In order that the cost of goods may be reduced to 
 the consumer his cry is down with the middle man I Yet 
 we must say that when he becomes the middle man him- 
 self he stands by the principle he has advocated, and sells 
 goods at a small, or no, profit. If consistency is a jewel he 
 IS one in this connection. I have known several farmers 
 who would get to thinking that they were born to be 
 merchants, sell their farms, move into town to handle gro- 
 ceries, dry goods, clothing, and in a few years, having paid 
 dear for their change, would go out of town again and 
 resume their old calling. It is bosh for any man to entertain 
 an Idea that he can do well a thing which he has not 
 learned to do. 
 
 Herein lies the farmer's inconsistency: he would rejoice 
 to get $3 a bushel for his wheat or corn-seeing nothing 
 in that price touching extortion— but when he settles <lown 
 to sell lumber he professes to think he is a highwayman if 
 he makes a profit to exceed 50 cents a thousand. 
 
 I know of only one farmer yard that is well managed 
 There may be others, but I have never run across them'. 
 And really what could a competent manager do if he was 
 
 X 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. ^39 
 
 "'t southern Iowa there was a ^--^ ;^;^%^^V'^fi':: 
 yard men the snap they are having. He could sell lumDer 
 « weU as any of them, he thought, and he proposed to do it 
 
 "Professes to think he is a highwayman." 
 
 in style so he built a large shed, underpinned it with stone 
 Ind dien his troubles began. With imperfect ventilation 
 the lumber became damaged. Then a gent e P-me bre - 
 ca^eThat way and the shed was so flimsily bu.lt that the 
 b^eze pSyed with it as with a toy, and when it had gone 01 
 J^raise Cain elsewhere it cost nearly - --VV^tman 
 shed sound again as it did originally to build it. This man 
 
 into a lumber yard and succeed m a day. 
 
 i 
 
 II 
 
• I40 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 STANDING IN WITH CONTRACTORS. 
 More and more I see how important it ■= tK,t ^u j-/t 
 
 and there one who k all Wo-v.^ t , ^"^ic ib nere 
 
 easy. But hojijutlh tters"^^ ?U ^fe T u\ '' 
 can. .ou stand in with some of them^'o^^adva^.^^?' '" 
 
 hasl^h^'""^" '°"*'''''°' ^°^^"'' <^"« how many rows he 
 very otten he can kick up a good sized dust storm T 
 know a yard man who got at outs with a contractor and 
 then th,s contractor went to shippine inirZTru' 
 Doacher T« ^ri v^' i , ^'"ppmg in trom a Chicago 
 
 co" d get to hln r. u'' '''"' P^^^P"^"'- ■'""der he 
 couKi get to hsten to him how much money could be saved 
 
 yard m„ ,l,o,gI,, i, „, idl, ,alk. The „„,„,■» 17 
 
 r„.„ • 7Z y^*"^ '^'« would not have been 
 
 recogmzed by any retail association. But it grew No 
 man but has his fnVo^c tu , . fe'^^w. No 
 
 could sell InL • ^""^ ^'''^* °^ ^"^dict Arnold 
 
 could sell lumber ,n any community if it could put in a yard. 
 
 !l 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 141 
 
 We sometimes think we are the favorite in our community, 
 and all such nonsense, but we would better club the idea- 
 out of our heads. The buying community doesn't care the 
 snap of its finger who gets its money if only good value is 
 returned for it. As component parts of the community you 
 and I size up about with the same number of other compo- 
 nent parts. Today this man who put in a carload of lumber 
 through spite is a legitimate dealer, and has as much as 
 500 000 feet of lumber in pile. I do not think he does any 
 contracting now. He has been graduated from the building 
 business and is evidently making money. 
 
 A yard man was recently telling me how much flmt 
 plaster he sells. Not long ago a contracting mason did a 
 big share of the plaster business of the town. The yard 
 man induced this mason to join forces, and now he gives 
 him $1 a ton commission on all he can sell. The mason 
 was not a business man. Ordering and remitting for plaster 
 was out of his line, so now when he gets rid of all of that 
 bother and gets his clean $i a ton for all that he uses in 
 his jobs, or sells to other masons, he is satisfied. "Too, he 
 helps me work off a good deal of plaster that becomes a 
 little stale," the yard man said with a show of satisfaction. 
 There is as many as one of you who would be glad to have 
 somebody help you to work off your old plaster, isn't there . 
 "There are also several carpenters working for me, 
 said this same yard man, "and first and last they throw a 
 good many bills my way." 
 
 "But blank 'em, no dependence can be placed on em, 
 
 a dealer remarked. 
 
 Isn't it a good thing to know that in advance? We 
 should handle men as we do horses. Not long ago a yard 
 man took me out behind a fine black horse to see the town. 
 He told what a reliable horse it was, saying that his wife 
 and children could drive him anywhere. He hitched him to 
 go into another yard and no sooner were we inside the office 
 than a locomotive came puffing around the curve. I sug- 
 gested to the yard man that he would better look out for his 
 
 i\ 
 
 
 i| M ^ 
 
142 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 143 
 
 horse. O, he wiU stand hitched anywhere," was the reply 
 There are men of that kind ; they are so gentle that anvhody 
 can drive them, and they wonld stand hitched i'f the 
 heavens were falling. Then there are others who will kick- 
 over the traces and stand hitched nowhere. If you took 
 out a frisky, ugly horse, how would you drive him ? With 
 kind words, a tight rein, and every minute on the lookout 
 for him, wouldn't you? That is the way the frisky con- 
 tractor should be handled-kindly, and with a tight rein 
 If we handle him in the right way he will help us along 
 
 A HANDY DOOR RACK. 
 
 ■ The consensus of opinion is that stock doors should be 
 kept in pile— a way of storing them that has several ad- 
 vantages. It saves room. It prevents the doors from warp- 
 ing. It keeps them clean. With a light frame covered with 
 paper and laid on the top door a pile of doors is protected 
 about as well as it can be. I do not remember having heard 
 more than one yard man say that standing doors on end is 
 preferable to laying them flat in a pile, and I think he was 
 prejudiced. Piling them flat is the method adopted by the 
 most of the wholesale sash and door houses I have visited. 
 Some of these wholesale houses have racks and some have 
 not. Those that have not use the floor as a piling ground 
 The last named method, however, is a room consumer unless 
 a very large stock is carried, as in order to get easily at the 
 diflPerent grades and sizes of doors each must be in a sepa- 
 rate pile. When racks are used, in some houses several 
 doors of the various kinds are placed in them and immediate 
 orders filled from the racks, while the bulk of the doors are 
 piled in a less conspicuous place on the floor. 
 
 From the accompanying cut any vard man is no doubt 
 mechanic enough to make a rack that will serve his purpose 
 admirably. There is nothing original in the idea, as the 
 same principle may be seen in almost any bookcase. The 
 
 pieces in which the notches are cut are 2x4 dimension, as 
 are also the rails which reach from notch to notch. This 
 2x4 notched piece is nailed against a board so that the rail 
 may more readily stay in place. The perfect adjustability 
 of the rack is one of its prominent features. 
 > There are probably not many sash racks in the country. 
 I have seen but one that was made in a workmanlike way. 
 
 ^ 
 
 /\^ 
 
 7. 
 
 a 
 
 1X4 -notched. -J-oT 5u-fe^orV& 
 
 "Well suited to a yard storeroom." 
 
 The breakage in a wareroom led to the building of this one. 
 *1 concluded it was poor business to pay my money for 
 sash and then occasionally have a light knocked out after 
 it came in here," said the yard man. "I used to think it 
 senseless when one of the boys would break a light, but one 
 day when I was reaching over a pile of sash and stuck my 
 toe through a light I concluded I was as much of a tumble 
 
144 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 heels as any of ^em. When laying sash around in any old 
 
 In tit' ,^^"^f,^-^ ^^ ^h-ed against them or dropped 
 upon them. Smce three years ago, when I made this rack 
 which cost maybe $1.50 and a few hours' time, there has 
 not been a broken Hght of glass on the premises. I„ add - 
 tion, the sash, graded as to size, are right there in rows, and 
 at a glance I can tell what I have got." 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 145 
 
 THE GLORIOUS FOURTH. 
 
 Let us not be too big, nor feel too big, to fill up on fire 
 crackers, and for one day in the year let the neigh'borh(Sd 
 
 scTeL hil Zfl 'Z ^^^ ''' ^'' -^^^ and m^?ht 
 
 o the t^uZ \ T""'' "°^ '^^^^^ ^^^ ^-y^' -ther, 
 tor the Fourth is their day as well as ours. We have al 
 
 go a mortgage on it. The man who on circus day or the 
 
 Fourth of July, forgets that he was once a boy has become 
 
 ossified. It would take but .5 cents to make a ki"g o X 
 
 poorest boy in town. If he had that amount to invest in 
 
 no.se material it would not be necessary for him to tra o^ 
 
 behind the rest of the boys and pick up the leav^T b«t 
 
 he could go ahead as independent as a lord and shS h^s 
 
 own crackers If we only know how to do it we nTedn' 
 
 This morning a tramp came to our door and asked for 
 
 wT s r;-ta^^" h"^^ '^^ ^^^^"^ '^y^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 will Clean oflF a table; but we raked up enough oat meal 
 toast and tea to fill this fellow up. Then I fsk^ hi^ ^f 
 he smoked, and he said he did occasionaHy. Nol The 
 
 IndTe himTh ft" '' ^^^ '^'"^ ^ ^^^^"^ ^ ^^^^^ 
 and tell him that he now saw what they had brought him 
 
 to, but I pulled out the biggest cigar /could Td on th" 
 
 premises, and when he had placed it between his lips I 
 
 hghted a match and held it to the end of it. At th in T tant 
 
 he was not a tram^^you could see it in his face that he 
 
 wasn't— but he was the equal of a man who wore diamonds, 
 and who was the owner of the old black cow that was 
 grazing out in the back lot. He went out of the yard and 
 down the street with head up, and I felt just as good over it 
 as though I had entertained King Edward. 
 
 As your hair gets silvered and the wrinkles settle in 
 the back of your neck, does it come to you that there is less 
 difference in men than you used to think there was? When 
 we were young and big headed and used hair oil we thought 
 we were very exclusive. But we are all built on the same 
 grand foundation, and you know how it is when we have 
 a fine location and a miserable building— some day down 
 comes the building and up goes a better one. I suppose 
 that by and by all of us— tramps as well as the rest— will 
 be so ashamed of the miserable way we have built on our 
 glorious possibilities that we will tear down and build again, 
 and as our gratitude and appreciation increase we will keep 
 tearing down and rebuilding until the dome on the mighty 
 structure of character will reach the heavens. Taking this 
 view of it, every one of us ought to be thankful that we 
 were born ; aye, even though we be tramps. 
 
 If we could get through the Fourth without the regula- 
 tion oration, * following the activities of the day, we would 
 have the nightmare lighter. On the morning of the Fourth 
 the regulation oration should be run into the cooler for the 
 day to keep it out of mischief. To hear a one-hoss lawyer 
 inform us that our forefathers landed on Plymouth Rock, 
 and then proceed to discuss expansion, is enough to drive 
 a man to beer. 
 
 FROM COUNTRY TO CITY. 
 
 Occasionally a yard man talks of the great advantages 
 enjoyed by the retail dealers in the large towns. They are 
 not aware that such talk is about as senseless as it is for a 
 dog to bay at the moon, but it really is. Having mixed 
 with all kinds it seems to me that by a big majority the 
 
 i 
 
t 
 
 146 
 
 f 
 
 h 
 
 1" 
 
 Ij ' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 147 
 
 yard man who has a fair trade in a country town is the best 
 off of any of them. He may not be getting rich at a gallop- 
 ing gait, but often he is getting rich fast enough. I could 
 name these yard men by the score who are not only doine a 
 good lumber trade but have a finger in nearly all the other 
 pies m the town. They own farms, interests in banks mer- 
 cantile houses, and are literally living in clover Their 
 wives are not giving pink teas and indulging in other sim- 
 ilar social silliness, but it is all the better for them that they 
 
 "Milk my old black cow." 
 are not. All of us are foolish enough for all practical pur- 
 poses, but in this respect the city folks lead us country Jakes 
 two to one. Now in about ten minutes, instead of scrub- 
 bing up to attend some old Moneybag's reception over on 
 the boulevard, I shall swing the milk pail on my arm and 
 go out and milk my old black cow. When I come in the 
 children will gather around the table, drink so much milk 
 they will protrude like aldermen, go to bed and snore like so 
 many pigs, and get up in the morning ready to eat a piece 
 of steak as big as a shovel. That is the way to live— get 
 right down to nature. Revel among the trees, gardens 
 grass and flowers, and if dust and mosquitoes are thrown 
 into the bargain pay no attention to them. 
 
 But it is ever the way of man that he is sneaking oflF 
 after strange gods. He wants sanitary plumbing, nose-in- 
 the-air social functions, no one to peep in at the door when 
 he IS sick, and hired men to ride in the procession, so as to 
 
 make a show, when he is dead. That is the way they live 
 in cities They all think they are high cockalorum, but nine- 
 tenths of them are not even low cockalorum. They are so 
 deeply veneered with the artificial that if one of the big sash 
 and door making concerns should go on only one street in 
 Chicago and strip the veneer off the people it would get a 
 stock sufficient, to make more veneered doors than it will 
 
 turn out in a year. • ^ ,1,.. 
 
 I was in Chicago a while ago and got there just as the 
 great crowd was going home from work for the day There 
 were men. women, girls and boys crowding along the side- 
 walk, and most of them going to suppers that the poorest 
 man in the country would call mighty thin grub. Humanity 
 streamed along and there was not a face in the thousands 
 that I knew. I thought, "If I were home even my dog 
 would know me, and wag his tail, glad to see me. Then 
 when I had gone to bed at the hotel I didn't go to sleep for 
 three hours, afraid I had blown out the gas and would 
 wake up and find myself dead. In the city churches they 
 use contribution plates. They can see everythmg you put 
 on and if you don't come down handsomely you are spot- 
 ted while out here with us, where butterfly catchers are 
 used, a penny, or even a pants button if you feel poor, 
 makes considerable of a jingle. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these advantages of small over large 
 towns it really pains me to hear my friends, the successful 
 yard men around the country, now and then pining for the 
 city If they were to go there and get mixed up with the 
 competition, not knowing from one month to another 
 whether they would make enough money to pay their yard 
 rent they would worry the fat from their bones and become 
 such walking skeletons that the museum managers would 
 lasso them, drag them in and exhibit them at a dime a head. 
 Yet the other day a man who owns his home, yard, stock, 
 a piano, a happy wife and three children, asked me what I 
 thought the chances would be if he should go to a certain 
 large town and open a retail yard. I do not suppose he was 
 
148 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 pleased with the answer, but I was moved to say that in all 
 probability m less than six months there would not be 
 enough of him left for his name to cling to. 
 
 HOW THE POOR SWEDE BIT. 
 
 It was a pretty hot time in the old town according to 
 the story of the yard man. He pointed over to the place 
 where he said at that time his competitor was located; but 
 there is no competitor there now. 
 
 ".n'i?i r^" '"'^ '^"'"^ dimension for $14," said he, , 
 and I did not want to meet that price unless I was posi- 
 tively obliged to. One day a Swede cam. to my place and 
 
 cLuT . '"•' ■"^°^'"^t-" he gave me was th;t he 
 could buy dimension at the other yard for $14. Then I 
 had to do something. I told him in a manner that he would 
 think I was doing something big that I would sell him 2x4 
 dimension for I cent a foot, 2x6 for ij cents, and 2x8 for 
 
 L''^'' u! V '''° '" '"^'^^ '* P'^'» t« h'-" that when 
 he bought dimension on that basis he could figure it up 
 
 for himself and know just what he was doing. All he had 
 ^do was to measure off the feet and he would have it 
 The proposition struck him favorably. He not only bought 
 his siipply of me but he spread the good news among his 
 neighbors and several of them came and wanted some of 
 that cent-a-foot dimension. It looked cheap to them Of 
 course the dimension sold in this manner brought me $1.; 
 a thousand." ^ 
 
 ■ This yard man is still an advocate of selling by the piece 
 to some extent. "Jim, let me take your book." he safd to 
 
 ITu ,1 """ ^ ""'" ^^ 'hat fitted the vest pocket in 
 which had been written the leading items in the yard, with 
 the price carried out per piece. / , ■ 
 
 "It isn't every man who works in the yard who can 
 readily figiire how much a few boards come to at so much 
 a thousand, he said, "but when he has such a list as this 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. i49 
 
 by him he can sell stuff, so far as the price is concerned, as 
 easily as anybody and, what is as good, he gets better prices 
 Z the most of it when he sells by the piece than I do when 
 
 I sell by the thousand." • t jm 
 
 When I said goodbye to this dealer at the station I did 
 not say to him it would be time spent in vain ever to look 
 for him down stream, but that thought was in my head. 
 
 ■ 1 ■ V 
 
 . I t 
 ' ' 1 
 
 MORE OR FEWER YARDS. 
 A yard man writes from Minnesota, saying that in his 
 opinion I am wrong in the prophecy that there will be an 
 Sled number of yards. He thinks that the reverse w.,1 
 be true; that many of the yards which are now hanging 
 on by the skin of the teeth will let go." Well, Pos-bly. I 
 Z not claim to be the law and gospel in the -tt- ^o 
 doubt there are plenty of others who can see as far into a 
 stone quarry as I can. It seems reasonable to me. hovyever, 
 that th\ more people the more goods in every h- are sold 
 and, ordinary conditions ruling, the more people there are 
 to sell the goods. I should like to take the short end of a 
 wager of about 4 cents that I can name 200 towns in every 
 o^!oi which a new yard will go in before one will drop 
 out. Yards are not dropping out to any alarming extent 
 A yard man may get weary in well doing and cone ude . 
 would be better for him to stop swapping "ew doUars for 
 old ones, but it is a rare occurrence for his yard to go o« 
 of existatce. Somebody is ready to step in and take hdd o 
 it It is a common trait of human nature that we think we 
 can succeed where others may fail. We think that the other 
 fellow did not treat his customers as he should have done, 
 that he did not carry the right kind of stock, and possibly 
 that he was not any great shake of a man anyhow. We 
 would improve on his methods at every turn-of course we 
 
 would! , . , u^^ 
 
 There seems to be a sort of mania for owning lumber 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 it 
 
150 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 yards The other day a man who ran a laundry told me 
 that he was anxious to get into the retail lumber business 
 He asked me questions for half an hour-how much capital 
 would be required, the present price of lumber at wholesale, 
 about the hen law, and so on. He knew nothing about the 
 busmess but he had kept his eyes open and had arrived at 
 the conclusion there is none better. I think his laundry had 
 not proved a bonanza. Some man who had worked in a 
 yard had proposed to go in with him, and they will probably 
 hitch up together and buy or put in a yard at some point. 
 There are hundreds of yard men who have had their 
 eye teeth cut, and who are not going to spread out more 
 unless the opportunity suits them. No doubt this Minnesota 
 man IS one of that kind. But you know everybody is not 
 ot that^ stamp. There is no truer saying than "there are 
 others. It was not a week ago that a man said to me that 
 m his opinion the dealers in a three-yard town were "just 
 holding up the people," and he thought if a man would 
 start a yard and sell at the right figures he would do well 
 This man would call it doing well if he made $500 a year 
 as on that amount he and his wife could live comfortably.' 
 Now, If some man who had worked in a yard should come 
 along, give this other man a little taffy and offer to go in 
 with him and manage the business, in the yard would go 
 1 he man who imagines that the dealers are getting exorbi- 
 tant prices, has quite a wad of money, is doing nothing and 
 would like to serve his country in some such way as running 
 a lumber yard and selling at "right prices." And you have 
 probably learned that almost without number there are men 
 of httle experience who are ready to link themselves with 
 other men's capital. 
 
 Thus the tendency is in every direction, and there is 
 only one thing that any of us can do about it, and that is 
 to take It as it comes. It does away with many a disap- 
 pointment when we have reached a point that we can take 
 things as they come : do our best and then face the conse- 
 quences like little men. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 151 
 
 I am no believer that because a town has apparently 
 yards enough no other dealer has a right to locate there- 
 If he has no such right the Declaration of Independenceis a 
 lie. This is a great and free country, and you I.;y«y^<ly; 
 should be accorded the right to make an effort to live m 
 any town at any legitimate business. The new comer may 
 get his foot in it clear to the knee, or he may wm out. Men 
 are more than lumber yards. The determined, upright 
 courteous dealer .will generally succeed, but the man who 
 lacks these qualities has a millstone around his nec.<. 1 
 could name dealers who could go into any town and success- 
 
 "Independent as a whole herd of hogs." 
 
 fully buck the whole shooting match. There are those who 
 are doing it right along. I have in mind now a man who 
 opened a yard in a pretty warm town, and it was predicted 
 he would fall as flat as a pancake. Having been m business 
 a year he opened his books to me, and the result showed 
 $8000 profit. This man knows his business from a to z. 
 g;:rndther to be fooled nor fooled with. He is as mde- 
 pendent as a whole herd o£ hogs and as obl.gmg as he is 
 
 i 
 
; J 
 
 152 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 independent You can't easily down a man of that stamp. 
 He will pick the fruit of success from the tree of life un 
 higher on the limbs than the common mortal can reach 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER, 
 
 153 
 
 THE PRUDENT SCHEMER. 
 
 We must admire a resourceful man. His boat will 
 gayly nde the rapids of life when the ordinary craft w 
 get tumbled upside down. Not one of us. of course me^ 
 a resourceful man in an illegitimate way. There are peo'e 
 
 to nav^5 """ """'' *^ "' ''' ^ ''''"^''' is willing 
 
 to pay his money m return for our goods, he is every time 
 
 entu ed to honorable treatment. IT^e money is what we 
 want-,t .s what we hang out our sign for-and the mln 
 who assists us to it is certainly doing us a favor. A ya d 
 man was telhng me that his predecessor sold a lot of D 
 stock for C. When the builder had hauled the lumber home 
 h,s carpenter told him he did not get the grade fo whTh 
 he had bargained, and when looking it over they found D 
 plainly marked on one or more of the boards. The average 
 decent retailer would feel like crawling into a rathole wS 
 confronted with such a piece of deception as that 
 
 Here are pdnts to illustrate the right kind of scheming • 
 I was .n an office where a man wanted an i8-i„ch boafd 
 for a certain purpose. When informed that he could not 
 
 a^a; The' ""?' '"'"'-"^ ^'^'"'^ "^'^ "^^^^ -'^ «''«" 
 away The yard man put in a claim, however. He told 
 
 him that for the use to which the board was to be put two 
 
 9-inch, or better still, three 6-inch boards would be an 
 
 improvement. The man. with his hand on the knob of the 
 
 door, hesitated a minute, and then said he would take the 
 
 narrow boards. This ability to substitute is a valuable one 
 
 for the lumber salesman. To be sure, this particular sale 
 
 amounted to only about 60 cents, but the valuable point was 
 
 that the man was kept at the yard. One of our famous retail 
 
 dry goods men remarked that if a lady wanted only a yard 
 of three-cent ribbon he did not want her to leave his store 
 without having an opportunity to buy just what suited her. 
 H some of us two-for-a-cent fellows would be to the infinite 
 pains to build up a trade that the big guns have been we 
 needn't be two-for-a-cent men all our lives. Don't you think 
 
 SO? 
 
 In a yard I saw a lot of oddly worked stuff and the 
 yard man said it was some he got for a Catholic institution 
 in the place. "They wanted a ceiling for a long porch," he 
 explained, "and at the same time they desired that the ceihng 
 
 -K^- 
 
 "Go to Africa to do missionary work.** 
 should act as roofing, so I had the stuff worked beaded 
 ceiling on one side and grooved roofing on the other." I 
 call that the right kind of resource. There are yard men 
 who say, "Sell people what they want;" which, m my 
 opinion, is a bad doctrine, for half the time people do not 
 know what they want. I believe it holds true that the yard 
 man who has thoroughly learned his business and is alive 
 to holding his trade can advise and influence to their benefit 
 one-half of the customers who come to his offices. I have 
 heard good yard men put this as high as 75 percent. You 
 will thus observe that you need not necessarily go to Africa 
 to do missionary work. 
 
 The yard man should not assume that the customer who 
 
irill 
 
 154 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 SsTesVr ''\f " ':"°"^ ^"^"'■"^- «"" ^» t*^^ ^«™e time it 
 
 Ther 1 r' '! r f ''" "^ "''"' '"^^ '- l^— " ^'> 
 as to hi^ t T ''''°'" ^^ ^"' P^y homage so readily 
 
 n 5 K^ . "'^ ™"""°" P«°P'« bow to greatness but 
 nh.„k about the size of it is that greatness o^f.en bows to 
 us. The fact ,s that greatness, so called, is so dependent 
 upon he people for its standing that it tremble fest" 
 stand from under and it take a fall. 
 
 But as I was going to say, I wear socks exceot in wam, 
 
 weather when I go barefooted, and not long a^o I f"^™ 
 
 had run out of them. Ordinarily my best gifl buys m^ 
 
 an expert m selectmg these goods than to go storming up and 
 down the country asking to be permitted fo vote an.fl come 
 a man amone men I HWo , r.,,- c ^ . "<-»-ome 
 
 principles I vZZ t '' "*^' ''"' °" ^ene^l 
 
 thZ- M '^°"'^" •*"""' ^"'' I rather like to see 
 
 them m their respective snhprp« Tf „ ^ , , '" "'^e 
 
 it h;<! Hnf„ f„ K u ^P^'^'^es. If a man should consider 
 
 t h,s duty to buy home supplies, tend babies, fight moths in 
 the household, and tell me when it is time to gold g^t 
 shaved, I should object. These delicate duties bdon^^o 
 women, and women only. It follows that if I wan to pr^ 
 vent men from breaking in and doing this work I don wa^t 
 to see woman break in on mans preserves. That is fhe 
 way I thmk tonight, but maybe it will not last C nl 
 man .s of httle account who sets down his fcJt and ' 
 
 S'tL:"' ' V '■ ''-' '' ^"^' ^°- '--- -^ ^^- When : 
 
 uell as our physical body is constantly changing 
 Regardmg those socks, the dealer led me fronf'box to 
 box as easily as though he had a string tied to mv ear anH 
 
 st;pe7 tt; t' '""' '""'' ''' '-'' ' '^^^TjrZ t 
 re pect for the dry goods man. I rather fancied a blue and 
 yellow stnpe so that when I pulled up my pants legs k 
 would be so loud as to attract the attenti'on o'f he po^ c 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. I55 
 
 but the merchant led me away from them, and now 1 see it 
 
 was for my good. 
 
 When we influence a man, and he finds that we were 
 unselfish in the matter and were really trying to dp to a 
 gLd turn, that man is very liable to come our way a^.n^ 
 Tthat dr; goods man had socked it to me on the socks to 
 speak euphoniously. I should have avoided h.m. My best 
 Tr\ at my request would have been so kind as to buy her 
 gin d.1 my iv-H ivlieve wc half know 
 
 duds at the other comer store. I don t believe we na 
 how well it pays us when we do a decent act. And I don t 
 beLe we know how easily people see through u^ when 
 we are not disposed to be decent. We don t turn these 
 propositions over in our mind half often enough. 
 
 I was sitting in an office when a man stepped in and 
 inquired about shingles. "Yes," said the yard man. I 
 have a good white pine and a good white cedar. 
 "No red cedars?" 
 
 "None on hand just now, but either of the kinds named 
 would make a better roof than red cedar." 
 
 About this time I could see there was something the ma- 
 ter with the prospective buyer. Then he ^f'^^^P;'';^^?,/'"^^ 
 man and informed the yard man that when he boi^ht^ed 
 cedars for his horse barn last summer this same yard man 
 :W him they were the best shingle in the marke^ and 
 he wanted more of them. The yard man wiggled abou a 
 Uttle and I really pitied him. You see. he had forgotten 
 tf 'tay by hifstory The man didn't buy either the white 
 pine Ir white cedar, and who could blame him? No man 
 delights in being made a monkey of. 
 
 One of the finest sights in the world is the man who 
 walks head up. because he is entitled to for the reason 
 that it is his intention to treat every human bemg wh te. 
 I, is a dirty conscience that rubs a fellow s nose in he 
 mud. It takes a mighty smart mean man to avoid ge ing 
 his foot into a trap of his own setting. His trap is oftener 
 
 ■ 
 
I' 
 
 156 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 than otherwise a boomerang that whirls around and around 
 and knocks h,s own head oflf. We are not all actors, and 
 often people can look through us as though we were glass 
 
 I 
 
 WHERE CARELESSNESS MAY SUCCEED. 
 There is no soft spot in my heart for the slovenly lum- 
 
 soul on the reflccfon that he is in the business where he 
 
 S?osT vard V:'? ■" ^"^ "'"^^ ""^- ' '^•-- - -n 
 
 around H "? "" ^^""^'' '°°'^" '"^^ '''""^er the year 
 
 around. He does not seem to care in what shape his piles 
 are. and whether the ends of them are even oPnot is o 
 no consequence. A pile of dimension looked as though a 
 green boy had thrown it together. Let me say to his cTdit! 
 however, that he has a good office. You have never seen 
 a man yet so bad that you couldn't find a white spot in 
 h,m .f you looked for it. There are those who, in thei^ 
 mmds, wdl have us done up quickly and thoroughly when 
 the t.me comes, but it does seem to me that this white 
 spot wdl act as seed. And let us all hope that from it we 
 may grow up better beings than we are now. I don't care 
 how good we may call ourselves, there will be plenty of 
 room for improvement. 
 
 If the merchant in any other line should keep his goods 
 in no better shape than this lumberman does you know what 
 the result would be. Much of his stock would spoil on his 
 
 and h J. ^ ^""'^ ^'' '"'^y- ^^*^" by rats, moths, 
 
 and his tidy customers would go elsewhere to buy. We all 
 
 know that this would be the outcome. Yet. while this man's 
 
 nwT "^'l-TJ^^'^^ "°""''. shingles and lath always in 
 place to be kicked out of the way. he has made monev He 
 owns his yard and stock and has built a good house' which 
 I sup,x>se his wife keeps in better order than he keeps his 
 yard, for that is the way it goes-like and unlike oftener 
 man otherwise come together. 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. i57 
 
 I trust this little screed may be no excuse for the indo- 
 lent and slovenly to go into the retail l"-ber business but 
 if they feel their life depends on it the business w 11 use 
 them better than the millinery business would. If they 
 have any pride-and we all have-they may occasionally 
 tl ashamed, but all the same their lumber will be wanted 
 and there will be farmers who would probably think vt 
 dudish to keep the piles of lumber too slick, and who wdl 
 Sme in the office and spit on the floor should there be no 
 other handy place. 
 
 THE CONTRACTOR AS A FACTOR. 
 I have met several contractors of late. A contractor who 
 knows his business, when he has nothing else to do hangs 
 around the lumber offices during the cold and stormy 
 weather. He can there learn the drift of lumber pnces, and 
 Tear of proposed building, especially by farmers No long 
 aeo I saw Tyard man hand a contractor a lumber lis , ev - 
 dStly received recently. The contractor hastily looked 
 over and handed it back. This gave me a cue and after the 
 b« Ider had gone I incidentally wrung into the conversation 
 some iing about the relation which should exist between 
 he yard man and contractor, and the former pounced on 
 to t/e Ustion just as I wished he would. You know occa- 
 sionallv, things go our way-and then agam they don t 
 
 "Tkis is the position I take," said the retail man. The 
 contractor and retail lumberman are very ^osely allied m 
 business matters. There should be no fncUon bet^^ n then. 
 Now take that man who went out of here a little while 
 Tgo ' He is a good builder and 'onto' his job in every way. 
 F^r me to make much money out of that man is impossible 
 At the same time I want his friendship and influence. I 
 he cannot buy lumber at home to suit him he wl have it 
 shinned in He is as good as the wheat, consequently 1 say 
 ohfm 'Here order wL you want through me and pay me 
 a littb something for my work.' We have never had a 
 
 !1 
 
158 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 h' 
 
 misunderstanding. Every invoice is open to him, and all 
 about cash discounts he understands as well as I do. Yes, it 
 is working cheap, but in a case like that I had rather work 
 cheap than not at all. 
 
 "Now, understand I draw the line right on men of this 
 stamp. Take your average flip-flap carpenter and you are 
 better off to let him alone. I enter into no such arrange- 
 ment with them. Last week a carpenter took a job of 
 adding a kitchen to a house out on the edge of town and 
 came in my place to price the stuff. He seemed to think that 
 because he had blossomed out as a contractor he was enti- 
 tled ta all sorts of discounts. I couldn't see it in that light. 
 He isn't worth a cent himself and the house he is going to 
 fix up is mortgaged for all it is worth. He didn't come back, 
 and I didn't cry over it." 
 
 "Who is your best customer?" I ventured to ask this 
 man. 
 
 "The farmer ten days in the week," was the reply. "He 
 is sometimes slow to pay but it is not necessary to lose any 
 sleep over the account. And then, blessed be his name, he 
 doesn't know a No. 4 board from C finish !" 
 
 It seems to me the view this yard man took of the con- 
 tractor is a sensible one. Few contractors are going to order 
 lumber from some scalper if they can do as well at home. 
 I know builders who ship in their material, and in my 
 opinion the yard men in those towns should see that it is 
 stopped. A compromise should be made, if possible. The 
 influence of a builder unloading a car of stuff on the side 
 track is not a healthy one for the yard man. I would rather 
 the car would come through my yard if I didn't make out of 
 it more than enough to buy a good cigar. A farmer may 
 see the builder unloading the car and say to himself, "If he 
 can buy lumber and make money by shipping it in, maybe I 
 can ;'* so when he builds a barn in he ships it. You see, it 
 is a bad influence which, like a wave, keeps spreading and 
 spreading, and we don't know where it will end. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. i59 
 
 DISADVANTAGES OF SMALL STOCK ROOMS. 
 
 Our stock rooms are no doubt too small. Not long ago 
 I was in a new shed that cost several hundred dollars, with 
 the stock room immediately in the rear ot the office. It 
 was small, dark, and you know what accompanies such con- 
 ditions-dirt always. If there had been a bushel of rats in 
 there no one without a lantern could have seen them. Ihey 
 could live and breed unmolested. It could not be swept, 
 and really there was no vacant floor room to sweep, ihe 
 yard manager wanted a sash from the room and he went 
 in, tumbled things over, brought a sash out to the light 
 and found it was not the desired size. 
 
 "Isn't very light in there, is it?" was asked. 
 "Blank it," was the reply, "I don't know why any man 
 should build such a stock room as that." 
 
 The yard was one of a line, therefore he felt at liberty 
 to free his mind. When the old man is a hundred miles 
 away we can talk, you know. 
 
 There are scores of such rooms, and there are successful 
 lumbermen who build them, too. Your best arranged prem- 
 ises and the biggest trade do not always go together There 
 are yard men who are doing a large business but who never 
 think of doing it conveniently or comfortably. They make 
 two motions when one would answer the purpose vf they 
 were so fixed that the motion would count. I saw scales 
 the other dav as many as twenty feet from the office front. 
 It was a drizzly afternoon, and three times while I sat there 
 the yard man turned up his coat collar and went out to take 
 the weight of wagons. This man said he had been in busi- 
 ness there for eight years, and of course as he had scales 
 in when he opened up all of these eight years he had been 
 running out through rain and snow to do his weighing. No 
 doubt he has whipped the rain from his hat and kicked the 
 snow from his feet a hundred times, yet there the scales 
 remain. Moreover, he has got along in business fairly well 
 -we may say first rate. Any rating book will probably put 
 
 "wff '^ 
 
 
i6o 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 him down at $10,000. It is easy enough to ask : "Why does 
 he not put his scales where they ought to be, so that he can 
 stand by the front window of his office and manipulate the 
 lever and weights ?" It is dead easy to answer the question, 
 too. He has never had an eye to the conveniences of doing 
 busmess. We all know men who are slouchy in their dress, 
 who spill soup over the front of their vest and coat every 
 time they eat, and let it remain there. These men never 
 reform. You could not reform them if you should try 
 Their wives have failed to reform them. Their manners 
 in this respect are due to their makeup. I am not chiding 
 them— let them spill soup on their clothes if they want to. 
 I don't know as it is very sensible to single out these men 
 in this connection, either, for the most of us have some 
 measly little habit that ought to be pounded out of us with 
 a club, but these men are cited to illustrate that it seems to 
 be impossible for all men to have an eye out for those little 
 matters which will help them along in' business. 
 
 My idea of a stock room is that it should be large and 
 hght. It does not cost much to make it so. The difference 
 in dollars and cents would neither break nor make a man. 
 And see what an advantage such a room would be. Your 
 doors could then be displayed. I was in an office when a 
 lady came in and inquired for a front door. The yard man 
 led the way to the stock room, and having nothing else to 
 do I sauntered along behind. The yard man had only one 
 blessed door that was in shape to be seen. All the others 
 were still bundled up. He got a saw and hammer and 
 pounded away, the lady during the process standing as far 
 away as she could and pulling her skirts around her as you 
 have seen your wife do when she thought there was a mouse 
 around. Finally the door was set alongside the other one. 
 "Are these all you have?" the lady asked. 
 
 "No," said the yard man, "I have got another one here 
 somewhere." Then he wrestled with several bundles of 
 sash to get at another door. I thought, standing there • "It 
 is a pity." Now what if the lady had been ushered into a 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 161 
 
 clean large, light room, with doors of every kind in stock 
 arrangedin a row for her inspection? Don't you tlunk she 
 wol have left that yard w.th a better impress.on than she 
 did? Yet we can guess what this particular yard man 
 might say about it. Maybe he would answer us: Uam 
 hpr imoression ! I sold her the door !" 
 '"BTbeloved. any business man who takes that pos.t.o„ 
 is on the wrong track. The impression you have o me 
 the reason you like or dislike me. Impressions are the father 
 
 "She thought there was a mouse around." 
 Of likes and dislikes. Not a month ago I visited a yard and 
 the impression I formed of the yard man was the reason 1 
 picked up my little grip and went to a yard up the stree . 
 This man is all right in his way-a good enough man prob- 
 ably-but he was a little lofty in the head, and I was of the 
 opinion that elsewhere I might fi"^ more agreeable com- 
 oany When you can strike a good fellow hfe is too short 
 Tput in your time with the others. You don't have to do 
 it, so what is the sense of it? 
 
^(yi REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 We should be careful as to the impression we make Ft 
 .s a larger part of his capital in business than many a man 
 IS aware. You have been told of a yard man who, when he 
 bunt a shed, fixed up a stock room with special reference 
 to the convenience of the ladies. His yard is in the center 
 of a good sized town, is visited by many lady customers, and 
 he thought he would try to keep their trade by pleasing them 
 He argued that when they went to shop for dry goo<ls gro- 
 ceries, shoes or bonnets they found the goods displayed for 
 sale, with seats for them to sit on and rest if they felt so 
 .nchned. and he asked himself why his place should be an 
 exception. They can visit his stock room as they can visit 
 stores and carry away the impression with them that it was 
 a comfortable place to trade. This man does no carpenter 
 work when the ladies are there making their selections. Any 
 time a day they may come in everything is in order This 
 pleases the ladies, and without a doubt the men as well We 
 coarse creatures can put up with many a thing that would 
 grind on the sensibilities and good taste of the ladies but 
 none of us has ever been heard to object to a system in a 
 business place that will save us time. 
 
 
 » 
 
 i' 
 
 \ 
 
 A PESSIMISTIC LUMBER SELLER. 
 
 Somehow I cannot fancy a rank pessimist any more 
 than I can a rattle-brained optimist. While we are here 
 on earth our place is neither underground nor in the sky 
 Live your life while you are living it, is what I try to 
 teach my children. We know less about the life to come 
 than we do about this one; therefore let us pav proper 
 attention to this one while we are about it. Furthermore 
 let us love it while we are living it. ' 
 
 A few weeks ago I ran up against a yard man who was 
 one of the worst pessimists I had ever met. I could not 
 conclude what kind of metal he was molded from. Ordi- 
 narily the pessimist is disappointed and sour. His liver 
 
 i I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 163 
 
 is out of order and he looks through green-eyed goggles. 
 You know the loaves of bread our best girls make sometimes 
 get sour and will not rise. It is so with the pessimist. 
 He gets sour and won't rise and, like sour bread, becomes 
 soggier and soggier. I could not understand, however, 
 why this man should have occasion to eject all the yeast- 
 like quality from his nature. Financially he certainly has 
 succeeded. Mentally he is as bright as the most of us. 
 Incidentally he told me he belonged to a church, and it 
 was on my tongue's end to ask him what business he had 
 in a church where there should be hope and praise, with his 
 inclinations dragging along on the floor where his feet 
 
 "He belonged to a church." 
 are-but of course I didn't. You know how many things 
 we would like to do and say but through policy or cowardice 
 do not do or say them. After all, with the most of us policy 
 is the most powerful engine that propels our actions. It 
 makes me half ashamed of myself and my kind when I say 
 
 it, but it is so. 
 
 When talking about trade and his determination to use 
 
 the people right in the matter of dealing he explained how 
 
 ungrateful the public is. *'You get no thanks for what you 
 
 do " he said. Then he appealed to me in the foUowmg 
 
 manner- "I have read the paper with which you have been 
 
 'II 
 
ilt^lll 
 
 164 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 connected for years ; during all those years you have been 
 saying good things about the lumbermen of the country 
 and I want to ask you how many of them have even said,' 
 'thank you' for it." 
 
 I told him I did not look at it in that light. When I 
 mentioned a man I did it as a duty, and often not knowing 
 nor caring whether he would see the mention or not. He is 
 treated as a piece of news the same as a saw mill or 
 lumber yard would be, and I expected no thanks from him. 
 In fact, that on several occasions during my uneventful 
 career I had made mention of men in a way that if thev 
 could have given either thanks or a club over the head i't 
 would have been the club. "There you are, a prominent 
 man in the trade," said L "If you should die tonight you 
 would be worth a half column obituary notice, and I should 
 be thankful you helped me along to that extent." He scowled 
 as though he had an inward pain. 
 
 You see this yard man is on the wrong track entirely. 
 It is not improbable that customers who had been given low 
 prices had gone elsewhere for their next bills, or that neigh- 
 bors whose business he thought he was entitled to had 
 shipped in lumber from the poachers who make so many of 
 our yard men swear. But all the same he is on the wron^ 
 track. He has offered his lumber for sale, and in return 
 for It eveo^ dollar which has been paid to him was a thanks. 
 These dollars have enabled him to live in his own house 
 and own his yard and stock. For these things he should 
 be extremely thankful. I can't snuggle up to the everlast- 
 ing grumbler. There is only one way for us to get alon^ 
 as we should, and that is to makeihe most of humanity as 
 we find It. The most of us are busy and have no time to 
 wart for people to come around and thank us. Whenever we 
 do our duty it matters not whether the world knows it or 
 not. This doing of our duty inures to our character, and 
 thus makes better men of us. Then, again, we are all so 
 selfish that we expect more thanks and the like than we are 
 entitled to. It has seemed to me that the injunction, love thy 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 165 
 
 neighbor as thyself, is a useless one except that it is an ideal 
 for us to reach after. Practically it never works. 
 
 Now, I have one of the best neighbors in the world. I 
 believe there is no man who means to be more upright than 
 he. The entire community respects him. He comes over 
 and smokes with me, and I return the visit and chew a cigar 
 with him. Last fall one of those miserable pocket gophers 
 got into his flower garden, and in polite language raised 
 hades. Finally, the gopher worked through into my lot, 
 and I have no doubt but my neighbor was glad to see him 
 off his premises. The other day I counted seventy little 
 hillocks that the pest had made in the lot where my old 
 black cow runs, and if tomorrow morning I should see he 
 had left my field and gone back on my neighbor's I should 
 be thankful, in a secret way of course, that I was rid of him. 
 I don't care how ethereal you are, or if your bump of love 
 has become so enlarged that you can't wear your hat, you 
 would rather that sickness would come to a neighbor's child 
 than to your own. You would rather the sheriff would take 
 your neighbor's key than your's. If death were to visit your 
 community tonight you would a thousand times rather the 
 crape would hang on some other door than yours. It is 
 impossible for us to screw our love to the pitch of loving 
 our neighbors as we love ourselves. The first law is self 
 protection, and in the make-up of that law selfishness cuts 
 a big figure. Hence we should understand that people con- 
 sider us from their standpoint, and not from ours. 
 
 I was so relieved when I got out of this yard man's 
 office that I didn't know how to kick up my heels high 
 enough. There were the pure bright air, sunshine, beauti- 
 ful grass and trees, singing birds — enough to cause a sane 
 man to shout praises to God because he existed. 
 
 : 
 
i66 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I 
 
 POINTS ON COLLECTING. 
 
 A man came in and called for his bill. As the items 
 were read to him evidently he was not satisfied. He hitched 
 in his chair and drew long breaths. While he did not 
 permit his feelings to explode, he went so far as to remark 
 that he would have no more to do with that firm for 
 awhile. This man's account had been running for three 
 years, with a credit now and then, and the point with him 
 was that the balance was larger than it should be. The 
 yard man went over the coal items and showed him that 
 his coal for the three years had cost him seventy odd dollars, 
 which the man admitted was as reasonable as he could 
 expect. In addition there was a small bill for dimension, 
 and possibly another item or two. It was the same old 
 story of human nature ; nine men in ten when they let a bill 
 run and run will think that it is too much when settling 
 day comes. I have been caught in that fix myself. 
 
 The customer said "good day" pleasantly enough when 
 he went away, and then the yard man said that the day 
 before when running over his accounts he had made the 
 remark that he wouldn't give ten cents for the one just 
 paid. He could not understand, however, why the man 
 should be at sea as to the amount he owed. "He has had 
 several bills," he said, "and why didn't he keep them ?" Then 
 it occurred to me why it would not be a good idea to have 
 printed in bold type at the top of the blanks on which item- 
 ized statements are rendered, ''Keep this!" If the instruc- 
 tions were followed it would help the customer to sustain 
 his equilibrium. Then if he would preserve his receipts he 
 could tell in five minutes how he stood and ask no odds 
 of the books of the man he owed. But mighty little business 
 is there in the average man, and the bill or statement gets 
 away from him as though that is what it was for. Then 
 there are more people in every community than you can 
 count on your fingers who, if they can only get credit, 
 don't care if the bills and statements do get away from 
 
 III 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 167 
 
 them It is not the bills and statements but the credit 
 that counts with them. Undoubtedly your ledger contams 
 the names of several such people. 
 
 Then the yard man delivered himself of a httle lore 
 that was worth recording. "I have been sending two duns 
 a week to this man," he said, "but they did not mclude the 
 ■ amount of his bill. That might have discouraged him! 
 I never tell a man who is doubtful pay how much his 
 account is when I send him a dunning letter. I say to 
 him that I am hard up and want some money, and then it 
 he comes in and has as much as he owes me I generally get 
 it " You see this method is based on the principle we have 
 been talking about, namely, that the average man who has 
 a running account underestimates the amount he owes 
 
 A yard man once gave a little talk on the statement busi- 
 ness. "I'll be hanged," he said, "if I think it is iny duty 
 to fire a string of statements at a man, and I don t do it 
 unless he is the kind that has to be coaxed in order to 
 get a dollar out of him. I have taught more than one 
 man that when I ask him by mail for my money he must 
 pay the same attention to it as he would if I were to go 
 to his house and ask him. To ignore statements is an 
 easy way that many, people who are perfectly able to pay 
 have of staving off pay day. It seems to be part of their 
 religion to throw statements one after another into the 
 stove as fast as they receive them. I sold a bill of repair 
 stuff to a lawyer, and at the end of sixty days sent him a 
 statement. Two weeks after I met him on the street and 
 told him I had a bill I wanted to put in his hands to collect, 
 and pulled out his own. Ten percent for collection fees! 
 he jokingly remarked. Then he said he would have paid 
 it before if he had known I was in a hurry for it. I asked 
 him if he didn't receive a statement and he said he believed 
 he did I asked him if he didn't think it was a man's duty 
 to pay attention to those things? 'You are right,' he said 
 •it's a man's duty to do it' ; and pulled out and paid me. I 
 have sued a man after sending him only one statement. If 
 
 il 
 
"wff ■ 
 
 i68 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 on receiving: a statement a man cannot pay a bill, let him 
 come around and say so!" 
 
 This man stood on tenable ground, at least theoretically 
 but there ,s not one business man in a thousand who has 
 the backbone to take that stand. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 169 
 
 THE ART OF BUYING RIGHT. 
 
 The old saying that a man is a good deal of a fellow 
 who makes two blades of grass grow where formerly there 
 was only one holds equally true when two profits can be 
 secured where there was but one before. The idea of clip- 
 ping the corners so that the profits may be increased is a 
 legitima e one. To buy lumber worth the monev, to handle 
 It cheap y should be the aspiration of every yard man. He 
 doesn t feel good when his stock of lumber is on top of him 
 instead of he on top of the luml^r. Said a yard man to me 
 a few months ago when the white pine list was supposed 
 to be as stiflF as a crowbar, "I know there are many dealers 
 who are paymg list prices, but you have no idea what a con- 
 solation it ,s to me to get under the published prices half 
 
 I have never thought that the poor buyer stands much 
 
 several towns m which there are good buyers and buyers 
 who are not so good, doing business side by side, and ft is 
 the latter who have the nightmare. Not long ago a sales- 
 man was deploring the position taken by a certain yard 
 
 ^He never thinks that a price list was made for practical 
 
 I felt like throwing up my hat for that yard man. Had 
 I wanted a yard manager I am not sure but I should have 
 opened negotiations with him. It is of course a nice thing 
 for a salesman to make his towns and take orders as fast 
 as he can book them at his own prices. I say it is a nice 
 
 thing— that is a nice thing for him. But it is not invariably 
 a nice thing for the other fellow. I like the yard man who 
 at any time stands ready to break away from the idea that 
 price lists are made for practical use, and I suppose if I 
 were put under oath I could name dealers who do not 
 once in a hundred times pay list prices. And so long as 
 they can manage to get under the prices of the list don't 
 you think they would be 24-carat chumps to change their 
 method of buying and pay list prices simply because it 
 would please somebody for them to do so? 
 
 There are salesmen who take a common sense view 
 of this question. I asked one of them if he felt like turning 
 on a yard man and biting him if that yard man were dis- 
 posed to jew him on prices? "Not a bit of it," was the 
 reply. "I am going to buy the few goods I consume as 
 cheaply as I can, and I accord that right to others. I 
 respect the yard man who is onto the situation ; who knows 
 what lumber is worth and will pay what it is worth and no 
 more, but he doesn't hurt my feelings if he tries to score 
 me below the true value level. I am not obliged to sell him 
 at his own figures, and need spend no time listening to him 
 unless I am so disposed. I know there are dealers who, 
 when they are in the mood, will give an unusually large 
 order if they can get a little concession, and I think it is 
 my business to get that order instead of leaving it for the 
 chap who follows me to pick up. Yes, I sometimes take 
 an order with the understanding that it shall be optional 
 with the house to fill it. There are men on the road who 
 object to this ; they have a good deal of pride and want to 
 be considered the whole push, and the end of things so 
 far as bargaining is concerned. I am content, however, to 
 be a sort of plastic medium between my house and the 
 buyer. If my instructions are to sell at the list I do it; 
 still, I think every salesman should use a little common 
 sense in this regard, and in order to be able to do this he 
 must be posted on the condition of stocks. Once within 
 the past six months I went out with instructions to sell 
 
I70 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 at tl,e list, and in less than three clays 1 ran up against a 
 man who wanted a considerable bill of an item that I knew 
 wasn t the strongest in the market. The buyer knew it, too 
 He made a b.d, and while I was not at liberty to ace pHt 
 I told h,m I would write the boss, which I did.'and later the 
 boss told me he was glad to place the lumber at the price 
 obtamed. I don't care how stiff a list is there are certai^ 
 Items on it which can be bent a little." 
 
 I do not want you to understand, however, that it is 
 your duty to take these opinions, or any other presented in 
 this department, as law and gospel. f «= tea m 
 
 IxNCREASING PROFITS BY GLAZING. 
 
 The train was tearing across the prairies like all pos- 
 sessed, and a couple of lumbermen and myself were dis- 
 cussing those momentous questions, as they say in a debating 
 society which affect the retail trade. Dy an unusual coinci 
 dence both of these lumbermen were thinking of doingTel 
 own glazing, fhey had not gotten the matter definitefy set- 
 tled but they were turning it over in their minds, and one 
 of them said if he went into it he should expect to make an 
 extra 30 percent. I don't think these lumbermen knew all 
 about buying glass, and I know I don't. There is a glass 
 trust the metho<ls of which in dealing with the buying p„b! 
 he are not so clear to the average citizen as is the glass ^is 
 rust calls certain dealers qualified buyers, an<l others have 
 to pay higher prices, if they get the glass at all. There are 
 mdependent glass manufacturers, however, who regard it 
 as their business to sell glass, and if you or I want a car- 
 load we can have it if we can pay for it 
 
 tinn^°Tt°^ ^''" T '''"' '° '°"''''"^ "^'^ &'«^'"& Proposi- 
 
 lumbermen who are not in the habit of calling pigs big hogs 
 They saw a point in it else they would have fet it^loS" 
 No doubt you think you know enough to glaze sash-we all' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 171 
 
 do I feel confident that right from the start, by working 
 fndustriously, 1 could glaze two or three sash a day. When 
 in a sash and door factory recently I timed a Swede who 
 Is glalg. and he spread the putty at the rate of a. fee 
 r minute. He went over the sash like a jack rabbit. He 
 had been practicing, though, for eleven years, and ought 
 by this time to know how to do it. There would be this 
 ?avSle feature: You would probably not have to hire 
 an "x ra hand to do your glazing You and yo- hired -an 
 could do it at odd spells, and no doubt he would like some 
 s"h little thing to turn his attention to so that he could put 
 rLl time. 1 remember I did when I was a hired man. 
 Th „ very likely, there may be some kid around your place 
 who owing to his quick perception and nimble fingers. 
 :o:;d take'the putty knife and make both you jn^ y-r 
 hired man feel ashamed of yourselves. It is the kind of 
 wo k that would suit a kid, for a few minutes at any rate 
 
 One of these men complained that much of the putt> 
 used at the sash and door factories sticks fully as fast as 
 "would first class mud. He was of the opinion it was som 
 kind of mud. If he went into the business he would 
 „ e puttv that was putty ; that old kind you remember tha 
 wheS we were boys we couldn't dig from a sash without 
 TaSg the edge off our jackknife. We would have to 
 wis it off, a'nd sometimes the knife would Ro astray and 
 the sash would get slashed. That is not the kmd of pu.ty, 
 however, that everybody uses these days. 
 
 '»■» 
 
 KODAK AS A TRADE WINNER. 
 The yard man was as wideawake as a trout. He is also 
 voung, and it is surprising how smart young men are these 
 days There has been a hot time in the old town in which 
 this dealer is located, and it is these hot times which bring 
 out what there is in a man. Strange as it may sound to 
 some I know dealers who through a prolonged scrap have 
 
172 
 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 made money. The competition nerved them tn ,u ■ u 
 and in order to hold their own theTdeS me h^^ ''"h" 
 schemes which otherwise would have lafd atenra^d v", 
 put them clear on top. ' ^"'^ "^^"^^ 
 
 pho™;ap";iT"iilf photographer-one of those amateur 
 not in W en W^^^^^^ "^"^^ ""^ ^ ^--ted. We 
 
 several ^ion'o^Z::tl':Z: 1^ ^^^^ «' '"^ 
 around with them as regularly as thev do hei ;^^rs n": 
 long ago some chump of a writer remprl^H ♦! ? ' 
 
 photographers "do not l„„ i. '^^"'^^^'^'^ "'at amateur 
 
 bet $fth': man vrit'e tSlr'r"""^ '''" ^'" 
 beautiful that anyone Z'.d at alnTp'^rft V "''"^ " 
 sour, ealous. two-legged old crab\vh?- f " '"""^ 
 
 through the world. A^ear^t ptselsion'r"^ ''''^'"^^'' 
 -not in dollars however h,, if f .? ^ '"computable 
 
 -y Old black cow' G^rrn e" \tSs™ '° ^"^^ °" 
 he is at liberty to do .n Tt, L *^""^''™*' ""^ even myself, 
 
 from us uitho'u it CO stinJ. rjcem T'"^ ^leHve pleasure 
 object to that kind of I'J n ' '"'' ^""^ '"^" ^f"" ^°"'<' 
 cat! help it '" '"'" "'"^^ f-^ "^y bedfellow if I 
 
 theyToL' tSdeX Z to" t.'" r'" •"^" "^"'^ *-" "^^» 
 
 to stir up any f^, Z ^ t ^Tem^ , ^t' th- 1-"'"'^ 
 an act to which nnt ma., r ^^"lark that thinking is 
 
 *^^fc. m«i uc cannot see our \Ara\' Air 
 when if we would only et ourse es ou r^'" "--'i'-s, 
 oursclves-we would soar .= !i ~ ^ ourselves, act 
 
 excuse do v^ Think Te V""^' °^ "" ^^^'^^ ^hat 
 
 account for' 1 t lent whicl " "'"" ^'"'^^ "P°" *° 
 talents, pinched an r::p d JT;- fr r*'°" ''°°^ 
 book of some n,an, partv or sert ' "°"°" ""^ P"*^"^^'- 
 
 he loulcrS r Jn^-"" r'^ °' '^'■^ ""'^ — - When 
 
 build, of all yt:^eand hift '''\7' ^°'"^ *« 
 
 •^ ^ ' "^ ^"^^ "IS wife would drive to the 
 
 w 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 173 
 
 place, visit with the people a little, as folks of tact can do, 
 take a snap shot of the old home and in due time present 
 some finished pictures to the prospective builder. You see 
 this little attention went right to the spot. He says by this 
 simple means he sold a half dozen house bills. Then, to 
 make good a promise, when the new house was up he would 
 take a picture of that also, and the pictures of the old and 
 the new hanging side by side were regarded as household 
 
 trca su r es. 
 
 The same yard man told me another that is not bad. 
 One evening when the mercury was several points below 
 zero he bundled up in his fur overcoat and robes and drove 
 eleven miles to see a man who was going to build. He 
 reined up in front of the house and was told to come in, but 
 to go in was not on the program. So Mr. So-and-so, scant- 
 ily dressed for that temperature, came out, and the yard man 
 began to talk lumber to him. The farmer shifted his posi- 
 tion from one foot to the other, drew his head down like a 
 mudturtle to get away from the blast and then he began 
 to shiver. All the time the yard man was describing to him 
 the advantages which would arise from buying his lumber 
 from him, and at length the farmer saw the point, and the 
 bargain was closed. "He had to buy the bill or freeze to 
 death!'* said the yard man. 
 
 Here is another on the same man: 'Things were so 
 hot," he said, "that when we saw a man coming into town 
 who looked as though he might buy lumber we would board 
 his wagon and talk lumber to him while he was driving to 
 his point of destination. One day a farmer hitched his team 
 in front of my place and bargained for some stuff. Then 
 he went out, and being afraid that my competitor would 
 get hold of him and .induce him to change his mind we 
 unhitched his horses, ran his wagon into the yard and loaded 
 it up. Sure enough, back he came and said he had changed 
 his mind about taking that lumber. I pointed out to him 
 the lumber already on the wagon, told him it was ready for 
 him to start with, then he went back and I suppose told 
 
I 
 
 174 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the other fellow he had changed his mind. At any rate he 
 hauled the l„„,ber we had loaded on his wagon away with 
 
 SIDE LINES. 
 
 There is no law to compel a yard man from dealing in 
 other merchand.se than lumber and coal. If he thinks he 
 can make a few honest dollars outside of these line the way 
 ■s open to him. There are dealers, however, who do not 
 
 1 hey stick to lumber and eschew all else. It has seemed 
 singular to me that retail lumbermen do not pay more at^en- 
 Uon to budders- hardware. It dovetails with' lu'mber n e ly. 
 
 li h,t '' "* °' ■' °^*'" "'y' ^ P'^' °" the invest 
 ment that is surprising. 
 
 I was in an office when a man bought a screen door and 
 
 wavs o7Ln' ""''' ""^" '° ^° ^•''^ ■'• ^here are two 
 to lell h fJ"^ ' '"''" '°°'' °"^- "''^" competition is hot, 
 
 L for th 7"' ''^r *''^' '"'^ '''' °'^''' -h^" "lore i 
 got for the door, to throw in the hinges. The yard man 
 
 went from the office into an adjoining foom, reached to th^ 
 
 top of some sort of cupboard and took down the packaeel 
 
 wavTk T'^ "^ '" "^ ^° '°'' '' '° -y that is not fhe 
 way to keep hardware. It looks too much like "boot-Ieg- 
 g>ng, as we call it in Iowa when a fellow sells whisky 
 unhcensed and on the sly. It looked as though thl y Jd 
 
 InTnoth "° T '" K "°" '^^ ^^^^ ^^^""^ ■" hardware' 
 In another office there were shelves with sliding glass 
 
 dcK,rs in front of them, and on these shelves were kep^t som 
 
 somethinrT: Tf'' '" '^^■■''""^- That looked like 
 something. The httle stock was neat and clean, and was 
 
 ncely arranged. At one place, when talking on tke subFec 
 of hardware, the yard man said he did keep a few ar ides 
 
 of quarts and in which was about every kind of screw you 
 can imagine. They had been mixed and remixed, and to get 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 175 
 
 at any particular size it was necessary to dump the contents 
 of the box on the table and then pick out what was wanted. 
 In the stock above referred to there was nothing of this 
 kind. On the end of each box there was wired a sample 
 of the screw the box contained and right through the goods 
 were arranged in this systematic order. When we look at our 
 offices or yards we are looking into a looking glass which 
 reflects the kind of heads we have, you know. 
 
 "Eat chicken and get acquainted with the girls." 
 Paint is sold by some dealers, and in certain instances 
 I know to advantage. In an office there were shelves at the 
 side of the room, and on these shelves were pails of pre- 
 pared paint. The dealer told how much of this paint he 
 had sold in twelve months, the profit per gallon, and a 
 mental computation made his income from that source $100. 
 To be sure that isn't much, but it is too much to be kicked 
 out of doors when it can be kept inside by simply handling 
 
176 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 exchanged fo. one Citf ^th': cTnslSl" 1^ 
 
 replace them. To me it looked like an easy way to make 
 a sum of money that will chink in on several occa^ons I 
 do not remember seeing a dealer who sold wh e ead 
 
 alone. Let the druggist have the trade' 
 
 I know what some of you will sav-it has been said to 
 me several times-"I don't want to encroach upTnThe'rade 
 of the hardware man!" If you find consolation in that kind 
 of business religion I should have no desire to kn^k th p "p 
 from under you. If the hardware man has a mortgage on 
 
 w :? crrrttir th; rr '- ''- --^p^? v:; 
 
 screen doors anVwildothf 47 arr'" ."" V' 
 would toll m» """''"w* ne can. and I wish somebody 
 
 t^ trade in"!-,"' '' '''"' '""^' ^^'^^^ '""'^ *« him than 
 
 an excellent sn'.'r"' '"' '""^'^ ^°^^ *° y°"- ^' ^^ows 
 an excellent spirit to respect the interests of others-and 
 
 so It does to respect one's own interests 
 
 In touching on this question I have not given mv ima^ 
 nation long wings. The subject might be srenhrgeTf 
 
 stocks, and an occasional game of poker, all of which are 
 looked after on the side by yard men. Some of them are 
 a regular menagerie when it comes to doing business 
 
 I recently went to a church supper with a vard man ate 
 chicken and got acquainted with the eirls fhu ^ • 
 thorough believer in special linef He ays he Zs'to' 
 
 tm V not be IK r""'"' ""' '""S '''^'" ''^"^ «g«i"- 
 It may not be lumber they want the first time, but they will 
 
 want ,t some time. He named an article he h^d been sellW 
 
 which was sold by no one else in town, and it had brouS 
 
 new customers to his place. There is a good deal of bul 
 
 ness sense m such a method. All of you may not take to 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 177 
 
 but in my opinion some of you might adopt it to advantage. 
 No doubt there are a thousand yard men in the country who 
 would say they are not getting their share of trade, and what 
 more appropriate than that they should take a lever of this 
 kind and do something toward prying themselves out of the 
 
 ' A yard man told me that when he first came to the town 
 trade was so slow that he took up real estate. He saw that 
 the town was bound to grow, so he bought five acres on the 
 outskirts, laid it off into lots, and was so fortunate as to 
 sell everything. "It helped me out," he said. It is not 
 every yard man, however, who can successfully balance on 
 his shoulder a lumber yard and a subdivision, though I have 
 known several who have done it. 
 
 DEVICE FOR HANGING DOORS. 
 
 \ yard man of ideas explained how he exhibits his front 
 
 doors. The accompanying illustration will help to make 
 
 it clear. He takes a strap hinge, clips the end off so as to 
 
 make it a little broader, and then turns the end up say an 
 
 "He takes a strap hinge." 
 inch and a half. He takes old broomsticks, saws them up 
 into pieces about an inch and a quarter long, bores a hole 
 through them lengthwise, avoiding the center, rivets or 
 .crews these pieces to the hinges, and thus has an eccentric. 
 The butt of the hinge is screwed to the wall or post, as the 
 case may be, and the task of hanging a door consists simply 
 
¥ 
 
 178 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ill 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 179 
 
 in placing the edge between the turned up hinge and the 
 cam formed by the piece of broom handle, and gravity does 
 the rest. Two of these hinges are of course required for 
 each door. If a door is wanted, simply lift up on it and it is 
 released. When thus hung the doors can be swung back 
 and forth, showing both sides of them, thus avoiding hand- 
 ling and rehandling. A hood about four feet wide is built 
 over the doors to keep off the dust. The coming season this 
 yard man will hang his screen doors on a post and be able 
 to show the whole batch of them in less than five minutes. 
 The device will be so novel and at the same time so much of 
 a plaything that customers will manipulate the doors them- 
 selves and make their selections. 
 
 RUINOUS WRANGLING. 
 
 There is many a town in which the yard men have one 
 another by the ears. Lumbermen as a class are rather posi- 
 tive mortals, anyhow, and perhaps the wonder is that more 
 of them do not wage open war. The most of us wage war 
 in secret, but that is another leaf of the story." If we were 
 hanged for our secret sins the majority of us would dangle. 
 
 The lumber buying public invariably enjoys these scraps. 
 If the grocers of my town were to get into a fight and sell 
 tea and codfish at cost I wouldn't care if they were cutting 
 the throats of one another clear back to the ears. That 
 which would interest me would be the fact that I could take 
 one of the big dollars earned by pushing the pencil, go to 
 one of these stores and get more goods for it than I could 
 get at times when the condition of trade was normal. The 
 fact that one of these grocers would sell me goods at cost 
 would not increase my respect for him one bit, either. I 
 should know he was doing it not because ho loved me but 
 because he was trying to knock the pins from under his 
 competitor across the street. I should be very willing to 
 be used as a medium. That is the view lumber consumers 
 
 **Hang his screen doors on a post." 
 
i8o 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 take of it when yard men in a town raise the battle crv 
 
 vacinJ nffi.r" T"" '"""' °^ '^''' fig'"^ '" the shape of 
 vacant offices and empty yards. In these cases it was a fight 
 
 to a finish. One of the contestants would get that tiS 
 feehng beyond endurance, or fail financially,^„d git out 
 because he wanted to badly, or was obliged to. There are 
 men to whom I should like to present photographs of hesl 
 yards .„ rums, labeled "The Outcome of tfe Fight ."h 
 might set them to thinking, and it might not. I have in 
 mmd as I write two yard men. each of whom would tak^ 
 everythmg the other one had except his lifeblood if he had 
 the chance, and both say they are there "to stay." I know as 
 
 st.ll these men have stayed for some time, and so far as I 
 know „ stay right along, continuing to tickle the people 
 m that commun.ty who buy lumber and throwing away their 
 
 Under'suT""- '" '° ™''^ ' "'"^^^ '' *'-- ^tlinesJ 1 
 Under such circumstances it does not seem to me that a 
 man should feel proud of his staying qualities. 
 
 was doW T7 "T, '" '°"'''^' ^'■^'^ ^ lumberman who 
 was domg the knock-down and get-knocked-down act who 
 d.d not express a regret that things were as they were If 
 the "other fellow" were only out of the way he wolld sett e 
 
 f :"ouTd^fd?"'r ^^^■■" ^"'^ "- ^"^ ■'' '-•- o" ce ^ot 
 It wouldn t do ,n these cases, however, for the competitors 
 
 to come together, acknowledge how foolish they haH en 
 each forgive and forget a little, shake hands and cal th^ 
 hing off. I say it wouldn't do-it would be too easy ll 
 would look too much like baiting that selfish nature of ours 
 with sugar instead of keeping it stirred up with acid 
 
 I was ,n a town in which there is rather warm' compe- 
 
 said he did not suppose thmgs would be otherwise until either 
 he or his neighbor quit or died. "I claim to have learned my 
 business." said he. "Every week I outbuy him; I can sort 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 i8i 
 
 my stock to better advantage than he can, and as a result I 
 can undersell him. What is there unfair in that ?" In my 
 opinion a business man's knowledge is his tools of trade, 
 and he is foolish if he doesn't make use of them. Because 
 I wouldn't agree on his kind of prices he went to cavorting. 
 The fact is the prices I am getting give me as much profit 
 as the prices he wanted would have given him." 
 
 THE KIND OF LETTER TO WRITE. 
 
 I have seen wholesale men as mad as blazes about the 
 letters received from their customers. The orders of those 
 customers were not filled exactly to suit them, and their 
 inclination was to give it to the men of whom they had 
 bought. So they would sit down and proceed to give it 
 to them ! This giving it to them ought to be a last resort, 
 beloved. Catch men with sugar just as you would flies— 
 that is the idea. Try the diplomacy of gentle and respectful 
 speech first. If this fails entirely and you become dead sure 
 that the man, according to the choice langviage of Mr. 
 Greeley, is a liar and a horsethief, why, then, squirt acid into 
 his eyes until he hollers. 
 
 When sitting by the desk of the manager of a big sash 
 and door factory he mentioned a letter received from a yard 
 man with whom, by the way, I am well acquainted. This 
 yard man had bought the mill work for a fine house of this 
 concern with the understanding that it should go forward 
 in one shipment. In this regard, however, the yard man 
 had changed his mind and asked that it be forwarded in 
 three installments. "It will cost us more money to do that," 
 said the manager, "but the tone of the man's letter was such 
 that if necessary I would take off my coat and go out and 
 help load the stuff into different cars." There you see 
 comes in the reward of a decent, gentlemanly letter. 
 
 In more business places than we could count it is thought 
 that any three-dollar-a-week man who can swing a stub pen 
 
■f'^-\ 
 
 182 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 and dovetail English words together is good enough to write 
 
 a s^e't r^^^ '' ' r"^^^"' '^^^^^^' and'oftenti; 
 a snare that catches around the neck and shuts the wind off 
 
 .Jr u ' '^' ^^^^^'"^^ "^^" ^^" ^' several things* 
 and two or three months ago one of them pulled out a batch 
 of letters from yard men and laid them before me to re^d 
 I wanted to get at the bottom of a certain matter and this 
 man was so kind as to assist me. I received the in ormaHon 
 
 of the letters. Some of them were grouty. A few of them 
 were documents of complaint because lum'ber had adva d 
 Others were smcere and frank, put into such langua J as 
 one gentleman would use to another face to face' Ivery 
 letter was a portrayal of the character of the man who 
 
 If I were running a business it seems to me I should be 
 very particular about the letters which were sent out I 
 should want the man who wrote them to bring out the uga 
 bowl and od can and leave the pepper box infhe pantry ' 
 
 Business is business, and a man should say what he 
 means have heard it said. That is right, too a man 
 should always say what he means, but ther'e are a hundred 
 and one ways of saying what he means. 
 
 CONCERNING MINOR THINGS. 
 
 Come to look at that heading I don't like it, for I cannot 
 
 swear there are any minor things. I .sed t^ think there 
 
 were. I used to think there were people who were very 
 
 mmor when compared to myself; then I thought there were 
 
 re ulgent with greatness. T am thankful I am out of this 
 rut of thinking. In my opinion there isn't a human beil 
 
 figure as I do. I feel that others are as important as I am 
 and I as important as they. Simply because our gover^; 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 183 
 
 was a politician and successfully pulled the wires, I do not 
 rank him above that man across the street who is laboriously 
 shaping stone for the foundation for a house. The standard 
 is when a man is doing his best. 
 
 The Almighty has made no minor things. The grain 
 of sand is as perfect as the rock. The elephant, by those 
 who are unfamiliar with him, is called a wonderful animal, 
 simply because he is big. The other day I saw a little black 
 speck on my hand. The natural eye could detect nothing 
 farther except that the speck moved. I placed it under the 
 microscope, and there was shown an insect with legs, eyes, 
 digestive apparatus, and anatomical projections as surprising 
 as the elephant's trupk. Call the elephant more wonderful 
 than this insect? Not a whit. If you say the elephant is 
 wonderful for his great size, I would retort that this insect 
 is equally wonderful for its minuteness. Oh, but if we 
 could only quit sitting in judgment on the works of the 
 
 Creator. 
 
 In an office in which I was sitting one partner was about 
 to make an inquiry of a southern house as to the price of 
 yellow pine flooring, when the other partner said: 'Tell 
 'em we want flat back." 
 
 "Why flat back?" I made bold to ask. 
 
 "It looks thicker than the grooved back and sells better," 
 was the reply. You see, it was the minor matter of a little 
 extra thickness the yard man was thinking about. 
 
 Thick material is a consideration with thousands of 
 lumber buyers. A yard man told me that to certain custom- 
 ers he was unable to sell surfaced dimension, for the reason 
 that in the process of surfacing some of the wood is cut 
 away. In some of the eastern markets they have been 
 sticklers for plump thicknesses. If they bargained for inch 
 lumber they were going to have it an inch thick. They said : 
 "You can't sell us inch lumber and put off three-quarters on 
 us any more than you can sell us a pound of corn and de- 
 liver us twelve ounces." 
 
 There were western saw mill men who tried to find a 
 
i84 REALM OF THE RETA'LER. 
 
 S"ln"df '''p'l' ::' "'r ^'"^ ^^^ "^— •'-■^ on 
 
 tneir nands. But this stuff is arri>nt*>rl ;« .u 
 n>arkets," these saw mill men urged ' "'"'''" 
 
 areZ^he'::::..-''' '°" ""'^" '"^^'•^'^•" "^^^ -<». "we 
 
 praJ'cedTl"^ °' ""' ''"'""'^^^ '" "'^ -"' -« A^st 
 
 wes ern Chan ^'"^ ^u"' '" *'*= ^'"^''' ""^•- -<' ^^en we 
 western chaps are so happy-go-lucky that we don't kick 
 
 Tn " Sfl" t' "t"' '^ °"'^ ^'^■'^'^ ^"-^"^ •" ^'°P ^ ^2 
 in us wild flight. I suppose, however, that a just iud^e or 
 
 jury would say the eastern people are correct inlh ■!• 
 
 they take. correct m the position 
 
 by 7lalesmr"'"lf J°," T"" ''"^' ^^'"^ ^"^''^^'ly "^^d 
 man "I ™n k „ ^ "^'"^' ="°"^'" *^'^ «"°ther yard 
 
 mnes I sho H . *° ' P'"""'" f^™- -» here three 
 mjes. I showed hm, my stock and he walked around seem! 
 
 I'rk^d 'fhTther"' ' ''°'"'^'' '° ^ P"^ °^ "- '^--> 
 remarked that there was some good, wide stnrt t . 1 1 
 
 see .t appealed to him. The bofrds w^^e r:^ wi e Tn 
 he old fellow seemed to think that the width was a sL " 
 supenonty. The fact was that for the purpose f^r wLh 
 the It«,ber was to be used it would not amount to the snal 
 of a finger to the farmer whether the boards w re le Jr 
 eighteen mches wide. I believe, however, he wouldhave 
 gone out of my yard without buying had it not been or tJI 
 pile of wide boards.*' ^^ 
 
 Of a somewhat similar nature was the testimony of a 
 Minnesota yard man regarding his experience in seJ^e 
 shingles. He said he did not sell many .to 2 for th. r ^ 
 that he could not honestly push ^^J.' 'l VlJ^TTl 
 o 2 IS worth as much to a cent," he said. " If Le b„i d 
 .ng a whole city and covering it with wood I woJdn t [ 
 one s to 2 shingle on the roof. At one time U^t c„ r 
 
 ran out of 6 to 2, and as luck wouTd h™ t an^" ' 
 generally does have it, while I was shy I had ^ caH fo 
 good many shingles, and I didn't fail o/ce to s lit e L' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 185 
 
 I would show the shingle, laying particular stress on the 
 thickness, and they would go." 
 
 If your lumber yard was mine I wouldn't want a better 
 argument to fire at the average buyer than that my lumber 
 was of extra thickness. To the contractors, and others who 
 know their business, such an argument would not have 
 much weight, but the farmer would jump for it as the trout 
 jumps for the fly. 
 
 TO PROTECT THE EDGES OF LOADS. 
 
 The bungler is out of place even in the handling of a 
 coarse product like lumber. I have seen more loads of lum- 
 
 "The best thing I have seen for the purpose." 
 ber leaving yards bound in the most crude way imaginable 
 than I have lived weeks. Sometimes a rope is used, some- 
 times a chain, and it is not uncommon at such times to hear 
 the wood crack when the binder is tightened, the edges of 
 the boards on top of the load giving way. When the tongue 
 of a flooring or siding board is in part torn off or a groove 
 smashed in it is highly probable that the carpenter, con- 
 tractor or owner, as the case may be, thinks he is not get- 
 ting value received. It would be easy for him to think 
 that the man of whom he bought the lumber was a Cheap 
 John who had set up as a lumber merchant because he 
 could do nothing else. 
 
186 
 
 : I 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 i^iWH 
 
 or old rags, to bTpIam nTl ' "^^^""^^ly cotton, wool 
 cier the rfp; or cl,at fo th ""^^ '''^'^ °^ "^^ '°«<' "- 
 best thin^I hav ee„"l;r"'°" °' *'^ '"""^-- "The 
 of a piece of heavy rubbet L- ^"'''°''' ^"''''''' '^""^'^'^ 
 two or three inchT 7„ r '^ "'' ''^ '"^ '"''^'' ■'" '<="gth and 
 
 chain is p^sed": d:ft:rthf °"''' ^"■"^ '''^ -p^ - 
 
 us would tell t^s that fh? KK T""""" '^"^^ "^ ^'"y of 
 edges Of the loa"d InJ tl'^^^oT chZ" '''"'' '"'^-''^'^ 
 
 KEEPING TAB ON YARD HANDS 
 
 one that he willTavf ^c^as o t alpt TfT'ri '' "°' 
 -n what Mnd of a Cinese Puzzlet^aslnl^^.^^^ 
 
 "Keeping track of the men *' 
 
 inches in -dianTel^r 'er 1: "IT"' T "'"• '"- 
 painted black and the tmner h I u"" ''"'^ "^ ^ach 
 centers of these discs are sort, f "'"'" ^"^""' *« '''e 
 and which when .rned ,n mT'' '''° P^''"'«' black, 
 
 across the white O e thTd.vTa et"^ " t '''''' ^'^^ 
 
 corresponding to the n„n,be "f In e""T "!' '' '' ^- ^- 
 
 inuer ot men employed. This is 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 187 
 
 the machinery on the door jam. Hanging down through 
 the ceiHng, over the desk, is a rope which is connected 
 with a triangle on the end of the office outside which serves 
 as a bell. When a man goes out with a load or for other 
 reason is to be absent he turns up the tongue on his disc, 
 and then at a glance the office man knows it would be sense- 
 less to call for that particular man. It is known at all times 
 the men who are around the yard and those who are out- 
 side. 
 
 IN FEAR OF THE LINE YARD MEN. 
 
 The president of a retail association recently read a 
 paper in which was expressed the opinion that there would 
 soon be none but line yards. This opinion I have often 
 heard expressed by single yard men, and I must confess I 
 am at a loss to understand the logic on which it is based. 
 Of course, if all the single yard men choose to sell out to 
 the line yard fellows, why then it follows that the prophecy 
 of these single yard men will have been realized. 
 
 The objection to line yards often amounts to a pique. 
 If I have a yard at Gun Town and another one at Toad 
 Holler I am practically a line yard man. So long as I had 
 a yard in Gun Town only I was supposed to be a pretty 
 good fellow, but the minute I open a yard in Toad Holler 
 my nature by some is alleged to have undergone a change. 
 I have become a raging monopolist and want to crowd all 
 my neighbors off the face of the earth. If I wanted to make 
 money at one of these points don't you think I would want 
 to make money at both of them ? Do you think that because 
 I run two yards my assets in this world's goods have so 
 suddenly increased that I can do business on a scale of no 
 profit just for the fun of the thing? 
 
 A single yard man recently poured into my ear a tale 
 of woe concerning what seemed to him the outlook. The 
 line yard man at the next station up the road looked to him 
 
 Mil 
 
i88 
 
 
 't 
 
 I' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 w^LLt If tt;:. ' ^^'^^ 1:"" ""^' -^ '"e matter 
 
 but the -line yard" 1', , a7 , '"^ formulate a charge. 
 
 This I wiJ drnkthaTn f "f ^°^'^^ ''''" '<^ ^^^^ 
 does not aUvays^d^rs' a ?. ;^;' Tel" "'' ""^ ^^^ 
 h.s job, as the most of il are to h„M M T"' *° ^°^'^ 
 good financial showinjr to hk 1 \ ' ""'^ '° ""^^^ ^' 
 over the bounds He if no. '^ "P"' "' ^^ '=^" ''^ ^^^P^ 
 
 I have come in con act with ?'? """ "'^""' J"^S~ 
 
 contact with local managers of line yards 
 
 "Poured into my ear a tale of woe " 
 
 cotmtrj;. and "o^^: hXhTctb.e m^ ''''' '" ''' 
 of them would be out of the quelrion \ f,^'" ^°^ ^" 
 'ocal men to conduct themXs n ma terT f TT '""^ 
 way which was not approved bv th! ^ ^'^''^ '" » 
 
 Not long ago something 7thLw„dcar"r °' '''^ "■"^• 
 
 - .an a hot^onguedirere L^gL'L^^^^^^^^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 189 
 
 he got there. Line yard men size up similarly to the rest of 
 us. There are upright business men who run lines of yards 
 —I am personally acquainted with several such. On the 
 other hand I could name a line yard man who no doubt is 
 meaner than any ^ussley," as we call it, that ever overran 
 your vegetable beds. I should not want to do busmess 
 alongside of one of his yards. He is not mean, though, 
 because he is a line yard man. He would have been mean in 
 
 any business. 
 
 I wish I could assure the doubting and diffident single 
 yard souls that the best single yard lumber merchants of 
 the country have no fear of the line yards in the least. 
 This has been said before, and it will bear repeating. Those 
 merchants regard the line yard as the softest possible snap 
 in the way of a competitor. To start with, very often there 
 is a feeling against a line yard by the people of the town 
 in which it is located. It is not "a home institution," they 
 say. This prejudice is at times both senseless and un-Amer- 
 ican ; still it exists and feeds the minds of the unthinking. 
 Again, the up-to-date local lumberman who knows by heart 
 the people of his section does not stand in fear of such com- 
 petition as is put up by the average man in charge of a line 
 yard. Go where you may, and it is ten to one it is not the 
 line yard that is doing more than its share of business. I 
 could name those which are hanging on by the skin of their 
 teeth while their neighbors are prospering. 
 
 As I look at it there is no sense in talking about line 
 yards "crowding" out single yards. They may supplant 
 them— I can't say as to that— but if they do it will be because 
 they come forward with cold money and buy them out. 
 They have a constant eye to that. No doubt the line yard 
 men operating in Iowa alone would buy a hundred yards 
 tomorrow if they could do so on an equitable basis. They 
 are constantly in evidence as to their faith in the value and 
 stability of the retail lumber trade. 
 
 A dealer in a two-yard town was recently talking with 
 me on the subject of prospective competition. You know 
 
I90 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 there are some towns which in thu ,» j 
 hair trifr<T^r v . '^^K^'"'' ^re hung on a 
 
 narr trigger. You can hanily tell whether there is room 
 for another yard or not Thic .„ • °°^ 
 
 "I* ■ . , '"'* 'own IS one of that \cinA 
 
 It .s not the competition of the h'ne yard tl^,. T 
 much about," he remark,. , I '■( .i ^ ' ^ '^^''^ «« 
 
 money But 7 i« Tk * " ''"^ ^^^^^ ^^"'^ «« make 
 
 whoTs liabl! 1 '7-Pon-We fly-up-the-creek fellow 
 
 wno IS liable to come, demand a larger nercenta.,^ ^t ,u 
 business than he ought to have, and ff he can" /e it t '' 
 things to pieces by raising hades !" ^ ' '"?' 
 
 MOOD AS A MOTIVE. 
 
 The yard man asked if I felt that T r„„o* u ■ 
 mood when , „„,.. „j , ,„M 'i^Th ,T1^J,^ T'T 
 
 k. co„,d ,„ i„o ,kX o™ ,CuX ""bu, rr 
 
 t. mes It is like standing on one hill w^l ''" 
 
 customer on another Th», ! "^ prospective 
 
 us. When I fee that I h. " '"""' ''''^"^ ''^'^^-n 
 of price hadj g.Ve Le a thTu T "? "'"' "^^ •'"^^*-" 
 almost any prL^TL^ve '„ "S „ i T l^ '"" " 
 days I am so mighty afraid I wilT." u "^ °'^ 
 
 the first I know ! am o^rin/s L o^n'of ""^""^ "^^' 
 propose to knock of? a little hel 3,^ °^/°"««'°"- I 
 around in a way that i el. '? '""^ ^° ^"^S""^ 
 
 body that I was^nltlroTm; Zinr ' '' ^'"" '° ^"^- 
 
 1 his yard man opened up a biV subiect All ^^ u 
 less confidence and ho^i k suoject. All of us have 
 
 and I don't beheve it t 7' '' '"'"' ^^'"^^^ *^^" '' ^^^ers, 
 
 either. Dy pe '^^^^^ '"^^T" ''^^ ^'^ ^^^ ^^^^ -^ ^t 
 
 i^yspepsia IS bad enough, but it has become such a 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 uji 
 
 stock term that we apply it as a cause for all the minor ills 
 of the mind. If a man is irritable, mean, ungentlemanly, a 
 nice way to excuse him is to say he has the dyspepsia. I 
 don't believe it is any excuse, as any man with a head half 
 full of brains ought to know enough to be decent and treat 
 people at least courteously, no matter if dyspepsia lies in 
 chunks in his stomach. When a man who does not feel up 
 to concert pitch physically blurts around and slobbers like a 
 catfish, treading on your feelings or mine, it is simply a plain 
 exhibition of the man proper. Get him a little roiled and 
 he would do the same thing if he had the pristine health of 
 Adam. 
 
 Physically and mentally we are constantly relaxing and 
 strengthening — swelling and receding. To speak meta- 
 phorically, the tide comes in and goes out. When it is full 
 we have hope, confidence, grit; and when it ebbs those 
 qualities are less intense. It is a natural process of nature, 
 and as life depends on action and reaction when the process 
 ceases we die. 
 
 It is an excellent thing to set our standard when the tide 
 is in— just as we would make our will when we know what 
 we are doing. A lumberman recently told me that some 
 of the most serious mistakes in his earlier business life were 
 a result of his not having the backbone to stay by his judg- 
 ment. He would figure on large bills, he said, knowing at 
 the time that the proposition was an equitable one all around, 
 but in a day or two a feeling would possess him that he 
 would like to go a few dollars better on his own estimates. 
 His mental sky would assume a bluish cast, and he would 
 begin to think that surely somebody would underbid him 
 and that if he didn't sell that amount of lumber to that one 
 particular man or corporation he didn't know where he 
 would sell it. You see the tide was going out and there was 
 a letting down in his determination. Felt the same way 
 yourself, haven't you? 
 
 We are great creatures — great machines ; there is more 
 
 •Mill 
 
 Pi 
 
192 
 
 i 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 it woul. Be if we prl.ZZ: TZri^'Z'""' """^ " 
 OPPOSED TO RETAIL ASSOCIATIONS 
 
 •o say to hi. ir Tnt twthT'^"''" ''''' '^ "° °- 
 and correspond with mZ wJr ^"""' """"^ ^^^^ •"^" 
 
 yard business, agree Z7isZJl7LZ7' '''1 °' '"^ 
 
 «*^'^c, Dut never quarrel. Life 
 
 "A blow right between the eyes " 
 
 without getting hot ufd t e ^r'k^^^^^^^^^ '^^^^^"- 
 g^ad to be able to say • Not oL i , '' ^''^^^^'•' ^ ^"^ 
 
 association has anythin/to s " "5^^ ^"^"'^^ ^' ^^e 
 
 Pn-nciple. I suppose that wl^l '"^.'"'^ '^''"- ^^ ^'^ ^" ^^e 
 we are sinners ""^^^^ ^' ^^"^ ^"^^^^ves we know 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 193 
 
 A letter came to me today from a yard man who has a 
 grievance against all retail associations. He §ays he does 
 not think it is American for these associations to restrict 
 the trade of their members as they do. He would have 
 competition free and open, leaving every man to sell to 
 whom he may. "This fencing in a territory and saying to 
 a man 'thus far thou shalt go' cripples the efforts and ambi- 
 tions of a merchant," he writes. 
 
 Well, now, I don't know about that. But if it is so 
 the efforts and ambitions of this retail man surely need not 
 be crippled. He is in a position to be a free lance, and can 
 sell lumber from Florida to Canada. He is privileged to 
 sell all the lumber that is used in his own town and m the 
 towns surrounding him. But does he? I should like to 
 sit down and talk the matter over with him, and if I had 
 that pleasure I should ask him how much more lumber he 
 is selling than he would sell if he were a member of an 
 association. That is a pertinent question. And in advance 
 I believe I know something of the answer he would give. 
 He would say that although he is not a member of an 
 association he is restricted in territory. 
 
 Every yard man rigidly guards his territory. I was in 
 a town in which every yard man belongs to an association, 
 and also in which there is a local understanding as to prices 
 and the volume of trade to which each dealer is entitled. 
 One of these dealers remarked, "We don't let any outsider 
 
 come in here." 
 
 You can readily interpret that remark. It means that 
 if you or I should attempt to sell a bill of lumber in the 
 territory of these dealers, in classical language they would 
 be "onto" us, and that we would have to meet prices which 
 would take the sand out of us. That is the way to do it, too. 
 When a yard man objects to becoming an association mem- 
 ber for the reason that it will clip his wings in regard to 
 the volume of his sales, his wings, as a rule, get clipped 
 anyway. Bear in mind, I say "as a rule." There generally 
 comes in the exception. There are retail dealers who will 
 
194 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 make their way anywhere. They were born that wav Tu 
 
 zr^'Tu '' '""'''"''■ '' ■■' - -'- o s J :■; 
 
 the time teL L *''"" '° '''^^''^'^- ^hese men for 
 tne time bemg, would succeed whether they were memh^rc 
 of an association or not. But here is a fart tW 
 a Jeffries blow right between the ^^s :hln we Irtir 
 "ig against the association • Nine in t^n ^(fU 
 
 fully reasoned the thing out. They did not want to be" 
 hand.appe^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ -- into the Ld 
 
 see their wT T " ''"''' ^"' ^^"^^ ^^^^^^ -^^ do not 
 Son.1 7 ^ f '^ '^^" ^^^ association membership 
 
 don t al? "^'^/"'^"'^ ^'" ^^^^ ^^^^^^ -^ -^ membe s 'l 
 don t ask everybody to look through my eyes. The good 
 
 Lord has given them eyes of their own. I think howf^r 
 
 methods and pnnciples, and very likely they think I am 
 shortsighted in thinking so. If t'hey do it s all ntht I 
 accord to them the same privilege tha't I enjoy ' ' 
 
 Doubtless this dealer who raises objections to associa- 
 lons has engaged in the retailing of lumber as a lif w" k 
 
 and f hrhs'i-r'^ '"i\'''"" '^ ^"^^^ '^ ^-^ ^^i 
 
 Ltu e welt; ^.^^^i"^^-^^ -"^ father he has thei 
 Urease 1^^^^^^^ T* ""^'^^^^ ^'^^ '^^ ^---^ -^" 
 
 businessTff, f i '^'^"'^^ '"^ "^^ ^^^- ^' ^""^ber 
 business ,s the foundation of his financial hopes. And I 
 
 Zd beT-M- '^'" ^'^^ ""^ ^'^ "^^ ^^^ ^^^ asfociations h 
 would be budding on sand. His chances in the retail lumber 
 
 iTtTlT'' T""' ^^'^^' ^ P^'^^>^"-- "^ would Se 
 
 T T r^; '^'""^ ^'^'^^" "^ ^^^" ^^-^^"^ horses. 
 ^ I should hke to have this man visit some of the sections 
 m he eastern states where the retail yards have been pS 
 out of existence, where the wholesale dealers have mono^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 195 
 
 olized all the trade, and then tell me how he would like a 
 dose of the same medicine. Do away with the retail asso- 
 ciations and it would be the same elsewhere. The manu- 
 facturers and wholesale dealers carry large, assorted stocks ; 
 they have their corps of salesmen ; and there are a hundred 
 and one of them who, did not the retail associations hold 
 a club over their heads, would sell lumber to anybody who 
 wanted to buy, and they would sell so cheap that the small 
 yard man would have no chance. 
 
 I am a friend of the retail associations because they pro- 
 tect and will perpetuate the retail business of the country. 
 They are the great sustaining prop under the yard man's 
 business today. This dealer may denounce the associations, 
 but I feel assured that did he understand how much he is 
 indebted to them he would be their friend. They bear to 
 him a relation similar to that of insurance— they protect 
 him. 
 
 AN IMPROVED BOLSTER. 
 
 This bolster is heavier at the end than the ordinary one, 
 and the stakes are made of i-inch, or larger, gas pipe, of 
 any length desired, with a shoulder welded on one side of 
 the pipe to keep it from dropping through too far. It is 
 
 simple, yet its advantages are several. To start with, there 
 are straight sides against which to pile lumber. The same 
 number of boards of a given width can be piled on the plat- 
 form from start to finish. It is not necessary to wiggle 
 
196 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I, 
 
 bolaer »h.r. ,1,, .,.s, ,,„, ,"' ^ ' , T'" *P"' «"!.« 
 
 .op. . ... „„„.:: rr ;: dir.'s is 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 197 
 
 an ing-enious yard man has devised anri ..-hi.u 
 
 wo.^.at"a1C Mtnf'nTt^J ST, T"""" 
 
 tne Cham up nearly taut and hook it arounrl tL , i 
 or elsewhere, then pull the lever over and hCd t n S 
 as .ndieated fn the sketch. In the vardTn iVV ^ ! 
 they wouldn't dispense with it for^rly^^L:;---^ 
 
 READ AND YOU WILL KNOW 
 
 on H?; ci^X^ -S 
 
 who go on a hop. skip and Jump when theTread It ^1 
 
 sanie as .t is with son,e people when the/ Hstn'' ^^ 
 
 cannot hear a statement and report it correctly to save them. 
 I say they cannot, for the careless way of registering a 
 statement in the receiving reservoir of their thinker, as it 
 were, has become second nature to them. Then, again, they 
 may be too lazy to read or to listen. There are as many 
 men lazy mentally as there are physically. And oftentimes 
 the two forms of laziness are not combined in one individual. 
 Some of the brightest men I know, men who are as indus- 
 trious as bees in doing mental work, who bum midnight oil 
 and harp on industry as the keynote to all material success, 
 have not enough physical get up to hoe a short row of 
 potatoes. Then there are those who pride themselves on 
 their physical hustling quality, who will do muscular work 
 unceasingly and swear that the men who work their little 
 think tanks are lazy, good for nothing things who don't 
 like to work, yet when it comes to mental effort these very 
 people are the personification of laziness. 
 
 You see, it is owing to the way we are built. The lazy 
 man can no more help being lazy than the tall man can help 
 being tall or the black man black. It would be as reasonable 
 to expect a leopard to change his spots as for a lazy man to 
 get over his ever present disposition not to work. A dozen 
 children crying for bread may force him to work, his appre- 
 ciation of the opinion that the community may have of him 
 may cause him to put forth effort, but it is forced, and all 
 the time his very bones rebel against it. 
 
 I have given considerable -study to the lazy man, and I 
 confess I have not been able to analyze him to my entire 
 satisfaction. It may be for the reason that no great man 
 before me has helped me out. You know the pioneer in 
 anv line caniiot do so well as can those who come after 
 him. The latter build on the pioneer's work; they take 
 advantage of his mistakes, profit by them and erect a higher 
 structure than he did or could. I doubt if in all literature 
 you have read so much about laziness as you have in the 
 last three minutes. You have, of course, seen it defined 
 as idleness, indolence, but that treatment of it does not 
 
I 
 
 »98 REALM OF THE RETAILER 
 
 that they could go home and sleep soundiv Tt „ T, I 
 
 great piece of business to let the Mne vTrH u '^ ^ ^ 
 
 of the associations, wouldn' t > Id i l^ '°"''°' 
 
 a piece of busines^ to bar fhl ..n 1 "''' ^ ^' ^^^' 
 
 the control over To the X ^ Lj -n' "Sn"™' TA^'^^ 
 sensible as the other. The obict oT th. •''°"'''> ^' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 199 
 
 touched up with stove blacking ; I go across to the Lumber 
 Exchange building, take an elevator car to the secretary's 
 floor and swinging my big cane march into the secretary's 
 room as pompously as though I were an alderman. I have 
 not paid close attention to association matters, and we sit 
 down to discuss them. Seeing that I am a big gun, or think 
 I am, I ask what representation I will have in the forthcom- 
 ing meetings. "You will have one vote," says the secre- 
 tary, in his quiet way. 
 
 *'One !" I shout so loud that they come running in from 
 the hall to see that no one is being murdered. 
 
 "One ! Don't I put in lOO yards ? Don't I pay you $500 
 in admission fees? Do you mean that I can have no more 
 to say about running the association than my competitor 
 over at Pumpkintown, who has paid only $5 and whose 
 yard I could tuck away in my vest pocket?" 
 
 "Precisely," says the secretary, "you catch my meaning 
 
 exactly." 
 
 Now there is the law and the gospel of the matter in 
 that brief imaginary conversation. The yard man out at 
 Sodtown, who has not been from Sweden twelve months 
 and who has not yet learned how to fill out the Australian 
 ballot, but who is so wise as to have cast his lot with the 
 retail association, can go into a meeting and his vote will 
 count as much as will mine, with 100 yards on the associa- 
 tion Hst. "W-h-e-w!" some of you will whistle; "I didn't 
 . know that." Of course you didn't, and that is why you keep 
 on talking through your headgear about the way the asso- 
 ciations are, or can be, manipulated by the line yard men. 
 
 The retail association is a cosmopolitan institution. It 
 seeks to extend equal benefits to all. It is under stock man- 
 agement. If I am entitled to vote but stay at home from 
 the meetings, and then business affairs do not shape to my 
 liking, what right have I to grumble? Whom should I kick 
 but myself? I ought to have been on the ground to have 
 voted and to have raised my voice, if necessary, aganist any 
 
 m\i\ 
 
 1 
 
V 
 
 200 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 proceedings which did not please m. tu 
 
 been the man of it. Don't you LJ so? ^''^^ ^°"'d have 
 
 AN EFFECTIVE DOOR FASTENER 
 i:ou who have double donr« ;« r 
 of molding racks, know how S:!'^ °^ ^ ^-"^ 
 
 and even when shut closed ^ I rSe 7 '''" ^'"^ 
 house doors on which was nrint!i • . ^f ^^"^^3^ saw lime 
 ''Shut These Doors ' Z EelheT:^^^^^^ ^^^^-' 
 
 was suggested to the yard man tZ Tu '"''^" ^^"- ^' 
 his men to keep them open !L ,. ' ^^"^^ ^"^^^^^ 
 
 shut. ^ ""P^" ^^^3^ ^ould occasionally get 
 
 ^''' ^--"jElII^!^^ the doors 
 
 together after HrV.'f " """^^ -^" ^"y'' 
 tenV:itfa ;^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^"\ ^^^^^ doors when fas- 
 
 and bottom, "h^s s^e ; 7 ^'u'"^^ ''''' ^" ^^ ^^e top 
 should be^and alUt^ tZ^^^^^^^^^^ f ^ ^^^ where they' 
 
 P-ce is .X6X.4 inches, rnT: :LJZ ZT ' ^'' ""^ 
 reason why pine would not .nc ^ ^ '' ""^ ^^^ 
 
 shape the pieces whi h hoM h 7 "^''^ ^^^P^^^' Then 
 a" in place and you havfas "d '7'' ''"^ '^^^^ ^-^- 
 ^"y- It is a faLner "vh "hTstns V " "^"^^ ^^" 
 you have been looking after ' ""^''^ "^'^ ^' ^^'^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 20I 
 
 MATERIAL THAT IS RETURNED. 
 
 The yard man had something to say about the material 
 returned from jobs. *Tn cases of doors and windows," said 
 he, "if there are misfits, no matter who may have made the 
 measurements, back they come. Not long ago I furnished 
 a small mill order, and the specifications were that nothing 
 was to be returned, but back came a lot of oak molding 
 that I don't know that I can sell for more than kindling 
 wood prices. We are expected to take these things, though. 
 We deal in them, and why can't we sell them to others? 
 Others may not, and probably will not, want them, but that 
 does not count with the people who return them. Further- 
 more, the articles are put in at a lump price, and when they 
 are returned the question is asked. How much do you sell 
 them for? We have to q«ote the retail price, and they 
 expect something near that price." 
 
 Another dealer told me that one of the most costly rows 
 he ever had was over returned material. "I had furnished 
 a good-sized job," said he, "and there was a surplus of 
 about I, GOO feet of dimension. I was then selling dimension 
 for $i6, and I think I was laying it in my yard for $13. 
 When we came to settle the contractor wanted me to allow 
 him $14 for the thousand feet that was left over, and I 
 wouldn't. The fact was, to get the bill I had to put it in 
 at cost. The contractor didn't know that, for it is a business 
 rule that I stick by that when I figure a bill in a lump I 
 wouldn't tell the ghost of Jacob what price I put in this 
 item or that one at. In my opinion it is nobody's business. 
 If they can get a better bid, why, let 'em take it, but if mine 
 is the lowest I am not going to tell them that I cut so 
 much here and so much there. As I say, it is none of their 
 business; that is my business. I made the remark that I^ 
 would allow him $13, and he flew up in the air in a minute. 
 You know what fools we are sometimes to tear ourselves 
 to pieces over little things. In that case he was a fool and 
 so was I. Today I would have said, 'AH right, that is sat- 
 
 m\i 
 
 'm\i\ 
 
202 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 203 
 
 ti 
 
 II' 
 
 .sfactory. Very likely today I,c would haul that dimen- 
 sion ,n niy yard and not even ask mt how much I would 
 allow hKn for U. But today is not yesterday; neither is 
 today tornorrow. We grow, or we ought to/as we see 
 years. The carpenter was a powdery fellow, he touched off 
 my fuse and we had an explosion over that matter of a 
 dollar ! I sold lumber in that town for five years after that ; 
 
 "He loaded his case with cigars." 
 
 the carpenter was working there all that time, and he never 
 bought another board of me." 
 
 Probably at the time the yard man thought it was noth 
 ■ng to laugh at. but at this distance the wholet n^ eSed 
 so ludicrous that he laughed heartily ^ 
 
 thin? ^h^;,,°^'°^'''u*""^' "^^^ ^^^ ^^^■•^&*= ■"^n ^houW 
 thmk that he dealer should stand ready to take back anv 
 
 thmg pun:hased of him. I have seen' fancy drrg^'s 
 
 returned when evidently they had been handled by the whole 
 family, some of whom had dirty fingers. The pristine white- 
 ness of the goods had departed, but that cut no figure with 
 the purchasers who had changed their minds. I was stand- 
 ing in a drug store in Chicago when an intelligent appear- 
 ing man came in, handed a prescription to the druggist, 
 said he had no use for it, and asked if it could be returned? 
 The druggist asked him how much he paid for it, and on 
 being told handed him 50 cents. No sooner was the man 
 gone than the druggist poured the mixture into a waste 
 pail. That druggist wouldn't have handed that half dollar 
 back to you or me, but no doubt this man was one of his 
 good customers. Very likely, to say nothing about buying his 
 medicines there, he also bought his cigars and whisky. In 
 fact, he loaded his case with cigars before he left the store. 
 At first blush almost any man would say that one of the 
 most worthless articles in the world to any one for whom it 
 is not filled is a prescription. And probably nine in ten 
 times we would be better off if we would keep the prescrip- 
 tions out of us internally even if they were filled for us. 
 This man didn't know but the preparation could be used in 
 another case. Had the druggist told him it could not I 
 know from the looks of the man he would have taken it all 
 right. We know so little about the business of others- 
 there is where the rub comes in. No matter in what Hne a 
 man may be retailing goods these petty annoyances con- 
 front him. 
 
 STAVING OFF COLLECTIONS. 
 
 We will call his name Jim, though that is not what they 
 do call him. He is manager of a line yard, and by the "old 
 man" is thought to be worth his weight in silver. He is a 
 crack salesman, and when it comes to reliability his word 
 goes every time. But he is not a man who would sell for 
 cash if he could. Maybe he thinks the "old man" is so 
 rich that it matters little whether a bill of lumber is paid 
 
204 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 for this rear or next If ;c«'«. 
 
 unreliable peop.e, ".^ -seeing" h"e ir'n ll t^ T^ " 
 
 cementing himself closer and closer to hi. ? ' *" " 
 
 Would Jim go out with h;„. „ ^ *''^ accounts. 
 
 There was a'Ln , 'g :rv'„SS''"^' T"' '^^"^'■"'^• 
 
 "Out on a collecting trip " 
 
 Set^S irfairedtrt;:"" "^ ^'^'™ ^^"^ ^'^ 
 
 this^ptLlrT^dl's^'r'r'"^ ^°' '^ '"'^ '- "-" 'hat 
 in the ma er nf u ' ''"''''"^ "P ^''^ '^e procession 
 
 and whife t ef tte/ '3T ''' T"'^ "''''' "'^ -"-»-• 
 
 wasTat^ .rr"^ ■■" '" ""'^ "P -^^ ^'^-^h'' '"e account 
 "But it is right," said Jim. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 205 
 
 "If you say so it is," was the rejoinder, and the amount 
 was paid. Afterward, when looking over the figures, Jim 
 discovered that by an error he had collected $100 too much. 
 Then what was to be done? His word was considered as 
 good as law by his acquaintances, and if he should acknowl- 
 edge his error the fallibility of the law would be established. 
 So he placed the $100 to the man's credit and said nothing 
 Later on this same farmer built a barn, bought the bill 
 of Jim, and when he paid the bill the $100 was deducted 
 from it. He never learned that he overpaid in the first 
 instance, neither has it been made plain to him why his 
 barn bill cost him so little. 
 
 CHANGE IN YARD MANAGERS. 
 
 The line yard in the town had recently put in a new 
 man, and I thought I cculd discern a glow on the face of 
 the single yard man. He said in effect, the oftener that 
 was done the better it would suit him. 
 
 The little incident opens up a great field. I could under- 
 stand what the single yard man was driving at without any 
 explanation on his part. He was thinking that the new 
 man had no acquaintance, and that he must learn the ropes 
 of that particular business and of the town, before he could 
 be at his best and make much headway. Then having 
 learned the ropes he would like him to be sent elsewhere 
 and a new man come in who would have to learn all as did 
 the man before him. 
 
 Selling lumber differs somewhat from selling most other 
 lines of goods. Other things being equal, the better a yard 
 man is acquainted in the community the more lumber he 
 will sell. On a bill he may not bid lower than the others, but 
 often when the bids are equal acquaintance will give him 
 the business. I recently saw a man who had taken charge 
 of a yard and he said he was making little effort to sell. 
 
206 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 weeks, and not infrequent vmn J u"" ^"""'""y '^"°^" 
 a rush for the bu Less xh "''^'^- Then there is 
 
 the ground, who „o;:the :curri,"''%'" '^^" '°"^ °" 
 etc., of everybody-owner ; "''^""^'' '^"^'""al standing, 
 inside track. He '^0^ ^'^k "*"' "^P^'— "- th^e 
 •nan couldn't touch him twthT r '°"''"^'°'' ^^■'^^" ^ "^^ 
 ^ If a farmer wan'^ tj uy ^L flfTr'"^ '"'^• 
 shoes, a bill of groceries hi '''°"'^'' ^ Pa'-" of 
 
 purchase and dij ou 1 h ^^'^ \° ' ''°''' '"'^'^ his 
 advance that he ^ i^ the markT .'' 'u ""' "^'•^'"^•^ ■'" 
 minor consequence to b;w a bill "f , '"k''"" ''' ''' 
 «P several hundred dollars ""''"^ "^^' f°°'« 
 
 quesTJ>VSrherATe"„e::^'r '""' *° ^"'^ P''^ °^ '"^ 
 was to make as tv chan- ^^" ''"^ *° ""^ ^"^ P"^Pose 
 that a good old man was m'l'' '^"'"f- "^ ""''"^tood 
 
 new man. He said notS/Io'tX" Tf'' '''" ' ^^ 
 of men would give to thosf of ^ ^""^f^-^tion the change 
 
 yard dealers, bm b rn^HnVh; mTr''"" ""^^ ^^^ ^'"A 
 thinking in that direction ^ ''' ""^ ''°"''* "^^Pt «P a 
 
 CHEAP SHED GUTTER 
 
 incwt:i^Hrth:nh:? :- ^^^^^ ^^-^^ ^ - 
 
 scratch his head and see whafhe'crnl:! Td H''' 
 been underpinned by the water that f^lT ^\"^' ^^''^ 
 Take a shed, say 80x150 feet and the ^ *''' '°°^^- 
 amount of water into certa^'chann s Sn T ] '""^ 
 -s I have seen the pitch of the ground su^ t^^ ^ w^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 207 
 
 from the voois would run directly back under the lumber. 
 What kind of troughs to use? is something of a question. 
 Tin, while expensive, is not durable. It gets badly out of 
 shape. Not long ago I saw a tin trough on a shed and it 
 was so sagged that the water, filling it, ran over in a big 
 stream. There are those who prefer a wooden trough to 
 tin, and no doubt their heads are level. I think, however, 
 this appliance, as illustrated, discounts either wood or tin; 
 No claim is made that there is any originality in this style 
 of gutter, for it is used on residences right along, but, as 
 
 III 
 
 "^\JkbtTO\S 
 
 "The result is a perfect gutter." 
 
 they say in patent papers, the "combination" of gutter, 
 lumber shed and roofing material is what we are considering. 
 The elevation may be made by a 2x4, nailed on edgewise, 
 and then the roofing simply laid over it. That is all there is 
 to it, and the result is a perfect gutter. On an 80-foot shed 
 there is a slant of 24 inches, but the proprietor thinks that 
 20 inches would answer as well. If the shed were a longer 
 one the water at intervals could be discharged into upright 
 pipes. 
 
 PATENT LATH. 
 
 Recently when making one of my fashionable calls at a 
 fine residence that had not been built a long time the hall pre- 
 sented a sorry sight. Several yards of plaster had fallen 
 from the ceiling, and the good lady of the house, to use a 
 homely expression, was in a pickle. She got scared almost 
 
208 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 to death when it fell. When th» • 
 girl rushed in the direct! nf ► "°"^ ''"' ''""^^ ^^e hired 
 an.l yelled that the C: .as' "^r /''^c'"' '°' --'^- 
 would grate on the nerles of uT>. ' ^"'^'' '" ""'"^ 
 about innocent, timid women Thf T,"' '° '"^ "°"''"e 
 patent lath was used tharthe J? '^^ "P'"'"'^'^ '^at 
 tractor was exhausted by the V u"""^"'"' ''^ '^e con- 
 there was no more of it in tn! 1 '^' ''"" ^^^ ^«<^hed. 
 to finish the job. Th ■; ' ve ; T.' T''''" "^"^^ ^^^ -ed 
 the plaster, aid down 't came ''•' '"'' '^"^'^ '° hold 
 
 I relate this little incident, for I take it th.t .u 
 
 ' '■ ""^^ 't that the yard men 
 
 "Mistook the dust for smoke " 
 
 Z[ ZZTZiV:^^:^ ^"[^^^ -'■•^^--- They 
 -on,en and children to d a h'^Tn" "' "'"'^'' ^"' -"' 
 °"ght to know as many bt,i 1. '''"' '"'"'^^■- ^^^'^r 
 and the best of themcto if ^ ""'"'^ ^' ^"^ ^^^Tenter. 
 They take and read building jlurnalfai .°' "'"'' ''""■"^^^• 
 &>ve good advice to their custom u "^ '^°'"Petent to 
 
 tomers may not follow his TdT, "'''° •""■'''• ^hese cus- 
 '«=t them do the oth^r thing m TV"' '' '''^^ ^-'*- 
 when men come at us with adviJ ^ '°"' "''"^^ 'hat 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 209 
 
 of pointers at any time, and from any gource. Still, we must 
 bear in mind that the heads of all of us are not bursting 
 with intelligence. An acquaintance of mine built a house 
 and when showing me the plans a bit of advice was prof- 
 fered. When his house was completed I asked him if he 
 did so-and-so, and he said, "By George! I didn't think of 
 it again after you told me." 
 
 You can see how valuable he thought my advice was ! 
 I didn't care, though. By thinking of it, and acting on it, 
 he would have saved $30, and had a better house than he 
 has now. I did my duty, however, which is the main thing 
 in life. 
 
 1 cannot learn that patent lath is making any great head- 
 way. A month ago a yard man who keeps his eyes open 
 picked up a piece of lath a foot long that he had as a sam- 
 ple, and said, "You see, the groove in this make of lath is 
 too large. It holds too much mortar. When drying the 
 edge of the groove will turn outward." A contractor made 
 this same criticism. This contractor said the proper way 
 to put on patent lath was "to nail it for keeps," so that the 
 wet mortar would not warp it out of level. He also thought 
 it was beneficial to dampen the lath before it is put on. 
 
 COST OF SELLING LUMBER. 
 
 An Ohio dealer asks if I know how much it costs to sell 
 lumber. It is difficult to get at the maximum or minimum 
 expense of selling lumber at retail. I have talked with 
 many dealers on the subject, and their figures ranged 
 from $1.75 to $2.50 a thousand. A big line yard concern 
 places the figures at $2.25, and doubtless that amount is 
 correct in that case as the company is noted for its exact 
 business methods. There are many yard men who do not 
 know how much it costs to sell lumber. They make no 
 figures to that end, and wouldn't "give a darn to know," 
 
2IO 
 
 1 
 
 f ■ 
 « 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 as one of them expressed \t "r , 
 
 a-o„. and don. cafe ^^^.^ \Z "^^^^^'^ 
 
 One yard man figured with his stub pend 'on th^l • 
 of a newspaper and said it cost him Z ^^l "'^'"^'" 
 
 thing about the volume of h 2tL h °"'"^ """ 
 conducting it, I mildly sugg st d t mi h/V"^"'"' °^ 
 -stake, but he ran o'v er ZXZ "fin a^ "^^ "" 
 Come to find onf h^ \.^a . i • ^ ^^ ^^^^" and said no. 
 
 him if he exp^ld to I "f" '" ^' ^ ^^'^^^^ ^ ^^^ed 
 business at the sTme time '/t''" '"'' "^^ P^^^'^ °f 'he 
 looked at it ItTnVr; ' ' '"'" "'"' ^^' '^e way he 
 • it, however The proorir'' "'"^ """'^ ^°"'^ '°°k at 
 isn't a hired man "^ "^ ' ^°" "'"^ "'^ b^^'n^s; he 
 
 not Si afira? asTh?.'" T'" "■'' ^ ^^^^ --' "'^ey are 
 expenfe of th b's'e^^ %Z\ '^ "^^^ '« share the Jhole 
 
 ;n. .aUement andl^^^^^^^ 
 
 no fenttred r:p afi^ 11^1^^^^ 
 
 .^=:' t";rro£t vr ^^p~^^^ 
 
 $720 ; that makes it $i ^ ..if ' '"/"'^"'^'s- $25; total, 
 
 No I didn't take^Lf i\;Lr"'- '^^^ ^"'^ ^°°-^ 
 
 a~:'^^^^eVkr^h'a7S:^''' u^ '^-^^ -^ - 
 
 dentals. I„ any business thetSntrlt %T '""■ 
 unloads on trucks from the car. fl^^r / u ^^' ^^'^ '"^" 
 bi"- He keeps a ho^s^ LweCer ^^^ X '" "^ '^"^^"^ 
 wuh drumming up business,rd whi ^ calls'.T T"?!' 
 horse at least half the co.t r^i \. -1 ^ '^ ^'^ ^^"i»> 
 
 to his h-st of runningexjL^^^^^^^^^^^ '^" ^'"^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 scrap and put out lumberTcr ^n.Teal'" C I ^'^"^ 
 dealers who thought thev were nn. ^ ^^ ^"°^" 
 
 hole if they got cost ^? T ^""^"^ ^"^^ ^ ^^^X big 
 
 ^ ^^^ cost. Simply a new dollar for an old one 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 211 
 
 they said. But it is not as much as that. It is giving away 
 at least a good dollar for every half thousand feet of lumber 
 sold. 
 
 TO HELP FROM CAR TO SHED. 
 
 More than half of the yard men of the country, if they 
 had a car of lumber on one side of an alley and were going 
 
 "To do away with the middle man." 
 
 to pile the lumber in a shed on the other side, would load 
 the boards from the car door on to a push cart, and then 
 the push cart would be run across to the end of the pile 
 and the lumber put in place. This big, wide ladder is to do 
 away with the middle man, as it were. It is as wide as one 
 bent of the shed, the sides resting firmly against the posts. 
 A plank is placed from the car door to one of the rungs 
 of the ladder, the shed end of the plank being elevated as 
 the pile increases in hight. It is a labor saver. 
 
 f 
 
i 
 
 2ia 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 OFF TO THE BALL GAME. 
 
 the corner of the town and said V P°'"'''' ^"°*^ 
 
 farthest church. It Ts' 30 clock 7^ °'" ''"^""^ '''^ 
 a couple of miles so nLt.?i ,^ ' \. '^ "°' '^^"' '° ^^'k 
 a chair out in ilo^VottZlft^''^:,'' "'^" ^""^^ 
 rnyself with a story i„ the natent ■ , f ' '"'^ "'""^^^ 
 woman drove up and ask«. me if Z T' P'"^^" ^ 
 to the boy throt,gh the wi'd'w „ here Ta To r ' ""'' 
 Then I stepped to thp vpr^ / " '"^"^e was no response, 
 but in vain I said to .1 ,,""'" ^"'' ^^^^ ^"<"her yell, 
 and wore 1 yed LeetaH '.' " " '"' "^^ •^^'"^ ^""'^^ 
 han..ing arounTther htV'e tV^" ' ^'""^^^' ^""^'^ 
 premises, but I thought th Lrth h7 "'n ' '°^ °" ^"^ 
 and asked her if sheLdd Vave her orr"T' J" ""' 
 she wanted to take thp lin, I. f ^"^^ ^°' sli* said, 
 womanlike, she ferled on tT r ^ "?"^ ^'''^ ''^^ ^"^ ^^en 
 of up town A nl'he Kn "" !"' ''"''' '" '"^ ^'-^-n 
 chatted about the town 'h7 "" '" '" 'PP'"^"'^^ ^"^ ^^ 
 found he was a nLTd of 1 boT KaidT ''^"' ^"'^ ^ 
 here during vacation and did not uL u^^' ''"^'"^ 
 
 lumber business yet "I have J^? u ^"^ ^^""^ '^"^ 
 of cement," he safd laughingTv ^ " ' '"°" ' ''="^' 
 
 to r f:rmerd"rot°u'p^'Si:j T""'', '' ^'^'^ ^ ^ -" 
 John was handy. JohL is he f/.^'^ '"''" ""^ '^'^^'^ if 
 The boy said no that hi * """' °^ "^^ lumberman. 
 
 him if I couidVi htrt '":; '° ^'^ ''^" ^^'"^- --^^^ 
 
 not. Then the maXnd lexch: jr 'f '"^^ ""' ^°"'^ 
 the com crop and the hog market "ndHe '" "°''' ''°"' 
 •neeting a stranger out here yot, ca„ talk ^^ T'^' °" 
 thing you havt a mind to bu f vS , v"' ""'°^* ^"y 
 corn crop and the price of h'J ' °" * 'P^^'' o^ the 
 
 No. 3 was a mln °?°^/°" ^^^ considered hetrodox. 
 
 halted an'dridhaT^m-rcrrornt'"""'?? "^"^'"^ P^ 
 "another thousand of^hem^Ti;X s^t riS^t " ^"^^'^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 213 
 
 *'l don't know how I am going to get the shingles over, 
 the boy remarked to me. "1 suppose the man who does 
 the draying is over to the game.'* 
 
 The boy's wits took the right turn, however. Going 
 to a house near by he returned with a wheelbarrow and 
 piHng the shingles on trundled away with them. I had 
 finished the patent inside story, so I walked around and 
 whistled. I never let myself out musically in the whistling 
 line when there is anybody within hearing distance, but I 
 felt that here I was alone, and moreover the stillness was 
 such that I wanted to punch a hole in it. It was nearly 5 
 o'clock when another man came along and turned into the 
 
 "He returned with a wheelbarrow." 
 
 office. I told him there was nobody at home, that the boss 
 was over at the ball game, the boy had made a horse of 
 himself and gone to deliver some shingles, that I was a 
 stranger in a strange land but if I could do anything to 
 make him happy just say the word. He listened to me with 
 the manners of a thoroughbred gentleman, and when I had 
 finished he said he was the boss, and asked me what he could 
 do for me. I stuck my card into his fingers, we shook 
 hands, he said he was glad to see me, and I of course 
 dittoed it. 
 
 There is not much of importance in this little recital 
 
 III 
 
 r 
 
 III 
 
I 
 
 214 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 maybe .hough I think it depends on the way vou look at 
 
 duffe J T ^ °" ;"'""''' ''""^ ^'"^ '""^ °'d Greek 
 autters. The most of us can remember when in cerf^in 
 circles muscle and rueeed healU, 
 
 alleged culture. A pltcc^^ I """'*'' ''°'" 
 in the eye were as d'Sab, a^i^ ' ''T''' ^""P'^ '-"< 
 -ped h.p Skirt, or a ^t ?. ^r tithTySeX: 
 
 and especially among thefrsT- '".? ""°"^ ■"'"' 
 
 nancis of a green boy as this man rliVl ? t -n 
 that nine-tenths of you would no^N^ -m ^""'"'"^ 
 
 is so rich that he doesn t are r ' ^""'^^' ""^ ^^"'^^ 
 to build up more of XeTan itSylL^ iT""; 
 passing judgment on him. But as I hi J "LT 
 I was putting myself in his place I wasfhin .. ! 
 
 it was my business I would wantTh,/ "^ "'^' '^ 
 
 she called for I wourd wlrf "^r'" '° ^'' '^^ '™^ 
 
 There is one thing in particular that gives a busine« • 
 to a place anH fJiof ;^ ♦ i. s'^^** a oiisiness air 
 
 P ace, and that ^s to have someone on hand to take care 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 215 
 
 of the prospective buyer. There are few business houses 
 so arranged that a customer can visit them, press a button 
 and go away satisfied. 
 
 EAVES TROUGHS ON SHED HOODS. 
 
 We all ought to know a good deal about open shed 
 hoods. Not long ago I saw a hood that was not a hood 
 as it did not extend more than three feet beyond the side 
 of the shed. It was a new shed, too, but the owner of it had 
 
 "Rooted to the spot." 
 
 already seen the error of his ways and said if it were to do 
 over again he would use 20 instead of 16- foot boards for the 
 roof. 
 
 The open shed without the hood is much given to disa- 
 greeable crying. In rainy weather it will weep copious tears 
 down the back of your neck, on the lumber that is being 
 
2l6 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 217 
 
 loaded and unloaded ; and even with a hood on, in a wet 
 season it is not unusual to see a stretch of mud 'the entire 
 length of the shed where the water from the eaves has 
 settled. You would think that with the inventive genius 
 of all of us we would have overcome this before this late 
 day wouldn't you? But we seem not to have done so 
 In the yard m which I saw the appliance the hood projected 
 over the driveway to the scales, and the eaves trough was 
 attached to enough of the roof to protect the scales and the 
 approach to them. The yard man took me into the yard 
 to show me his stock of lumber, but when I got as far as this 
 eaves trough I was "glued to the spot," as the old time 
 novelist was wont to put it. I could see several stocks of 
 lumber every day, but an eaves trough on a shed was not 
 so common. 
 
 To erect these eaves troughs is easily done. A board 
 a foot wide or less nailed to the ends of the rafters, another 
 board of a like width so nailed to this board as to form a 
 right angle, pieces of band-iron fastened to the edge of this 
 last board and thence to the roof as a support, and it is done 
 It strikes me that the idea appeals to all the common sense 
 that a man has. 
 
 A BILL IN DETAIL WANTED. 
 
 I heard a yard man complaining about a shortage in a 
 lot of sheathing he had received. The bill called for 3 500 
 feet when actually there were several hundred feet less than 
 that amount. The stuff was of several lengths, beginning 
 with 10 feet, and from that up. 
 
 It will probably transpire that this man has some other 
 dealer s sheathing, and that some other dealer has the stuff 
 ordered by him. Mistakes occur in the best of families it 
 IS said, and no doubt they occur in the best of lumber yards 
 wholesale as well as retail. With a force of men loading 
 from trucks several cars at the same time, it would be sur- 
 prising if now and then there was not placed in one car 
 
 lumber that was intended for another. Several cases of 
 this kind have been brought to my notice. Sometimes the 
 mistakes do not amount to much one way or the other, and 
 at others they represent a good many dollars. A yard man 
 told me that he received lumber that was worth $100 more 
 than his bill called for. He notified the shippers that they 
 had made a mistake in filling his order, and they were 
 inclined to take the view of it that some ticket sellers— rail- 
 road and circus— take when they are told they do not give 
 the right change back. Then he wrote them that he could 
 stand it if they could, which led them to believe that the 
 
 "A force of men loading from trucks, 
 mistake was in his favor, and on investigation it was shown 
 that two orders were mixed when loading. 
 
 "I have informed the house of the shortage in the 
 sheathing," said the yard man, "and I suppose I will get 
 a letter telling me there were several lengths, and that I 
 may have overlooked some of it. It was simply billed 
 3 500 feet of sheathing. To get at what there was I had 
 to sort up. Now the way to have billed that sheathing would 
 have been so many pieces of 10 feet, so many of 12, and so 
 on. Then it would have taken me no time to have counted 
 up and compared with the invoice." 
 
2l8 
 
 \n 
 
 p 
 
 ii > 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 cuZ """^""^'f^y ^^^ discovered that there is a wide 
 difference an d.fferent yards in their systems of biC 
 There are men who if they could would make one sc a"ch 
 of a pen pass for a bill of goods. There are men who w 11 
 avo,d the physical exertion of swinpng a pen as there are 
 those who will avoid digging ditches:' I have helped to 
 mark goods when it took all sorts of fiddling arounS and 
 even some guessing, to find out what was what. ETpedaSv 
 .n dry goods confusion often arises from a generahzed b if 
 Then there are bill clerks who itemize in th!ir bH ' vine 
 t ade numbers, and even colors when it mav make' Ti^Z 
 clearer. I once heard a billing clerk reproved for usi^ hU 
 . pen too httle when making out bills. He said that waf the 
 way he was taught at the business college. The repTy that 
 
 can t get above business college methods" was characteristic 
 o^^he man who said it. and I think, too. it contained a Wg 
 gram of sense. When we measure evervthing by the rule! 
 of some particular school rest assured we ill fa I flat ! 
 some pomt. What we need to do is to get above and ^d 
 
 LUMBER'S FLIGHT. 
 We don't know a thing until we find it out, and we never 
 find ,t out until we have the opportunity. There "s no 
 getting around that proposition. It may sound sH y rut"f 
 you s,t up all night you can't get around it. I have ^ 
 yard men nght along who saw no reason for the advance 
 ■n umber Every little while up she would gl 7Zl 
 
 Sed wav^-Serh"^" '''"'. ""'" ^°""^ ^^ ■" ^ 'i^- 
 gus ed way, There she goes again ! Them blasted bloated 
 
 ruhr'v "/r' "^ ••'^ •"'■"°''- -^--^ ^e rising *;' 
 
 us ■ it r T '" ''""' *'^ '^""'"'■■°"' -^ 'o tell vo" 
 
 just as It IS, was the reason I put on a fresh boiled shirt 
 
 and struck out for Minneapolis. "* 
 
 To go from a country where the prevailing noise is the 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 2i9 
 
 grunt of tlie hog, into a great bustling city that roars 
 Sy and night, and where the ch.mes m some tower wake 
 vou up every quarter hour, is a change that marks an epoch 
 Is U were L I quiet life. A countryman hardly knows what 
 o makLf it. o? how to act. After wading - -r ^^J 
 the snow went off, and then all at once for a fellow to find 
 MmTon asphalt pavement that is swept -ery day -a - 
 him almost feel that surely he is on h.s way to parad. e^ 
 To be able to see the pretty things in the store windows buy 
 lanSts on the comers, sleep in a hotel bed where the sheets 
 Sechanged every day, is bewitching, and I was inclined to 
 Jwnk I would like to stay right along with them; but a 
 he same time do you know the people in the grea ci.e 
 are longing to get out where every morning we brush the 
 dew from fhe grass with our brogans when we are attending 
 To our chores?' Said one great lumberman, whose thought 
 you would think were far, far above such common things 
 "I should like to come down there, he around for a week 
 
 and see the corn grow." 
 
 I told him to come on, that we would fill him up on 
 bacon and johnny cake, and if he felt like taking a new 
 foro?exeicise he could tie his old wheel up to the hitching 
 post and hoe in my garden. 
 
 So our tastes differ. We country gentlemen pme for 
 the cities, while the city dudes would like to make a break 
 for rural life. At noon today, in the restaurant, a girl 
 brought me spring lamb with some kind of g^f^^/P"""^!^:* 
 over It. and the girl was so homely that honestly I wouldn t 
 marry her if you would give me 20 cents. That is no reason 
 why she should despair, however, for the time v«ll come 
 when some fellow will marry her for nothing. It is owing 
 to our diversified tastes that all of us find a place in life. 
 These tastes get us married to sweet girls when nobody else 
 would have us, and so adjust matters that this turns out to 
 be a pretty good old world after all. 
 
 You can take my word for it that the manufacturers have 
 on their highest heeled pumps, and go around with big 
 
 H! 
 

 220 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 drumf TU^"'" ^"u" '"'' •"^'^Phorically pounding big base 
 rtZd S??ar ^tES i p^L; : r: i^r a" '' ' 
 
 xu 1 . "^ "^ ^"^° ^"€ mighty Mississinni 
 
 sa i^ntT. ""'" "" '"'^^'' "P -"^"^- «'h -e'n- 
 sations A lumberman asked me out to have a elass of 
 
 . emonade, and while we were sucking it through stSt he 
 sa,d the present condition of the lumber market beat any- 
 thing he had ever seen. "Why " said ho ",h. » 7^'/"^- 
 
 trrarlc 1..^l • i ''' **'^ "«' the StOCk of low 
 
 grade Uimber is dangerously depleted." 
 
 A NOVEL LIME HOUSE. 
 
 A young and hustling Illinois concern has built a lim- 
 house that is entirely out of the ordinary. Ther wa Tn 
 effort to combine every good quality th Jt any uLZZ 
 
 "A lime business calls for every convenience " 
 
 Sst'L IVt '"' "'"^ *^*^^ "^^'-^ •^"- that lime 
 notUrar-raTeat?e:[o?it.nh'r-r^^^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 221 
 
 days when they have sold enough to fill a car. A lime busi- 
 ness of such volume calls for every convenience in handling. 
 The house inside is funnel shaped, gravity bringing the 
 lime down directly in front of the door, where it is handled 
 with the shovel. The outside door is 4x6 feet, slides up- 
 ward and two feet back is another door of a like size. When 
 the house is filled this inside door can be slightly raised and 
 the movement of the lime thus gauged. 
 
 The scale beams are set in the wall, and when the door 
 which incloses them is shut it is flush with the side of the 
 building. The platform is just high enough to accommodate 
 a wagon These yard men say they can now handle lime 
 with some comfort. In their former location and with their 
 old style lime house there were men who would quit their 
 jobs rather than act as lime purveyors. They would not 
 put up with the lime filling their eyes, noses, mouths, ears 
 and sifting down their backs. 
 
 OUR LITTLE DIFFERENCES. 
 
 No matter how apparently simple a business is, there 
 are new complications arising all the time. Merely to sell 
 lumber— the novice would think it was nothing to do that ; 
 still, if he were to take a hand in it he would find plenty 
 of nuts to crack. There seems to be botheration by the peck 
 all along the line, not only in the lumber business but in 
 every business. In lumber the wholesale man worries the 
 retailer, the consumer worries the retailer, and it must be 
 confessed that at times the retailer worries the wholesaler. 
 We needn't all die on that account, however. If we take 
 it coolly we will sail along fairly well, and life after all will 
 seem worth living. 
 
 "The higher lumber goes the more particular the retail 
 men are getting," a salesman said to me. That may be so 
 in a case or two, but I don't believe it holds generally true. 
 Too many of us are apt to judge the many by the few. 
 
222 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 What .f I had said to this man, "The higher lumber goes 
 
 he finer the wholesale men do their grading. They^e 
 
 bound to get all the money out of it possible.-^hat would 
 
 not have been a very nice remark for me to make. wouTd i^ 
 
 t would have been just as nice as the one he made, though 
 
 JNe ther the wholesale nor retail men are angels vet and 
 W.11 not be before they get through selling lumber here 
 
 count v :r' •!:""' " *'°"^'' *^ y-^ -- --"d the 
 country were s.ttmg up nights in order to find some fault 
 
 'The gang that was playing euchre ' 
 
 t"?Hk: ttr vt "'•'' 'I ^''" ^'^" '^y^' '' ^^ ^-^-h to 
 
 busin s and' fU '" '•^''' '^ ^'^^ "^^" ^^^ ^"^^ their 
 
 bus mess, and they are going to enter no complaint so lon^ 
 
 s they are treated right. These men go on year after S 
 
 iomg busmess with wholesale lumbermen and there is no 
 
 friction that enters into the deals. On the other hand 1 
 
 am bound to say "there are others," for there a e^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 t>^zr "'" ir ^""^^- -' ai7nVh::er ^hTs 
 
 whose conscience would not be stretched to an aching point 
 
 they sbould get the better of a wholesale man, or an'yCy 
 
 else. I am speaking of the exception to the rule now, how^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 22^ 
 
 ever If a man felt it in his soul that he was cut out for a 
 scalawag, and wanted to follow the calling, he could find a 
 more prolific field than retailing lumber; 
 
 To go to the other branch of the trade : The northern 
 country is full of wholesale men from whom I should expect 
 perfectly fair treatment. That is not saying that in every 
 case 1 should expect a satisfactory shipment. Fair treat- 
 ment and satisfactory shipments do not go together always. 
 I may receive a miserable lot of lumber in a shipment, but 
 if the shipper makes it right, cheerfully and readily correct- 
 ing all errors, I am receiving from him fair treatment. You 
 and I— just as good as we are— make mistakes, and when 
 we do so it would not please us to have somebody come back 
 at us and howl that we are dishonest. If a shipment from a 
 wholesale man is not according to Hoyle, but he stands 
 ready to make it so, no blame can be attached to him. 
 
 I recently saw a part of a car of thick stuff that the yard 
 man said was not what he bargained for. So he entered a 
 protest. Now, there is this peculiarity in human nature : 
 Almost any man, while he would admit that he is liable to 
 make some mistakes, does not think he has made them until 
 it is proved to him. Take a wholesale man, for instance, 
 who aims to be as straight as a string; if occasion required 
 he would say, "Of course, any of us are liable to make mis- 
 takes " He has, say, fifty men working in his yard, some 
 of them with skulls as thick as an ape's. I have noticed it 
 is often very difficult to convince that man that a mistake 
 has been made in his shipments unless it is shown to him 
 in black and white. Take that car of thick stuff. I don't 
 believe the wholesale dealer intentionally sent it to the yard 
 man. It is preposterous to think he did. In the first place he 
 isn't that kind of a man, and in the second place if he was 
 he would know that the yard man to whom the shipment 
 was made was not the kind of hairpin to receive such lum- 
 ber. He knows what lumber is, and when he buys a certain 
 grade he is going to get it ; else he doesn't pay. Under 
 these circumstances you see how shortsighted it would have 
 
 II 
 
 m 
 
 III 
 
^ I 
 
 f 
 
 224 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 been in the wholesale man knowingly to have shipped an 
 off grade. It would simply be courting trouble with his 
 eyes open. No doubt a cog slipped in the yard somewhere. 
 Maybe the foreman was so blind drunk he couldn't see 
 straight that day. Maybe the night before he had been up 
 until 4 o'clock with his best girl and there were so many 
 sticks in his eyes that he couldn't tell a pin hole from a 
 post hole. 
 
 Several of us have faced these conditions. The man 
 who goes on duty every day in the year with a clear mind 
 and a bright eye is a jewel as men run. We are so fond of 
 our toddy, pink teas and balls that we put in hours elsewhere 
 vvhen we ought to be at home and in bed. As a result of 
 this waste of nerve force we make mistakes, have lapses and 
 show bad temper. I once heard a business man sav that 
 he believed the theater had knocked him out of dollars and 
 dollars. He had a passion for theaters just as some men 
 have for strong drink. He was a hard worker, it was neces- 
 sary for him to be at his place of business early in the 
 morning, he rarely got home before 12 o'clock at night • 
 maybe his stomach would have beer and fried oysters in 
 It ; he did not get rest enough, and as a consequence he 
 was less alive to business chances than otherwise he would 
 have been. That is why he thought the theater had been 
 a drawback to him, financially, and no doubt it had been 
 
 When the yard man kicked on that thick stuff the whole- 
 sale man said it was queer that such a mistake should be 
 made. The yard man offered a certain amount for the car 
 but the shipper said, "O, no; not this year!" 
 
 "Take your old lumber, then,'* replied the vard man 
 Then a man came on to inspect the lumber, and he found 
 that the yard man was right in everv particular, and he 
 said he would go home and advise the "old man" to accept 
 the yard man's offer, as he considered it all the lumber was 
 worth. Here is where the beauty of the deal comes in : 
 llie yard man does not blame the "old man" up north one 
 iota. He said to me he knew the "old man" was all right 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 225 
 
 and I know a good deal about the "old man" myself, and 
 would trust him with my purse in the dark. Now, that is 
 the way to get along. If I had heard the yard man say 
 that the "old man" was a no such thing I would have told 
 him that I thought he was mistaken; that the "old man" 
 didn't know any more about that shipment of lumber than 
 I did, and I would bet my hat on it. I think I know what 
 kind of a reply the yard man will get from that manufac- 
 turer up north. The shipper will accept the yard man's 
 offer for the lumber, and in addition apologize for the 
 trouble the yard man has been put to. Then everything will 
 be lovely again. The next time they meet they will shake 
 hands, smoke together, and go right on and buy and sell 
 lumber. 
 
 That is the way we must get along with our differences 
 if we can. Above all, don't get warm under the necktie. 
 If a shipment is not right, having informed the men who 
 made it, you can tell pretty well from the tone of their 
 letter whether there was an intentional wrong. 
 
 I recently saw a lot of lath that was as bad as it is made, 
 and the yard man went at the shipper hammer and tongs. 
 I doubt if he took the right course. No wholesaler on earth 
 could have forced him to accept such lath as that ; therefore 
 why didn't he keep his shirt on? If he had there is no 
 knowing but he could have settled for the lath on a basis of 
 kindling wood prices. A hot headed man is not a bargain 
 maker. He slops all over the county. The minute we get 
 mad all the fool there is in us comes right to the surface. 
 
 A CASE OF SCREENS. 
 
 A few weeks ago mention was made of a company down 
 in Maine that has built up an immense business in screen 
 windows and doors. Its market is in the territory east of 
 the Rockies, and possibly also west of them. My attention 
 was first called to this company when I was building a little 
 
,r t ♦' 
 
 ^^ REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 shanty of my own. My screen business was solicited several 
 times I heanng from the company by letter, circular and 
 booklets. Its trade literature was remarkable for the ele- 
 gance with which it was gotten up. The highest art of the 
 printer had been expended on it. The impression would be • 
 The concern that sends this stuff out is up to snuff; no 
 slouchy concern would do it. 
 
 Evidently there are sash and door men who were inter- 
 ested m this account, as two of them have asked me for 
 further mformation. One of them said he never before had 
 heard of the Maine concern, and presumably the other had 
 not. Several yard men also have shown an interest in the 
 matter, and they all told me they had never heard of the 
 company that was doing this immense specialty business. 
 Very hkely the reason they have not heard of the company 
 IS hat It sells to the consumer direct. We don't like these 
 fel ows-of course we don't-and I am doing my best to 
 initiate you into their methods of doing business so that 
 you may enjoy some of the screen traffic thev are taking 
 from your territory. And one of their principal methods is 
 to hustle for the business ! 
 
 ^^.^TJ''^^"^^ '' ^ ^"'^^ ^^^^^' ^" ^^^"^ t^ ^y ^oom 
 the first thing that attracted my attention was the screen on 
 
 which was stamped the name of this Maine company. I 
 
 jerked it out about as lively as I could and looked it over 
 
 1 tell you It IS a fine screen, unlike the bungling affairs 
 
 which are turned out from a hundred and one establishments 
 
 throughout the country. Yet this thought came to me: 
 
 What sense IS there in making a bungling screen? With 
 
 the material at hand and tools to work with any fair 
 
 mechanic ought to make a screen that is not bungling If I 
 
 were a maker of screen windows and doors and turned out 
 
 such work as is turned out by many I would get hold of 
 
 one of these down east screens and learn how to save lumber 
 
 and make a trim looking screen that would please the eve 
 
 The next morning I said to the landlord that I had slept 
 
 like a top; that there were no mosquitos buzzing around me 
 
 1^' 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 227 
 
 as there were the night before, and that his house seemed to 
 be nicely screened. He said he thought it was, and then, 
 without further ado, like a gentleman and scholar, he went 
 on and told the whole story. "There are 202 openings ; 180 
 windows and 22 doors,'* he said. "The cost was an even 
 $300, fixtures included. The doors, you see, are oak frames, 
 and the window frames are pine. The concern sent a man 
 here to take the measurements, and he was *onto' his job, 
 I can tell you. Every window and door fitted perfectly, it 
 not being necessary to take a shaving from one of them. I 
 call it a perfect job." 
 
 That was as good information as I wanted to get in 
 one day. After breakfast I made straight for the local 
 inside finishing factory and, knowing the proprietor pretty 
 well, I could talk with him in a way that I couldn't with a 
 stranger. He said he had just answered a letter from a 
 builder who complained of tardiness in filling his order. 
 Two years ago, he said, he had had no such trouble. "I 
 wrote him," said the factory man, "that there was this dif- 
 ference : Two years ago I was looking for jobs while now 
 jobs are looking for me at such a rate that I can hardly take 
 care of them." He said he had made a pile of screen doors 
 this season, many of them with cypress frames. He dropped 
 into the use of cypress almost by accident. Being pushed 
 for material and having some cypress on hand, he had run 
 It in, and the result was highly satisfactory. It stays in 
 place better than some other kinds of wood, he said, and he 
 would lay in another stock when his present one was 
 exhausted. 
 
 "While you are doing such a rushing business in screens, 
 why didn't you get the job of screening the So-and-so 
 hotel?" I asked him. He said he had noticed the screens 
 were in, but did not know who got the job, and when I 
 told him it was the Maine company for an instant there 
 was a look in his eye as though he had slipped a cog. 
 
 "I>o you know how much they cost and how many open- 
 ings there are?" he queried. Giving him the information 
 
228 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 229 
 
 he wanted, he took his pencil fron, behind his ear and sit 
 tmg on the platform, figured on a piece of boird • F u 
 have done the job for from $2ooT$2t~Z\JZl, 
 figure at the outside." he said. ^^ 
 
 I'Did you go for the job?" I asked. 
 No, I didn't." said he. 
 
 There was the old, old story, especially i„ the screen 
 
 idin;°, °V "^'^ '° ^'' "^^ --k and a smart out 
 sider shd m and took it at l,igher than local rates 
 
 SHOULD HE SELL HEMLOCK? 
 
 fnrh- '''!'" ^'^"!^ '■" "^ °P'"'°" '■' would be a good idea 
 for h,m to carry hemlock as well as pine. He sarhe £ 
 no doubt as to the superiority of hemlock as a fram ne t.m 
 
 ance of fhL !i ! "°' ""^ P'^^^"^ ^^ '^^ ^cquaint- 
 
 whth\ ^' . '"^"' ''^^'"^ "^^^•- visited the town in 
 
 no Sng'X rr^'"°\"°*T ^•'°"* ''■■^ -mpetitorTa^d 
 notiung abot^t he class of people to whom he sells • there- 
 
 tHggr Udt v:^ '^ '^ ^^ -^- ^- ' wi„ ^z 
 
 f..7tt''' ^'' ''"'' ^'"'^' °^ '""'^h="'s ■■" the retail field • in 
 fact there are more than two, but we will say there are two 
 as tha will answer the purpose. The policyVf oTe of tS 
 kmds IS to use as small canital in hu u ■ 
 
 aep...]. « Ih. v.„e.y ,h., i, tepi, on ,he .ffon to ted 
 
 people to believe that they stood in need of certain goods 
 because they were in fashion or cheap, they would have 
 been eating almshouse soup in six months. They cannot 
 meet that kind of competition. 
 
 I want to repeat what has been said before, namely, that 
 you cannot point to a retail lumberman who has gotten 
 anywhere near the top who kept a small stock during the 
 process of climbing. The highest degree of success and a 
 small stock never go together. I know a dealer in a one- 
 yard town who thought he was performing this miracle; 
 his trade was large, his profits good and he sold his lumber 
 about as fast as it arrived. But he slipped a cog. All the 
 time there was a worm gnawing at the vitals of his business. 
 We don't notice these worms at first, but they gnaw and 
 gnaw, and the first we know they have punctured our tire. 
 It is surprising how quickly things get noised about. The 
 story got abroad that this man was doing a big business 
 but that he did not keep in stock enough lumber to meet 
 the demands of his trade, and the first he knew, as from a 
 clear sky, kerslap went in another yard alongside of him. 
 The world is full of people who are going to jump in and 
 take our trade away from us if they can. Then this yard 
 man gnashed and wailed his teeth, as the Irish orator said, 
 but the damage was done. He is now perhaps selling a third 
 of the lumber that he was putting out two years ago, his 
 hated rival having taken the lion's share of the business. 
 Had he been so inclined he could have traced the cause of 
 No. 2 yard direct to his business methods. By his eflFort to 
 squeeze through on the smallest capital possible he wrung 
 the neck of the goose that laid the golden egg. 
 
 The other kind of merchant is a different kind. Go 
 into a town of any size, ask for the leading lumberman, and 
 you will not find him presiding over a stock of 300,000 feet 
 of lumber. He isn't selling peanuts. If he is unable to 
 furnish a barn bill to a farmer who wants it quickly he pulls 
 down his vest and says he will not be caught in that fix 
 again. I have often heard it said: *Tf you double your 
 
230 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ?nll'"'^ "^"' ^'^ P'"' """^ ''^'"'^•^ y°« -""^t nearly 
 double your ,„vestn,e„t." True enough, but what of it? 
 
 That .s the question ; what of it? If you have no money to 
 
 .nvest don t do ,t-that is plain enough-but if you haJe th^ 
 
 money and are working to establish a business that shall 
 
 stay by you like a brother; that shall cause to be prS 
 
 abroad the news that it is your aim to carry a stock hat 
 
 w,Il meet any reasonable demand; that shall keep competl 
 
 on at a d.stance-in short, that you may be mafter of' he 
 
 situa uon, I have never learned of any way but to put money 
 
 mto the undertaking. ^ money 
 
 I will concede that it is none of my business whether 
 
 "To such treatment it will object." 
 a yard man doubles up on his stock to any extent or not. 
 This a free cotmtry, and he can do as he likes in the mat- 
 er. It does seem to me, however, that a merchant is under 
 some obligations to his customers ; that it is his dutv as well 
 as business to provide for them a reasonable assortment of 
 
 oTateranl'^^' " '''''' ^'" '' ^^^^^'"^^ ^'^ -•-- 
 If this yard man is disposed to handle hemlock he will 
 find It an admirable framing timber. I do not believe that 
 for this purpose it has a superior. It will cling to a nail as 
 though It loved it. Its merits will stand all that an eloquent 
 man can reasonably say about them. It is well enough to 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 231 
 
 take a little care in handling it, though. It is hardly equal 
 to pine for roughing it. I should not think of piling hem- 
 lock dimension out doors provided I had a suitable shed 
 in which to put it. Under cover it will retain its shape and 
 color as well as pine. Do not permit it to be abused by 
 alternately submitting it to rain and sun. To such treat- 
 ment as that it will object. 
 
 Hemlock is being said more and more, averaging in price 
 about $2 less than pine of a corresponding grade. If I were 
 building a house I would not pay that difference unless my 
 carpenter overruled me. I did build a ranch and he over- 
 ruled me, but I would not let him do it the next time. He 
 said it would require so much more time to work hemlock 
 that it would make up in the difference in price, but I have 
 thought since he successfully worked me, preferring to do 
 that to working hemlock. 
 
 A SHINGLE DISPLAY. 
 
 If there is any good reason why the wares of the lum- 
 berman should not be as systematically displayed as are 
 those of the dry goods man or clothier speak right up and 
 tell us. I sometimes think that we fellows who sell lumber 
 are not alive to the businesslike methods of our brother 
 
 "In plain sight the patterns of shingles." \ 
 
 merchants in other lines. Of course you are alive to all 
 these methods. I am speaking of the yard man over in the 
 next county. 
 
 There is the little item of fancy shingles. In only one 
 
232 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 
 enough. In one office a coun./ ?'' '">' °'^ ^^^ >"« good 
 window sill and anofher nattern '^^^'""^'^^ --e on the 
 divided the bookk-eeper- depart Jn7''"^ T *"*= ^^" ^'"'='' 
 Evidently not lone a Jo tt '""^ "'^ ""'^'^^^ world. 
 
 tion of the possible purcZer T^^ '" ^°'" "'" ^^^'"'"a- 
 
 PossiblepurLserwLatl^n wh'oC h'^ '^ "^^' ""^ 
 different patterns, and ifXL ' ''""' *° ^^^ ">« 
 
 she wondered why the yard '/ 'r^" ''' ''^' '" ^^^^^ 
 gles where he couV out hU T . "^ "°' ^^'' '^''' ^^in- 
 asked hi. abouMhe^' Witht ^flT T^ •"'""'^ ^"^ 
 molding, brackets, head bfocks ,n n '"'^ ''"'"^'^^' 
 
 has an office in which theretanvrl '''• '^ ""'" '^''^ 
 
 ends of the stake, drive a L ;„ 1 .^ """^ *° ''°"' 
 shingles up. You will Ihen have n nt .'"1 "^"^ "^^ 
 of shingles you have and can n," m ^ u" "'^^' '^^ P^"^™« 
 who may conten^pla e Thei te T? °" .'''^'" *° ^"^°"^ 
 will not cost a cent and he Th" , '"'''"'' ^°' '^''' ^^^ 
 strip and hung on th wal „ tf "" '^ '^^"^^^ '° '''^ 
 beats fishing sLples ou^t; rde^trd T ''"''■ '' 
 running to the shed every time a r^.l "^ °'' '"^" °^ 
 
 shingle. ^ ^ customer mentions a fancy 
 
 KNOWING ONE'S BUSINESS. 
 A Minnesota vard man write.; th^t o t 
 coal of hin, and -then proc ed S to tin ^'"^"- }°''Sht some 
 came from, how it is LndT.T I f "" '''^"^ ^he coal 
 
 which made the y^^^^Xf^Trj:::^^^- ^" °^ 
 
 "Ke a 2x4 for the reason 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 233 
 
 that a granger could come into his office and instruct him 
 to such an extent regarding an article he was handling. He 
 says, "Now, I am not going to admit that I am the only 
 western retailer who knows little about the exact location 
 of the mines producing the different kinds of hard and soft 
 coal, or the kind that combines the qualities of both. Why 
 doesn't some coal company put out information on this 
 subject? IX could be given on a leaflet, calendar or blotting 
 pad, and I sincerely believe it would prove a good advertise- 
 ment." 
 
 We will leave the suggestion with the coal dealers ; what 
 interests me is to know that this yard man is so touched 
 when he discovers that some man outside his line knows 
 more than he does about an article he sells. It will probably 
 be no balm to his wounded feelings to say in his hearing that 
 he stands with the big majority. That does not help him 
 out any. Coal in the most of the lumber yards is regarded 
 as incidental ; that is, lumber is first and coal drops in as an 
 adjunct. The wonder is, however, there are so many lumber 
 dealers located in this western country of broad prairies 
 who know so little regarding the manufacture of the boards 
 they are selling every work day of the year. Many of them 
 have never visited a saw mill. A yard man who has sold 
 lumber for years incidentally told me he had no idea what a 
 commercial saw mill was like, further than that he had seen 
 
 pictures of it. 
 
 I heard a yard man when selling a bill of lumber to a 
 farmer— a good sized bill it was, too — dilate on the way his 
 lumber was manufactured. He told the farmer that the most 
 of his stock came from a certain concern, with an air that 
 carried with it the idea that on that account the stock was 
 superior ; and then he went on to tell about the process of 
 manufacture, how the logs were hauled out of the water with^ 
 the bull chain and how fast the saw would walk through 
 them. The farmer listened attentively — it was, in fact, open- 
 ing up a new world to him — and no doubt he thought the 
 lumber came from the greatest establishment on earth ! How 
 

 I i i 
 I i i 
 
 234 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 much this recital had to do with selHng the bill of lumber 
 I don't know ; I do believe, however, that it made a most 
 favorable impression on the mind of the buyer and that he 
 left the premises believing that the yard man knew his 
 business. And, beloved, if we can get that impression 
 abroad we have taken a long step forward. For us it is 
 worth money for the public to think that we know our busi- 
 ness. If the typewriter on which I am whacking off these 
 words gets out of order to whom is it taken? To the 
 mechanic who, in my opinion, knows his business. If you 
 want a pair of shoes made, a suit of clothes ; want the 
 services of a lawyer, a physician, you go to the man who 
 knows his business, don't you? No man has ever k-nown 
 too much ab6ut his business, and it is possible for him to 
 know so little that his ignorance will trip him. 
 
 The junketing trips which, following retail association 
 meetings, have been made by the association members have 
 been educators. On these occasions there are yard men who 
 went through mills who had never seen them before, and 
 when looking over these mills they were literally reading up 
 on their business. 
 
 THE MAN IN THE YARD. 
 
 If you have a competent man in your yard you are in 
 high luck. I walked through a yard that was in fine order. 
 A second look to find something that was out of shape, or 
 place— broken lath, or boards pitched into a corner or under 
 the piles was unsuccessful. And by the way, this pitching 
 of stuff under the piles to get it out of the way makes me 
 think of the slovenly habit we men at times have of throw- 
 ing our old boots and soiled shirts under the bed. 
 
 "Good yard man, have you ?'* the proprietor was asked. 
 "In some respects,'' was the reply. "He is the best man 
 I ever had to keep stock in shape, but his memory isn't an 
 inch long." I readily inferred what that meant. It meant 
 
 If: 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 235 
 
 that Tom Jones might buy a bundle of lath, or possibly a 
 thousand feet of boards, and they never would be charged. 
 Above all things the man in the yard should have a 
 good memory. If he have not there is something that is 
 going to get away from him. If I had an income equal 
 to the value of the material which goes out of the retail 
 yards of the country uncharged you would not catch me 
 roaming around this winter sleef)ing in cold hotel beds and 
 trying to chew beefsteak that is nearly as tough as I am. 
 I would have a mansion on Easy street, eat baby mushrooms 
 and drink champagne from bottles which had the cobwebs 
 of ages on them. An excellent retail man— a man who aims 
 to keep tab on everything connected with his business— 
 
 "Sleeping in cold hotel beds." 
 was telling me how many slips a former yard man of his 
 made. One of his little mistakes was to let a whole load of 
 shingles go out uncharged. In a hundred and one yards m 
 which less caution is taken that load of shingles would have 
 
 been a dead loss. 
 
 In an office in Ohio the ])ookkeeper's window overlooks 
 the driveway that enters the yard. Nobody can go out or 
 in without attracting the attention of the man in front of the 
 window, and he is supposed to make a minute of every 
 team that leaves the yard with lumber and every man who 
 carries away a stick on his back. This looks somewhat like 
 state prison methods, but it saves dollars. 
 

 236 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 Right here I want to tell you of a queer duck I once 
 knew. Financially he was perfectly responsible, bought 
 his household necessities and luxuries on credit but never 
 paid a cent until a bill was presented. When we had our 
 
 burst of confidence he said he was aware that first and last 
 many items were omitted from his bills. He said it "paid" 
 him to run accounts. This fhan is of course a villain, though 
 no doubt he would excuse himself by saying that he had 
 paid promptly every cent of indebtedness that was presented 
 to him. He was simply taking advantage of the lapses 
 which occur in more than nine-tenths of the retail mercan- 
 tile establishments. 
 
 The determination of a good yard boss to see that a 
 record of every article that leaves the yard is turned in 
 at the oflBce I should call one of the first qualifications 
 
 It sometimes comes to me that we expect too much of 
 our yard men. If they are not thoroughly posted on grades 
 we cannot forgive them. We expect them to keep the stock 
 in fine shape. We look for them to show tact as salesmen. 
 We rebel when they omit to charge. If in a line yard they 
 must be competent to look after liens and collections. And 
 all Miese qualities we expect to buy for how much ^ Fo- 
 iP40 a month, not infrequently. The trouble comes in, how*- 
 ever, when we do not buy them for that amount, or for any 
 other amount, for often it seems an impossibilitv to get 
 them combinecl at any price. I know a yard man who is 
 paid close to $2,500 a year and he is worth every cent of it 
 He has the whole group of qualifications and it follows that 
 he is a jewel. 
 
 I like to get away from the boss and talk with the em- 
 ployees. They will at times tell me more than the boss will 
 A p easure to me at any time is to associate with intelligent 
 workmen ; men who have brains yet do not seek to live 
 by their wits. First and last some of these employees un- 
 load their woes on me. Last fall when the weather would 
 permit of sitting out on lumber piles and whittling a young 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 237 
 
 man in a yard asked me if I knew where he could better 
 his condition. He said he ''worked like a dog" at wages 
 that seemed to him inadequate. Then I had to tell him 
 frankly that if I were running a yard and a man should 
 want the position of yard manager and should tell me that 
 he had the capacity to work like a dog it would not be con- 
 sidered a recommendation. I told him that it is a good 
 thing to be industrious but if our brains do not supplement 
 the work of our hands we are the next thing to goners. I 
 explained the best I could the qualifications of a successful 
 yard man and I trust a little light drifted through the crev- 
 ice that was rent. He evidently had an idea that to tear 
 around, keep busy, lift his inwards out, was what was ex- 
 pected of a yard man. It is not these but it is knowledge, 
 care, watchfulness, loyalty, civility. Why, I would no 
 sooner trust a customer of mine in the hands of some yard 
 men than I would trust my old violin to be repaired by a 
 boiler maker. I have seen something of this. I have seen 
 yard men handle customers as indiflferently as though they 
 were so many sticks. I saw a yard man so gruff, so de- 
 cidedly unpleasant, that I thought the customer was at 
 fault that he did not turn on his heels. If I were paying 
 my money I wjDuldn't stand and have it rubbed into me by 
 anybody. 
 
 A PILE BINDER. 
 
 The cost of this little device for holding the tops of 
 piles on is really so small that it can hardly be estimated. 
 Any man around a yard could knock together an armful 
 of them in no time. You will see it is a triangle, except that 
 it is hardly a triangle. I have forgotten what it would be 
 called in geometry. That is the way with us. We deprive 
 ourselves of wine and mushrooms in order that we may get 
 through school or college and then industriously forget 
 nearly everything we learned there. 
 
2^8 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 This triangle shaped "duphunny" is made of. say, 3-inch 
 strips. The top is just wide enough to hold a 2x12 from 
 falhng over. In length it may be made to suit you. To bind 
 the pile place the 2x12 piece on edge across the top of it. 
 
 'This duphunny is made of 3-inch strips." 
 hang a triangle on each end, pull it down with considerable 
 force and immediately over the base of the triangle thrust 
 a stick between the courses of lumber. 
 
 8*:! 
 
 INADEQUATE OFFICE AND YARD HELP. 
 
 The boss was up town and would probably be gone the 
 rest of the afternoon, the young man said who was left in 
 charge. This young man was a nice appearing fellow, 
 quick, intelligent and gentlemanly, but I could see he had 
 not so thoroughly learned the business that he could wade 
 through it as he will be able to a year or two hence. The 
 little office was simply overnm. At one time there were 
 three men waiting to pay their bills ; a farmer, whose team 
 stood on the platform of the scales, wanted coal ; another 
 said the siding he bought did not hold out and he wanted 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 239 
 
 the rest of it; a drayman was waiting for coal and your 
 humble servant was principally engaged in toasting his 
 
 shins. 
 
 The young man was attending to matters as fast as he 
 could. One man was in doubt concerning some items in 
 his bill, and of course checking it up took time. The farmer 
 with the big nose said if he couldn't be attended to he would 
 go to one of the other yards. You have probably observed 
 that big nosed people are rather independent. Napoleon 
 cared little how many battalions of men he sacrificed if 
 thereby his interests were furthered, and ever since his time 
 a certain class of noses have been named after him ; or "for" 
 him, as the dude literary fellows write it these days. A 
 man with a little nose will do most anything for you if you 
 only take him right, but he with the Napoleonic beak is not 
 going to stand out in front of your office or any other man's 
 office and kick his toes to keep them warm, in the meantime 
 thinking that his hogs at home are squealing for their grub, 
 when he can drive half a block to another yard, load up and 
 be off. He paid cash, too, and these cash customers, nose 
 or no nose, are more or less independent. 
 
 The young man had a fair grasp of the situation. When 
 the farmer threatened to go elsewhere the young man took 
 the weight of his wagon and directed him to bin No. 3. 
 Now of course it is not the thing to ask any customer to 
 do his own loading. He may help to do it if he is so in- 
 clined, but when he is the whole push behind the scoop 
 shovel no yard man can expect it to set well on his stomach. 
 I sat right where I could see the farmer do the loading 
 and he filled his wagon box with chunks exclusively. When 
 such chunks could not be reached from the door he went 
 inside and dug them out. You would prefer that a man 
 would not do that in your bin, wouldn't you? It is liable 
 to breed discontent in the minds of the next customers. I 
 guess we all have fine coal enough in our soft coal bins. 
 When a customer gets a few big chunks a little fine coal 
 does not make so much of a showing, but if there are no 
 
 i 
 
• 
 
 I 
 
 ! - 
 
 240 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 large pieces to leaven the fine coal— some of it almost pul- 
 verized— It looks like ornery stuflF. Probably you or I would 
 not have the cheek to load up in that way; still it would 
 depend on the size and shape of our noses. 
 
 The farmer paid for his coal and drove away, evidently 
 satisfied with his bargain. No doubt at anv time he would 
 exchange a little muscular eflFort for his pick from a soft 
 coal pile. The two men who were waiting while the ac- 
 count of the other was being checked up were uneasy. When 
 we go into a business house on such a mission as that it is 
 natural to think that somebody around the premises ought 
 to have time to take our money. I helped the young man 
 out all I could by encircling the waiting men with my 
 charms, as it were, though I put my foot in it once or twice 
 One of the men looked like a farmer and I asked him how 
 his com was this year, and he said he was a carpenter and 
 had no corn. I told a couple of campaign stories, one a rub 
 on the democrats and the other a rub on the republicans so 
 It would be sure to hit them both. And thus we passed 'the 
 time very pleasantly until the other fellow was out of the 
 way. In less than five minutes these two men handed in 
 more than $300, turned up their coat collars and departed 
 When It came to the customer who was short on siding 
 the young man was not perfectly at home at first. The boss 
 himself had loaded the lumber and naturally the young man 
 was not anxious to give the customer 250 feet and then 
 when the boss came in tell him that he didn't know enough 
 to count out a bill of siding. I could see that plainly enough. 
 The customer could not have been more positive if he had 
 tried. He had put the siding on and it did not cover the 
 space! He was asked if he measured it before it was laid 
 and he said he did not. This farmer drove a fine, large 
 team, wore a fur overcoat that must have cost as much as 
 ?5o, and a man does not want to ruffle extensively the feel- 
 ings of a customer who is fixed like that. The young man 
 did the only thing he could under the circumstances, namely 
 said he didn't know a thing about it, but told the customer 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 241 
 
 to take the siding along and the boss would see that it was 
 
 made all right. 
 
 The drayman loaded his own coal while other customers 
 entertained the young man in the office. It was hard coal 
 the drayman wanted, however, and no doubt he took it as it 
 came. There is nothing in picking the largest chunks from 
 hard coal. 
 
 In the experience of the yard this may have been an un- 
 usually busy day, though it is my understanding it is a con- 
 cern that does a good business. The young man did not act 
 as though it was anything out of the ordinary for him to 
 hustle along alone in such a manner. Of course it is not 
 for you or me to dictate whether this lumberman shall have 
 one or two men to help him, but to a man looking down 
 from the ceiling it appears as though he was running short- 
 handed at an expense that he couldn't stand. When I first 
 went'to the office it was vacant, the young man being in 
 the yard. One man came in and, seeing no one but a no- 
 account looking fellow sitting behind a cigar reading a news- 
 paper, went out. He wanted something, else he would not 
 have been there. I cannot believe that is the way to run 
 a business. Such methods do not apply to lumber any more 
 than they apply to dry goods or meat markets. Little ne- 
 glects to customers finally sour them ; and, beloved, we want 
 to keep them sweet. It is impossible to keep them too sweet. 
 We want to make ourselves and our business methods so 
 attractive that customers will flock around us. That is the 
 way to get trade and to keep it. Any other methods first 
 or last get the knockout blow under the ear. The insig- 
 nificant little fly that hangs around the sugar bowl should 
 teach us a lesson. 
 
It 
 
 242 
 
 H 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 GETTING OUT MILL WORK. 
 
 The rush is over now," the yard man remarked, "but 
 1 wish you would remind the sash and door factories that 
 one thing necessary for them to do is to estimate promptly 
 when we send them specifications. If not satisfied with 
 the bid of the first house to which these specifications are 
 submitted we must try again, and if they hang fire in the 
 lactones it takes a good while to reach a conclusion We 
 can t ask the men in these factories to work nights and 
 Sundays, but it has been my experience that some of them 
 are woefully slow." 
 
 
 "Some of them are woefully slow." 
 
 A similar complaint I have heard several times It is a 
 question, however, if the factories could be speedy enough 
 to meet the requirements of the average yard man in this 
 matter. Suppose I am to furnish a house bill the mill work 
 of which will cost, say, $1,000. The furnishing of this bill 
 Js one of the big events of the season to me. I may not sell 
 four such bills during the year. I want to get at the denoue- 
 ment, as the Frenchman would say, in short order. I am 
 hoping that if I mail my specifications today the estimates 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 243 
 
 may be returned about the third day, notwithstanding my 
 letter must travel a hundred miles or more and the 
 answer to it a like distance. I am a little unreasonable m 
 this expectation and of course slip up in my calculations. 
 That deal is a big thing to me, but it isn't going to stun the 
 factorv men ; they are used to such things. They get bun- 
 dles of these specifications. The proprietor of a factory told 
 me recently they had sixty sets of stairs on their order books. 
 In these big establishments we must take our turn, and 
 sometimes there is a small army ahead of us. 
 
 If I had a bill of mill work that amounted to any great 
 sum I would not send it to anybody. I would ask the fac- 
 tories to send their men to me. I would want them to send 
 men who knew their business, too, so that right on the 
 ground every detail could be settled. If this is not done, 
 at some stage of the game some seemingly little insignifi- 
 cant thing* is liable to stick its nose in and cause trouble 
 without end. Not long ago I looked through a fine resi- 
 dence that had been built by a yard man for his home, and 
 he told me how little concern his mill work was to him. 
 Everything went together as though fate had decreed it, 
 he said. Not even a bit of molding was lacking. To start 
 with the order was placed with an Ai factory, and then the 
 salesman who took the order knew his business. He has 
 been a practical planing mill man, knows what is wanted 
 and in what shape it should be furnished. I know salesmen 
 who can detect any faulty point in the specifications of an 
 architect. That is the kind of men to have around you. 
 When you are figuring with them they are not firing their 
 ideas up through their hats. They are down to earth, which 
 is an excellent place for any of us to be. When you are 
 dealing with a good house and a competent salesman there 
 is not a reason why things should not dovetail. 
 
 I like these inside finish salesmen ; I have had about as 
 good times with some of them as a fellow can reasonably 
 expect to have this side of paradise, but not every one of 
 them is making it the smoothest possible sailing for the 
 
244 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 frtf.il. ^°'"1'".'"" '^'' '""'^•=""> P'^ him and make him 
 fr si. like a w.Id steer. I was told the other day of a fin^ 
 
 residence that was going up and everything came to a ha^! 
 
 because the salesman who took the order Lndered The 
 
 Tefi leT V r °"' '"' ' ^'"^" P-'-" of 'he bd had to^ 
 refilled, wh.ch took time. In a busy building season Ir 
 penters can't hang around doing nothing and pV hdr mL; 
 and grocery bdls on anticipation, so in this case Te^r 
 » went elsewhere. Then when the revised mil work 
 came the carpenters didn't come with .> tu k .1 
 madder than hops, the contracrr;:t':ad.?„: S'taS 
 the salesman wasn't "onto" his job. When we InTr 
 we never know how many cogs ^it will cause To slj in th! 
 
 "A thief breaks in." 
 
 If I were building an expensive house ^of wh.vi. ,u 
 IS not much dano-pr^ r ^u ij '^ which there 
 
 yard man's fouse I ZT. T """^'^'""^ *° ^uild. I„ a 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 245 
 
 order, and the lumberman was enthusiastic over the appear- 
 ance of them as compared with the original design. Now, 
 you see that salesman did that man a favor that will be 
 something of a pull on future orders. 
 
 When we come down to bottom facts there are a great 
 many architects whose practicability will never kill them. 
 They have studied the strength of materials, have learned 
 to draw, know how a plan will look on paper — and that 
 comes near telling the story. You couldn't find wings on 
 one of them; therefore they are going to make mistakes 
 like all the rest of us. I have heard contractors sw^earing 
 about their plans more than once. I would first want a 
 good designing architect to make my plans and then a com- 
 petent salesman to lay his head with mine, and together de- 
 cide just what the inside finish should be. I believe this 
 would give me a better looking house than otherwise I 
 would have and save me worry. In my humble opinion any 
 intelligent young man who would serve an apprenticeship 
 in an inside finish establishment, or even in any old planing 
 mill, preparatory to acting as salesman, would be doing 
 something for his country. 
 
 I heard of a little kink not long ago that may be new 
 to you. A yard man told me that he furnished the oak, cy- 
 press, yellow pine and other woods for all the mill work he 
 had done. When he secures a job he selects his lumber, 
 carries it to the local factory and pays for having it put into 
 the shape he wants it. He knows then what kind of lumber 
 goes into a job and he thinks that by furnishing the material 
 he keeps an extra profit in the family. He is a very success- 
 ful lumberman and he wouldn't be pursuing this method 
 year after year unless there were something in it. 
 
 Next year when the building season shall open up in the 
 red hot way we are all expecting I trust that the sash and 
 door men will hustle some things a little faster than they 
 have been doing this season, and that the yar^ men's pa- 
 tience may be somewhat lengthened. What we want is to 
 come together mutually, all as happy as so many lambs. 
 
 ? i 
 
246 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 MAPLE AND BIRCH FLOORING. 
 
 The veteran dealer, his assistant and your humble ser- 
 vant were up in the shed trying to sort out a pile of maple 
 and birch flooring. You would no doubt say that such 
 combmed talent would be able to do that simple little job 
 on the run, wouldn't you? The cold fact remains, however 
 that havmg concentrated our powerful intellects on certain 
 pieces we were not more than dead sure that we were right 
 This yard man had received a shipment of the two kinds 
 of floormg, they were mixed and the thing was to separate 
 them. The yard man knew I was coming and I suppose he 
 thought It would be an excellent chance to find out how little 
 I know. 
 
 I have not yet seen that man who can name all the woods 
 off hand simply by handling small samples of them. Per- 
 haps such a man is somewhere and if so I would like to see 
 what kind of bumps there are on his head. A lumberman 
 once said to me that he could name any wood and was in- 
 clined to laugh at the idea that any fellow who was wrest- 
 ling with woods all the time should feel incompetent to do 
 this. But you know that talk is the cheapest thing on the 
 face of the earth. This man had his talking spell and then 
 when It came to action he met his Waterloo. I took him 
 to the banquet hall in the Au.litorium hotel, Chicago, and 
 he fell down. There was wood used in profusion in a large 
 room and this wood the lumberman could not name. Syc- 
 amore, the kind of wood in court, was newer as a finish 
 than It is now, which undoubtedly had something to do with 
 throwing the man ofT the track. At that time sycamore 
 was regarded as a very plebeian wood, about fit for plug 
 tobacco boxes, and he was not expecting to find it in one of 
 the finest rooms in the United States. I wish that the re- 
 tail men who stop at the Auditorium when in Chicago would 
 ask to see the banquet hall of the house, so they may know 
 what an art wood sycamore is when used at its best. It 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 247 
 
 would give them food for thought that as ammunition they 
 might advantageously fire at a customer now and then 
 
 The trio up in the shed acted on the principle that birch 
 is the lighter wood of the two, and so we sorted the flooring 
 more by the sense of feeling than by sight. The gram of a 
 birch and that of a maple board would often be so identical 
 that we would challenge any man to tell which was which. 
 Of course in this little article the three of us are exposing 
 our ignorance to the great, critical public, but it is for a 
 purpose. There are yard men who if they should have oc- 
 casion to order maple and birch flooring from one concern 
 might save themselves trouble by asking to have it labeled 
 
 before it is sent on its way. 
 
 Not many years ago it would have taken a search war- 
 rant to find birch flooring in any except the more prominent 
 large town yards but it is now kept in stock by hundreds of 
 dealers The list of articles that must be kept by the up to 
 date yard man is gradually increasing in numbers. 
 
 A yard man related an amusing incident in connection 
 with the introduction of maple flooring in his town. 1 had 
 just received a lot and was talking it to a man of means who 
 was about to build a good house," he said. "He looked it 
 over critically while I was enumerating its qualities and then 
 broke out, 'Maple! hades! Good old pine is good enough 
 for me'' That same man was talking with me the other day 
 about maple to replace his 'good old pine' kitchen floor." 
 
 UNEVENNESS OF TRADE. 
 
 A half dozen of us were in the writing room of the hotel 
 and when there was a lull in wagging the pens some of the 
 fellows went to talking about trade. A man who handles 
 fancy goods for the holidays said he had been having a nice 
 run of business. Then a clothing man thumped the table 
 with his knuckles and said if it would become colder he 
 would sell more goods. 
 
I 
 
 248 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 "How do you find trade?" I was asked. 
 iZTT ' fu ^ "'"'■' ^°"'' '" "'^^« n'onths." I replied 
 
 ./:e:;^^L^^tdS;iiter„nr^ 
 
 wo„c.red how a fellow co Jdtt LTand" ro^tS^ 
 
 Trade has been nearly as sDotted in fi, 1 I ""^Sooas. 
 
 it appeared to be with us fell ws't e o [ B^ttt " " 
 
 get in the habit of thinking that Z\ tZl "' "°* 
 
 "Haven't sold a cent's worth " 
 "ly restless. A dealer recently said to me, 
 
 ■^■^i^™!— ^-- 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 249 
 
 "There goes the last load of an $800 bill." The selling and 
 delivering of that bill cost the yard man little time compara- 
 tively. When he got right down to business it was probably 
 sold inside of sixty minutes. Then it went out in great 
 loads. A steady business like that would make millionaires 
 of us all, and then we would cease to be happy or useful. 
 When a man has nothing to do but to clip coupons he is of 
 little more benefit to the world than a telegraph pole. 
 
 Now suppose we stand around the grocery and dry 
 goods stores of our neighbors and watch them for a while. 
 We see them selling a gallon of molasses for 40 cents, a can 
 of oil for a dime, a paper of pins, calico for a dress, and just 
 think how long it takes one of them to sell $800 worth of 
 goods. A volume of business that you would do in an hour 
 they are a week in doing. Then what is the matter that you 
 can't take it easy between spells? I actually believe that 
 the lumber world is full of retail dealers who do not appre- 
 ciate the advantage of, having their trade thrown at them in 
 big lumps. Last summer I hung around an office nearly 
 an entire afternoon and the yard man was complaining there 
 was nothing going on, yet he incidentally remarked that he 
 sold $200 worth of lumber that morning. No doubt his 
 profits would foot up from $30 to $40 for that day, and 
 there he was crying for more. 
 
 Owing to the very nature of our business our expecta- 
 tions leap all bounds of reason. We want the earth, and 
 when we get a big slice of it we begin to cry for the moon. 
 You have read, "For what shall it profit a man if he gain 
 the whole world and lose his own soul ?" We will draw it 
 milder, and ask, What shall it profit a man to hoard up 
 riches at the expense of his health? Then comes nervous 
 prostration, and he sees devils peering into his face even 
 when he is surrounded by sunshine. The last days of that 
 man are shorter than his first, and a thousand times less 
 happy. This world — or rather the people of it— are running 
 on many false theories. 
 
 If we do not enjoy this life and have a little fun as we 
 
 !1 ^ 
 
 III! 
 

 250 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 go along, when will we enjoy a life? Can't tell, can you> 
 I have no confidence whatever in any man who prates aboui 
 playing on a harp of a thousand strings hereafter when he 
 does not begin playing it here. Therefore, beloved, let us 
 not fret and sweat, and break ourselves down because we 
 are unab e to sell big bills from morning till night the year 
 round. We know we have got 'em; we know that we will 
 sel nearly all the lumber for the never-ending improvements 
 ot this giant country, and what more do we want ? 
 
 WAGON STAKES. 
 
 th.I''n T'"?'^ '"''" °" "'^ ^'^"^"'■y ^^=^°" has not filled 
 the bill for the reason that the wagon manufacturers have 
 
 gone right on making the same old kind of stake, no mat- 
 ter whether the wagon was to be used for hauling lumber 
 or ot^lier material They have done this for the reason that, 
 like the rest of the world, wagon makers are sheep. It is 
 surprising how many sheep there are even among those 
 people who would naturally be supposed to do a little think- 
 ing for themselves instead of following others 
 
 No wagon maker, so far as I have learned, has ever 
 evoluted out of the old stake rut. As the great granther 
 made wagon stakes so must his descendants forever and 
 ever. In the lumber world the improvements which have 
 been made in wagon stakes have been suggested by the lum- 
 bermen themselves. Though the old-time short stake with 
 the annex on the outside of it. is used by nine-tenths of the 
 yard men of the country it is a failure from the fact that 
 a load with such stakes cannot be carried up evenly. Hav- 
 .ng piled to the top of the permanent stake then [he load 
 inust jut out to another width. To overcome this difficulty 
 there are yard men who have had stakes mortised into the 
 bolster in such a way they can be removed. When this is 
 done the yard man has several sets of stakes, each set to 
 conform to the ..ize of the load it is intended to haul 
 
 , REALM OF THE RETAILER. 251 
 
 Herewith are illustrated two stakes, °-\^\:^^l^^ 
 "built up,"being common in certain -»-- -^"^^j^^/^f ^ f ^ 
 „o hv Actions In certain territory covering a large area 
 ft would bTas easy to find a hen's tooth as it would a stake 
 
 "Herewith are illustrated two stakes." 
 
 Wo^Mno• seen ttie illustration, it is easy to 
 °' f ^H sSr They lud" be of oak. of the same thick- 
 rss^f rp^—fsties, and when in place stand about 
 Z ?eet above them. The object is. of course, to form a 
 straight surface against ^vhich jo pile- ^^^^ 
 
 The other stake, as you will observe, spi^ea" 
 
 thet^kt which is nine inches long from the bolster up 
 f otld Tron. the shell being five-sixteenths o an inch 
 l^ck. The width lengthwise oHhe o^er ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 of the socket is let into the bolster for a little way, a bolt 
 
252 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 1 , , . ^P "■°" "^ P'"«^^ent wearing. A small hole 
 
 should be drilled through the shell at the bottom of the 
 
 "The twentieth century stake." 
 Z'lf V''''' "''"" **" ^'^°" ''^^ ^t'^d out in a rain when 
 
 ihe socket was first made of cast iron, but it was not 
 trong enough and malleable iron was used. The cosTof the 
 stakes was 65 cents each. 
 
 THE TWO KINDS. 
 
 The purely commercial tradesman or professional m-n 
 
 does not rank m the first clp« Ti,», P-^oiessional man 
 
 . Class. 1 liere are commercial sm- 
 
 geons who would cut oft your le- in a Vnrl, . 'f '"'' 
 
 f^^ u^^ j'vjux ic«^ in a York minute inr Jh*» 
 
 whose sole object seemed to be to brin^ cases to tn. vi 
 there are others who will advise fb7 I ! . ' ^'^^ 
 
 ences oiit.iHe of .u ^ adjustment of differ- 
 
 ences outside of the court room. Except as an example to 
 shun a man is no great account in the world unless ^e car 
 nes his conscience into business. If he does no I Jhis he" 
 becomes a quack, a swindler, legally or otherwise 
 
 It IS a pitiful day for us when we cease to feel an in- 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 253 
 
 terest in the welfare of others. When we work for self 
 alone— work for self at the expense of treating others fairly 
 and honorably — as sure as we live we are on a train that 
 will run us into the ditch. I do not mean necessarily into 
 the financial ditch, and I hope that not one of my readers 
 gages his success wholly by the money he is making. Money 
 is necessary— we all want it and need it— but a large amount 
 of it is decidedly less essential than are some other things. 
 In the eyes of the world we can't cut a swell on these other 
 things as we can on money, but they will stay by us longer. 
 When our hands are getting so cold and palsied that we 
 couldn't pick up a thousand dollar bill if it was right by us 
 on the bed these other things will stand by us. I once knew 
 an honest, kind hearted man who, owing to ill health and 
 bad luck, was forced to spend his closing days in an alms- 
 house. But he didn't complain and dump around. "I will 
 not be here long," he said ; "pretty soon I will go on my 
 way." A cheap coffin enclosed the old man's remains, and 
 they were buried on a knoll out in the field with nothing but 
 a painted board to mark the grave, but I believe the man 
 proper went on his way to such riches as we all may covet. 
 
 We must all the time have an eye out for the good of 
 our customers. That is the only way to feel assured that 
 we can sleep with a decent fellow every night, and eat with 
 him, and associate with him the livelong day. We can easily 
 get away from a mean man provided that mean man is not 
 ourself, but if it is ourself there is the stinking stuff right 
 under our nose all the time. 
 
 In an office a man came in to buy coal. ''Send me up 
 two tons of the kind I had before," said he. Now you see 
 that was an easy order to fill — no talking over selling it; 
 simply haul the coal up and in due time get the money. 
 
 *'I want to send you another kind of coal today, for I 
 believe it is better," said the yard man. 
 
 "Haven't you the other?" was asked. 
 
 "Yes, I have the same thing, not much of it though, and 
 
254 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 if you insist on it you shall have it, but I can give you a 
 better coal than that." 
 
 Then he explained the diflference. I know a little about 
 coal myself, enough to know that this man was giving it 
 to the customer as straight as a chalk line. This customer 
 fairly blew in, he was so breezy and up and dressed. He 
 seemed to be in a hurry to catch a train. But when the yard 
 man began to talk about a better coal he had plenty of time 
 to listen. We always do have plenty of tfme when our own' 
 
 "Two tons of the kind I had before." 
 
 interests are at stake. Now I would not hesitate to bet you 
 $4 that that man will continue to buy his coal of that dealer. 
 He is no blockhead, and I know well enough he went away 
 from that office thinking that the yard man had tried to do 
 him a favor. Wouldn't you? In all these matters let us 
 reason from our own standpoint and we will get it nearly 
 right. This is simply one little incident to show how easy 
 it is to help our customers along at the same time we are 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 255 
 
 helping ourselves. If we would only bring ourselves to know 
 it we would find it does not cost half so much to do a little 
 good in the world as we go along as we might thmk it did. 
 
 REASONS FOR THANKS. 
 
 We will not meet again before Thanksgiving, so let us 
 lay our heads together and decide on some things for which 
 we should return thanks. Personally I do not think much 
 of the official species of thankfulness, for without any hint 
 from the president of the United States or anybody else 
 our hearts should be floating in the atmosphere of thank- 
 fulness the whole time. But we forget and neglect. In- 
 gratitude in all of us is bigger than a wolf. I should like 
 to see one man refined in the crucible of thought, love and 
 sorrow until he had reached his possibilities. What a mag- 
 nificent creature he would be ! 
 
 What if the president should appoint a day for us to 
 love our wives and children? Wouldn't we say, ''Why, what 
 is the matter with you, old man ; don't we love them all the 
 time?" And then the formal way in which it is done!^ We 
 all have our opinions and ideas, you know, but I can't be- 
 lieve that when a man, by request of the president of the 
 United States, closes his eyes and says thanks, they go 
 higher than the top of the chimney. Gratitude must come 
 from the heart to be of value. If it doesn't hail from that 
 organ it doesn't lack much of being bogus. My grand- 
 father used to say that ''lip service" was a delusion. We 
 too often act on the principle that we can fool the Almighty, 
 just as we fool the people with whom we associate. We like 
 to hypnotize our neighbors and have them think that we 
 were gotten up after a special pattern ; that we are all wool 
 and a yard wide, while every minute of the time we know 
 there are cotton threads running through us in every direc- 
 tion. 
 
 Now there are those best girls of ours. They come a 
 
2S6 REALiM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 million times nearer being angels than we are. How good 
 we led then, to think we wottld always be to them when^ 
 were court.ng them and giving them candy and taffy Yon 
 probably remember when they would sit' on our knees- 
 that ,s. ,f we considered that way of sitting "good foTm " 
 and the most of us did-we would strenuoufly object wTen 
 they suggested they were heavy, and cling to them a i^Z 
 anchor of hope. Then we hitched up and how aTthfu and 
 good they have been all the years since. The ban so the 
 most of them bear the marks of work. Gray hairs have 
 come mto the.r blond or raven locks. The giriish spright! 
 
 "They would sit on our knees." 
 
 liness has gone, and their feet have become heavier Dur 
 ing this period of transformation they have been doinT 
 
 knn It V "" ""' ^'^' '^""^ ^" ^"^ ^'^^ and let them 
 
 CO n^ i;^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^%"- -^^^-^ I am fearful all ot^ 
 
 Irf bol d .1 r/'''"' ^''' ^^^^^^^^^ ^" an under- 
 
 If us wh" w^^ld '^^''^"^?-^- ^-^^ht, there are those 
 
 ecu; on?v hlrll ^'"" T '""^^^'^ '^^^'^ '' ^^^ ^-af ears 
 could only hear the words which we would pour into them 
 
 -words mostly which we have neglected to speak So on" 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 257 
 
 thing to do is to be thankful to our wives. Early Thanks- 
 giving morning give them a hug and kiss that will so aston- 
 ish them that they will fall down. Keep this up, mix turkey 
 and cranberry sauce with it, and if you do not say it has 
 been a pink of a holiday you may kick me. At first our 
 wives may think it necessary to have a commission of 
 lunacy sit on us, but they will get over it after a little. 
 
 "In the atmosphere of thankfulness." 
 
 Let us be thankful that we are a great, prosperous na- 
 tion. Every man of us wants to get it out of his head that 
 the success of one clique of politicians or another is going 
 to down this country. We are the people ; we do the work 
 and pay the freight, and if these scheming politicians who 
 suck the public teat pull it so it hurts us too much we are 
 big enough to rise up and wipe the ground with them, and 
 
 : I 
 
hi 
 
 
 II ' ,' 
 
 It : ; 
 
 258 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 vve will do it, too. Every party knowingly harbors bosses, 
 demagogs and barnacles, but they mustn't get to fooling 
 with the people too much. My faith is in the people, not 
 in the office seekers who go howling up and down the land 
 peddhng sophistry and belittling everybody who stands in 
 their way to a life of little work, "glory" and big pav. Not- 
 withstanding we may cuss the politician, let us be thankful 
 for our magnificent, grand and glorious country. Let's 
 drink to that country and pick a turkey bone to its con- 
 tinued prosperity. 
 
 Then we will be thankful for the business we are in 
 It IS the best business going. It is a healthy business ; a 
 business that a man can follow and still look upon himself 
 as a man. A business that if it should come to a halt the 
 improvements of the whole country would halt. It is an 
 honest business regardless of the character of any man who 
 may be following it. It is not like selling gin or shoddy 
 clothmg. It is different from practicing law as some men 
 practice it, or preaching as some men preach. It is highly 
 respectable and thoroughly essential. We should be thank- 
 ful we are engaged in such a business, and let us pick the 
 gobbler s neck to its success. 
 
 And above all let us be thankful that we are alive-that 
 we were bom-that stretching away before us is a path lead- 
 ing to heights of which we cannot conceive ; to God the 
 giver of all ; for children, love, friendship, health, plenty 
 peace of mind ; for the birds, air. sunshine, aye and for 
 clouds and storms. If on Thanksgiving morning we begin 
 returning thanks and keep it up all day and then continue 
 until our lamp of life is snuffed out thev cannot be too many 
 nor too hearty. ' 
 
 
 ssas 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 PICKING OVER STOCK. 
 
 259 
 
 There are people who always want the best without pay- 
 ing proportionately for it. We have seen men who codd go 
 into a store and without a blush on their cheeks pick out 
 the biggest hen's eggs. This desire is natural enough- 
 they want to get the most they can for their money-but 
 at the same time the dealer has an interest to subserve. It 
 is for the run of his goods on which the tradesman sets a 
 price, and when a purchaser gets better than this he should 
 expect to pay for the privilege. 
 
 We all know there is a pick to be had m lumber. "Take 
 any grade and there is a choice in the boards. Some of them 
 are better than others. There are buyers who know this well 
 enough and if permitted to do so they will act on that knowl- 
 edge Especially does it please the farmer to have piles of 
 lumber picked over for him in order that he may have the 
 best A vard man once said to me, "I have farmer cus- 
 tom;rs who expect this state of things, bt.t I always make 
 the selections, and when we are through don t believe they 
 have any more than a fair run of the lumber He pr^ 
 jected a smile that I understood as meaning that he could 
 play hocus pocus with them. 
 
 ^ I was recently in a yard of good size m which a good 
 deal of this picking had been carried on, and picking m 
 earnest, too. The farmers understood they would be g ven 
 the best boards in the piles. Of course this Pleased them 
 but when it became known there were others it did not 
 p^ase As soon as the town people, particularly the con- 
 £to;s, got an inkling of it they rebelled. They said d.ey 
 were not going to take the skim milk and permit he farmers 
 To have the cream, and some of them went elsewhere o bu, 
 their stuff. The trade of the yard was injured to 3"st that 
 exten I cannot swear that the yard man is aware how tl«s 
 pkking business is reacting on him, as there are phases of 
 s'ri men's business which are better understood by out- 
 "d" sThan by themselves. There is hardly a week passes 
 
 < I 
 
 
i! 
 
 260 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 but I wish that some dealer could see himself as others see 
 hmi And 1 guess if we all could do that we would see 
 plenty of holes m ourselves to be soldered up 
 
 *'I am perfectly willing that a customer should pick his 
 lumber, but he must pay me for it," was the testimony of a 
 yard man. ' If he pick over a pile so that what is left should 
 by rights go mto a lower grade he must pay me the differ- 
 ence m price between those grades for what is left ' 
 
 .u nTii'"''"!'^. ^' "^'^^''^ ^^"^" P^^^^"^ i^ ^very dealer 
 should follow this man's plan. As it is I hardly think there 
 
 IS much of it, but occasionally, you know, there is a fellow 
 who appears to be built on abnormal lines, and we must 
 look for him to do abnormal things. When we expect the 
 same thing of all people we will come out in our calcula- 
 tions at the little end of the horn. Recently I saw a yard 
 man climb up and down forty feet of ladder and pull over 
 his piles of uppers in search of a board from which a pros- 
 pective customer wanted a piece twenty-eight inches long. 
 He looked and looked and looked, but didn't find it The 
 average carpenter could have found sufficient lumber with 
 which to finish a lo-room house, but there was not a piece 
 there good enough for the fellow who was looking This 
 man was finiky and really did not know what he did want. 
 That which pleased me, however, was to see the yard man 
 descend to earth as calm as a May morning. From his 
 appearance you would think the man did him a favor by 
 coming to his yard and asking him to rummage throuirh 
 pile after pile of lumber with a prospect of selling a piece 
 of board twenty-eight inches in length. That was the way 
 to bring him there the second time, however, and possibly 
 the second time he would want enough lumber to build a 
 barn. How things will turn out none of us know until 
 they do turn out. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 LOCATING ON TRACK. 
 
 261 
 
 In a busy little burg that has great promise of growth a 
 yard man had stuck his yard off in the edge of the town on a 
 railway track under the impression that lumber could be 
 more advantageously handled in such a location. He had 
 spent some money in building sheds and an office, and, to be 
 frank, I felt sorry for him, for I knew he was a Uttle behind 
 the up-to-date practice, else he would not have done it. I 
 would rather see a man feel good than bad any time, so I 
 didn't suggest to him that in all probability he had made a 
 mistake in locating, which in after years he would regret. 
 
 "The free gift of an elephant." 
 
 It appears very liberal on the part of a railway company to 
 offer yard room, minus rent, but we should be a little careful 
 how we accept the free gift of an elephant, for after a little 
 he is liable to eat his own head off, and ours too. 
 
 There is another point in connection with a railroad loca- 
 tion which perhaps is not considered by every yard man. 
 I have known the complications growing out of such a loca- 
 tion to be a thorn in the flesh. What do you suppose a rail- 
 road corporation is going to give a lumberman yard facili- 
 ties for? For fun? Not exactly. It thinks it will place 
 that lumberman under obligations to it, and expects to get 
 
 : i 
 
 1 
 
 ' 
 
 Jill 
 
262 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ^! 
 
 s: *' 
 
 ? i 
 
 
 his business as against any competing road that may reach 
 the same point. There are yard men who would pick up 
 their traps in a York minute and make themselves scarce 
 on railroad land if they saw their way clear to do so. When 
 a railroad pats your back it implies that it expects you will 
 show favors in return. That is human nature and the way 
 it is looked at the world over. If there are two or more 
 roads running into a town you do not want one of them to 
 have a mortgage on you. It may be necessary to put a 
 mortgage on your property, but for pity sake keep yourself 
 clear of railroad encumbrance. 
 
 If this yard man I am speaking of, instead of going out 
 on the railroad track, had camped as near the center of the 
 town as he could, put up nice looking sheds and office, and 
 if he did not feel disposed to build a closed shed fenced his 
 yard in a tasty way, and kept his piles trim and neat, he 
 simply would have commanded the attention of every 
 farmer who came to the town to buy his supplies. That 
 farmer, having hitched his team, could step as easily into 
 the lumber office as he could into a grocery store. As it is, 
 the farmer must tramp off down the railroad track, for very 
 likely if he has lively horses he would prefer not to drive 
 them down where the engines are switching and whistling. 
 Within a month I saw a wagon being loaded in an unfenced 
 yard on the prairie by a railroad track, and a freight train 
 coming along, the horses began to prick up their ears, the 
 farmer caught them by the bits, and they fairly churned 
 him up and down in an effort to break away. There the 
 team danced, all loading suspended until the train had got 
 out of sight and hearing. Have you an idea that such an 
 experience would be a magnet that would draw the farmer 
 with his colts to that yard again? 
 
 Another consideration : What do you think might have 
 been a future result if this yard man had located in the cen- 
 ter of town ? His real estate would have increased in value 
 right along, and some fine morning he would b- able to sell 
 out at a profit that would make him laugh. When a yard 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 263 
 
 is located a distance from a railroad track I don t bfeheve 
 there are many who pay more than 15 cents a thousand to 
 have their lumber moved from the car to the piles, and this, 
 too, when the yard man hires his hauling. When it is done 
 with his own team it matters little whether the distance is 
 ten rods or a mile. 
 
 THE VIRTUE OF RELAXATION. 
 
 I was sorry I could not see the yard man, but when told 
 his mission awav from home I said, '^By jinks, that's good. 
 I wish every lumberman in the United States could break 
 away from business for an even two months." This man 
 is at the lake, as a member of some outing club, and will 
 stay there off and on, principally off, for another month. 
 His business was running along as usual instead of going 
 to smash as so many yard men think their business will if 
 they leave it for a while. 
 
 The man who sells lumber at retail has, as a rule, a good 
 deal of time on his hands. By a large majority business in 
 a yard does not keep right on without a break from morn- 
 ing till night. It is not like selling tea, sugar, needles and 
 thread. "I was in the general mercantile business at one 
 time," said a yard man, "and when I made the change I 
 thought I was loafing. I used to keep my store open every 
 night until 10 o'clock, and often I would find it necessary to 
 open up Sunday. I would go to bed as tired as a dog. I 
 don't know a business that is better adapted to a man who 
 is getting old and a little lazy than the lumber business." 
 
 "I sold a good barn bill this morning," said another 
 dealer, and though I was in his office for three hours not a 
 customer showed his face. 
 
 "Why I like this line of trade better than any other is 
 that at 5 o'clock I can close my yard, and put in my evenings 
 as I see fit," was the way another put it. 
 
 The advocates of everlasting staying at home might say 
 that the retail lumberman who has so much time to hold 
 down chairs does not need a vacation. Right there is where 
 
'I 
 
 264 REALM OF THE RETAILER 
 
 besides the e;::rofZ,'f ' 'r""^"'- '°'"^''''''^ 
 don't know ,n., ,'^°'^'' '^ preying upon our vitality. I 
 
 other thi^ y e„ ' 1!" r' °' J'"' '"' '"^^^ '^ - 
 at seven. L often a TZ ZZZ '" "'": "' ''"^'-- 
 from two to ei^hf hi m morn.ng. has anywhere 
 
 his om::L7^'i7: irrthe""" -'^ 't- ^-'^ ^-^-'^ 
 
 iHs something hesides:arrwrl:TtS;;^-':^^^^^^^ 
 
 .att'w^t :^::.tzj-z^ ^----^ •^^^- 
 
 come back feeling that life is more Tn'^rLrT^' ^"' 
 to .X with people so as to know .o^t^^M ^^ZZ 
 feel that ux are so much better oflf than thousands o others 
 
 talk on love and marriao-n "c . ^ "'^ 
 
 radino- fh« » "larnage. Some people take pleasure it» 
 radmg the travehng man," he said. "They would Zl 
 ■nj out as tough as that steak we had forXl^^ BuT 1 1 • 
 just bet any man a sulky plow that the percentage o d 
 
 XT r°"f "' '"^^""^ "'^" '^ smaller'than hat of a„; 
 
 Weal r'mer ''^ \" "'=' ^''^-- ^^P^ 'he spark of 
 
 r; t;ar?g a7t7:e';r Td:;,"': v° ^^^ °"^ -'-^ 
 
 could be with L all thTti:e aL^u .^ S ^y TnT'; 
 
 rnean ways!'' We laughed at such 'oddity ;s,,eve™ 
 
 here no doubt felt that the implement salesman wasTouch- 
 
 SZ:: "" '°"™'' ""^ P^^-^°-"^ -^ -•-' dall ed 
 
 trios I meefl "^""'^ "'^^"- ^"^'"*^ "°-^ f-- -y 
 nps I meet my best g.rl at the door and salute her with 
 
 smacks which soun.l like cannon crackers 
 
 There are several things to take into account when con 
 sidermg the vacation problem. The expense stands inT' 
 way with many, they say. They think s^tra ght nou^h' 
 but s,x months from now, from a financial statpoin7do 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 265 
 
 you think they would know the difference? Not once in 
 
 a thousand times. 
 
 Here is one of the greatest arguments, however: We 
 are in possession of this wondrous body, on the condUion 
 of which largely depends our success and happiness, and 
 when that body is gone we don't know as we will have an- 
 other right away. None of us takes any toe good care of it. 
 I have an old fiddle in the house that is kept tenderly 
 wrapped in flannel that all moisture may be excluded, vet 
 today in a hard rainstorm I was out in my shirtsleeves try- 
 ing to save a chicken from drowning that would not sell 
 for 5 cents. I am even better to my old black cow than I 
 am to myself. And she is better to herself than I am to 
 myself, for when she has eaten enough she quits; when she 
 has drank enough she quits, and when tired she seeks the 
 shade of the tree and rests. In many respects the brutes 
 shame us. 
 
 PRICE LISTS. 
 
 The great majority of things are differently considered 
 by different people. Even the dollar which bears on the 
 face of it the value of lOO cents is thought more highly of 
 by some than by others. Take my case, for instance : Here 
 at midnight I am clicking this communication off on the 
 old writing machine. What for? For the dollars that it 
 will bring me. Which does not prove that I love the dollar 
 so well that in order to make it I never sleep, but that I have 
 loved it less than has, say, my neighbor across the way, 
 who for two hours has been peacefully snoring on his curled 
 hair mattress. He can afford to snore. He can spare the 
 time to do it. He has made his dollars and has clung to 
 them with the grip of a dentist's forceps. He is not obliged 
 to sit up nights and make more of them in order that he 
 
 may eat. , 
 
 Just for the fun of the thing the other night when all 
 was still and calm I roughly estimated how much money 
 
 4 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
266 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I had earned since striking out in the world r,n.i ,u 
 
 fairly staggered „,e. I safd to .ytt ^ : ^'XcL; TZ' 
 
 where .h. K ' '"^ ^ ^°^'^' ''"* ^^e looked over 
 
 where the boys were asleep on the sofa, side by side each 
 
 bor^rl!°"^.'?° ' r"''"' '" '"^-^'"^^ °f '^°°'<^ and a neigh- 
 bor happened m when they were opened. He did not !eem 
 
 to know Balzac from Nebuchadnezzar, therefore Lizac 
 work 127 1 ;■"" ^ "'"= ^"'' ^""^ "^ was handed a 
 fnr fi^^ ^ u . , ^ ^ ^^"^^ ^s o^ value to one man 
 
 .^v ii bt''"s,^:'\^^''"^ '° r "" •' '^ °^ -'- ^- w^- 
 
 u will [,uy. Still I have my old black cow clear and above 
 board, several fiddles, more books to revel amon! than . 
 g.ant could lift, and recollections of life and fHel that I 
 
 ever owned or ever will own. I tell you what I rejoice over 
 about as much as anything, and that is that I was born 
 The price list shares in this irregularity of estimation 
 
 !:ZrZ ^'' ' '^^ ^"" ''' ' -^"^ --^^ ""-what 
 ha If „n.h ' "««««'ty-I <lon't believe we can deny 
 that. H nothing more it serves as an advertising medium 
 
 Zl T , , ! •■^'■'^ '"^" ^"^ whom it is mailed that he 
 
 (the wholesale dealer) is still on deck. There are retai! 
 
 dealers by the hundreds who claim that price lists a e o no 
 
 va ue msomuch that in the majority of cases th fi" res ,Io 
 
 not correspond with the actual prices at which luXt 
 
 w taker^Thev"'' ',7""' *'^^' ''^'^ P"^"- ^ ^^^'^y 
 wcii taken. 1 hey would m ss the lUfs Qu^, t^ 
 
 come to them they would fee, tes^^. ^Adm JgX: 
 q .oted prices are not the niling ones, they are somfth in ' 
 of a guide nevertheless. Were it not fnrfhZ '°"'^*'""^ 
 not know so well how much to beat the 17 "" ^ 
 
 down with our stuffed clubs D^d. "^ '^'"''^" 
 
 .ncti curbs. Did we receive no lists we 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 267 
 
 would be obliged to visit the markets to see how the pulse 
 ::t wholesale men was beating. That is what a pnc^ Us 
 is-the pulse of the wholesale market. Or we may call t 
 he mainspring of a watch; but there is generally a regu- 
 lator attached I it, and that regulator is the traveling sales- 
 
 *"' Ust fall I was in an office when a price list was 'taken 
 from an envelope. At that time the lumber barons couldn t 
 t^"t lumber fast enough. It would have suited them if 
 
 '■Sent it among the stars 
 
 »» 
 
 they could have exploded dynamite under it and sent it up 
 2ng the stars somewhere. This yard man looked the 
 to over remarked it was pretty high, "but before I buy 
 wWch Tmust soon, I will wait until So-and-so comes along 
 Tnd see what he says about it," he concluded. So-and-so is 
 a salesman and really that little, and you -'ght call > - 
 triflinc incident impressed me as much as any one thing 
 eve did w h the benefit a salesman may be to his customers 
 and the Txtent to which some retail men rely on the boys 
 who sell them their lumber. 
 
 ■:i 
 
268 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 [Ill 
 
 to Jp/elTofnii: h'"' "" ^'' "'""''^ "-^^ *he list 
 They don-t like to seTa S/"'' '' "'"' '"""" '^ ^^'""S" 
 at the same time have a '! -""^ u' " P"" ^'^"''^'"d and 
 Then there a" deXs who "''•' ""' "^^' ^""-ers. 
 
 this. One of them "cer^; ^ Th"^ T"^ "' ^" 
 men will keep up the li,f r °P* ^""^ wholesale 
 
 these lists and it^s not Ld ^T"'"' '"'' -contractors get 
 hands or, in fact an^I sfs^h^^ "^ '^ P"' '°^ "^'^ '" 'heir 
 price of lumber "uie^Jdnt T'T '"^ ^'^'"^' -"'"? 
 hst, all right. I would ha^e ,7", ''"{.^^°'" $' to $2 off the 
 
 if the carpenters a:d"'ln:::e rVSt'S/^f ft J"- 
 know to a dead certainty what our stnff I '^ '^°" ' 
 would were the list accurate Z *'°"' "'' ^* 'hey 
 
 buy a watch an<l go over to ' '."P"^^ ^^^ ^="t to 
 
 a watch and you h^ng ". ov^^heT "'\ "^ ^""^ ^- 
 At length he throws out a price ist of k''^ "'''^" y°"- 
 points out on it the watrh . J " wholesale jeweler, 
 
 that is the cost o hit 1 L a t "i! "7'"^ ^"^ '^"« y-" 
 added only enough o it t^Li T^''^'^'^' ^"^ 'hat he has 
 The fact i the Slow h ^ had Vb! 'T"'"" ' ^^'^ ''-• 
 and consequently does not hes ate to t'^'T °" *''^* "*' 
 I wish the wholesale lun,ber pri e isTbtf ' "f '° >'°"- 
 >n some such way as that nt "^*' ^°"''' he run 
 
 and others who would be 'ivfnt itT ''k"' "^ P"^*^""^ 
 Pive it away to everylwdv ^ ,,,';' **"' "'"^ ^""'''"'t 
 - r could it a list^J •„„ t7at " '" "^^^ ■' '^^^'^ 
 and say to him that I would sell V ^ ?""''' "' ^^""^f 
 -y of ro percent on tir;2e; "o", ' Th" '•. \" "'^^""' 
 out of whack to the extent of a,,"" 1 1 l^'" ' ""' "" 
 -things up and keep the mattrmtel^^ 1"^ 
 
 in Jnl tXr-^steTe"' •: ^"^b^ ^^"^ ^^^ -> ^Pea-c- 
 you who think along i^ tl,e same /h' ™7 ""' ^ "^^"^ ^^ 
 not it is not going to" ruffle biTeterrmth^H '""^ ^^« 
 ■ng What he would like; still, he sairhTrvertpirlo 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 269 
 
 see it that way. There are fewer men selling watches than 
 lumber and the elevated lumber list might not stay in hiding 
 long. The poacher would have another string to pull. He 
 would make it known how the great lumber "combine" was 
 trying to fool the people and that he was the Moses that 
 would lead them to victory. I can see, however, when at 
 times such a list as described above would have its advan- 
 tages and at other times its disadvantages. 
 
 HOW TO PILE DRAIN PIPE. 
 
 If the storage of this pipe has not caused you worry 
 you are a rare exception. The apparently insignificant 
 things of life, those things which at first thought we might 
 imagine ought not to be considered the second time, not 
 infrequently give us much trouble. The other morning 
 while handling a piece of stove wood ( for I have to make 
 fires, blame it!) a sliver, possibly as large as a fine needle 
 point, was thrust into the ball of my thumb. Trifling thing, 
 you will say, and I know it; but what did I do? You are 
 expecting to hear that, unconcerned, I went right on with 
 my moniing chores, never minding that minute sliver. From 
 what you know of me and from the way I have talked 
 about whipping the Boers and the English army you 
 wouldn't think that I would open my mouth about the little 
 sliver. I will tell you what I did. I dropped my chores 
 as though they were red hot, rushed into the back parlor 
 with my every day clothes on, and called to my best girl 
 to hurry up and pick a sliver from my thumb that was 
 hurting like tarnation! She was enjoying a sweet nap, but 
 years ago she pledged herself to obey me, so out she came, 
 needle in hand, and having raised the sliver, held it on the 
 point of the needle toward the light, remarking, ^'Fiddle- 
 sticks, I can hardly see it !" Then I sneaked out to feed the 
 old black cow. 
 
 This simply illustrates our make-up, and in fact the 
 
 < 
 
il 
 
 270 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 make-up of all things material. The concrete is composed 
 of the mrnute-mmute, but all important. If today we 
 should fall and break an arm the news would go all over 
 town yet gnawing away on us are bacilli, so small they 
 would probably get away from the best microscope any of 
 us owns, and which in time will do us up in such a way 
 icnic^' "'""''""' ^''^ ■' ^^ """''I "" a broken arm a 
 
 Not long ago in conversation with a yard man we can- 
 vassed several knotty questions. He told „,e how grades 
 had deteriorated at wholesale points, how collections were 
 bothenng h.m, how anxious he was to get hold of a eood 
 man to work in the yard, but it was not until we had walked 
 around the yard and halted in one corner of it where pipe 
 was p.led that real trouble seemed to be rubbed into his veJ^ 
 soul. He sard he was disgusted with the pipe trade. When 
 a customer came for it that customer would see particular 
 P.eces wh,ch he wanted in the pile, and when an effort was 
 made to get them, down would roll the stuff, not infrequently 
 breakmg and raising the dickens generally 
 
 I stepped into a yard the other day. and there the pipe 
 prob em was solved. How? Why. bless you. by sim^ 
 
 rtf d , T "" '?'' ^ ^'"^" ^'•- '^^d been leveled 
 off, boards laid to make a smooth surface, and on these 
 boards was standing the pipe. "Where did you get that 
 Idea ?" I asked the yard man. ^ ^ 
 
 "I thought it out," said he. "That pipe used to give me 
 more trouble than all the mothers-in-law I ever hat so I 
 dev.sed th,s way and now it is as easy as sleeping." I was 
 ha fa mmd to ask the man to kindly take a iL and pound 
 
 Tears' n' ' T^l '°' ""' ^'"" ''^'"^ ^ ^hick all these 
 
 KWer. "" ""• ""''''■ "^'"'^ '''°- d«-"? 
 
 It is not safe, this yard man says, to pile eight-inch 
 
 Z r" r" '"' ''"^'^ '"^''- ""* ^^'^^ ■* '^°-- S a foot 
 and up m diameter .t can be piled three lengths. They 
 
 can be p.led m rows, leaving walking space between them 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 271 
 
 then the purchaser can go among them and pick and have 
 the pieces selected set out. There is no falling down, no 
 tumbling around, consequently no breakage and, what is as 
 good, no harrowing of the feelings. It is better for us to 
 harrow our corn patch than our feelings. I hope that plenty 
 of you are already piling your pipe in this way, but of all the 
 yards I have visited this was the first time I had seen 
 it done. 
 
 A SWELL PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 We were talking about the airs some people put on, and 
 the vard man related an incident. 
 
 "A young lady who had just come home from the sem- 
 inary in Nora Springs drove up to my place one morning 
 and asked me if I had any cem-ent. I didn't know what m 
 furv she was trying to get through her, so I hesitated and 
 toki her I thought I had none. 'You must have,' said she. 
 'Cem-ent ! Mother wants it to stop the leak in the cistern.' 
 " 'Oh.' I said, 'ce-ment I Why. of course, how stupid I 
 was I' Then I gave her a half bushel of Portland cement. 
 
 "That night when the principal of the school came along 
 I asked him what cem-ent was, and he said it was the same 
 as ce-ment ; that either pronunciation was correct. I had to 
 take his word for it, but I never heard that swell pronuncia- 
 tion given to it before. It is wonderful how blamed cute and 
 wise young ladies do get at boarding schools !" 
 
 SELLING OUT-OF-DATE STOCK. 
 
 When the yard man remarked there were people who 
 don't know what style is, and who will buy an article as 
 quickly if it is out of fashion as they will if it is in, I glanced 
 down at my shoes, and drew them back under the chair. I 
 associate more or less with the bon ton lumbermen of the 
 country and undoubtedly ought to dress in the hight of 
 
:■ 
 
 l! 
 
 1* 
 
 Hi: 
 
 ; ! 
 
 1i: 
 
 
 2^2 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 fashion, but somehow it isn't in m^ t i ». , 
 
 I am s op,,,,,^, ,, ;- ■" - inter .;::e 
 
 polished world that the clothinc- h-,t Iw,, . . 
 
 sell me ahnost anything tS' is wh^T ', "" •"'" *^'" 
 
 T L«^ 1- ; ^' ^^ *^ ^"y I wear (lamonds for 
 
 I know d,an,o„ds are always in fashion. Son,e wien- 
 faced duke over ,n Paris, with waxed mustache, can't Ttl^ 
 how a diamond shall glitter, thank the Lord 
 
 saw he'vvai'tr;'' """ '"'' "' "'"''''''' ""^'^^ headway I 
 saw he was not dnvmg at me. "Now take that packa Jof 
 
 corner blocks there for door casines so {^TLfu-^ 
 
 concerned they are deaders " he sail ''v! ""'^^'^"^ " 
 a man ■■, tt,„ i i *^''" Wouldn't th nk 
 
 a man m the whole country would buy them. Nobody uses 
 
 ti 
 
 "That is why I wear diamonds." 
 
 fTe'^do' *I r'T "T'^y\yo^ -'ght say; but lots 
 
 $-^roo.td:ho e i^'Z^^^^^^^ "- "'^^ will cost 
 
 house is being built bVlt;ir"J ^^^ ^L^^l.^^j;: 
 
 up nights studying the styles in building ' ''' 
 
 There are those porch posts. I wouldn't put that oat 
 
 tern in a house for myself- still T c^i^ • / . ^ 
 
 Ti, X 1 . '".yscii. still, I sold six of them tnr)^x. 
 
 Then take windows ; this year the stvle is nn^ ' • , ^- 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 273 
 
 dow cuts no figure with him. When it comes to a large win- 
 dow I have noticed that nine in ten people think that the big- 
 ger it is the better it is. Get in a big window with a little red 
 or yellow glass in the transom and they think they are fixed. 
 'To lay in with a good carpenter is a good way to keep 
 out-of-date stuff moving. My faith in the carpenter as a 
 help to the retail dealer grows all the time. I have made 
 money by laying in with them. A carpenter, if he has a 
 mind in that direction, can do the lumberman a good favor 
 at every turn, and if he is not disposed to do that he can do 
 him dirt. I started in as a carpenter myself, and know how 
 it is. When I first opened in the yard business I also dick- 
 ered a little in contracting. One of the carpenters got down 
 on me, and by the jumping Moses if he didn't dirk me! He 
 would tell that my lumber was poorer than my neighbor's, 
 and I know he knocked me out of bills. I don't care what 
 story the worst villain in a community may start there is 
 somebody who will believe it." 
 
 Trying to draw him back to the original proposition of 
 out-of-fashion stock, I asked him what hung longest around 
 .his premises. "Well," said he, "I have some book accounts 
 that have been hanging around here eleven years V* 
 
 DUPLICATE RECEIPTS. 
 
 This is a big world and not one of us can ever expect 
 to see all there is in it. You may say I ought to have run 
 up against these duplicate receipt books a hundred times 
 before now, but all the same I haven't. I had sat around 
 the office for an hour and a half and had begun to think 
 it was my fate to leave the town as dry as a farrow cow, 
 but just when I was about to get a move on me the yard 
 man took an odd looking book from a drawer and gave a 
 customer a receipt. "What is that ?" I asked. 
 
 "A receipt book," replied the yard man as unconcerned 
 as though nothing was happening. Then after the cus- 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 11 ; 
 
 P« 
 

 'i. 
 
 i 
 ■A 
 
 II 
 
 274 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 tomer was gone we sat down to the table and discussed 
 this new fangled receipt book. The pages are twice as long 
 as the receipt blank proper is wide. There are two blanks 
 one at the top of the page and the other at the opposite side 
 at the bottom of the page. When a man using one of these 
 books IS so fortunate as to receive money the carbon paper 
 IS placed over the top blank, the sheet folded up over it 
 which causes the lower blank to register with the one cov- 
 ered by the carbon, the receipt is written, torn off along a 
 perforated hne and given to the customer, and beneath the 
 carbon paper is the duplicate.. It is nothing that is compli- 
 cated an<l ,s quite in line with the other carbon duplicate 
 work, but to me it was new. 
 
 "I never permit a man who has paid me money to eo 
 TwamTo "*"7''''°"' ^-^-P' •" -'J the yard man. "aL 
 it tZ A . T '•''T ^'°"' "'"' ''""' *° *^" 'hat he had 
 book. When a long account is run. a man buying lumber 
 coal wood. hme. and so on. the customer's ideas'^concern-' 
 .ng the payments he has made are liable at times to be very 
 vague_ He may pay for some lumber today, as an after- 
 It t 7u ' !? "' '^° "^ *^°"'- ^"'' ^hen the bill is sent 
 h,m for the coal he remembers paying for the lumber; he 
 knows he ordered the coal at the same time and wonders 
 why m the d.ckens he didn't square the whole thing up He 
 jTiav pay ,t without any words, but let me tell you f'have 
 before now paul accounts which have been presented to me 
 w,th no back talk on my part, and then quit the pla'e 
 There are men who don't spit it out when thev are disS 
 fied. Take a contractor, for instance ; sometimes he is order- 
 ing nght along and paying periodically, as you may say and 
 
 K r "°T ", '".f' "^"^ *''^' ""' ^''°"''' ^^t things mixed I 
 beheve lost $80 once by one of the best contractors who 
 ever dealt w.th me. He said he had paid it. and I was con 
 
 .f he had the rece.pt he would have produced it. for he wa 
 an honest man. But there is no use talking, receipts are 
 
 >■*. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 275 
 
 as easily lost as umbrellas. A man was in here the other 
 day. cleaned out one of his pockets and among the worn 
 out papers were two receipts, and he threw the whole lo 
 of stuff into the stove. Now when I give a man a receipt 
 he may do with it what he has a mind to. I have got a 
 
 record of it. . 
 
 ••This kind of receipt serves another good purpose. 
 Having taken money and receipted for it I need make no 
 further record of that cash until my books are written up 
 at nipht. My receipts represent cash received. It is easy 
 for a^business man to 'slip a cog,' as you sometimes put it. 
 I know men who never pretend to give receipts unless they 
 are asked for them. How easy it is for such a man to re- 
 ceive money, especially in small amounts, put it in the drawer 
 and then be called away before he makes any further minute 
 of it That night his cash overruns, he can't remember 
 where the surplus comes from and somebody's account goes 
 
 wrong. .... :,i, 
 
 "What is the trouble with ordinary receipt books with 
 stubs' I will tell you. You are supposed to record on that 
 stub the amount you have written in the receipt, but do you 
 always? is the question. I can answer that you do not; or 
 rather that I have not. When I used the old fashioned book 
 I remember giving a man a receipt for $500, and that night 
 when I looked at the stub it was $5.50 as plain as day. No 
 doubt my attention was attracted and I went wrong. I did 
 not write the aniount on the stub, simply put it down in 
 figures What if that afternoon I had died and the man 
 had stood out about his account? There was my hand for 
 it that he had paid me only $5-50- ' I had rather write two 
 receipts at the same operation, and then I know they will 
 correspond. And talking about men standing out on their 
 accounts because the man they owed is dead. I know there 
 are those who will do it. I have never had it tried on my- 
 self but I have known of the game being played. As I 
 look at it a man's business should be so conducted as to do 
 
 j 
 
 I i 
 
 II 
 
276 REALM OF THE RETAILER, 
 
 away with these posMbilities to as great an extent as pos- 
 ing I'^^li*^."" T ^" '■"'^'•«"n& talk on receipts, and hav- 
 rLuT;'wete tT "'' '^ '''''' '^inXing what uneven 
 ceiDts h nt h T. ^"■^ '"'" ''"•' ■■' ''°^^" fi"« on re- 
 
 had riven '''tf'T '° '^°'"P'^''" °^ ^^"^i" "^^-dits he 
 nad given. That is the way we go. 
 
 'I' 
 
 ■ I 
 
 ..■' 'I; 
 
 CRAMPED QUARTERS. 
 
 arolKl'tn''' ''vt '° ^°' "'"' ^ '"'• "°' f^^' like tearing 
 vest and sat down ,n a b.g armchair to take it cool • and at 
 the same t.me anybody who passed the office door Lid see 
 
 homeThrdTV""'""/"^ "'' "^f"- ' started frl 
 
 htaself He I * " °r'^ "' '"•^'' ^'""^^ that a man is 
 
 is at oeace " "°/"'"^ '°' '''' ''' °' ^"^^ody. His mind 
 
 s at peace. The tension is off, and he really feels haooier 
 
 than any queen does when she sits on her gilded throne wth 
 
 down I ke lead on the top of her head. I got un this mnm 
 mg w.th the strongest kind of an incIinationLTr ipX" 
 and It appears to be staying bv me ^e poetry, 
 
 eie We t uTf T'"'' °^ '-"Agination unalloyed exist- 
 ence. We talked lumber off and on, but it was too hot t« 
 purs^ a subject with sufficient vigor to ever7as i^^. se t : 
 
 tore rnTt T7 ''' T """^ "^ ^^-' ^°-" 'o^he drug 
 sore and took lemonades through straws. Then as a re 
 
 W igar r rr '" '' ''^ ''°°^- "^^ >-" -an adjusted 
 X-Xf a^pl^y^Zr '^ ' '-' -' '-' °« - '^^ 
 
 "Land is not dear out here " he heoron "t^ •. 
 much as it does in the eastern cities i^ ^S be anotherlT 
 I know of no particular reason why all of us should not Z. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 277 
 
 enough room to turn around on. Building a lumber plant 
 is like building a house. To start with, in the latter case we 
 have a place for all our furniture, and think we are fixed for 
 life so far as room is concerned, but by and by our families 
 increase, we are obliged to buy more beds and chairs, and the 
 first we know we are crowded, and then we want to sell out 
 and build larger. It is similar in a lumber yard. I thought 
 I had room enough here, but there are piles of lumber in my 
 shed alley which have no more business there than they have 
 in my parlor. There seems to be no other place for it, 
 though, and we will continue to stumble over it. We should 
 so plan and build a yard or shed that it will take care of our 
 
 maximum stock." 
 
 I told him I thought that was about right, and then he 
 wiped his brow and said it was so darned hot he beUeved 
 another lemonade would touch the spot. 
 
 PRESERVING THE FRESH LCK)K. 
 
 In the past week I have seen stocks of moldings which 
 were as black as your hat. In many u yard molding is the 
 most abused stock. A dealer will shove his molding, which 
 should be kept dry and aw^ from dust, into a rack in an 
 open shed, when he would not think that he could leave a 
 No. 3 door outside his wareroom over night. 
 
 The loss from this way of handling moldings must con- 
 stantly be met, but the big chunk of retribution will come 
 later on— when, for instance, you are about to sell your yard. 
 Then the prospective buyer will talk those moldings clear 
 down to the foot of the hill. He will say they are so soiled 
 they arc not worth store room, and if you do not throw them 
 in at a quarter of their value you will do what thousands of 
 retail men have not done. And if you were buying a yard 
 I know you would feel that if you bought dusty, weather- 
 beaten moldings at a low price you would not be getting 
 much of a bargain. When we are considering these matters 
 
 ■ b 
 
n 
 
 i \ 
 
 \ , 
 
 
 T 
 
 p ' r 'E 
 
 \ K ' 
 
 r :!| 
 
 278 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 which pertain to ourselves we mttst try to look at them from 
 the pos.f on of the man np the tree, for that is where the man 
 
 moldings''^'" *" '°"''' ^'"""^ '° ''"y °"^ «°"«' 
 
 What if the wholesale dealer should send you moldings 
 besmeared w.th d.rt as those out in your shed mav possibly 
 be th>s very mmute? What kind of a hairpin would you 
 accuse h.m of bemg ? There should he practiced an art pre" 
 servafve m the mercantile business-that of keeping the 
 goods as near a.s possible in the con.lition thev were when 
 they came from the wholesale houses. In dry goods cloth- 
 ing hats, boots and shoes, when this is not done the m^n who 
 IS handhng them is not called a good merchant 
 
 the lTh!!7'''"'V''f '" °"' ^^' ^ -"^^ '" '^° warehouses, 
 he methods m wh.ch were radically different. In one of 
 
 poss ble. Evidently as soon as an invoice of doors had ar- 
 rived the paper had been taken from the doors, and thev 
 
 oT onl Z "°r1 '"'• '"""• '" '""^ °"^^^ P'^*^^ 'here wal 
 only one of a kmd stripped. "I want to keep these doors 
 
 lookmg as fresh as possible," the yard man said. "If I un- 
 wrap al of them they are going to look grimy after a little 
 People hke to buy fresh looking goods. The same buyer 
 does not come mto this room often, and whoever comes mav 
 carry away the impression that I have just receive.l a new 
 stock of goods, for all I care. That impression would mo." 
 certamly be beneficial to me. No, I don", permit the dust to 
 accumulate on those that are still wrapped " 
 
 T'lis man is carrying out a principle that is as sound as 
 a dollar. He is anxious that his doors shall have a fresh an 
 pearance, and thus create the impression in the minds of 
 those who see them that they were recently purchased; and 
 hmkmg they were new, the buyer would as naturally as he 
 breathed infer that the styles were the latest. We are all 
 the time reasoning from this to that, an<l every time the 
 conclusion is either for or against something or somebody 
 
 At another place the yard man threw open some tightly 
 
 < i 
 
 'M 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 279 
 
 fitting doors, and there were his molding strips m an m- 
 closure that would defy dust. "One of the best paying 
 improvements I have on the place," was the comment. 
 
 A yard man recently told me that one advantage of a 
 closed shed is that it is thought by some that the lumber that 
 comes from it is in better condition than though it had been 
 piled open to the weather. What is more easy for a novice 
 in lumber affairs to believe than this? And not infrequently 
 there would be some truth mixed with the poetry. 
 
 "I have sold lumber to some people because they thought 
 they were getting 'fresh' stock, as they termed it. Every 
 board was bright and clean, and it pleased them," he said. 
 
 Some one before any of us was born said something 
 about putting his best foot forward, and there was so much 
 sense in the saying that it will no doubt be going the rounds 
 after our lumber career shall have ended. It is a very good 
 saying to bear in mind, and to follow it is inexpensive in dol- 
 lars and cents often. We frequently get it into our heads, 
 however, that it is the cosily that most benefits, while m fact 
 the reverse is true. The absolute necessities of hfe cost 
 little. 
 
 THE SQUARE MAN. 
 I have observed that when a man has been running a 
 yard for years in a town and has prospered, more than 
 ninety-nine times in a hundred he is a man of excellent 
 character. I was in a town in which there are two yards. 
 One of them is run by a dealer who has sold lumber on that 
 ground for many a year. He has got rich-rich enough to 
 satisfy anybody who isn't crazy. And right along he has 
 been doing the lion's share of the trade of the town. We 
 chatted for a long time and it struck me there was good 
 deal of man about him. You know that the fly up the 
 creek fellow is branded in some way. If I believed in a 
 devil I should be inclined to think he might have stamped 
 these fellows so he could pick them out easily when he 
 
 i 
 
^1 i 
 
 I. 
 
 |) 
 
 I:!- 
 '1^ 
 
 280 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 wants hem. Then I went over to the other yard and the 
 dealer there sa.d a word or two about his competitor "He 
 
 I thought I knew it. for on general principles he wou d 
 
 the tide o7tH '"^ '""^ ^" '""^ ^-- -^ holding 
 the trade of the town unless he had been square. And 
 
 P^d:;rwha °"',r"j'"" 'r"" •"^" ^- ^"^'^^est fom 
 pernors that walk the earth. Why, it is child's play to 
 
 compete w.th the trickster to what it is to hold our own when 
 selling lumber alongside of a man who is "square as a die " 
 unless we are also square. ' 
 
 111 
 
 "As square as a die.'* 
 
 I have seen your tricksters and schemers open their 
 yards, deceive people right and left, but they didn't las" 
 They made a good deal of rumpus while they were at i[ 
 
 awav Tu "'' '"^""!' '^'' ^"^^^^ '^'^' ^^"^^ ^"^ ^tole 
 stick Th '' TV ""'^^ '"^ consequently they don't 
 
 Iht J Tu '" " '^"" '^'^ ^"^"^^^ '^''' ^"- It looks 
 through and through us, and when we don't know it too 
 
 A young dealer was telling me how he was selling No 2 
 
 dimension for No. i and in other ways pulling the wool 
 
 over the eyes of his customers. I really felt like getting 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 281 
 
 him out behind the shed and preaching a little sermon to 
 him. He is standing in quicksand and has already sunk up 
 to his ankles. He will try to fool his customers more and 
 more right along and by and by they will know him as well 
 as he knows himself. That is the way it goes. A man who 
 means to be good grows better and the deliberately bad 
 man grows worse. Goodness begets goodness and decep- 
 tions begets deception. Nothing is truer than that we reap 
 what we sow. 
 
 FALLACY OF SAYING ''NO." 
 
 "Have you so-and-so?" I heard asked of a yard man, 
 and the reply was, *'No, I haven't." 
 
 I was sitting by the stove with one leg carelessly thrown 
 over the arm of the chair, in my usual quiet, informal 
 manner, and while I made no outward sign I did feel as 
 though I would like to clear the deck for action and reel 
 off a little speech to the lumberman, for as I look at it those 
 are among the last words which as a seller of boards he 
 should permit to escape from his lips. 
 
 Very likely the man who asked for that particular item 
 of lumber didn't know his business. He knew there was 
 such a grade as he called for, but he was a wise man indeed 
 if he knew that nothing else would take its place, for that is 
 something which even some of the best carpenters and con- 
 tractors have not yet learned. 
 
 When the question was asked the yard man I certainly 
 expected to hear him call back, "Hello, Jim! Come in. 
 What are you making now ?" If he had taken such a course 
 he would have found out in three minutes what the lumber 
 was needed for, and no doubt would have sold it. 
 
 Oh, these bothersome grades! If I were running a yard, 
 so far as the average customer is concerned I would fire 
 them higher than the kite in the fable soared. I would sell 
 boards for every purpose, but not grades for any purpose. 
 
 m 
 
 * f 
 
 1 ; 
 
 I 1 
 
 li 
 
!h' 
 
 ; ! 
 
 r ; 
 
 
 
 !l 
 
 II' 
 
 282 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 A yard man told me that when selling a bill at least 60 
 percent of h.s customers appealed to him as to the way in 
 some particular it should be filled. 
 
 A Missouri man writes that when he first read that I 
 
 considered ,t poor business policy to talk about grades to 
 
 he average customer he didn't know what kind of a fellow 
 
 hi t' ""l u "' """^ '^^" ^''"'^^'^'' to «ell gra<les as he 
 had bought them, and of course thought it was the proper 
 
 thmg to do "I got to thinking it over." he writes,' 'S 
 hen I adopted .t. and now I would not think of going back 
 to the old system. I now lose no sales because I do not 
 have some particular 'grade.' The wonder is to me that 
 I didn't see it before." 
 
 I like to sit down in a comfortable corner and have a 
 yard man who. with his eyes open, has experienced the ups 
 and downs of trade stufT me with wisdom. He needn't go 
 slow ei her, for I wouldn't object if I should swell up as bi 
 as a balloon. I was having a little tete-a-tete, as the Dutch 
 man would say. with a bright fellow who had sold lumber 
 in more than one state, and he touched on this subject we 
 are talking about. "Many yard men have not the tact to 
 ell lumber," he remarked. "If a customer comes to a^ 
 Item not in stock, and the yard man says. 'No.' it throws a 
 wet blanket over the deal. The best way is to lead the's! 
 tomer up to a substitute by saying that somebody else has 
 
 boundT H "' " '" ''^^ •" ^ •'"■• ^•"^ "ft- «'-" he is 
 bound to have it. 
 
 This remark dovetails with a bit of experience related by 
 a yard man "I ran low on cedars," said he. "the only 
 
 Sorm A ''' '""^ '''.' ""P"= >°" -^ 'here on the 
 platform. A farmer came m who was in a rush for a barn 
 
 and when it came to the roof he talked cedars. We walked 
 out there where the bunches of cedars and pines were lying 
 side by side, and I dropped in a good word for the pine I 
 told him that to be honest the cedars had not in this country 
 been used as long as pine, and that nobodv could tell which 
 would be the more durable, which is a fact ; that his neigh- 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 283 
 
 bor old Joe Brown, who was regarded as a man of good 
 judgment, has used pine on Ins house, and in less than five 
 
 minutes I sold him the pine." 
 
 Now I hope you see the hole in the skimmer. What it 
 this man had said, "No, I haven't the cedars, but I have a 
 good pine shingle that will answer the purpose? The 
 farmer would not have swallowed it. He had his head set 
 on cedars, and he would have thought the lumber dealer 
 was trying to palm off pine on him because he didn t have 
 the other kind. The wet blanket would have been thrown 
 right over the farmer's shoulders, and the chances are he 
 would have gone where he could get cedars, and bought 
 the balance of his bill there as well. 
 
 THE MAN" WHO KNOWS IT ALL. 
 
 An egotistical yard man once said to me that he had no 
 occasion to read the lumber papers, as he knew all about 
 running a retail lumber yard. I did not tell him he lied, for 
 he was on his own fighting ground and was a half head 
 taller and weighed fifty pounds more than I did, but I kept 
 up a hard thinking in that direction. You know about once 
 in ten years we meet a man with the brains of a jackass, 
 who delights in making people with whom he comes in con- 
 tact feel small. 
 
 When I was younger than I am now I used to think 
 there were yard men who had mastered their business. 
 Surely, I thought, any occupation so simple as retailing 
 lumber must be known all about by hundreds of men. I 
 have gotten over that idea, however. Probably no man 
 visits more retail yards than I do, and nearly every week I 
 see some little kink, some novel method, that is of advan- 
 tage to the man who employs it and which no doubt would 
 be of advantage to others. Generally these peculiarities 
 are originated by the men who use them. Should I be on 
 the lumber turf a hundred years I should expect to find 
 
 iM 
 
 P 
 
r 
 
 t . 
 
 284 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 these new and peculiar methods right aion^ Th.r.f -t 
 even one of the Pnnri r.1,1 • . ^" ^ "erefore, if 
 
 tell me he knew J ll ^ " '"'"' °" "^''^ ^"^ should 
 
 ine ne Knew all about runn ng a lumher varH I .1, u 
 
 know he was talking through his hat ^ ' ""'"^ 
 
 It has been my observation that some vard m^n u a 
 
 not pretend to know it all stand flush ^ih^anyTusLt^ 
 
 last wmter one afternoon I was in a mode t W Ws yt^ 
 
 expcctmg to go from there into Minnesota tharevenf^g 
 
 "I did not tell him he hed" 
 I had looked the yard over and found it a slick nlant V 
 thmg was in apple-pie order nn,i c ■ '^ *" ^^^''y- 
 had been madeTn my scr bb i'n'" t T '"^^^^"°"^ -'"ch 
 
 he talked with s^n uch t """"'"^ °"'- ^hen 
 
 vviui SO much sense about rnll*»rt;r.«o i- 
 
 thatTr.s;str;Ur°:ur''"idT 'ii'-' -^^ -'-'^ 
 
 n^etogototh^eoperatarittr--^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 lil 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 285 
 
 other entertainment that, would refresh my weary bram, 
 so I consented. After supper we went into his office, locked 
 the door, piled on the fuel, and then this lumberman at- 
 tached the suction pump to me. He doubtless asked a thou- 
 sand questions. He wanted to know what others were do- 
 ing, what I had learned about the shed question, cash busi 
 ness, bookkeeping, delivering and a hundred other allied 
 subjects. The hands of the clock marked eight, nme, ten, 
 and had nearly approached eleven before the little confer- 
 
 "Have moss on his back." 
 
 ence ended. And then this modest yard man wanted to pay 
 me for the extra time I had put in ! 
 
 "Bless your soul," said I, "what am I for?" He probably 
 didn't think that all the time he was absorbing from me I 
 was taking from him. For the ideas I had gathered that 
 evening I would have willingly sat up all night. 
 
 This case is cited to illustrate the fact that the best men 
 in the retail business are those who are conscious they do 
 not know it all, and are anxious to know more. They read 
 
 Mtl 
 
 11 
 
I 
 
 ' 
 
 286 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the matter pertaining to the yard business in the lumber 
 papers, and take unto themselves that which they think 
 may be of benefit. And let me say to you. beloved, that 
 the man m any business who pursues any other course will 
 hnally have moss on his back. 
 
 the lumber busmess. And my love for the right kind of 
 y^ung men has no botmds. Ye gods ! but what a vista opens 
 "P before them. Concerning we older fellows, who are Tos- 
 Z hl'V'l f"'' r'""^ '^°''''' '° '^ke the curves out of 
 ,s to 1 ', "" ' '"""'' '° "'"'^'^- The most we can do 
 
 Ire^/t "^' ""'^r"'"^ "'"' '" '^' P^^* '"' have not done 
 more that was worthy of our high estate. As I look back I 
 
 see the nchest of flowers along the path I have trod-flow 
 
 er. of kmdness, love, charity, success, that I could have put 
 
 me a„7tb 1 T' -P'"''^"' ''"' '""''^ "'^>' ^'^^ "^S 
 me. and though I water them with tears, I know they wiH 
 
 bloom no more for me forever. I wish I could go out in 
 
 the grove here today and preach a sermon to every young 
 
 man who reads this. I would tell him that he mav Lt only 
 
 become a st,ccessful lumberman, but that in addition he may 
 
 grow to be an mtellectual. moral and physical god 
 
 One of these sensible young men was seen not long ago 
 He has charge of a line yard in a small town, subscrilfes 
 for wo papers and is alive to the opportunities which will 
 surely come h,s way. "I expect some ,lay to have a vard o 
 my own. and m order to meet the competition that I 'know I 
 shall have to meet I want to know my business," he said 
 
 Years hence we may look for that young man clear ud 
 stream where it has its source among the springs. ^ 
 
 1 iv> ■ 
 
 ■ V 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 BLIND YARDS. 
 
 287 
 
 ^Ml 
 
 A blind yard often serves a good purpose. When a yard 
 man is anxious to monopolize all the trade of a town that is 
 possible one wav is to put in a blind yard. At first blush 
 the novice might ask, ^Why blind? Why not assume that 
 it has eyes like other yards?" Perhaps this is a fair answer 
 to that question : The buying community wants competition. 
 It seems to be as natural for us to dislike trusts as it is to 
 hope or love, and if a man is known to be running two yards 
 in one town, thus preventing competition, the people of the 
 town regard him as a monopolist— as having established a 
 little trust of his own. To overcome this objection— or rather 
 that there may be no cause for such an objection to exist— 
 the blind yard is put in. The men who are running the pair 
 of yards congregate in some back room at midnight, or of a 
 Sunday when everybody else is at church, and compare notes. 
 Sometimes these men appear very distant when, in sight of 
 other people, they meet on the street ; they will talk about 
 one another, at times in not complimentary terms, m the 
 hearing of others ; then again there are periods when seem- 
 ingly they have a fight, in a trade way, on their hands. All 
 this is to eflfectually fool the public. 
 
 Effectually ! That is the phase of the blind yard business 
 that I want briefly to touch on. We may think that the pub- 
 lic is stupid, easily deceived, but in this regard we are liable 
 to deceive ourselves. The public is a sly old fox ; not the 
 whole of the public, but just enough of it to leaven the rest. 
 There are some men who jump at conclusions just as women 
 do, and they jump pretty straight, too. It must be remem- 
 bered, however, that before they jump they generally have a 
 cue, some slight excuse for reasoning from cause to effect. 
 You and I do not care how many blind yards are run, 
 but for the reputation of our brot"her lumberman for shrewd- 
 ness when these yards are blind we want them blind. As 
 blind as a bat— and that is not what all of them are. 
 
 A yard to be run successfully as a blind must be abso- 
 
 ^ 
 
 }ihf\ 
 
Ilf 
 
 ill 
 
 !i 
 
 288 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 Imely .ndependent. In a town two yards which are really 
 
 their stock in the same shipment. One yard may want sav 
 10,000 feet of a certain grade of Utmber" and to make ud a 
 car enough is added of some other grade in whL the o"her 
 
 mouth shut, but m common with the rest of us he does not 
 a ways do it No doubt it looked a little odd to him": "e 
 he lumber for these two yards come in one car and the 
 freight on the whole paid by one of the yard men. If two 
 men were runnmg yards entirely separate this could be re- 
 peatedly done and cause no comment, but in the lumber busi- 
 
 // 
 
 -/C 
 
 Ni 
 
 »i^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 J .1 1 1 
 
 \ % 
 
 
 1 • . 
 
 •,li' ■ 
 
 ' //ilf^lJi:' 
 
 1 
 
 !'■ 
 
 if;^^ 
 
 m' 
 
 "A sly old fox, 
 
 »» 
 
 ness, as well as out of it there i*c fi^^f • <. -A 
 that tells the story. You canTo ; LT:;!;' ^ T n"'"" 
 convict in a court of law, yet it convTnces In "°' 
 
 when this freight agent thought he had me n ews^oTe^h: 
 
 :::res,^ir=ry.'^r^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 the reason; that intimate, as' he tas^^^dt ^ W.om "" 
 else, and today the whole community thinS ani rLh^I f 
 course, that both yards are run bvone int;rest tjf'th. 
 
 we Should bear in mind: Nortterirrt^:;CS: 
 
 It 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 289 
 
 man, we rarelv tell him unless we are mad, drunk or other- 
 wise are in an abnormal condition. If we think a man would 
 steal a horse we do not step up to his face and tell him so. 
 We may be very mean and people will hold their tongues 
 wlien we are within hearing ; or we may be very good and 
 they are not going to come around every morning and tell 
 us of it. Some fine day when another yard is put in that 
 town the inhabitants will metaphorically throw up their hats 
 
 and hurrah ! 
 
 A line yard concern let the cat out of the bag when its 
 auditor was seen inspecting the books of the supposed com- 
 peting yard. In a town I visited inquiry was made of the 
 hotel man as to the location of the yards, and in giving me 
 that information he volunteered the statement that two of 
 those yards, naming them, were run by one man. Mum 
 was the policy of the yard men, but the hotel man had got 
 
 "onto" them. 
 
 In one town a yard man— as yard men frequently do- 
 told me that one of the other yards was his. In my rounds 
 I visited the other yard, and said nothing to the manager 
 concerning the statement the owner of it had made to me. 
 We talked about trade, competition etcetera, and this man- 
 ager related what he regarded as very mean tricks which had 
 been played on him by his competitor. He was a good actor. 
 Afterward I said to the principal that in that man he had a 
 good blind yard manager, and he replied with some show of 
 satisfaction that he knew it. 
 
 The way to run a blind yard is to run it blind. It is 
 different from a blind pig. In non-license towns there are 
 blind pigs, but if nobody knew of their existence they would 
 not live out the week. It is not every man who in spirit and 
 letter can run a blind yard. He does precisely as all of us 
 do in some direction or other— gives himself away. 
 
 H 
 
 S^. 
 
'■f : 
 
 li 
 
 . ! ■ 
 
 I 
 
 hi 
 
 290 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 OBJECTIONS TO SMALL STOCKS. 
 
 A business man who is building a barn out of town re- 
 cently came to me with a tale of woe that evidently welled 
 up from the very bottom of his heart. He was disgusted 
 through and through. The bam is not large and three 
 weeks before the builder wanted to go to work on it he 
 inquired of the retail dealer in a town three miles distant 
 If he had the necessary lumber, and was told that he 
 had not but would get it. At the end of the three weeks 
 teams were sent for the lumber but it could not be had' 
 Agam the teams went, and the employee in the yard sent 
 out lengths of boards which had to be returned The car- 
 penters who had been engaged to do the work were disap- 
 pomted and were obliged to knock off. -This fooling had 
 cost me $10," said the man. "The local manager of the 
 yard seems to be more interested in breaking horses than 
 sellmg lumber, and the man he leaves in the yard does 
 not know a fourteen from a sixteen-foot board." 
 
 Being acquainted with the yard, I was interested in this 
 recital. The yard is located in one of the best one-yard 
 towns to be found anywhere ; in fact the location is so favor- 
 able that to my knowledge there has been talk of putting in 
 the second yard. 
 
 ^ This business policy is not a winner. There are men 
 in the trade who try to skin along on the smallest possible 
 investment, keep not half of a decent stock on hand and 
 depend on ordering even the smallest bills. Maybe it pavs 
 them-I don't believe it does. You can't put your finger 
 on a man who has climbed to the top of the trade ladder who 
 has not kept a stock of lumber on hand to meet all ordinary 
 demands. A tuppenny stock means a tuppenny trade. This 
 man in question may do more building, and he swore up hill 
 and down that when that time shall arrive he will haul his 
 lumber from a point nine miles distant. Then the home 
 man will jump to the conclusion that he did not get the bill 
 because the fellows in the other town underbid him. There 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 291 
 
 are yard dealers who lose sight of the fact that there are 
 times when men consult their convenience as well as the 
 
 price they pay. 
 
 This way of conducting a lumber yard is an excellent 
 one to court competition. There is here and there a man 
 in a one-yard town who seems to think that as he has the 
 only yard he will sell the lumber anyway, and therefore can 
 take his own gait. In several instances I have known these 
 men to wake up some fine morning conscious of the un- 
 welcome fact that some other dealer is *'onto" this gait, and 
 will attempt to improve on it. 
 
 HI 
 
 LEGAL KINKS. 
 
 When chatting with a yard man the other day a point 
 came up that may be of interest to you. This yard man 
 gave an order and the car was stuffed with three or four 
 thousand feet more of that particular lumber than he wanted. 
 A contractor was in a hurry for some of the material and 
 as soon as the car arrived the lumber required by him was 
 shoved out and hauled away. Then the yard man began 
 to reflect on the stuffing act. Was he obliged to accept and 
 pay for lumber which he had never ordered? He did not 
 want to be rash and put his foot in it, so he sought the ad- 
 vice of a lawyer. There are lawyers and lawyers, many of 
 them incompetent, but this particular lawyer does not rank 
 with the sticks. He told the yard man that the cheapest 
 way out of it was to pay the bill ; that he should have known 
 by the invoice whether he wanted to accept the lumber or 
 not, and that if he did not want it he should have left the 
 car intact subject to the order of the shipper. Having 
 accepted the invoice without protest he virtually accepted 
 the lumber that followed. A recent supreme court decision, 
 the lawyer said, bears directly on this point. 
 
 Kink No. 2 pertains to loss in blind yards by fire. There 
 are blind yards scattered all over the country, and it may 
 
 ! 
 
 
 1 
 
'11 
 
 292 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 transpire that when these yards burn, should such be their 
 unfortunate fate, the owners of the lumber will be unable 
 to collect a cent on the insurance policy. At any rate, a 
 blind yard did burn and the insurance company refused to 
 pay, on the ground that the owner did not insure the lumber 
 and the case is now being contested in court. It would 
 seem from the standpoint taken by this insurance company 
 you have no right to insure my property, nor I yours; 
 that If I msure property claiming it is mine when really 
 It belongs to some one else I am entitled to no recompense 
 in case of loss. 
 
 This may prove to be law or it may prove not to be; as 
 said above, the court will decide. If decided to be law it 
 will have a far reaching effect. Life insurance policies r.re 
 often kept m force by outside parties, and on the face of it 
 this phase of msurance would be equally affected It has 
 come to my knowledge, however, that there are blind yard 
 men who are more careful regarding the wav they are in- 
 sured than they once were, and also that there are insurance 
 agents whose interests are of course the interests of the 
 insured, who are going slow in some of those matters which 
 heretofore have been little considered. I was told by an 
 incorporated lumber company that an agent to whom it 
 recently applied for a policy refused to write it in the name 
 of the company, asserting it was not the thing to do but 
 instead it was written in the names of all the members of 
 the company. 
 
 I broached this point to a lawyer. lightly touching him 
 so he would not expect a fee, and it was his version that any 
 man who is authorized to act as agent for others may legally 
 insure the property in his keeping in his own name unless 
 It be definitely stated to the contrary in the policy, and in 
 some policies it is so stated. Of course were one of these 
 cases to be thoroughly discussed by lawyers a score of 
 wherefores and whereases would come to the surface. They 
 would pop up until any saint, who was not a lawyer would 
 not know whether he was on foot or riding a horse 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 293 
 
 LIGHT RIGS FOR LIGHT WORK. 
 
 The question of free delivery is one on which dealers do 
 not agree. One of the successful yard men of Kansas said 
 to me\e would not want to dispense with free delivery ; that 
 in his opinion the expense was more than offset by the con- 
 venience. I couid no doubt name off-hand a half hundred 
 yard men who agree with this dealer— men who deliver 
 lumber not because they are forced to do so, but as a matter 
 of choice. The other side of the question has its warm ad- 
 vocates. A man who has the management of well toward 
 a hundred yards regards free delivery as opposed to sound 
 business principle; and others could be named who take 
 this view of it. Those dealers who vote nay on the ques- 
 tion say that delivery, where only one team is used, involves 
 an extra expense of from $6co to $1,000 a year, and that 
 as much lumber can be sold if it is not delivered, while the 
 advocates of free delivery assert that it belongs to the up-to- 
 date methods of conducting any mercantile business. ^ As is 
 usual in other matters wherein we differ, we do not in this 
 one have that charity toward one another which shines as an 
 electric light. I have heard the delivery men refer to their 
 co-laborers who do not deliver as belonging to the fogy 
 class, and the latter to the dealers who deliver as throwing 
 
 money away. 
 
 We should be thankful there is no imperial edict m 
 the matter. When visiting a lumberman, if he is a good 
 fellow and has his pockets full of good cigars, I never think 
 of pounding my head over the fact that he does, or does not, 
 deliver. We return scanty thanks for living in a country 
 where we can do about as we have a mind to, provided we 
 do not interfere too much with the rights of others. 
 
 There is one phase of the delivery business, however, 
 that is opposed to common sense. Not long ago I saw a 
 yard man loading a half dozen boards, 16 feet long and 6 
 inches wide, on a wagon that would carry two tons of coal 
 with safety, behind a big lubber of a horse that could not 
 
 ij 
 
294 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 trot a mile in six minutes to save him from purgatory 
 There is no sign of the eternal fitness of things in that kind of 
 business. I suggested to the driver that he might have to 
 carry those boards a long distance, and he said they were eo- 
 ing a mile. He probably estimated the distance about rijit 
 for he counted up the blocks. Not having much else to do I 
 looked at my watch when he left the shed, again when he 
 returned, and the time was thirty-five minutes. With a 
 hght rig the man ought to have been gone no more than 
 twelve minutes at the longest. I have in mind a yard man 
 who, with his fire-gong, lightning delivery, would have laid 
 those boards down at their destination in four minutes, and 
 easily returned in five more. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 295 
 
 "Has his pocket full of good cigars." 
 
 Now suppose that four such trips are made from this 
 yard every day there goes an hour and a half dS^ nine 
 hours weekly, forty-five hours monthly, and for the y ^ 
 fif^y-four days of ten hours each. Then, into the bar^in 
 the townsmen of this yard man must think every timeS 
 
 lath, that the lumberman is doing his business- in a bungling 
 
 Yet how many of the yard men who deliver do you think 
 
 have light rigs ? I do not want to be too hard on them, so 
 I am going to say not 5 percent. The remaining 95 percent 
 go rattling through the streets with big wagons and heavy 
 horses, no matter if they are not carrying fifty pounds. We 
 live in hope, however, for light delivery rigs in the lumber 
 business are so new they are really an innovation. It is a 
 wonder they were not thought of a score of years ago ; but 
 the seed has now been sown, and from the few light wagons 
 will spring light wagons galore. That is a miserable word, 
 but it adds variety and picturesqueness to my vocabulary. 
 
 HANDY FOR THE DELIVERY MAN. 
 
 You no doubt believe in having lumber receipted for 
 when it is delivered. I have seen but one yard man who 
 did not think it was the proper thing and, strange to say, 
 he is one of the most successful retail men in the whole 
 
 country. 
 
 I was hanging around a yard one rainy afternoon, and 
 when the driver came in from a trip he fumbled in his 
 pockets with his wet and dirty fingers and brought out a 
 piece of paper that was folded about three times and which 
 for moisture and dirt about tallied with the driver's hands. 
 This was more than two years ago, but it was recalled to 
 mind last week when I saw a little appliance which over- 
 comes the objections named and which it seems to me is well 
 worth the money. It is an aluminum binder made on pur- 
 pose for drivers to carry. It will accommodate a blank 4x7 
 inches and by means of a spring in the back tightly holds 
 any papers which may be placed in it. When a bill is sent 
 to a job the items are written on a blank, the file, or binder, 
 inclosing it is given to the driver, who presents it to the 
 proper person and who attaches his name to the memoran- 
 dum. There is no removing the blank from the file ; the 
 man who signs for the material has a smooth surface on 
 which to write ; the driver snaps the cover together, return- 
 
if 
 
 t", 
 
 296 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ing it to the office, the bill without dirt or crease and in as 
 good order as .t was when taken away. Then if your drivel 
 happens to be an old 16 to . man he will carry the tlZl 
 nurnjle around tickled *s a child because it'shines"! 
 
 This apparatus is not exactly new, but no doubt it is new 
 to many of you. Thus far I have seen it in use in onlj on! 
 
 THE SET JAW. 
 
 In southern Iowa the woman in black aske<l how much 
 her bill was, and expressed surprise at the amoum Th. 
 yard man told her that the extra'do.lar in quesTionL f 
 fittmg five wmdows, including the cartage, and took he 
 money ,n as cold blood as though he had bfe^ a frog As a 
 looker on I could see the customer was not satisfied yet th! 
 
 be'tteTd'' wr"^'^7^ ^ '''-^^' custome'r^shliw 
 De treated. When, m trade, we are aware that a thin^ is 
 
 gomg wrong the proper way is to correct it if possfbli 
 Seemmgy there was no give to this lumberman. HeTet his 
 jaw sa>d the bill was so much, and that ended it 
 
 creals'thT-'""' '"''"^r'' '' "°* ^ P^>'"g institution. It 
 creates the .mpress.on that there is only one side to the deal 
 
 It too nu,ch reminds one of a policeman who only Lows 
 that the law must be enforced, raises his club anS Ss 
 
 fo7 Tk".'"- ^ ""'^ P'^=^«"' ^^"^ -th this womln 
 fdlowed by the assurance that the bill could not be to 
 
 mshed for less would have changed the atmosphere In the 
 
 pnng and fall, when the weather is chillv and our offices Ire 
 
 chtl'fll wl ' 'r''"' °' "'"^^ ■"'° '"^ stove, an he 
 ch II flees. When the social or business atmosphere is chilly 
 
 a few warm words will dispel it. For this Jurpo e warn," 
 
 tfte successful salesman, ,s he who can say the right word at 
 the r^ht place. It is not the man who talks all th7time 
 or who says nothing. When we keep a dogged silence; we 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 297 
 
 repulse. I knew from this woman's looks that she went 
 away dissatisfied. 
 
 "Some women are good customers," I said to the yard 
 man after the woman was out of Clearing. 
 
 "Yes/' said he, ''that woman has bought a good deal of 
 stuff of me this season. Her husband died last fall, and she 
 has been giving the house a general overhauling." Yet 
 today, if I know one kind of ginger from another, that 
 woman would not hesitate to go to another yard for the 
 
 next bill she may want. 
 
 Don't you know that our customers in town ought to be 
 
 "The woman in black." 
 
 our friends? It seems to me that tells the kind of man the 
 tradesman is. If, as fas'v as you can sell a house or bam 
 bill, you leave in the mouth of the buyer a bad taste, you 
 are doomed in a business way in spite of your religion, poli- 
 tics or good looks. 
 
 **Women are the easiest customers in the world," said a 
 Nebraska man. "But you can't handle them in as matter- 
 of-fact a way as you can men. When I have a good woman 
 customer I aim to do something gratuitously for her. I re- 
 member a case. A woman built a house that cost some- 
 thing over two thousand, and I furnished everything. I 
 
 M 
 
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%1 . 
 
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 298 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 also got my price. Much is said about the woman and the 
 bargain counter but when it comes to buying lumber she 
 IS a hst payer. She was keeping a close watch on the build- 
 ing of the house, and when the carpenter went to hanj^in^ 
 the front door she discovered it was not the one she had 
 selected Down she came and told me I had made a mis- 
 take. Then I mformed her I had taken the liberty to change 
 the doors ; that on thinking it over I had concluded the door 
 she had selected was not as good as the house called for 
 and that if she would permit me to do it I was going to con- 
 tribute to the good looks of the house the difference in the 
 price of doors, which was about $2.50, I believe. Then I 
 got the two cuts together so that she could see the difference 
 There was really no comparison between them. The door 
 I sent up was a stunner~of the two, too good for the house 
 but not too good for my purpose. She went away all smiles,' 
 and I knew if she had built twenty houses I would have sold 
 her the lumber." 
 
 That man is a diplomat. He may possibly have had in 
 mind the time of settlement when he would want the woman 
 to feel as happy as a lark. 
 
 No, the set jaw doesn't pay. 
 
 WOES OF THE COAL MAN. 
 
 You know, beloved, we are not acquainted with one an- 
 other. Each thinks that the other fellow's business is a 
 httle slicker deal than his own, which arises from know- 
 ing our own business instead of the other man's Last 
 week, when our day's labor was done and we were sittin^r 
 under a tree in front of the hotel making our arms fly 
 like wind mills in a vain attempt to keep the mosquitoes 
 from sticking our rich blood, a hat salesman from Kansas 
 City mformed me what a snap I have. "Go where you 
 have a mind to-stop at the best hotels-nothing to sell- 
 simply interview the few lumber dealers in a town and write 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 299 
 
 up a little piece about them"-was the way he virtually 
 put it I did not tell him that I had served twenty years 
 apprenticeship learning the little I know about the lumber 
 industry, and that the little pieces are supposed to be writ- 
 ten with a discretion which has come from experience ; I 
 didn't tell him what an iron will it required to resist being 
 filled so full of bull ideas when I sit down to chat with my 
 wholesale friends that I would be no good to myself, a 
 paper or to my country, forever and forever, hereafter, as 
 the colored preacher emphasized it ; or that while he was 
 sweetly sleeping at dead of night I was often scrambhng 
 out of bed to dot down a big thought which like an angel 
 had kindly visited me and which I was afraid, did I not 
 chain it to earth, would flee before morning. I know noth- 
 ing about the hat business, but I did feel that I could take 
 his cases and sell a hat to every man, woman and child on 
 the street easier than I could concoct one idea, from what 
 the three yard men seen that afternoon had said to me, 
 that would be of the slightest interest if put in print. You 
 see, we don't know one another ; if we did, we would carry 
 around a load of mantles of charity and throw one of them 
 around the shoulders of every brother who is stumbling 
 
 or fainting by the way. . ^, . 
 
 It would be one of the easiest things imaginable for a 
 novice to believe that the coal trade is a bonanza. That 
 novice would think that a boy ten years old could conduct 
 it It is sold as it is bought ; there is no regrading and 
 it requires no particular study to learn the characteristics 
 of the different kinds. Occasionally one kind is sold for 
 another, but that is all in a lifetime and we will not talk 
 about it. But I tell you, the woes which arise from selling 
 coal are as black as its dust. Recently in two days I was 
 in three towns. The first town has 2,800 people, five coal 
 yards and coal was selling at cost and being delivered into 
 the bargain. In town No. 2, of about the same size, there 
 are seven yards, and coal is selling at cost. Town No. 3 
 has 8,000 people, eleven coal yards, with a prospect of an- 
 
 ill 
 
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)lfi 
 
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 300 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 other, and coal is selling at cost. This all happened in two 
 days, and there are hundreds of towns in whS.he conr 
 non .s s,nnlar. When these old business heads are running 
 money .nto rat holes in this way. how would a te„-year"oM 
 toy make ,t go? I am not sure but that often he would 
 Jow be ter sense than do some of those who have grown 
 gray in the service.. * 
 
 A yard man of a dozen years' experience, when reduc- 
 .ng the contents of his pipe to ash, ran on a follows "I 
 
 coal dealers this year. We used to make money on coal 
 
 and rrhrd'."'"'" ""'^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ -t. 'delivered 
 and as I had my own men and teams. I was not so very 
 
 Eht fIJ^; , P"" " '^S-SO in Chicago, and $2.50 
 freight. Every dealer in town is as busy as he can be filling 
 up h.s customers, and in less than a month the great bu"k 
 
 the coal used in the city for the next year wilf e L the 
 bins. Put ,„ at cost I" And the yard man gave a con 
 tempnjous look that meant at least a whole sentence 
 
 Ihen for awhile the coal business will let uo " he rnn 
 t.nued. "Our money will be scattered throu^Uu; the com-" 
 
 for t'he'fr ' TJrf ""' ^^ ^^' °" "• - ^ 'hank 7u 
 for the favor which has been shown when it is paid. There 
 
 s here and there a bill that will never be paid.' Last week 
 
 1 refused a man six tons who never pays anything i7he 
 
 I saw my competitor shoveling in the coal. Now this is 
 all wrong; we should hang together and let o^e ano^he 
 know abo„t these customers, but instead we go a itevery 
 man for himself, and as a result the devil catches the mo2 
 of us by the coat tails. Six times eight is forty'lht- 
 almost $50. you see. It is not a greaf sum in t'sdf' but 
 there is no profit to counteract it. The dealer is a little new 
 
 the/",, : '°;' '"°" °"'' '"°P''^- Next winter w coTI 
 the driblet trade. Maybe at that time we will have gaTnTd 
 our senses, and maybe we won't, but if we do gersen^t 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 301 
 
 will be after the main chance has gone by. The water that 
 would have turned the mill will be way down stream. We 
 may get a little profit then, but we will be carting around 
 from 200 to 500 pounds of coal, taking some of it a dis- 
 tance of two miles. Then again it is on these small orders 
 we lose most, as eight times in ten they go to people that 
 you can't collect a cent from. That is the way the coal 
 business begins and ends here. Competition gets hotter 
 and hotter. There is somebody standing around all the 
 time looking for an opportunity for business, and they wade 
 in when it seems to me they must know there isn't a shil- 
 ling in it. There is one deuced bad condition in this coun- 
 try ; it is full of money, the rate of interest is low and people 
 take their money and pitch in." 
 
 I was about to file an objection to the statement that 
 plenty of money and low interest is an unfavorable condi- 
 tion, but just then one of the teamsters stopped in front of 
 the window and said that widow somebody was kicking 
 like a mule because her coal was so dusty. 
 
 "Wet it down in the load and be sure and tell her it was 
 weighed before it was sprinkled," was the yard man's 
 injunction. Then in a side remark he explained, "If they 
 paid for ten pounds of water they would think they were 
 being swindled out of their eye teeth." 
 
 ill 
 
 CONVERTED TO REASONABLE PRICES. 
 
 To a man in active business, and to one up a tree, the 
 same question is at times regarded differently. I will admit 
 that the man up the tree has little to lose. He can sit perched 
 on a limb and give advice, and no matter to what extent it 
 may miscarry he is outside the pale of law and can only be 
 reached with a club. 
 
 The yard man is busy. He may or may not be inclined to 
 take a thorough survey of the situation. He may be hustling 
 to meet a note, bill, or to buy his wife a sealskin. Few of 
 
|lli 
 
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 i!!^, I 
 
 II 
 
 302 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 us know what he is hustling for. It is certain, however, that 
 at limes the man up the tree can see farther than can he on 
 the ground. Then at other times the man up the tree gets 
 so dizzy that he cannot see anything. 
 
 Nothing in a trade wa)- has brought more sorrow to my 
 heart than to see the retail men keep right on selHng at their 
 old prices when wholesale prices were going skyward. I 
 couldn t help it, though. I was told that I didn't know the 
 temper of the lumber-buying community, as if the temper of 
 the lumber-buying community varied from that which buys 
 nails or flour. Lumber buyers simply wouldn't pay the ad- 
 vance, I was told. When asked why I heard no answer more 
 convincing than the one we all used to give when we were 
 boys, Cause!" 
 
 I saw a Nebraska dealer who carries a half-million stock 
 He was shoving out lumber at a ridiculously low price and 
 said his customers would not stand an advance. I made the 
 remark that if it was my stock they would have to stand it 
 If they got the lumber ; that if they wouldn't stand it I would 
 lock up my office before I would unload at any such figures 
 as he was getting. When I started for the train no doubt he 
 looked on my broad back and said to himself, "There goes 
 another of them fool newspaper tramps !" 
 
 I met this yard man again and he recalled our previous 
 conversation. "Do you remember saying if the stock was 
 yours you would lock up the yard before you would run the 
 lumber out at the prices I was selling for?" I told him I 
 believed I did remember saying something to that effect. 
 
 "That is what you said," he continued, "and if I had 
 the thing to do over again I am not sure but it is precisely 
 what I would do. I wouldn't shut my yard, but I would 
 follow the advance. I wouldn't sacrifice my lumber It 
 wasn't the fault of the advance that it didn't make me a 
 clean $1,500, but it didn't." 
 
 Within a short time I have talked with two other yard 
 men who are now looking at the question in about the same 
 light. One of them said that for months he sold lumber 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 303 
 
 for figures at which it could not be replaced. A good profit 
 that he ought to have made did not materialize. Said 
 the other yard man, "I and my neighbor entered into an 
 idiotic competition, basing our estimates on what our lumber 
 cost us instead of what it was worth. We sold bill after bill 
 that ought to have made us $4 a thousand when they did not 
 
 make us $1." 
 
 I say it is too bad, and l have said so right along. There 
 is no use crying for spilt milk, however. The water that has 
 flowed by will not turn a wheel, some poet has said ; but 
 there are yard men who can take a hint if they are so dis- 
 posed, for there are certainly those who ought to be selling 
 
 LiyJKI©!^!^ 
 
 "Another fool newspaper tramp.** 
 
 lumber for more money than they are getting for it. If they 
 do not pull themselves together in this regard I am fearful 
 that about next spring they will be wrestling with the spirit 
 
 of regret. 
 
 The reason why so many yard men clung to old prices 
 was they did not believe in the permanency of the advance. 
 
 i! 
 
 I 
 
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r 
 
 304 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 I know those who do not believe in it now. They ought to 
 have had a pretty good taste of it by this time ; still they are 
 unbelievers, I recently saw one yard man's team hauling lum- 
 ber from the yard of a neighbor, and was told that this was 
 a daily occurrence. This dealer has no confidence in the 
 stability of the market. He will not stock up, and when out 
 of sorts fills in from his neighbor's piles. He told me there 
 was a shortage of 350,000 feet in his yard. I should not 
 want my foot in that trap. 
 
 OAK FOR BRIDGES. 
 
 Once my best girl said I came as near having a wooden 
 head as any man she had ever seen ; but of course it was a 
 joke. She said she thought I would grow fat talking and 
 writing about lumber. Maybe that is so. Wood certainly 
 interests me. I feel at home when I can chat with any- 
 body who knows his business about wood, its growth sup- 
 ply and consumption. Yesterday I saw a man laying the 
 floor of a new iron bridge, and hitching my imaginary 
 thoroughbred to a fence post I climbed up the bank and 
 learned something about the use of oak for bridges I 
 struck the right man, for it turned out that he was 'the 
 official bridge builder for the county, and for five years 
 had been doing nothing but building and repairing bridges 
 This was one of the central counties of lowa-an average 
 county possibly-and the information this bridge builder 
 gave me came near knocking me off into the stream 
 
 There are in this county a few more than 1,800 bridges 
 which will average thirty-two feet long, he said. They are 
 all floored with oak. On a chip we figured out that taking 
 as a basis a 2-inch plank, 12 inches wide and 16 feet long 
 and assuming that the stringers contain three-fourths as 
 many feet as the floor, each bridge would contain i 632 
 feet. Some bridges are wider than sixteen feet, and some 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 305 
 
 are planked with 3-inch instead of 2-inch, so to provide for 
 this surplus we called it an even 2,000 feet for each bridge. 
 Muhiplying this amount by the number of bridges we have 
 3,600,000 feet of oak in the brillges of this one county 
 alone. In many counties oak only is used, and if this holds 
 true in all of the ninety-nine counties of Iowa the total 
 amounts to about 360,000,000 feet. 
 
 This does not cover, however, the complete bridge work. 
 Only a bridge that is sixteen feet long or more belongs to 
 
 "Figured on a chip." 
 
 the county, and how many bridges there are in the county 
 less than sixteen feet long there is no way of knowing. 
 
 This oak planking comes from both the north and the 
 south, but mainly from the south, the bridge man thought. 
 White oak is bargained for, but he says that some red is 
 run in. The bulk of it comes through the hands of the 
 retail dealer. Owing to the "lumberman's union," as the 
 bridge builder called it, the best way was to get the plank 
 through the yard men. Up there on the bridge, with the 
 
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 306 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 307 
 
 $» 
 
 wind whistling by at railroad speed, and my ears so cold 
 that I wanted to put them in my pocket, I was not disposed 
 to explain the workings of the retail association to the man, 
 and I suppose he slept as sweetly that night as though he 
 knew all about it. Neither was I disposed to say a word that 
 would disabuse his mind of the idea that it was most 
 proper that the bridge plank should be handled by the yard 
 men. 
 
 The durability of bridge floors depends largely on the 
 kind of winter we have, I was told. If an open one, and 
 it is necessary to have the horses sharply shod, the corks 
 will cut through the wood rapidly. A winter with plenty 
 of snow is a great saving on the wear and tear of a bridge. 
 He had known 2-inch pine to last only one year. The 
 3-inch oak he was putting down might last ten years, 
 though that was stretching out the time pretty well, he 
 thought. These 3-inch plank cost the county $36 a thou- 
 sand. 
 
 At one time it was thought to be an improvement to lay 
 the plank lengthwise of the driveway, but it is no longer 
 done. It had some advantages, but the disadvantages out- 
 weigh them. There are men who will go miles around 
 before they will take a threshing outfit over a bridge on 
 which the planks are laid lengthwise, fearful lest they may 
 crowd apart and let some of the traps into the stream. 
 Then, provided the sides of the bridge securely hold the 
 planks from spreading, there will be enough shrinkage to 
 take in a carriage wheel. When the planks are laid cross- 
 wise these cracks are beneficial, as they let the snow and 
 rain water through. 
 
 GETTING A CUSTOMER'S STANDING. 
 
 It is a ticklish thing to tell a man that his credit is good 
 or is not good when you are not dead certain what you are 
 talking about. If you make a mistake it may cost you a 
 good customer, or a good sized account on your books which 
 
 from year to year will be labeled n. g. These no good ac- 
 counts do not tend to cheer a fellow up gloomy days. Too 
 many of them give him the nightmare and take away from 
 him that vein of pleasantry which should bubble right out of 
 him when he has locked his office door and sits down of an 
 evening in the bosom of his family, as it were. ''Great 
 guns!" said an old dealer to me, "if I had gone on through 
 life trusting everybody as I did the first year I started in 
 business a national bank would not have floated me." 
 
 While experience does not teach us as much as seemingly 
 it ought to we learn a great deal from it. The man quoted 
 above learned at the end of twelve months to pick the men 
 to whom he sold, and that is what we must all learn to do, 
 else, to speak poetically, our craft will pitch headlong on the 
 rocks and knock her brains out. For a new man in a town 
 to trust the worthy and refuse the unworthy is an accom- 
 plishment. You open your yard today and in comes a man 
 whom you don't know from Adam and orders a load of 
 lumber. To handle that man right calls for diplomatic skill. 
 You know that the clothes he wears do not tell the story. 
 Dead beats generally dress as well as anybody, and some- 
 times better than honest folks. He may tell you that he is a 
 merchant, physician, lawyer, editor, but that does not tell the 
 story. There are men in all these classes who w^ould pick 
 your eye teeth out if they got the chance. It is surprising 
 how many men there are in every community who are striv- 
 ing to live easily on the hard earned dollars of others. 
 
 Many towns have their credit books, which are of great 
 value, but to know how to use them in a proper way is 
 something of itself to learn. We will say that a new grocer 
 sets up business in your place, and you drop in and order a 
 bill of goods. "There! Great granther!" you exclaim, "I 
 have left my pocketbook in my other breeches. I will drop 
 around in the morning and pay. I suppose that will be all 
 
 right!" .^ 
 
 The next move of this man will probably cause you either 
 to like or dislike him. Suppose he goes to his desk, jerks out 
 
 i I 
 
 M 
 
 ^— 
 
 ^■^ 
 
3o8 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the credit book, opens it, runs his finger down a page until he 
 comes to your name, sees that Vandcrbilt stands no higher 
 and says, "Yes, that will be all right. You can have all the 
 goods here you want." You go out of the store not feeling 
 t.p top. The Idea of looking into a credit book to see 
 whether you pay your debts or not! That is the way they 
 ook up the herd; and one of the great efforts of your life 
 IS to brmg yourself to think that you do not belong to the 
 herd. You should receive special treatment in some way- 
 
 duLr "I r '" "''• ''°"'" '"" should have told that 
 duffer who sells sugar and codfish that you are not beating 
 your way through the world. ^ 
 
 _ The grocer of course made a mistake. Provided it was 
 impossible for him to get a sly peep at the rating bookT 
 should have sa.d, "Certainly, that will be all right " and 
 
 ?ht2That ' '"r"' "'^ '° "" ^^^'"- Y- -»1^ have 
 bought that merchant a great reader of human nature, and 
 
 ten to one would have bought more goods of him. Then 
 when you had left the store patting Jourself on the back 
 the grocer would look you up. If he found you were all 
 nght the goods would be delivered ; if you were not all right 
 he would drop you a note saying that he could not deliver 
 ma?ri "tV"? "^'^ P"'' ^°'-- W'^y 'his course? you 
 
 he should reat you as though he considered you perfectly 
 rehable and responsible, which would be the way to insS 
 
 your confidence. Should you prove of doubtful credThe 
 would ,„,, „„,,i„^ ^^^^^.,^ ^^^^.^^ ^^ ^.^ cred t h 
 
 put your name on his books. Whichever way the thine 
 might turn he would be on safe ground. ^ 
 
 You may do as you have a mind to, but I would never 
 have a ratmg book in sight on my desk. There are men 
 who are as touchy as old setting hens, and it is a part of a 
 g<^ business man's education to coddle and cater to these 
 
 I sat in a line yard office in which there was a new 
 manager, and a man came in who said he was thinking of 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 309 
 
 building a barn. "What's the name?" was asked. "O, yes, 
 responded the manager, as though the name might have been 
 as familiar to him as household words. The conversation 
 had not gone far when the manager looked at his hands, 
 rubbed them together, and asking to be excused for a minute 
 stepped into the private room back of the desk. He soon 
 came out wiping his hands with his handkerchief, and no 
 doubt the prospective customer thought he had been wash- 
 ing them. But his sole object in leaving the man who was 
 thinking of building a barn was to see how he was rated. 
 Then he knew him and began to talk business. 
 
 You understand, beloved, that our particular old lumber 
 yards are not of prime importance in the world — that is. the 
 world would wag along without them very comfortably. If 
 people do not want to trade with us they do not have to. 
 There are other yards where they can go and buy their stuff. 
 The moral is we want to fasten lumber buyers to us with, 
 hooks of steel ; so treat them at every turn and in every 
 transaction that it will be a pleasure for them to come again. 
 
 P 
 
 m 
 
 'I 
 
 
 OUT OF HIS PLACE. 
 
 Few of us talk to one another from the heart. We talk 
 from the head. We veneer, gild and deceive. The world is 
 full of bluff games. We want our acquaintances to think 
 that we are intellectual and moral Apollos ; that we are men 
 without warp, shake or knot, to speak in a lumber sense. My 
 heart goes out to the man who owns right up that he is 
 human, for we all know he is whether he owns up to it or not. 
 
 After supper we strolled around to the yard and made 
 ourselves as comfortable as we could in chairs under a tree in 
 front of the office. The sun had gone down and a cool breeze 
 had taken the place of the extreme heat of the day. The yard 
 man had emptied his pipe twice and I had chewed a cigar 
 until it looked sick. "I wonder," he said thoughtfully, ''how 
 many men there are in the lumber business who do not right- 
 
p 
 
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 310 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 fully belong there ? How many who simply endure the busi- 
 ness because they have to make a living some way, and 
 
 Edy'"'° " '"'^"'*' " ''^"'* ^"'^ °' ''"""'' '' '' 
 
 th..?T 'k 't''' "l" ""' °"' °^ "^^ out-of-place creatures; 
 that as far back as he could remember his taste was for medi- 
 cine. When he was a little boy his chief delight was to 
 ng up a pa^ of saddlebags, such as the old-time doctor 
 earned, fit them out with packages of flour, ginger suear 
 an bottles of colored water, and then treat some meX 
 Of the family who would play sick. 
 
 "The man's frankness was charming." 
 
 "The passion has never left me," he continued, %ut when 
 a boy my education was neglected and I was obliged to Rive 
 up my pet idea. You may think me foolish, but last spring 
 my celt was badly cut on barbed wire, and I took more pride 
 m doctoring up that colt than I did in selling any bill of 
 lumber I have ever handled." 
 
 This man's frankness was charming. I knew he was 
 not trymg to stuff me. There under the stars, which were 
 begmnmg to twinkle, he was honest with me, just as at all 
 limes, whether the stars twinkle or not, we should be honest 
 with one another. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 311 
 
 There is generally something pathetic in the life that is 
 obliged to follow other than its natural bent, for that life, 
 as a rule, is not a happy one. No matter how humble the 
 work of the individual may be, if pride is taken in it— a 
 pride that indicates adaptability— that individual is to be 
 envied by many a man who thinks he is far above him. A 
 man in a yard was recently showing me how he put^ on a 
 big load of lumber. He was thoroughly interested in his 
 work, was good natured and happy. Happy! Do many 
 other words in the English language imply as much mean- 
 ing? Throw it on the scales with power, riches, and it will 
 
 outweigh both of them. 
 
 In midsummer my boy and myself were strolling along 
 the finest residence street of St. Paul— along where the rail- 
 road magnate, Jim Hill, lives. We were in a lounging mood, 
 so we would walk for a little way and then sit in the shade 
 on the coping, chat and eat peanuts. One of the lessons I 
 want my boy to learn thoroughly is that the thing made is 
 never so great as the maker of it. I think that unless we 
 learn this lesson we go through life ungrateful wretches. I 
 said to my boy that those beautiful houses were simply an 
 expression of industry and persistency and skill ; that was 
 all, and that the men who built them were as much greater 
 than the houses as the houses were greater than a dovecote 
 that we saw perched in a tree. Then I said to him that the 
 most foolish thing in the world is to covet these nice things 
 which other people have. That any man who will pay the 
 price for them may have them. That his father was not a 
 railroad magnate like Jim Hill because he would not pay the 
 price. Then he looked at me inquiringly, thinking, no doubt, 
 that a week before I had told him I could not afford to buy 
 him a pair of patent leather shoes for vacation purposes, 
 and revolving in his mind how I could buy the position of 
 a railroad magnate, even if I wanted it, when I could not 
 afford to buy a pair of shoes. I saw the position, turned 
 the switch a little and told him that if any of these people 
 had more fun in their great mansions that we did in our 
 
 'Ml 
 
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3J2 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 woIflH rJ'^f 'i°''" "^""^ '^' ^°^" ''°S^ ^"d <^°™fields we 
 would hke to know .t, and then we would pitch in and have 
 
 a mle n,ore fun and beat them. An argument which d^l 
 with fun IS the one that always appeals to a boy 
 
 All sorts of rigs were passing, and along came the finest 
 one of them all. The sleek horses were light on the r fee 
 the driver sat as straight as a cob and portions of the car-' 
 
 whlVn" fT'- ?' '^"^""^ '^^-^ -- -"< and diamonds 
 wh.ch blazed from the center of the street to the sidewalk 
 
 My boy expressed surprise and admiration 
 
 What do you see in that carriage?" I asked him. 
 1 thmk It is a crutch," was the reply 
 
 outinXlV-Tf • '^'u'^' "'PP'^' ^ho was taking her 
 outmg had laid her cnitch on the bottom of the carriatre and 
 .t stuck over the edge of it a foot or more. TheTf said 
 
 LS a^nV n' "' ^^ -"'^''« - -ny of the fine r- 
 riages and m many of the magnificent residences "You 
 would not be compelled to go arotmd on crutches or all of 
 them, would you?" I asked. 
 
 ;;You bet I wouldn't," was his answer. 
 You ought to jump right up here on top of Jim Hill's 
 stone fence, swmg your hat, hurrah and thank God tL^ 1 
 have two good legs under you," I told him ^ 
 
 his^"at 'and^he'"' ''T' "^ ''"^ ^"^ P^^>'^""^ — g 
 
 a us as thoth ""'" " ""u '^""'""^ ^^^ ^^-" ^-^-5 
 at us as though we were two hoboes and that he had a mind 
 
 to set the dog on us. Leaving the aristocratic n iXrlZi' 
 
 we wandered down town and laid in a 25-cent Net EnS 
 
 rtm r Vt '" ''^ '^'^'^ '' ^^^>' -^ - ^he dra!v"g 
 rcK)ms, with wh,ch we would have dined at the Ryan with 
 
 a colored gentleman behind the chair of each of us 
 
 He ,s a mean creature who will not sympathize with a 
 feHow m,„, and you know it is generally done by c itLg 
 some of our own woes. H your wife should say she ha^ 
 been suffenng from the toothache, some other m'an'swif 
 would chip m and tell of the time when she had the tooth- 
 c^che to beat the band. That was all I could do with this 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 313 
 
 yard man who is peddling boards when it would be more to 
 his taste to peddle pills — cite my own grievances. 
 
 He was told that I was not doing that which I would 
 most like to do, but that I could not do it, and there was an 
 end to it. I expected, however, that the desire would in 
 due time be realized. The Almighty had sown the seed, 
 and some time the fruit would follow. It might be in this 
 life, it might be a hundred years hence, or it might be a 
 million years in the future. I can wait, and am not going to 
 mourn myself baldheaded longing for it. My faith in the 
 power that is over all is absolute ; and His will not mine will 
 be done, no matter what my choice in the matter may be. 
 He said such a belief might be consoling to me, but it was 
 his wish to achieve his desires in this life, as he knew nothing 
 about any other. I replied that, in my opinion, this life, as 
 compared with the vast vista that was opening before us, is 
 a mere scratch of a pencil on a white sheet that would cover 
 the state, and that for aught we knew cycles hence he would 
 be prescribing for the angels. 
 
 Then the whistle which tears people apart sounded out 
 east of the town, and, grasping my grip arid accompanied by 
 my friend the yard man, I made my way to the station. 
 
 GATES AND DOORS. 
 
 It would have been an interesting item if I had kept tab 
 on the number of useless gates and gateways without gates, 
 that I have seen. These gates were built with the best of 
 intentions — for the purpose of keeping dogs, tramps and 
 thieves out of the yard — ^but gradually they fell into a state 
 of innocuous desuetude, and there they are, or rather there 
 they are not when you want them. Some of them are lean- 
 ing up against the fence or shed, while others are nowhere, 
 probably having been used for kindling wood. 
 
 He is a matter-of-fact man who keeps his yard in ship 
 shape from one year's end to the other. I saw a new yard 
 
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 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 315 
 
 the other day and it looked as though it had just come out 
 of a band box. But the question is, will this yard man 
 weary in well doing? He probably will. The most of us 
 do. There is a certain point — sl mean ground — between 
 sickness and health, success and failure, right and wrong, 
 when we are inclined to let things take their own way. 
 There is nothing decided in the condition, and so we let 'er 
 slide. It is that way with gates. When the rust has eaten 
 the hinges so nearly off that the gate begins to totter as with 
 old age we let it go until they are entirely eaten off, and 
 then we may put on new hinges ; or, thinking that we have 
 
 "Pile the gate up against the fence." 
 
 never been stolen poor, we may pile the gate up against the 
 fence. I say we may, for so many of us do it that way. 
 
 There is this man who has just put in a new yard. He 
 is really enthusiastic. In this regard he is like a newly 
 married man who swears that the dear creature he has taken 
 unto himself shall lead a life of comfort and happiness, but 
 who in a few short months permits her to get out of bed in 
 cold weather and build the fire, and leaves her home nights 
 to cry and wonder why the heart of man is so changeable, 
 while he is out drinking beer with his old boon companions. 
 I tell you if I were a young lady I would prefer going it 
 
 alone and becoming a woman suffragist to marrymg a fel- 
 low who has old boon companions on the outside. Or, if 
 I did marry him I would go out and shoot these old boon 
 companions, and then I might be able to call my husband 
 my own. This advice to the young ladies is from a man s 
 standpoint of course, but he has several times seen how this 
 old boon companion business works. 
 
 I should like to walk into this slick yard ten years from 
 today and see how things are— see if the floor is kept 
 scrubbed and the windows washed. I am willing to wager 
 there will be a change. At the end of ten years it will 
 likely be an ordinary old plug of a country yard. I am 
 casting no reflections on this yard man, but that is precisely 
 the way the majority of us lapse. Surely he who can hold 
 out faithful to the end is entitled to the crown and more- 
 over he gets it. . i,- 
 I was with a retail man when he was shutting up his 
 yard at night, and by main strength he took hold of the 
 gate and lifted it around into position. The lower hinge was 
 broken off and he was obliged to do this. Very likely, to 
 start with, this same man said in his mind that he would run 
 a model lumber yard. Some writer who, if he knew what 
 he was talking about must have been there, said that hell 
 is paved with good intentions, and it wouldn't surprise me 
 
 if he spoke rightly. 
 
 I can't imagine why swinging gates should be endured 
 around a yard, except in those few cases where none other 
 can be used. The gate that is hung from the top and rolls 
 best answers the bill in the long run. It will save boards 
 and sizzling words. It will cost a little more to start with, 
 but in the end it will be a hundred times cheaper. 
 
 The shed door is akin to the gate. There is a kind of low, 
 closed shed that on one side is nearly all doors. With 
 very few exceptions these doors are on hinges, open, out- 
 ward of course, and in a heavy wind are about as controllable 
 as a kite. If you can slam them shut quickly all right; if 
 not they may slam you. When you are sitting serenely in 
 
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 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ^i7 
 
 your office the first you know away they go, slam bang! 
 They arc Hable to tear loose or make a man think that 
 dynamiters are around his place. I believe I have seen but 
 one shed of this style with rolling doors which could be 
 opened six inches, or three feet, and at all times and in all 
 kinds of weather stay open. Said the man who had this 
 shed, *T can handle these doors from the inside. I do not 
 have to go out in a driving rain to close them, and I am 
 not trembling lest a wind storm blow them over into the 
 next county." I almost feel like risking the little reputation 
 I have by saying that they are a great improvement on the 
 old kind that swings. 
 
 A yard man called my attention to the doors on his 
 closed shed. *T have no more double doors," he said, **for 
 a single one answers the purpose much better. I used to 
 have two doers, but L have got through with them. They 
 would never meet in any kind of shape, and then to be 
 securely held at the bottom there ought to be a slotted post 
 for them to slide into, and that is always in the way. It 
 takes no longer to open a single door than it does one of a 
 pair." Then he wanted me to "just place one finger" on the 
 door and see how easily it rolled. It was a rather tough 
 proposition for that one finger to push it, still it rolled easily 
 for a door of that size. 
 
 "I never have any trouble with my doors except with 
 that of my safe," said a yard man who was tapped on the 
 subject of doors. "That opens and lets all the money out 
 of it." 
 
 TAKING WINTER EASY. 
 
 There are numberless yard n:en who buy from hand to 
 mouth. They want no more stock on hand than will serve 
 their purpose for a short period. It was really pleasing to 
 meet a dealer whose method is diflPerent from this. Said he : 
 "When it comes winter I want a stock that will carry me 
 through. T don't want to be bothered every week hunting 
 
 i « 
 
 through my stock and piecing up on this or that grade. In 
 fact, I want to take the dull season quietly. I want to take 
 the winter coolly— in the best sense of that word." 
 
 I had not before heard a yard man talk just like that. 
 You rarely hear a business man express the opinion that he 
 ought to inject rest or comfort into his business. He thinks 
 he must be on the jump. If he rest, it must be away from 
 business. He must go to the mountains or seashore. Get 
 away from home, that is the idea. Now, as a rule, is it better 
 to do this, or so live as to avoid the necessity of it? I have 
 been in the homes of many lumbermen. They had pleasant 
 families, pictures, books in profusion, finely appointed 
 rooms; and seeing these I have wondered where else on 
 earth they could get so much quiet and comfort if only they 
 would not tear themselves in pieces outside so they were 
 incapable of home enjoyment. 
 
 More and more I become enamored of the man who so 
 adjusts the machinery of life as to overcome all friction pos- 
 sible. I like the man who does not wear his body and mind 
 out, and the mind will take care of itself if the body is kept 
 in ship shape. If we live rationally the mind keeps on top, 
 just the place it should be. I don't like to see the fever of 
 business burn the good red blood out. On my rounds there 
 is a yard man whom many of you know. He says there is 
 always a place for an extra plate at his table, and more than 
 once that plate has been set before me. The home is an ele- 
 gant one, and I have observed that the prime object of it is 
 comfort. It is a fine looker, but it wasn't built for people to 
 look at. The parlor, with its expensive furnishings, is none 
 too good even to smoke in ; and I have observed that the 
 good wife does not object to smoke in the room. She does 
 not say, "O, dear, how the cigar smoke does make my cur- 
 tains smell !" I think in a home a mighty sight depends on 
 the wife. I don't know but it is almost as much of a duty 
 to make her home pleasant as it is to vote. It is no wonder 
 that some men are eager to be somewhere except home. This 
 man does an immense amount of business. He is fat, too. 
 
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 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 319 
 
 He looks as though he could keep right on for fifty years 
 yet. The genuine comforts of his home, I imagine, are a 
 foil to the cares cf business Hfe. Every hour he puts in there 
 is a tonic. 
 
 In our condition of culture and civilization there are 
 many things which do not pay. At the time we think 
 they are the stuff, but later on we learn with regret that they 
 have consumed. The mad rush leads to madness — no logic 
 can get around that. Therefore the attitude of this yard man 
 who wants to put in the winter with as little care as possible 
 in order that he may go forth refreshed in the spring, I say, 
 is a sane idea. He does not consider that the interest on the 
 stock that he may not use this month or next is money 
 thrown to the dogs, but rather as a means to comfort and 
 recuperation. 
 
 SENSELESS OBJECTION TO DOORS. 
 
 We were talking about doors, and the yard man said he 
 had a door he wanted to show me. Going into a rear room 
 he brought out one that came from the far west and sat it up 
 against the wall. 
 
 "What do you think of it?" he asked. 
 
 "I think it is a fine door," I replied, in a breezy business 
 way, cracking it with my knuckles ; and a fine door it was, 
 clear as a quill and well manufactured. 
 
 "Are you selling many of them?" I inquired. 
 
 "Yes," said he, "and I would sell more of them if it 
 wasn't for the carpenters" — though in reality his reply had 
 a dash of sulphur in it. 
 
 Then to get in the right mood to tell his story, he 
 stepped around in a fidgety way and said that as a rule the 
 carpenter is an oracle ; that he knows more than the rest of 
 mankind and doesn't know how little he knows himself. I 
 told him that was one of the best definitions of the average 
 carpenter I had ever heard. "One of them was in here 
 this forenoon," he said, "a young sprig who had been car- 
 
 pentering as many as two years. He had been building 
 a little addition to a house and wanted two inside doors, i 
 told him I had a daisy, a cedar door, and showed him 
 these. I had no sooner set them out than his nose went 
 up. He said he wouidn't use those doors if they were 
 given to him. I asked him why, and then he was in a box. 
 He didn't know why he didn't like them. I doubt if ever 
 before he had seen a cedar door. Where I was green was 
 that 1 ought to have kept the fact between my teeth that 
 
 "His nose went up." 
 
 the doors were cedar. I believe then I would have sold 
 them." 
 
 "Oflf the same piece of cloth as the carpenter's objec- 
 tion to hemlock," I remarked. 
 
 "Precisely," said he, "and I remember still the story 
 you told of the Chicago dealer who sold hemlock under 
 the name of 'rock pine.' That was a good way to treat 
 
 them." 
 
 A man to keep up with the times must carry a variety of 
 
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320 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 doors these days. Pine in the white of the different grades 
 and sizes, grained doors, front doors, cedar, doors with 
 yellow pine panels, storm and screen doors — ^and mayhe 
 some of them may have gotten away from me. The first I 
 had to do with a retail lumber yard, the stock of doors could 
 be carried off on a strong man's back, but it is a poorly 
 equipped yard now that does not have piled in the stock 
 room as many as two horses could draw. And that is the 
 growing tendency right along in the retail business — 
 variety. 
 
 I sometimes think that the single yard man at some 
 cross-roads town where little is known about the style in 
 "wood goods," to quote our English friends, has a snap. 
 In larger towns where competition is as hot as a pepper 
 pod, one dealer desiring to get in under the skins of the 
 others will introduce a new article which can be sold a lit- 
 tle cheaper than the old one, or sometimes for the novelty 
 of it. The others finding this out will follow suit, and 
 thus the varieties pile up; and I do not imagine the end is 
 yet. 
 
 CANCELING AND REGISTERING ORDERS. 
 
 A yard man said he had quit buying of a house of 
 which first and last he had bought a pile of lumber, for the 
 reason that it did not stand by the prices quoted by its 
 salesman. I told him I would have quit, too. This is one 
 of several similar complaints I have heard. There are cer- 
 tain wholesalers who send out traveling men, and then 
 when the occasion suits them use their own sweet will as 
 to whether they will fill the orders turned in at the prices 
 quoted by the salesman to the yard man. I do not say 
 they do this as a steady diet, but they do it all the same. 
 I know there are two sides to every story, but in at least 
 one of these cases the evidence was so plain that there is 
 no earthly doubt that the wholesale dealer flew the track. 
 
 "I wanted the lumber," said the vard man, "and about 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 32i 
 
 the time I expected it was on the ^7. t°7%^„X'Z>ted 
 polite letter stating that the agent had J-dvertently quoted 
 
 me a price at which it could not be f "-^;^- ^f ^'l^;, 
 
 tently! There was no inadvertency about '*• The Jf J^ 
 
 •evidently turned the question over ,n h.s --^before he 
 
 gave me the price. He quoted it dehberately, and repeated 
 
 it two or three times." 
 
 Now. I like both a man and a mouse. In a way a 
 mouse is as marvelous a creation as a man t .s Whit- 
 man I believe, who says that a mouse will put a b.Uion 
 rill to flight. But the mouse that I ^^^ goes on fou 
 lees and has fur. When I see a mouse walkmg around 
 on U legs and wearing a hat I have no adm.rat^n for U 
 And when a wholesale dealer in lumber, or any other com 
 moditv will repudiate the prices given by h.s authorized 
 :^Zin\. comes mighty near, without caj.ng "ame ; 
 being a close imitation of the little fellows that my best 
 Sri these days is trying to bait with cheese and crush to 
 
 death in the cellar. ^ , 
 
 Legally, you of course know how the matter stands. 
 Moral you ought to know how it stands, and any man 
 wirSl/stand off both legal and moral obligations is^ 
 tough breed of cats. There is no question but hat these 
 arSs are read as thoroughly by wholesale dealers as by 
 ya d men, and I want to ask them how many of their num- 
 ber wonW refuse to fill an order because they thought they 
 ought to have $2 a thousand more than it was sold fo by 
 Sr agent? Unfortunately we can't hear the repb', b« 
 will tafe the liberty to answer the question. Mighty ' 
 From Dan to Bersheba I know the wholesale «";« pre y 
 well, and I wouldn't know where to put my finger on three 
 oi them who. in my opinion, would not stay by thar t-^^^ 
 eling men night and day. I am acquainted with who s^e 
 men who, I know, should their agent sell Bill Jones, of 
 ?o3unk ; car of dimension today for 20 cents a thousand 
 
 ttt Tar' would be delivered just as Vr^^^^^yj^^^^^Z 
 were sold at list prices. Why would it? First, for the 
 
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322 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 323 
 
 reason that these wholesale men are not mice, and second, 
 that they have confidence that their traveling men have 
 a judgment of their own, and would not humiliate them if 
 you would give them a car of lumber. And do you ever 
 think, when you are in the thinking business, how humiliat-' 
 ing it must be to a salesman to take an order, and then 
 have the "old man" say in eflfect, **0, you blank fool; we 
 can't stand by any such thing as that!" As much of a 
 rhinosceros hide as I have I wouldn't be placed in that posi- 
 
 "Sitting in a hotel with a salesman." 
 
 tion for a four-dollar bill. If you have no faith in your 
 traveling man call him in and advise him to go to a kinder- 
 garten, but for pity sake don't make him so ashamed of 
 himself by your mousey conduct that he wouldn't want to 
 look a locomotive in the face. 
 
 The other evening I was sitting in a hotel with a sales- 
 man, he smoking a cigar and I chewing one, and the coun- 
 terpart of this question was the subject of our talk. I like 
 to fall in with these traveling salesmen, for to a man they 
 treat me well in every sense of the word. No man is more 
 
 companionable than the one on the road, no matter whether 
 he may sell lumber or lumber wagons. The "open road," 
 as a poet has termed it, gives a heartiness and broadness 
 to a fellow that I sometimes think is never acquired under 
 a roof. These salesmen are not always to the pains, how- 
 ever, to let me in on the ground floor of the situation — the 
 villains! Thus, the other day, I asked one of them how 
 prices were, and he said they were so stiff that the hand of 
 fate couldn't bend them. I didn't dispute him, but the joke 
 of it was that not three hours before I had seen invoices 
 from this very salesman's house, of bills sold by this very 
 salesman, and— but never mind. Yard men all over this 
 section of the country show me their invoices, and I wish 
 I knew everything there is to be known in this world as 
 definitely as I know the price at which lumber is selling 
 in many instances. 
 
 We were talking about the yard man canceling orders, 
 and I tell you, my friends, there is a sin to look after, and 
 root up, on our side of the house. This salesman didn't 
 put it in my ear, either. I have known it right along. The 
 plain and stubborn fact is that a yard man has no more 
 right to cancel an order than a wholesale man has not to 
 fill one. They are of the same stripe. They are twin 
 brothers, and I would never think of spanking one of 
 them without giving it to the other. A yard man brought 
 up this subject on the street not long ago. "When a dealer 
 orders a bill of lumber it is a contract which should not 
 be violated," said he. *'The best way is to have it put 
 down in black and white, so there may be no doubt or mis- 
 understanding." 
 
 That is business on the level. Yet I have known yard 
 men, I am sorry to say, who today would give an order for 
 a bill of lumber and tomorrow as coolly countermand it. 
 I do not say but there are times when it would be to a 
 man's interest to countermand an order — one can imagine 
 such a condition— but at no time can a yard man honorably 
 do so and have his finger exclusively in the pie. If I 
 
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324 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 buy a car of lumber, and afterward find that I do not need 
 it, I have no right to say peremptorily to the man of whom 
 it was bought that he need not ship it to me. I may ask 
 him not to ship it, and then he may grant the request if 
 he so like. It is a matter of another agreement, just as 
 the purchase of the lumber was a matter of agreement. 
 
 This salesman said that he had sold lumber and had 
 the order in part canceled for the reason that another 
 salesman who was following in his wake had underbid 
 him. I hope he is mistaken. I don't like to believe it. If 
 I were a girl I wouldn't want to marry a yard man who 
 would go back on himself for a matter of 50 cents a thou- 
 sand on a carload of lumber, for I should expect that as 
 soon as his love cooled a little he would go back on me. 
 Nine times in ten, or oftener, respect begins at home, and 
 if a man has no respect for himself look out for him. If 
 a man did not buy as sharp as he might the way would 
 be, I think, to take the lumber and look a little out the 
 next time. 
 
 If I wanted to keep both my financial and moral credit 
 good I should think twice before asking a wholesale dealer 
 to cancel an order that I had given in cold blood. No mat- 
 ter what good reason I might have on my part I should be 
 thinking that the wholesale man might say, "That fool 
 hasn't enough brains to know what he does want." 
 
 So you see, just as we would grade a board, we must 
 look at this question on both of its sides. 
 
 SALT IN SHED ALLEYS. 
 
 We all want to do away with dust in our shed alleys if 
 possible. We don't want it spreading itself over the lum- 
 ber. We don't want to be made uncomfortable by the dust 
 that is kicked up when men and teams are working in the 
 sheds. There are alleys which closely resemble ash heaps. 
 We dudes with nicely polished boots can't go the length of 
 them without being obliged to part with another dime for a 
 
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 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 325 
 
 fresh shine. Then it speaks so well for a lumberman to have 
 everything in ship shape. When he has a good shed, with 
 the alleys as dusty as a public highway, it does not look as 
 though he had quite finished his job. A few loads of gravel 
 or cinders would have made it better. 
 
 All yard men are not advocates of using salt in alleys. 
 There are those who have used it and say the idea that it 
 will down dust is a humbug. These men are mistaken ; at 
 any rate their assertion is too sweeping. They probably 
 did not properly apply the salt. They may not have used 
 
 enough of it. 
 
 This using of salt to allay dust is an odd proposition, 
 
 "For horses to eat." 
 
 anyhow. When the heading, as it stands above, had been 
 clicked off on the typewriter, my best girl was called in and 
 asked what she thought such a thing could mean ; why lum- 
 bermen should put salt in their shed alleys ? "Why, I sup- 
 pose it is for horses to eat!" she said. Select a hundred 
 novices and every one of them would say something of that 
 kind; the thought would not enter their heads that dust 
 could be overcome by salt. 
 
 There is a precaution which must be taken around these 
 
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326 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 alleys which have received the salt treatment, however. If 
 lumber is piled along the edges of them, as it often is before 
 it is put in the bins, the bottom boards soon become damp. 
 Not long ago I was in an alley that was so piled with lum- 
 ber that a team could hardly drive through, and the bins 
 were not full, either. That man's alley ought to be sprinkled 
 with salt so he would have to put his lumber where it be- 
 longed, for you will probably agree with me that an alley is 
 not fit piling ground. 
 
 ON THE ALERT FOR TROUBLE. 
 
 We are not so well balanced as to warrant bragging about 
 ourselves. In our school days we study logic, and when we 
 get out of school we make the same use of logic that a pig 
 does. If I thought you understood Dutch I should say that 
 the entire business community is on the qui vive as to what 
 the future shall bring forth. Today a yard man told me 
 that trade had been good this season, and then he drew a 
 long breath and remarked that he didn't know what it would 
 be next ! 
 
 Here prosperity is fairly tumbling over herself to get in 
 our way. Barring some sore affliction, if you are not as 
 happy this minute as you ever have been it is your own 
 fault. If that is so, why not let well enough alone? Why 
 should we be everlastingly tapping the future, as it were, to 
 see what will run out of it? 
 
 Now let me tell you a thing that I suppose you all know, 
 still I feel in a mood to remind you of it. These good times 
 may continue for several years, or they may not. But it is 
 not absolutely necessary for the good of the country that 
 sooner or later they terminate. Should there be no break 
 in the present condition of affairs we would all get so rich 
 and high headed that we wouldn't work. We would run 
 after false gods, wear none but imported clothes, take to fast 
 horses and wine, and then the process of decay would set in. 
 There would be a tumble, and down we would go flat on our 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 327 
 
 back just as old Athens did. Every once in a while you 
 strike a balance sheet to find out where you are at. Permit- 
 tin- me to judge, tl-.at is precisely what the good Lord occa- 
 sionally is doing for us. He is watching us more closely all 
 the time than we think he is. When we get too proud and 
 rich, and step too high, he knocks the props from under us, 
 and down we come to earth again. 
 
 Suppose, for an instance, that those lumber manufactur- 
 ers up in Minnesota and Wisconsin should keep right along 
 as they have been doing for a couple of years? In ten years 
 they would own the earth, and every mother's son of them 
 would be in the senate. It will not be permitted. By and by 
 old Fate, with his lasso, will stalk up through that country 
 and corral them again. 
 
 "If building will only keep up for a few years! said a 
 yard man. I will leave it to you, however, that if this sea- 
 son's volume of business should keep up if would not brmg 
 about a deplorable condition, and in the end be one of the 
 worst things that could come to us. Every town would be 
 overbuilt. Manv a farmer would have two houses on his 
 hands, and could live in only one of them. There would be 
 empty elevators, and a surplus of railroads. We can't with 
 safety build much faster than human beings come into the 
 world. If we get a little ahead of them we must wait until 
 they catch up. If thev get a little ahead of us we can hurry 
 just as we have been doing this year. People and buildings 
 — thev balance one another. 
 
 If' I had made $2,000 this year, as a yard man has with 
 whom I was talking the other day, simply by the ad- 
 vance of lumber, I wouldn't be worrying over the 
 coming presidential year as he is. I listened to 
 this man's gloomv forebodings for several minutes like a 
 good little boy, and then, when I had become tired, I could 
 not help remarking, "Why, man, let's not tear our undergar- 
 ments entirely off this cold weather, but keep our powder as 
 dry as we can, and patiently wait." 
 
 Now. honestly, I am little in sympathy with this crazy 
 
328 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 desire which takes possession of so many people to get 
 hold of everything within their reach. They break their 
 necks in a mad rush to have another dollar's worth of goods 
 to pay taxes on, and the more dollars' worth they have the 
 worse they lie to the assessor. That is the way it is with all 
 of us. And this idiotic scurry, too, by men who have as 
 
 "The more they lie to the assessor." 
 
 much money as the law ought to allow. Don't you know that 
 this life we are now enjoying every day is only a minute 
 section of the same life that will stretch on and on through 
 years which will be numberless as the stars? Then where 
 is the sense in starting out on such a gallop? If we are not 
 careful we will tire ourselves out scoring. We need dollars 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 329 
 
 in our pockets, but just as badly we need patience, apprecia- 
 tion charity and contentment in our heads and hearts. 
 
 I liked the way a yard man talked a couple of months 
 aeo Said he, '1 have got over worrying. I can t look back 
 and see where it did me a cent's worth of g^^^^; b^^?". f 
 other hand it did me dollars' worth of harm. Why, blast it, 
 I had nervous prostration once over a thing that never hap- 
 pened ' For fifteen years I have sold lumber, and I expect 
 to sell'it as long as I run a yard. The lumber trade comes 
 every season as regularly as the corn crop-not every year 
 the same and if it did it would become monotonous. No 
 man knows what is in store for him. It may not be so 
 jrood • if not grin and bear it, as we have got to any way. 
 It is a mistake for any man who means to be light complex- 
 ioned and tends to his business, to think that it is all bad 
 luck that is staring him in the face. How do I know but 
 this town will burn tonight, and the rebuilding of it call for 
 all the lumber I can handle for six months? I got into that 
 
 fix once!"^ , . 
 
 I should feel safe to give a written guarantee that this 
 man who has learned to take life like a rational bemg, that 
 is taking it as it comes, and content so to take it, gets more 
 comfort and happiness to the square foot than all the yard 
 men in his country whose eyes are bulging to catch sight of 
 some devil in the distance, and who are prancing over the 
 highway of life so madly as to make blood blisters and gum- 
 boils on their feet. 
 
 r 
 
 A TRADE PULLER. 
 
 There is no question in my mind that the modern closed 
 shed pulls trade. It has the quality of the magnet. So firmly 
 am I convinced of this that were I to open a new yard I 
 would build a closed shed, provided always of course that I 
 could borrow the monev. If the other sheds in the town 
 were open, all the more eager I should be that mine should 
 be unlike them. I should want the shed a big one, too ; one 
 
 I 
 
330 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 that would loom up like a steepled cathedral. For what? 
 For advertising, as one reason. It does not create much 
 commotion when a fellow buys a few cars of lumber and 
 piles it out on the prairie, but when he starts in by building 
 a great shed the farmer stares. He thinks that the man who 
 is building such a shed as that is going to bore with a big 
 auger, and it is human nature that he will want to be there 
 to catch some of the chips. A yard man told me that his 
 shed was so much talked about that farmers came twenty 
 miles to buy lumber of him. You may laugh in your sleeves 
 at a farmer who would do this ; so might I, but at the same 
 time it would please us to sell the lumber. Oftentimes gain 
 comes by throwing a glamor over the minds of men. A 
 tight rope walker once told me that it was no more difficult 
 to walk a rope fifty feet from the ground than though it was 
 ten feet. "But," said .he, "the people think it is." There, 
 you see, is the same idea — you want to get the people think- 
 ing in a particular direction. A big lumber shed impresses 
 itself upon the mind. It is something more than the usual, 
 something to talk about and look at. No matter how we 
 may get business it is through advertising of some sort, 
 though we may call it by some other name. 
 
 STORM DOORS. 
 
 A storm door is a new idea, comparatively. Our fore- 
 fathers did not know what a storm door was. If there 
 was one good solid door between them and the storm they 
 were content. I have seen happy homes which did not 
 have even a panel door in them. 
 
 For years storm doors, mechanically, have been an 
 abomination. Any old thing was good enough for such a 
 door, it was thought. Why a storm door that was in full 
 sight for several months of the year should not present a 
 decent appearance was a question not asked. After this it 
 will be thought as necessary to have a good looking storm 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 33^ 
 
 door as it is to wear a sleek overcoat. We cominon mor- 
 tals never think of doing a thing until somebody has set 
 
 ^^^Then again, it was not thought orthodox to have a light 
 of glass in a storm door. By all means it must be a solid 
 door You never knew who was knocking for admission 
 until the door was opened. But in this great age we are 
 n:Lrching on and on, and among other thmgs we have r^^^ 
 oreanized the storm door. It is so improved that it does 
 not look like a relative to the one that was in use even three 
 or four years ago. 
 
 "Samples standing out in front." 
 
 The yards are making something of a point selling 
 storm doors these days. In one week I saw samples stand- 
 ing out in front of more than twenty-five lumber offices. 
 That is the way to do it, too. It would not injure the busi- 
 ness of the average lumberman if he would make more of a 
 
332 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 display of some of his goods. His brother merchants beat 
 him out of sight in this regard. What if the yard man 
 bought a bundle of storm doors and tucked them away in 
 his sash and door room? Nobody except some one who 
 might make the inquiry would know he had them. An 
 acquaintance of mine had a carpenter make a storm door 
 for him last fall. I asked him why he did not go over to 
 one of the lumber yards and get a door that looked like 
 something, and he said he had not supposed they kept 
 them ! That is the way it goes when we hide our light un- 
 der a bushel. 
 
 These doors I see around the country are marked to 
 sell at from $1.75 to $2 each. They are a good looking 
 panel door, with a good sized light of glass in them, and 
 many of them are grained. One yard man carried them 
 both grained and in the white. He said the white was the 
 better seller, for as a rule the door was painted to match 
 the color of the house. Said he, **I have had no luck with 
 grained doors of any kind. There seems to be no place for 
 them to fit in. Then there is no graining done nowadays 
 anyway. It seems to me that the grained door came in 
 about twenty years too late." 
 
 That is a fact, there is no graining done now except on 
 these doors, still there are yard men who have told me 
 they are among their best sellers. 
 
 LOCATION AND COMPETITION. 
 
 I listened to a conversation on the subject of yard loca- 
 tion that was interesting. A salesman could not get out of 
 town until evening, the yard man was not busy, so they told 
 stories and talked about the lumber business. I cannot re- 
 peat the stories, for it is a peculiarity of mine that I am un- 
 able to remember a story over night. I have often regretted 
 it; I have tried to train myself to the contrary, but it is no 
 use ; they won't stick. I hear stories every day, and of the 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 333 
 
 thousands that with joy and pleasure to which I have list- 
 ened I know that I couldn't repeat a dozen of them if I was 
 to be hanged for it. It is not a matter of memory, and 1 
 don't know what it is. On the other hand, I could listen to 
 lumber gossip for hours, and without taking a note to assist 
 me would guarantee to produce it almost verbatun I wish 
 somebody would tell me what section of my old thinker is 
 
 out of tune. , , , ^.u..^^ 
 
 The salesman said he was occasionally asked where there 
 
 <^^^^-'<^|iS> 
 
 "Talked about the lumber business." 
 is an opening for a yard, but that at present he knew of no 
 good one. It appeared to him that there .s a surplus of 
 yards. If he was bound to put in a yard he would go into 
 one of the new towns on some of the railroads which are 
 building. He would expect to have plenty of conipetit.on 
 but being on the ground as soon as any of them he would 
 stand a better chance than though we were to camp alongside 
 of dealers who already had an acquaintance and an estate 
 lished trade. 
 
 I» 
 
 ■li 
 
 .-.1' 
 
334 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 335 
 
 **What advantage has a new yard ?" I ventured to ask. 
 
 "Well," replied the salesman, evidently weighing his 
 words, "it has a slight advantage in being new. You know 
 the old adage about the new broom. There are people who 
 will go to a new business place expecting that the man who 
 is running it will make some concessions in order to get 
 trade. If I started a new yard I should not expect to get 
 on much unless I did make concessions. First of all, I 
 should aim to pool; and if that couldn't be done I should 
 aim to undersell the other fellows, and then to my sorrow," 
 he continued with a laugh, "the other fellows might aim to 
 undersell me." 
 
 The yard man remarked that ordinarily he should be very 
 "skeery" about starting a yard. "I should prefer, ten to one, 
 to buy a yard out," he said. "I have had experience of both 
 kinds, and I should prefer to buy. If a man should buy out 
 my neighbor I should regard him as a legitimate competitor 
 and meet him on that ground, but if anybody should put in 
 a third yard here I have an idea that the pots of war paint 
 would be brought out." 
 
 No doubt the result would be about as the dealer por- 
 trayed it, still it amused me to hear him talk about a "legiti- 
 mate competitor !" The country is full of people who ought 
 to read the constitution of the United States and the declara- 
 tion of independence. 
 
 In this talk about location and competition I thought that 
 the salesman and yard man overlooked an important phase 
 of the question. They did not say a word about the differ- 
 ence there is in competitors. No doubt I have said before 
 that in my opinion the success of a new yard man depends as 
 much on the nature of his competitors as on the location. 
 
 Location is of importance, but it isn't everything. There 
 are retail lumbermen who are genuine bull dogs, and who 
 will hang on until their backs are broken. There are others 
 in whom there is no fight. They may be quakers, and pos- 
 sibly cowards. There are those who would look at you ask- 
 ance if you had the cheek to attempt to sell boards in a town 
 
 on the trade of which they think they have a mortgage, and 
 still others who would make the best of it and treat you like 
 a gentleman. Hence, I say, if I were intending to start a 
 yard in a town I should first of all make a study of the men 
 already selling lumber there. I would endeavor to size them 
 up. If thev had heavy jaws and looked as though they might 
 easily be converted into a thunderstorm I might count the 
 ties on to the next town. I know of towns which at first 
 blush you would say would afford business for more yards, 
 but if you or I should put one in there our hides would be 
 stripped from our back, or the other fellow's would. I 
 know of other towns in which, if I felt so disposed, I would 
 not hesitate a moment to put in a yard. The character of 
 the dealers in these towns would influence my decision. It s 
 men that make history, and sometimes they make one kmd 
 and sometimes another. 
 
 SLOW PAYING FARMERS. 
 
 There was a time when 1 labored under the delusion that 
 collections were the barometer of the degree of prosperity, 
 but I have gotten bravely over it. It holds true only in 
 minor part. A man may be very prosperous, yet travel as 
 slow as a mud turtle up to the captain's desk to settle his 
 bill. The farmers are owing the yard men of this country 
 a mint of money, yet many of these farmers have money to 
 burn. "The better off the farmer becomes the slower he is 
 to pav," a dealer remarked who is located in a very fine agri- 
 cultural district. *They know they are good ; they thmk 
 you know they are good, and consequently they want time 
 
 until it wearies me." 
 
 I somewhat doubt if a knowledge of the financial status 
 of the western farmer is common property. In conversation 
 with a banker on this point, he said : "It may not be gener- 
 ally knoxvn that the man who can secure a mortgage on real 
 estate for 5 percent is indebted to the farmer for that low 
 
 
 
 i 
 
336 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 337 
 
 rate of interest. It isn't the banker who has knocked the 
 rate. A large amount of eastern money has come in here, 
 but that hasn't done it. Had the farmer been obHged to 
 come to the bank for his loans interest would be higher than 
 it is today. As it is the farmer loans money to the farmer. 
 The farmers have been pulling a good deal of money out of 
 Mother Earth, and they know of no place where they can 
 place the surplus so safely as in a mortgage on their neigh- 
 bor's farm. In their effort to do this they have underbid the 
 banks. When we were getting 8 percent they went us a 
 cent better. Then we dropped to 7 and they dropped to 6. 
 We went to 6 and the farmer said to his neighbor 5. We 
 have come to 5, and whether the farmer will come to 4 is an 
 open question, though it wouldn't surprise me if he did. Yes, 
 sir, the farmer has set the rate of interest on mortgage loans 
 throughout this whole section of country." 
 
 I have made inquiry concerning the deposits of the farm- 
 ers in some of the towns. In a place of 5,000 inhabitants I 
 was told by a banker that the "man with the hoe" had $325,- 
 000 in the banks. In a very moderate sized town a grange 
 bank was opened, and the manager of it said if the deposits 
 to start with were $50,000 he would be satisfied, but in less 
 than three weeks there was an even five times that amount. 
 ' In several towns I have looked into this matter, and in every 
 instance the figures have indicated hundreds of thousands. 
 
 We need not lie awake nights worrying over the con- 
 dition of the farmer. During all the years that I spuddled 
 around in a porcelain bath tub in a city I was given to re- 
 garding the farmer somewhat as the caricaturist, who wears 
 his spring overcoat all winter and sells jokes for 10 cents 
 each to the newspapers, painted him. But I tell you, my 
 city friends, you don't know the farmer. You underrate 
 him every day of your life. I wish every man who lives in 
 a brown stone or marble front felt as independent as does 
 the farmer who wears his sheepskin jacket and German 
 socks. This farmer feels that so far as this world is con- 
 cerned he is perched right on the rock of ages, and that it is 
 
 not necessary to sharpen his finger and toe nails every day 
 to keep a hold, either. 
 
 "But he won't pay ; darn him, he won t pay ! said a yard 
 man "I have a customer who owns 2,000 acres of land, 
 every acre of it clear. Let's see ! That land is worth $40 an 
 acre, $80,000 all told. Then he has so many cattle you can t 
 count them. When he owes a bill for lumber it is worth a 
 good commission to get it. He will pay no more attention to 
 a statement than though it was a yaller dog. Yet when I go 
 for him, and can find him, he will pull out his check book 
 with the blandest smile on his face you ever seen. I can t 
 sue him ; that wouldn't do. You couldn't pull a note out of 
 him with a log chain. He is away to Omaha or Kansas City 
 nearly as much as he is at home, and I may drive out to his 
 place a dozen times without seeing him. That s the way it 
 
 ^'''' How much interest do you get out of the farmers on 
 accounts which run from six to twelve months I asked. 
 
 "Not on an average of i percent," was the reply. 
 
 There are dealers who will not sell lumber on any such 
 terms, but there are always others, and these others will sell 
 
 it on any old terms. 
 
 It is the bane of the life of some yard men that they can- 
 not collect in a way at all to their Uking. Within a week I 
 walked through a shed that was well filled with lumber. 
 This man knows me pretty well and does not hes.tate to 
 tell me things that perhaps, on first sight, you wouldn t. He 
 said with some show of pride, "I don't owe a cent on this 
 
 stock." 
 
 "Blamed glad to hear it," I said. 
 
 "But I wouldn't let my customers know that, he con- 
 tinued "When I collect I go out with a handful of bills 
 and, wanting some excuse to prod them, I must tell them 
 that I have bills coming due which must be paid ! 
 
 Then we sat down by the stove, stuck our feet on the 
 fender, and talked about the cussedness in human nature 
 that holds us back from paying our debts when they are due. 
 
 I 
 
 « 
 
338 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 THE RIGHT KIND OF STATIONERY. 
 
 The stationery of many a yard man needs to be over- 
 hauled. The last time I came home from a trip a letter 
 awaited me, and on the sheet it was announced that So- 
 and-so sold lumber at such a place. Thus far it was 
 proper, but this information was put on with a rubber 
 stamp, and that did seem as improper to me as the very Old 
 Harry. If that yard man felt as I do he would take that 
 stamp and grind it under his heel. Why ? Because in the 
 eyes of a business man who has seen a part of the world 
 and is half up to its best ways this printing by means of a 
 rubber stamp is an abomination. The job looks as if it had 
 been struck by a very miserable kind of lightning. It is the 
 looks of the thing I object to. 
 
 Now suppose I should come around to see you looking 
 like a tramp — dirty face; whiskers half an inch long, holes 
 in the knees of my pants, overcoat looking as though I had 
 made my bed in the alley, what would you think of me? 
 What impression would it give you of the concern that 
 sends me out? You would get off in the corner and 
 whisper to yourself, ''Well, if that isn't the blankest thing 
 that ever happened !" You see, it wouldn't do. It would 
 be doing everybody concerned rank injustice. On one trip 
 I was asked by one lumberman to go to church with him, 
 by another to go to his home to dinner, by another to go 
 to a charity ball. Unless I dressed in the hight of fashion 
 I would get no chance at these swell functions. Go into 
 the wholesale districts and see what fine offices they have, 
 what pretty typewriters, what beautiful stationery. When 
 a letter over which a rubber stamp has slobbered is fired 
 into one of these elegant offices I imagine it is regarded as 
 you would regard me if I should stumble into your place 
 dressed like a Weary Willie. 
 
 This is not saying that all of you can have well printed 
 stationery right away. Having been associated with print- 
 in<T houses more or less I know the shortcomings of an 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 339 
 
 occasional country printer. It is not unusual for hmi to 
 turn out a job that looks as though a mule's hoof had been 
 inked and he had kicked against a sheet of paper But 
 notwithstanding your job may be poor, if it came from a 
 printing office you have shown your good mtentions. i He 
 blame then rests on the printer. Don't put up with such a 
 job the second time though. Talk turkey to the printer 
 as we boys used to say. Tell him that by the long-homed 
 spoon if he doesn't grease up his old press and turn you 
 out decent work you will go to Chicago, Minneapolis, Mil- 
 waukee, St. Louis for it. Should you carry out your threat 
 the editor would probably run in a letter, signed by Old 
 Citizen " asking how a town can get along when its people 
 send away for their goods? Never you mind that, though. 
 Self-protection is the first law of nature, and protecting 
 yourself is what you are doing when by sending out good- 
 looking stationery you create the impression that you are 
 a man of success and good taste. , ^ , , , r 
 
 I hop^ the man who sent me the letter won t feel bad. i 
 like him, but I don't like his old rubber stamp a bit. 
 
 AN OVER-ACTIVE RETAILER. 
 
 The art of doing things by proxy is an important ac- 
 complishment. Not once in a thousand times will your 
 individual labor or mine elevate us to any marked extent in 
 the financial world. In that world much depends on so 
 manipulating the services of others that they may accrue 
 to our benefit. The labor of man is an article of commerce. 
 There are few people so philanthropic that they will pay 
 me $1 a day unless they expect to make a profit by the 
 transaction. Before you would buy and sell lumber at the 
 same price you would go fishing, to the almshouse, or some- 
 where else. I believe the proposition thus far is clear, but 
 when we go farther and ask, "What profit should one man 
 make on the labor of another?" we are brought up against 
 
 t1 i 
 
 ti 
 
340 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 a question which will be settled only by the God of Justice. 
 We will never settle it for the simple reason that we have 
 no desire to do so. When I say we, I mean man collec- 
 tively. Occasionally there is a rare exception to the rule, 
 but as a whole we are grasping, selfish, and little care 
 whether our neighbor's bread is buttered on either side if 
 ours is buttered on both. 
 
 I had no intention of starting in so seriously, but I have 
 a little boil on my ear this week and it drives me to heavy 
 themes. I want to make a few remarks on the utter fool- 
 ishness 'of any man in the lumber business, or out of it, 
 trying to do everything himself. A few days ago I saw a 
 yard man who apparently was carrying the whole business 
 on his shoulders, and his shoulders were not very broad 
 either. He was here, there and yonder. Excusing himself 
 for a minute he rushed off to another part of the yard 
 where his man was piling some new lumber, stepped 
 around, looked at the pile on one side and then on the 
 other, and then rushed back. When his son was talking 
 lumber to a carpenter the father was trying to do two 
 things at the same time, take in every word his son said 
 and talk to me. • Evidently he had no faith in the way his 
 son and the foreman were doing their part of the work. 
 
 Now it is creditable to a man to be ambitious, indus- 
 trious, but at the same time he should be sensibly so. I 
 dislike to see an extremist even in that direction. There 
 is no man who pleases me so well as does he who is selt- 
 contained. I enjoy chatting with a man from whose ap- 
 pearance you couldn't tell whether he was as lazy as a dog, 
 or when at his business as lively as a flea. There are few 
 things more unpleasant in a man than earmarks. When 
 we are social let's be social. Take that man in question: 
 If you were looking for somebody to fill a responsible posi- 
 tion you wouldn't pick him out as the right one. He 
 would work — there is no question about that — ^but at the 
 same time he might flash in the pan. When you find a man 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 341 
 
 who never flashes in the pan — but then I don't know as 
 you ever do find him. 
 
 This man is wearing himself out by inches. It doesn't 
 pay. What if his foreman had not piled every board just 
 as he would have piled it? What if his son had not talked 
 to the prospective buyer of lumber precisely as he would 
 have talked to him? Not infrequently I have seen men 
 worry because their work was not being done exactly as 
 they would have done it, when at the same time to the on- 
 looker it was being well done. It doesn't pay for any 
 one man to attempt to run too much of the world. I could 
 name a dozen men who are suiciding as surely as though at 
 this very minute they were slashing their necks with a razor 
 from ear to ear. A cut throat would shock the friends 
 more, and therein lies about the only diflFerence. 
 
 There is a great packer whose name is a household 
 word, one of the most gigantic of money-making machines. 
 Maybe I have never told you that I was born neighbor to 
 this mam I was. There sprang right from that little section 
 the great packer. Secretary Gage, Eli Perkins, the Loomis 
 horse thieves, and myself. The people who have gone out 
 from that little territory are noted for their intelligence, 
 enterprise, push — and horse stealing. But we will let that 
 pass. As I was about to say, for years this great packer 
 has carried as much of his immense business on his shoul- 
 ders as he possibly could. He would be at his desk at 
 seven in the morning, and pound, pound away like a 
 mighty trip hammer. Today he is doctoring over in 
 Europe. I will guarantee he has seen days and weeks at 
 a stretch when he would have swapped several of his mil- 
 lions for a body that would give him as little worry as 
 yours does this very minute. We are sometimes richer 
 than Julius Caesar without knowing it. Have you an idea 
 this packer would have permitted one of his fine carriage 
 horses to be driven as he has driven himself? Of course 
 he wouldn't. He would insist that any steer that was 
 brought to his yards should be better treated.; 
 
342 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 343 
 
 If this yard man dances around like a chicken on a hot 
 stove for ten years or so, what will it avail him? Noth- 
 ing. If he has his senses when he is about to say good-bye 
 to his old stamping ground he will call himself an ass for 
 having encroached upon his rights as he did. I wish we 
 would think of that phase of the question oftener than we 
 do. It is a serious thing to wrong ourselves. 
 
 "Little arms stole 'round my neck." 
 
 I wish this boil on my ear would have its run so I could 
 tackle a more cheerful subject. In my normal condition I 
 don't care anything about your millionaires anyhow. They 
 are no better than the rest of us. I do not regard the mil- 
 lionaire of any greater importance in the world than the 
 man who today is sawing my wood. 
 
 I thought I had finished this subject, but as I whacked 
 out the last line on the machine some little arms stole 
 around my neck from behind and hugged until I begged 
 to be let go. 
 
 "What is that for?" 
 
 "Because I love you." 
 
 'What do you love me for?" 
 
 'Because you love me." 
 'How much do you love me?" 
 
 "All of London full!" 
 
 Talk about the millionaires who have warped their souls 
 to fit the shape of Mammon. God bless 'em! I hope they 
 are as happy as I am, but I don't believe they are. 
 
 €C 
 
 if 
 
 tf 
 
 THE SCARCITY OF LATH. 
 
 The lath question is a burning one. I asked one of the 
 ablest manufacturers in the northwest if he ever expected 
 to see such a condition in the lath market as then ruled, and 
 he said he never dreamed of it. We may draw a conclusion 
 or two from this lath condition. You and I have heard 
 talk without end about long-headed men ; how they can look 
 way down the dim vista and see what is going to be brought 
 forth. There is a great deal of bosh about such talk. I will 
 admit there are people who are pretty long-sighted, still I 
 have never had the pleasure of the acquaintance of a man 
 whose foresight was equal, by a whole row of apple trees, 
 to his hind-sight. Not many months ago I sat in the oftice 
 of one of the biggest manufacturers in the country. His 
 operations are of a volume to stagger a common mortal. He 
 really sits on a wooden throne, and he knows it, too. He is 
 regarded as one of the shrewdest men in the business. But 
 we are never so wise when we sit in front of the curtain as 
 we are when we go behind it. I knew this-man when he was 
 no more of a lumberman than your wife is. As a means of 
 self-protection he became owner of a little mill, and gradu- 
 
 I 
 
344 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 ally built up the plant. It paid well, and he kept on. He 
 did not at the start figure it out that the manufacture of lum- 
 ber was going to be such a mighty big thing. He stumbled 
 into it, and has been borne along with the tide. 
 
 There are a host of saw mill men and wholesale dealers 
 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and why was there 
 not somebody among them who could correctly size up the 
 
 "Turned my old black cow into lath." 
 
 lath prospects ? But there was not one — not even one in the 
 whole crowd. For the amount of capital it would have 
 been necessary to invest there has not to my knowledge been 
 another such chance to make money out of a product of the 
 saw mill. What if when lath was selling at say $1.45 you 
 had sold your lumber yard that some man was begging for 
 every day and put the money into lath to be delivered when 
 you said so ? Today, without having raised a finger to move 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 345 
 
 the stock, you could be wearing diamonds. I wish I had 
 turned my old black cow into lath. 
 
 I saw a yard man the other day who was selling lath 
 for $4.10. The question was put to him what on earth he 
 was thinking about. It developed that he was one of those 
 dealers who don't think their customers will pay the advance 
 of the wholesale market. When a kid I served under one of 
 the best merchants, in my opinion, that ever walked on two 
 feet, and having been thoroughly drilled in the principles of 
 trade I cannot understand the ways of a tradesman who 
 takes the position that he should not follow the market, 
 whether up or down. That, I believe is what the true mer- 
 chant does, but it is not what many a man who is selling 
 lumber at retail is doing. 
 
 A yard man was recently wondering why more patent 
 lath is not used these days. I cannot tell except that builders 
 don't want it. This season I have been around many build- 
 ings that were going up, and the number in which patent 
 lath wa3 being used can be counted on two fingers. I be- 
 lieve that the average carpenter talks down patent lath. An 
 architect told me that if properly put on he preferred patent 
 lath to the other — but you see that "if" comes in there. Very 
 likely the use of patent lath goes by districts or neighbor- 
 hoods, like the smallpox and measles. 
 
 ENCOURAGING TO BEGINNERS. 
 
 When a man is in a thoughtful mood it is impossible to 
 tell in what spot he is going to break out. Judging from 
 his previous remarks, I thought the yard man was going to 
 tell how rapidly he had rolled up wealth and that phase of his 
 career as a retail dealer did not interest me in the least. He 
 was comfortably fixed, and that was enough. We all know 
 that the selling of lumber at retail out here in the prairie 
 states has been a good business. There are many who have 
 made big money at it; many others who have done fairly 
 well and made a good living ; while comparatively few have 
 
\\M 
 
 346 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 failed. In a hundred years I could not learn to love a man 
 because of his riches. Unless to boot he is a good fellow, he 
 may go to the dogs with his riches for all I care. But the 
 good, rich fellow — that makes a pretty good combination. 
 
 An injustice was done this yard man, for instead of 
 parading his bank account he went on and made a talk that 
 may cheer the hearts of some dealers who are just starting 
 in business. You know that when we start out in any under- 
 taking that is new to us trouble seems to pile up. Petty 
 annoyances appear like mountains. When experience has 
 taught us to feel sure of our footing these little irregulari- 
 ties which worried us so much of old have no particular 
 meaning. We regard them as "of course," and let them go 
 their way. 
 
 "I came out here with my wife from the east," said this 
 yard man, "with little money and no credit, and dropped into 
 a lumber yard. I had come out of my father's yard, had 
 never taken any responsibility, but thought I could hold my 
 own. That is not the way to bring up boys — make them 
 responsible from the day they are able to do anything. So 
 long as I was with my father it did not enter my head that 
 he was more than an average man, but before I had been 
 away from him six months if he could have stepf)ed in and 
 given me a little advice it would have made me happy. I 
 doubt if a boy appreciates his father until he becomes a 
 father himself. I took the yard in June and trade was dull. 
 Every night my wife would ask me how much I had sold 
 that day. There were days when I didn't sell 50 cents* worth. 
 Then I would catch my wife crying. I told her that was 
 the way the lumber business went ; but, to tell the truth, I 
 had never seen it go that way before. We put in an uneasy 
 summer and didn't eat beefsteak and mushrooms three times 
 a day. E^rly in September, in less than an hour, I sold a 
 church bill and as soon as I could get rid of the committee 
 I rushed over to tell my wife. 'But does it pay anything?' 
 said she. 'Two hundred dollars!' said I. That minute we 
 were the richest couple in the state. Then other bills came 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 347 
 
 along. The farmers wanted to fix up for the winter, and I 
 sold a lot of stuff and did well enough. We went into the 
 winter with no pressing need and knowing where our grub, 
 clothing and firewood were coming from. The chief trouble 
 was I was new to the business out here. I thought I couldn't 
 wait, though as events proved I had to wait. That is the 
 way the lumber business goes. I see whole weeks now that 
 I feel like going fishing, but after a little trade picks up agam. 
 
 "Then I would catch my wife crying." 
 
 There is nothing surer than that people must keep right 
 along building and repairing. If they don't do it this month 
 they will next, and if not this year then the next. When 
 there is a lull they are getting ready to come and see you 
 
 again." u *. •* 
 
 This little recital may not inspire you a particle, but it 
 did me It illustrates some excellent points— one, that if 
 an earnest young man will attend to his knitting he will 
 finally finish the stocking. It is generally those who do not 
 attend to their knitting that fall among thieves and gamblers. 
 
 HANDY LITTLE BOOK. 
 It is not every man who has had the advantage of a 
 business education. I suppose that the great majority of 
 
348 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 349 
 
 the most successful lumbermen have not had it — that is, a 
 technical education. They have never attended commer- 
 cial college and learned the various forms of bookkeeping 
 and the proper way to write out this and that form. It 
 need not be said that a knowledge of these things has ever 
 made a successful business man. It may materially aid 
 him; but the quality which makes the successful business 
 man is inborn and could not be learned in a commercial col- 
 lege in a thousand years. This technical knowledge is not 
 the man ; it simply assists the man. 
 
 A yard man took a little blank book from his desk 
 drawer and handed it to me. I saw that entered against 
 
 "Profits on the cover." 
 
 each working day there was an amount. Then, turning the 
 book in my hand, I saw "Profits" written on the cover. 
 
 "So these figures represent your profits?" I said to him. 
 
 "Yes," he replied. "I did not show them to you, think- 
 ing that the amounts would stagger you, but that possibly 
 
 they may suggest an idea to somebody else that may be of 
 service to him. All I ever learned al)out figures was in a 
 district school house and in a lumber yard. Double entry 
 bookkeeping is as Greek to me as the Greek language itself. 
 I worked for So-and-So in his yard for three years before 
 I branched out for myself, and while he had an expert 
 bookkeeper and all that it did not seem to me that the sys- 
 tem filled the bill. Every once in a while Jim would set 
 us taking an inventory of the stock to see whether he was 
 making any money or not, as he expressed it. I concluded 
 that there must be some better way than that, and the first 
 day I opened my yard I started my little book and have 
 kept it up. At night I know what I have sold, I know what 
 it cost, and the difference represents the gross profit of the 
 day. Deduct from that amount my expenses, and I have it." 
 
 "With the exception," I broke in, "that some of your 
 bills receivable may fail to be received." 
 
 "Yes, that is so," said he. "But I can tell you that 
 my bills receivable which are not received are light. I had 
 so little money when I started and had worked so hard for 
 it that it seemed precious to me. I was going to take no 
 chances of losing it and that determination has stayed by 
 me up to the present hour. I have no money to lend to peo- 
 ple whose disposition or ability to return it to me is doubt- 
 ful; then why should I trust to those people my lumber 
 which cost me money?" 
 
 I arose and slapped the man on the shoulder. "That," 
 said I, "is the clear stuflf! If every yard man in America 
 would use that as a text, print it in golden letters and paste 
 it in his hat so that his brains would fully absorb it, it would 
 be worth millions to the trade." 
 
 When fishing we know what we will catch. When the 
 train pulled into this little burg I was in doubt whether it 
 would be the thing to get oflF or not. But you see what 
 was found: A yard man who owned right up that his 
 knowledge of bookkeeping was exceedingly limited, but 
 who had adopted a system, in part, which he hoped might 
 
 ii 
 
350 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 benefit some one else; and in addition to this a man who 
 got off as wise a saving as could any lumberman in the 
 whole country, no matter if he should use a club on his 
 head from now till next week pounding it out. 
 
 A CONTRACTOR'S DILEMMA. 
 
 There are free lances in the market who know their cus- 
 tomers and treat them accordingly. If they are shipping 
 lumber to a contractor who is known by them to be posted 
 on grades, who will kick like a mule if he does not get what 
 he buys and furthermore is a man whom they hope to re- 
 tain as a customer, they may send him a fair quality of lum- 
 ber, but if the stock is shipped to a 2x4 carpenter who fiddles 
 around here and there without knowing what he does want, 
 or to a farmer to whom a board is a board, then only the 
 Lord knows what grade of material he will get. The way 
 certain of these poachers adjust their grades to the supposed 
 ignorance of their customers has become a fine art. 
 
 When writing this I have in mind a contractor who 
 knows lumber as well as the best of us, and it is part of his 
 business religion to buy where he can buy cheapest — a prin- 
 ciple which few good business men repudiate, and a plank in 
 the business platform of the most successful operators in 
 every line. In my range of lumber acquaintances I can re- 
 call only one dealer who does not follow this plan. This 
 man never runs after strange gods. When he buys it is more 
 of a principle of whom he buys than it is to get the lowest 
 possible price. If I am not mistaken he refuses to insure 
 his yard in a mutual company on the ground that he regards 
 it as his duty to patronize the insurance agents of his own 
 town. Such men are as scarce as hens' teeth, however. 
 
 In this matter of cheap buying we are liable to get it 
 soaked to us unless we know precisely what we are going 
 to get. Price is one thing and quality another. There are 
 thousands of branded articles in the market, and no matter 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 351 
 
 whether we pay a cent or a hundred for one of them there 
 would be no difference in the quality. But we know how 
 lumber can be manipulated, for some of us have manipulated 
 it. So far as the grades are concerned well meaning men 
 differ. For instance, look at the work of the bureau of in- 
 spection of the white pine manufacturers' association. That 
 bureau has done its best to adjust grades as to different lo- 
 cahties. It has employed as able men as could be had, yet 
 this grading has not been brought down to a nicety. There 
 are yard men who buy at certain manufacturing points, be- 
 lieving that the grades there obtained are superior to those 
 to be had at certain other points. The question of opinion. 
 
 "Fairly danced with joy." 
 
 judgment, comes in here. In one section the timber has 
 more knots, in another more shake, and it is the aim of the 
 inspection bureau to make the same grades in the different 
 localities of the same value. You can readily understand 
 what part judgment plays here. Suppose here are two suits 
 of clothes, one suit has rips in one part of it and the other 
 rips in another part. In one suit there are holes in soiTie 
 places and in the other holes in different places. It is very 
 doubtful if we would agree as to the relative values of the 
 suits. This illustrates the estimation in which the work of 
 
352 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 the inspection bureau is held by its own members and by the 
 retail dealers. The inspectors use their best judgment in es- 
 tablishing the grades, but their judgment is neither yours 
 nor mine. The bureau may say that a board cut from an 
 upper Mississippi log containing knots is equal in value to 
 one cut from a Wisconsin valley log containing shake, and 
 while the bureau may settle that point for itself it cannot 
 settle it for you. That board is more valuable for you which 
 sells the more readily; to which the fewer objections are 
 raised by your customers. 
 
 I would not want to buy lumber, and pay in advance for 
 it, of a dishonest man who lived so far away that it would 
 cost all that the car of lumber was worth to make the trip 
 and lick him. Your carpenter, your farmer has paid for his 
 lumber, receives poor stuff, and what is he going to do about 
 it? Swallow the whole thing and take an oath that he will 
 never be caught like that again until the next time. That is 
 all he can do. I should like to see the carpenter or farmer 
 bring suit against one of these poachers for damage owing, 
 to not getting value received for his money ! Why, that car- 
 penter or farmer would be made a monkey of so quick he 
 would not know himself. This contractor who forms a 
 subject for this little piece is up to several kinds of snuff, 
 and he knew very well that the cheapest thing for him to do 
 was to swallow the deal. 
 
 The contractor in question has been mighty close with 
 the yard men of whom he has bought lumber, demanding 
 good material and low prices, and gettjng them, but you 
 know that at times we have worms or microbes or other sim- 
 ilar animals which prey upon us and temporarily, at least, 
 change our natures. It is no doubt a mistake to think that 
 microbes affect only what we call our physical organizations. 
 I believe there are microbes which prey upon our mentality 
 as well. In fact, when we come right down to business and 
 let speculation alone, I guess the man has not yet been born 
 who was smart enough to separate the mental from the phy- 
 sical. Prior to a close study being made of these things it 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 353 
 
 was easily done — just as our ignorance permits us so easily 
 to settle many other great problems about which we really 
 know little — but the last analysis that has been made says 
 that every thought that emanates from your brain or mine is 
 composed of matter, fine, subtle matter, but matter just the 
 same, and if that be so why should there not be more subtle 
 microbes than those which gnaw away on our livers and 
 lungs ? 
 
 This contractor has a job and failed to make a dicker to 
 suit him with the local yard man. Probably the contractor 
 demanded too much and the yard man wanted too much. 
 Let me say this in favor of this contractor: He always gives 
 the yard men in the towns in which he may be building the 
 first chance. I tell you if personally I were the retail lum- 
 
 "Nail it right to the beards." 
 
 bermen of the United States these poachers would go out 
 of business, for I would keep them out of my territory if 
 now and then I had to give away a bill to do it. When a 
 yard man gets to thinking that he is the whole thing and 
 pitches his prices unreasonably high, he lay^ himself wide 
 open to the ravages of the poacher. As the contractor and 
 retail man could not agree on prices the lumber for the house 
 was shipped in. The contractor opened the car and fairly 
 danced with joy. He pulled out a few boards and they 
 were fine. Then he took the train and went off to another 
 town to oversee a job for a day or two, and when he came 
 back his man had the car unloaded. 
 
^p. 
 
 354 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 "Where did that blank C siding come from?" roared the 
 contractor. 
 
 ''Why, out of the car, of course," meekly replied the supe. 
 
 "And these blank four boards?" again roared the con- 
 tractor. 
 
 "Out of the car," meekly answered the supe. 
 
 The 4-inch C siding was 90 percent blue sap and the 
 No. 4 boards were so wretchedly poor that the man who was 
 building the house would not permit them to be used. I know 
 this contractor and I can imagine how he jerked up his pant 
 legs, spit tobacco juice and tore around like a baby cyclone. 
 I don't know whether he is cured or not, but the chances are 
 he is if the yard men in the towns in which he has con- 
 tracts will only meet him half way. At any rate he is so 
 much in love with the poacher of whom he bought the bill 
 of lumber that he asked permission of a yard man to leave a 
 bundle of this blue sap siding in his yard, and brand it to 
 the effect that it came from such and such a poacher. 
 
 '^And I will make my affidavit and nail it right to the 
 boards if you say so," he remarked. 
 
 KEEPING COMFORTABLE. 
 
 Now that the frost is on the pumpkin it is plainly the 
 duty of the yard man to get up the stove in his office. There 
 are retail lumbermen who will stand around thumping their 
 hands and feet to keep them warm when they ought to have 
 a glowing fire in the office stove. I am not speaking for 
 myself, yet when I come to your office I want to be com- 
 fortable. Occasionally there is a yard man who is a regular 
 buflfalo to stand the cold. I expect he was bom up in Nor- 
 way or Sweden and is always sighing for a cold breeze. He 
 will spit the ice from between his teeth and appear as happy 
 as a clam in high tide. Then when we scribblers go around 
 with our elegant fur coats on, with collars turned up, shiv- 
 ering like a cornstalk in a prairie breeze, these born refrigera- 
 
 ■j 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 355 
 
 tors look at us as though we were babes right out of hot air 
 incubators. 
 
 Late last fall, when making a trip in southern Minnesota, 
 when the morning was as cold as an unsatisfied creditor, I 
 called on one of these ice men who happened to be up town 
 on business. I froze for fifteen minutes, then went up the 
 street to the place of another dealer, and the fact is we went 
 out and got a cocktail to warm us up. At the Minneapolis 
 convention I saw this man who lives without artificial heat, 
 
 and he gently chided me. 
 "I saw you were in my 
 town, but you didn't 
 come and see me," he 
 said. 
 
 "Yes, I did," he re- 
 plied. "I was there on 
 such and such a morn- 
 ing, and your office was 
 so much of an icebox 
 "Putting up the stovepipe." that I didn't stay until 
 
 you came back from town." 
 
 Then he asked me why I didn't chuck in a bundle of 
 lath or a bunch of shingles and make a fire to suit myself. 
 "By George!" said he, "tell me when you are coming the 
 next time, and I will set the old office on fire !" 
 
 That was a sociable way to talk, but I knew all the time 
 he was thinking I was a tender skinned kid. 
 
 This personal experience is simply thrown in. It does 
 seem to me, however, that it is business to keep an office 
 warm in cold weather. You wouldn't catch hardware, dry 
 goods or boot and shoe men running their places the live- 
 long day without heat when it was so cold they would have 
 to walk around the premises to keep warm. Their business 
 education was not neglected to that extent. If they were 
 born in Greenland, when in Rome they do as the Romans 
 do. If in the matter of keeping our offices warm we are 
 
 1 1 
 
 I 
 
 
35^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 competing with blacksmith shops and saw mills let us own 
 right up to it. 
 
 There is the fall duty of putting up the stovepipe, pinch- 
 ing our fingers, falling off chairs, saying bad words etc., 
 which comes to so many of us, and we may as well indulge 
 in the pleasure before the last housefly disappears as to 
 wait until the snow comes swirling in at the door. We know 
 it must be done, so why not buckle to and get the nightmare 
 off our minds ? 
 
 Many yard men do not take down their stoves the year 
 round, and there they stand in the middle of the floor, eter- 
 
 357 
 
 "Will set the old office on fire. 
 
 nally ready for business. These men have never, of course, 
 taken lessons in house keeping from their wives, but that 
 doesn't matter. If we can't have a few liberties of our own 
 we will rebel and cut the apron strings right in two. 
 
 PRAIRIE FENCES. 
 
 I wish we could evolute beyond the barbarity of the 
 barbed wire fence, for, as highly civilized as we call our- 
 selves, barbarous in regard to the use of this fence we cer- 
 tainly are. I should like to sec the sum total of the loss 
 of horses and cattle due to barbed wire. It would astonish 
 
 the world. Throughout the prairie states there is a countless 
 number of horses from each of which dollars have been 
 knocked by contact with barbed wire. I have seen the 
 cussedness wrought by this style of fence until my heart 
 has ached for the poor brutes. Not long ago I cut the 
 wire of a fence in order to release a heifer that was astride 
 of it, and whose flesh was torn and pierced in a way that 
 was sickening to behold. The other day I saw a fine yearling 
 colt with the flesh literally stripped from the inside of its 
 hind legs to the bone. These sights are common, and all 
 
 "The barbarity of the barbed wire fence. 
 
 over the country, on fence and tree, is posted the announce- 
 ment that some patent medicine man's liniment is just the 
 thing for wire cuts. 
 
 It would be a task to determine what the human 
 race will not do for the almighty dollar. I was well ac- 
 quainted with the patent lawyer through whom an inventor 
 sought to secure a patent on one of the first, if not the first, 
 barbed wire fence device, and the lawyer turned it down 
 on the ground that the applicant would be spending his 
 money for nothing, as he did not believe that the public 
 would countenance such an implement of cruelty. The 
 
358 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 lawyer, however, was wrong. His heart was too tender; 
 and I have thought what a noble tribute to his worth it 
 would be if on the monument over his grave were the sim- 
 ple inscription, "To the memory of the lawyer who refused 
 to assist in securing a patent on barbed wire for fencing." 
 
 The introduction of the wire fence dampened the ardor 
 of many a pioneer retail lumberman. These lumbermen 
 came on from the east where rails, boards and stone were 
 used for fencing; hence they thought that "out west" they 
 would have a cinch on the fence industry, for they couldn't 
 pick up a stone big enough to throw at fighting cats, and 
 there was no timber from which to split rails. They thought 
 as fast as the prairie was laid off into farms they would 
 sell the fencing to inclose them ; but, as the Scottish bard 
 says, "The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft 
 aglee." In one sense it was perhaps as well that this scheme 
 did not carry, for where would the stuff have come from 
 to fence all these prairie state farms with boards ? It would 
 have rushed the supply of lumber, there would have been 
 more of a shortage up north than there is today, the barons 
 would have sent prices up higher than a pine tree, and 
 emigrants would have been so discouraged that they would 
 have waded right through the sea of prairie grass and 
 brought up maybe beyond the Rockies. Then where would 
 you and I have been ? When we reflect how things might 
 have been we should feel thankful that they are as they are. 
 There are so many holes in the logic of the above statement 
 that you might say a full-blooded Irishman wrote it, but 
 when a fellow gets his head hard set in any particular direc- 
 tion he doesn't care a rap for logic if he can only get there. 
 We can prove this to our satisfaction in a minute by glancing 
 at politics, religion, literature or art. I have concluded 
 that when a man says that logic shall not stand in his way 
 he is no more of a fool than are ninety-nine one-hundredths 
 of his fellow creatures. 
 
 As it has turned out. the term fencing as applied to a 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 359 
 
 grade of lumber in the middle west is a misnomer. We will 
 it fencing, but use it for a hundred and more purposes. 
 
 It would do me good to see the barbed wire fence go, 
 however. Had I not a little stretch of it myself I might 
 say that it is a disgrace to any man who will make use of it. 
 A few weeks ago I listened to a woman who came near 
 putting me to sleep with a sing-song woman suffrage ad- 
 dress, and I thought, "Old gal, if you would quit discussing 
 these questions which are problematical anyhow, and take 
 up the cause of the dumb brutes vs. the barbed wire fences. 
 I would throw a half dollar instead of a bogus nickel into the 
 hat for you." 
 
 LOW PRICES THEIR SALVATION. 
 
 I met a yard man whose burden of complaint was that 
 lumber is not admitted free into the United States from 
 
 "A tariff discussion on a street corner." 
 
 Canada. He thought if lumber were so admitted it would 
 sell cheaper at wholesale, and one might conclude from what 
 he said that life would be sweeter and that the fine farm 
 he owns would measure more to the acre. 
 • There is not much pleasure wrestling in a tariff discus- 
 
36o 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 sion unless there is more of an object than for a fellow 
 to hear himself talk. There are some things which are self- 
 evident and others which can be reasoned out with some 
 degree of human certainty, but I never attempted a tariff 
 discussion on a street comer when I thought I came out 
 whole, and doubtless the other fellow had the same humili- 
 ating feeling. It amounts to talk, talk, talk, statements on 
 both sides which cannot be proved, charges and cross 
 charges, and in the end nothing gained. I have talked tariff 
 in print a great many times, but that is another thing. A 
 printing press will whirl off your great thoughts, then you 
 can go home and sleep in peace, and if the people who read 
 your articles do you up you don't know a thing about it. I 
 have an idea there are as many as one or two newspaper 
 men who think they weigh a ton simply because they are 
 not obliged to come in contact with men who know more 
 than they do. I have been there myself. 
 
 Last summer I heard a protestant and a catholic dis- 
 cuss the question of religion, or rather the one of churches. 
 They started in by knowing it all, said a hundred things 
 they didn't know, and ended no nearer together than when 
 they trained their guns. The fact was neither of them 
 wanted to be convinced and each thought that the other 
 was as blind as a new kitten, and a further fact was that 
 neither of them was half as wise as he thought he was. If 
 we could be at the same time the man on the ground and 
 the man up the tree it would be a splendid wav to become 
 acquainted with ourselves. 
 
 For the reasons set forth I don't want to talk tariff in pri- 
 vate. I have my opinion on the subject, am perfectly will- 
 ing that others shall have theirs whether they agree with 
 mine or not, but I don't want to put in good time when it 
 will not bring me a cent, nobody else a cent, and nobody 
 be convinced. On this account while this yard man was lay- 
 ing down the law and gospel of the tariff business— ob- 
 tained, I know, from a party organ— I made so little sign 
 of life that he may have thought I didn't know a tariff from 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 361 
 
 the side of a barn. I don't care if he thought I was dead. 
 An easy way, and sometimes the only way, to shut up other 
 people is to shut up yourself. 
 
 But when it comes to the price of lumber at wholesale — 
 there is a subject that is in sight, legitimate and always pat. 
 And I can't understand— I say it right out, I can't under- 
 stand — why there are men selling lumber at retail who are 
 eager that the price at wholesale shall be low irrespective of 
 the effect it may have on the wholesale dealers. Personally 
 I want to see the whole shooting match, from the man who 
 owns the tree to the one who peddles out boards to builders, 
 prosper. Yet the cry of certain retail men is *'Low prices ! 
 Low prices !" They appear to focus their whole natures on 
 what should be low prices. 
 
 I recently saw a man who had sold his yard and was 
 looking for a town in which to re-establish. "I don't know 
 as it is just the time to put in a large stock of lumber," he 
 said. That is a proper question to consider. There is many 
 a dealer who would think seriously before laying in a stock 
 from the foundations when prices seemed unreasonably high. 
 Just how long present prices will hold none of us knows. A 
 northern manufacturer said to me in a letter last week 
 that by and by prices will tumble. It wouldn't do to tell his 
 name, else his neighbors might hang him. There are cer- 
 tain conditions governing stocks and demand, however, 
 which make it tolerably certain that low priced lumber will 
 not knock at our doors immediately, but if any man pre- 
 tends to tell you at what prices boards and dimension will 
 sell following a change in these conditions, you can adopt 
 Horace Greeley's method of addressing those who did not 
 agree with him and call him a liar and a horse thief; that is, 
 always first provided that you can lick him. 
 
 One of these low-priced yard men told me the other 
 morning that these high prices had retarded building. No 
 doubt in a limited number of cases that is so. Still it is not 
 my observation that any more building has been postponed 
 this season than there was last, or the one before last. We 
 
 ^i 
 
 
362 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 have never seen a season when plans for bnihling were not 
 made which did not materiaHze. There are people who are 
 everlastingly building, in their minds. I know a man who 
 has built a house every season for four years, and the foun- 
 dation is not in yet. There may be numerous reasons why 
 any man should postpone building. First and last I see a 
 great many builders and contractors, and several of them 
 have told me that in the majority of cases of the postpon- 
 ing of building plans the cause was the inability to get me- 
 chanics to do the work. That, surely, is a healthy condition 
 of things, isn't it ? In this connection I speak, of course, of 
 frame buildings. On account of the great advance in 
 structural steel store and office building plans have been 
 tabled. When the increase in the cost of building is 75 per- 
 cent, as is the case with steel work, it is something to talk 
 about. The difference between $100,000 and $175,000 is 
 enough to stagger any. but old Money Bags himself, but 
 when to build an average house in wood the increase, as 
 compared with a low priced period, is only a few hundred 
 dollars the feeling of confidence which possesses so many 
 these days is apt to overbalance it. Maybe my eyes are 
 eclipsed, but that is the way I look at it. 
 
 What we want are equitable prices, whether they may 
 be such that we may call them high or low. There is no 
 more sense in thinking that prices of lumber should remain 
 the same year after year than there would be in thinking 
 that wool, cotton, quinine, iron should be stationary in price. 
 Supply and demand — that is what does it, unless some mis- 
 erable trust is back of a product. I^t us be thankful there 
 is no lumber trust. Both north and south there are associa- 
 tions, price list committees and kindred trade helps, but 
 don't think for a minute that one of them would have a 
 feather's weight if the demand should so fall off that the 
 supply would exceed it. We may live to see the time when 
 the price of lumber, especially in the northwest, will be 
 pitched by one or two of the old long heads, but it will 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 363 
 
 not be until the whistle of many a mill that is slashing away 
 today shall "have tooted for the last time. Supply and de- 
 mand will rule. 
 
 A LUMBER JACK. 
 
 This jack is the invention of Senator Lathrop, of North- 
 field, Minn. A is an oak stick, 3x4, and BB are other oak 
 sticks an inch thick and about four inches wide. Between 
 the mortises in A the distance is 39 inches — one inch more 
 than the distance from one wagon stake to the other. The 
 
 la 
 
 t 
 
 iiG? 
 
 "s^a^/t* 
 
 So/U 
 
 n 
 
 \\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 C 
 
 ■^ 
 
 Sorts 
 
 aa/t* 
 
 :0 
 
 ^ 
 
 Stakes can be made any length, preferably about four feet. 
 On each side of the mortises bolts should be put through 
 the crosspiece to prevent it from splitting. 
 
 When it is desired to put on a big load of lumber, hav- 
 ing piled it to the top of the wagon stakes, one jack is 
 placed near the forward stakes and the other near the hind 
 ones, the jacks acting as extended stakes. In large part 
 these jacks take the place of a binder. 
 
 Suppose a farmer customer is in town who, in addition 
 to flour, sugar, salt etc., wants to carry home a thousand 
 
 \ 
 
 \\ 
 
 I 
 
3^4 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 feet of lumber ; he comes with a lumber wagon and in the 
 bottom of the wagon are the articles he has bought at the 
 grocery. A couple of these jacks are placed across the box 
 and the lumber is piled on. When unloading, the stakes may 
 be pulled over until the lumber rests on the edge of the 
 cross piece, when the boards may be drawn from the side 
 of the wagon instead of directly back. 
 
 "I used these jacks two years before I learned how to 
 carry them on an unloaded wagon, without a box," said 
 Mr. Lathrop. Then he took them, stuck one end down 
 into the hounds of the wagon, with the other end resting 
 on the bolster, and there they were as securely as though 
 they were locked. 
 
 It costs only a small amount to make these jacks and 
 there are those who call them a big thing. All the yards 
 in Northfield have adopted them and do not think they 
 could keep house without them. 
 
 THE WINNING TWAIN. 
 
 We had picked up pieces of lath on the way, looked 
 around the yard, took reserved seats on a pile of lumber, 
 and naturally both fell to whittling. This dealer is known 
 as a close buyer and I have heard traveling salesmen cen- 
 sure him because he wants his money's worth. He is re- 
 garded as one of the best merchants of the town, and out 
 there on the lumber pile I thought I should like to tap him 
 and permit some of his lumber lore to flow over these pages. 
 Every time a successful man tells how he got on in the world 
 it ought to benefit us, whether it docs or not. 
 
 "I started out by determining to make a part of my 
 profit on the buying end of the business," he remarked. 
 **When a man buys right, if pushed to it he can sell as 
 low as his neighbor, and if not pushed to low prices my 
 profits exceed those of the dealer who does not buy close. 
 It isn't the salesman or the wholesale dealer I am trying 
 particularly to please ; it is my customer. A customer knows 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 365 
 
 mighty well whether his interests are protected or not. We 
 sometimes make a big mistake by ascribing to others less 
 intelligence than we ourselves possess. Others are as sharp 
 as we are. A man wants what he buys, and he wants it as 
 cheap as he can get it elsewhere, and if it is a little cheaper 
 he never grumbles. If I have ever had many dissatisfied 
 customers I don't know it. When I sell a bill of lumber 
 
 ■■-^•?r 
 
 "Both fell to whittling." 
 
 I want to show the stuflf to the buyer, tell him what it is, 
 and if it has defects point them out to him. Today I sold 
 cedar shingles for a house. The old man who is building 
 the house liked the looks of them and remarked that they 
 appeared to be a perfect shingle. I told him that in every 
 sense they were not perfect ; that they would stain his cis- 
 tern water red ; but as he uses city water that was no objec- 
 tion. Confidence in you, and fair prices by you, will sell 
 more goods than any other agency. It's what will keep 
 your business going year after year." 
 
 I thought he was getting along admirably, but evidently 
 he did not want my visit to be a monotonous one, so he 
 changed the subject and, evidently being a silver man, he 
 had something to say about the old 16 to i question.' I 
 
z(^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 had heard that question discussed and cussed so much that 
 it has no charms for me, and as Hfe is short I shut up my 
 jackknife, §hd off the pile of boards and told the yard man 
 I would run over and see his neighbor. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF DIFFERENCE. 
 
 After a yard man had passed the time of day he said 
 
 he did not agree with a certain conclusion I had reached, and 
 
 was half inclined to write me. I asked him why he did not, 
 
 and his reply was he did not know that I would like it ! 
 
 He would never be able to arouse any lion in my nature 
 
 **See things in a different light." 
 
 by disagreeing with me. Why, even my best girl and I 
 not infrequently see things in a different light. It may be 
 on some literary, social or religious point ; and for that 
 reason have you an idea that we go to pulling hair? Not 
 to the extent that I am yet bald. We talk it over and then 
 go right along thinking our own thoughts as though nothing 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 367 
 
 had happened. It is an unwritten law in this household 
 that there is no coercion of thought. Whether my children 
 shall grow up thinking as the old man does concerning the 
 problems of life is a matter of no concern to me. I tell 
 you the old man can crack few enough of them to his satis- 
 faction, and that being the case it would be folly for him 
 to instruct others just how to do it. I impose one require- 
 ment — that my children think honestly. I want to give them 
 all the opportunities in my power — schools, books, churches, 
 music, lectures, anything that will inspire them to think vig- 
 orously and purely — and then leave them as free as the 
 clouds in the air. What would you think of me if I should 
 bring down a pair of my pants some morning and insist 
 that my boy wear them? He would say they did not fit — 
 the legs were too long, the waist too large. Then I would 
 shout, 'They have got to fit ! What is the matter with your 
 legs and waist?" Then if he couldn't expand his stomach 
 and extend his legs to the exact proportion of mine I would 
 denounce him. You would call me a bloomin' idiot, wouldn't 
 you ? Well, I should call myself just as much of an idiot 
 should I attempt to make my boy's mentality tally with 
 mine. I could make a seeming conformity by forcing him 
 to be a hypocrite, but I have an idea that will not leave me 
 that if we draw near to our Master it must be because we 
 are honest men. 
 
 A LABOR SAVING DEVICE. 
 
 We lumbermen who have so many times gone to bed 
 with tired legs and aching backs have longed for easier ways 
 of doing our work. We do not take any too much com- 
 fort if we use all the conveniences possible in our occupa- 
 tions. I am a thorough believer in labor savers. That man 
 is not entirely sane who does not want as easy a time as is 
 consistent with the successful prosecution of his business. 
 In Missouri I saw a yard man who was piling some timbers, 
 and he went at it as if there was not such a thing as ingenu- 
 
368 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 3^ 
 
 ity or inventive genius in the world. After he had gotten 
 through Hfting the timbers, one on top of the other, he sat 
 down on a pile of lumber to talk for a few minutes, and if 
 he was not a played out individual you never saw one. The 
 perspiration streamed down his face and he was so ex- 
 hausted that he panted like a race horse. That is no way to 
 treat ourselves. We are a finer piece of machinery than 
 that expensive watch of yours, and worth more than a thou- 
 sand watches. And no doubt you are so careful of your 
 watch that you will not open it to let your little boy see the 
 wheels, afraid that a particle of dust may get into the works. 
 By and by this man will get stiflF with rheumatism, be or- 
 
 "Sometimes you crawl over them." 
 
 dered oflf to some mineral spring and spend a hundred times 
 more money than it would have cost him to hire a man to 
 share the lifting with him. 
 
 The little device referred to above is nearly the shape of 
 many a window cleaner you have seen. Put whiskers on it 
 and it would be a brush with which windows could be 
 washed. It is composed of a handle, a head piece and two 
 braces. My artistic genius makes it look on paper like the 
 accompanying cut. You are mechanic enough to make one 
 of them in ten minutes. Maybe you cannot guess what you 
 could do with such a thing in your shed. It will save you 
 wearing your shoe taps off and humping your back when 
 you are piling lumber. You have undoubtedly reached the 
 conclusion that much of the lumber that is piled in your 
 
 shed ought to be stuck. There is safety in this sticking, 
 notwithstanding the boards may be fairly dry. Ordinarily 
 when you are piling you go over to the other end of the pile 
 — sometimes have to crawl over there — to place the lath. 
 With this simple little implement you are not obliged to do 
 
 "This simple little implement." 
 
 this. You need not go away from the front end of the pile 
 at all. You shove on the board, lift it up, put your stick on 
 the board under it, and with this little apparatus shove the 
 stick back just where you want it. Try it once and you will 
 think it does not lack much of taking the place of a man. 
 
 YARD MAN'S OPINION OF BULL METHODS. 
 
 I had not long to stay in the town, and the yard man 
 said he would go to the hotel and eat dinner with me so 
 we could put in all the time together possible. We sat 
 down at an old fashioned meal. At that house they know 
 nothing about course dinners. Everything was in one course, 
 and we passed the dishes from one to the other as we who 
 were so fortunate as to have been there used to do on the 
 farm. On the center of the table was a caster, with about 
 half a dozen bottles in it, and when we didn't see the condi- 
 ment we wanted we would give it a whirl so that the pepper, 
 or vinegar, or mustard, would come around our way. You 
 remember this piece of table furniture, don't you? Our 
 wives used to think they could not hold up their heads 
 in society unless they had one of them. Of course they were 
 pewter, with a little silver washed over them, but they were 
 big and showy— and that was the point ! The girl at this 
 hotel who waited on table was actually too unsophisticated to 
 
 Vi 
 
370 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 flirt. A young drummer tried to be a little cute with her, 
 and she looked at him as innocently as though she were a 
 Jersey calf. Nevertheless it was a good meal, well cooked 
 and plenty of it. When we come right down to bottom facts 
 there are a thousand frills in life which are only skin deep. 
 The landlady came out and asked us if we would have an- 
 other piece of pie. The yard man introduced her to me, and 
 she sat down by the table, and before we had done chatting 
 she asked me how many children I had. The way we get 
 along in the world largely depends on the kind of company 
 
 "We would give it a whirl 
 
 we keep. Had I not been with this yard man the landlady 
 no doubt would have passed me by as she did the young 
 drummer who was eating at the same table. She said noth- 
 ing to him about his children. 
 
 When we went out on the steps and the yard man had 
 whittled a match for a toothpick, he said he meant never to 
 give serious attention again to a bull argument. *'The manu- 
 facturers ramfuzzle us at every turn," he remarked. "Last 
 fall and early winter it came from high authority up in 
 Minneapolis that the supply of white pine would be i,ooo,- 
 oooooo feet short in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 371 
 
 annual figures showed no such thing. A few weeks ago 
 when I read the resolutions, or whatever they were, pro- 
 mulgated by the members of the manufacturers' association 
 I laughed heartily. To me it looked like boy's play. If I 
 had been a manufacturer I never would put my name to 
 such a document as that. As I look at it, it was an indica- 
 tion of weakness. Last season, when elevator and railroad 
 building were taking lumber in such quantities, they were 
 at no pains to tell us that lumber was high, were they ? Or 
 why it should be high, were they? When a commodity is 
 on a good solid basis there is no reason why it should be 
 explained in concert. Why, in October, I was in Minne- 
 apolis, and they were as independent as telegraph poles. I 
 could take the lumber or leave it alone. At that time they 
 didn't waste a minute to explain to me why the lumber should 
 be high. 
 
 "The southern mill men, too, got up on the roof. There 
 was no prospect that yellow pine would go lower ! Oh, no ! 
 They said it had got there to stay, this time. It was going 
 to sympathize with white pine, and white pine would never 
 go into the basement, nor even down on the parlor floor 
 again. I took stock in what they said about yellow pine, 
 and as a result I have lumber in my yard that I could have 
 bought for $5 a thousand cheaper since. I was too confid- 
 ing; that was what was the matter with me." 
 
 'What do you think about future prices ?" I asked. 
 
 'I think they will continue to bob up and down like a 
 sinker, just as to my knowledge they have for the past 
 dozen years. Say !" he suddenly exclaimed, pulling the old 
 arm chair around more in front of me, "I will tell you the 
 mistake we make in buying. We are afraid of high prices, 
 and we are afraid of low prices. There is some reason why 
 we should be afraid of high prices, but there is no reason 
 on the face of the earth why low prices should scare us. 
 When lumber is selling at low prices is when we should 
 stock up. Lay in then for all there is in us ! We may not 
 expect to sell it all right away, but there is no better prop- 
 
 *<•' 
 
 <<i 
 
372 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 erty in the world than lumber when it is bought away 
 down, for we know it won't stay there long." 
 
 A team drove up in front of the yard and the dealer said 
 he would have to go over and see what was wanted. I set- 
 tled my dinner a few minutes longer, tried to find out from 
 the drummer who was taking his after-dinner pipe how the 
 shoe market was, paid my bill and walked down to the sta- 
 tion. 
 
 t 
 
 Lumber Sheds. 
 
 There is not space in this book to give any elaborate de- 
 tailed plans of lumber sheds, but the subject is so important 
 a one to retailers that the plans which follow may be of 
 assistance to many. At any rate they will be suggestive. 
 They show some improved ideas in shed arrangements, 
 though in the American Lumberman have been published 
 many others of different sizes and arrangements and adapt- 
 ed to different locations and, to a certain extent, to differ- 
 ent classes of trade. 
 
 Plan No. I is of a shed designed to take care of every 
 item in a country yard carrying a moderate stock. The 
 ground plan gives a general idea of the arrangement of the 
 interior, together with that of the office and its fixtures. The 
 joists are laid and braced as shown in the center. The raft- 
 ers are placed on girders as shown, the girders being 6xio 
 inches and supported throughout the entire building with 
 8x8 posts. 
 
 The cross sections show the arrangement of bins and par- 
 titions. The first two cross sections give opposite sides of 
 the right hand alley looking from the front, showing on the 
 office side the door into the office, and the windows, with 
 room for sash,, doors etc. over it ; and on the other side 2- 
 story spaces for doors and sash, back of it rooms for screens, 
 roofing and oils and a molding rack. 
 
 The second two elevations show the opposite sides of the 
 left hand alley or driveway. 
 
 The shed is lighted from the four large doors at the 
 driveways, the doors being each 14x15 feet. All the floor 
 
 373 
 
374 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 5 
 
 K 
 
 ^ d«»&e line |o^ Sid* Elevation. J^**''* 
 
 /"K W \»oi>\>*»i| «p«C -W **»f **'ftt>i 
 
 I 
 
 no.3. 
 
 r /a/UX7Xit 
 
 ^.oj>/ \.J»|VA*|^ apis *•! r'"! **^^, 
 
 1 
 
 PLAN NO. 1-OBOUND PLAN. 
 
 joists are on an average of 6 inches from the ground. The 
 uprights partitioning off the stalls are 4x4*5. It might be 
 said in this connection that lumber should not be piled on 
 flooring joists but should have independent support from 
 the ground. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 375 
 
 44O0|£ 
 
 PLAN NO. 1-ELEVATIONS OF RIGHT HAND ALLEY. 
 
 PLAN NO. 1-ELEVATIONS OF LEFT HAND ALLEY. 
 
 A modern shed of a design popular in Illinois, also hav- 
 ing two driveways, is designated as plan No. 2. Only a single 
 view is given, but it presents a fairly good idea of the shed. 
 
 In size the shed is 90x112 feet, and 12 feet high at the 
 
Z7^ 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 lowest point. The foun- 
 dation consists of thir- 
 teen brick walls project- 
 ing out of the ground a 
 little, on top of which 
 are 8x8 sills securely 
 pinned together. As 
 may be noted from the 
 sectional view, the five 
 center walls are higher 
 than those on the sides. 
 This increased hight ex- 
 tends back 70 feet. The 
 object in leaving this 
 portion higher was to 
 facilitate the handling 
 of heavy articles, such 
 as lime, cement, etc. 
 Thus all lifting, or 
 practically all, is done 
 away with. This space 
 is in use for sash, doors, 
 blinds, cement etc. 
 
 The sectional view 
 brings out what is con- 
 sidered the best manner 
 of bracing a lumber 
 shed. It consists in 
 cutting 2x4's between the 
 uprights, starting in 
 every case at the foun- 
 dation and continuing a 
 straight line of bracing 
 to the top. This method 
 transfers all the strain 
 direct to the foundation, which is the end always 
 sought in scientific bracing. It will also be no- 
 
 o 
 
 (-^ 
 
 s 
 
 o 
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 GO 
 
 o 
 
 B 
 
 GQ 
 
 o 
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 < 
 
 « 
 
 > 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 Ok 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 377 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 \ 
 
 ticed that the uprights are all 4x6's. This imparts 
 great strength; in fact, it would seem a strength 
 greater than is required, as the uprights do not carry any- 
 thing except so much as may be piled on the upper deck. 
 The bracing of the shed from end to end, or in the other 
 direction from that shown by the cross section, is equally sci- 
 entific and renders it exceptionally strong. 
 
 Bents like that shown in the sectional view are placed 
 eight feet from centers throughout the length of the wall. 
 This 8-foot space leaves the piling spaces of desirable size, 
 besides affording the requisite strength for the superstruc- 
 ture. Around the outside, though it is not shown in the 
 sectional view, 2x4 nailing girts are cut between the posts 
 at the proper distance, and the outside is covered with 
 shiplap up and down nailed to the girts. The roof is sheathed 
 solid with No. 3 boards and then covered with pressed 
 steel standing seam roofing. 
 
 The shed is lighted by fourteen windows, six lights, 12x16, 
 on each side, in position as indicated by the cross section. 
 These windows are hung on hinges at their tops, so that in 
 summer they may be opened to afford greater ventilation and 
 keep the shed cool. Additional ventilation is furnished by 
 Louver board work in the shape of three large ventilators 
 4x6 and 4J feet high located at the comb of the roof. These 
 are particularly useful in the winter when the shed is en- 
 tirely closed and ventilation at any other point is not to be 
 obtained. 
 
 The driveways are 18 feet wide, a width which lumber- 
 men will appreciate. On each side of each driveway are 
 walks three and a half feet wide, which enables one to get 
 at the stock piled on the upper decks. These driveways are 
 connected by runboards at four points on each side, so that 
 one need not walk the length of the shed in order to cross 
 over. When the walks reach that portion of the center in 
 which is located the sash and blind house there are steps 
 which enable one to rise up to the level of the deck or. 
 
378 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 
 ..•^^^-i'"* 
 
 ^^^?^" 
 
 PLAN NO. 3-VERTICAL CROSS SECTION, SHOWING FRAMING. 
 
 rather, the top of the sash house, which is utilized for piling- 
 stock of various kinds. One portion of the space over sash 
 house and at the front end is used as a molding rack. The 
 rack is 24 feet long, containing 52 holes or pockets for mold- 
 ing. 
 
 REALM OF THE RETAILER. 
 
 379 
 
 This shed was designed and built by J. V. Price, of Casey, 
 111., by whom it is in use with entire satisfaction. 
 
 The last plan is of a single driveway, 2-story shed. The 
 particular shed from which this plan was taken is that 
 owned by S. E. Sarles & Co., of Monticello, Iowa. The 
 plan gives a cross section showing the framing. The length 
 of this shed can be extended to suit the needs of any dealer. 
 It is 48x80 feet in size and built of heavy timber. The sizes 
 are all given on the plan except the depth of the lumber 
 bins, which is 16 feet. The siding is of 4-inch fencing, bev- 
 eled and nailed to 2x4 studs with a wide crack between each 
 board, giving plenty of ventilation without leaving any large 
 opening. The bins are of equal size, divided by the 8x8 up- 
 rights ten feet apart, with 4x6 uprights half way between. 
 All heavy stock is piled below and light stock above. There 
 are six windows to each side built out from the roof. The 
 plates are three planks spiked together, and the whole shed 
 rests on masonry piers and walls. It was built in 1893 and 
 cost about $800, complete. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ■^ Page. 
 
 Acceptance of lumber by unloading 291 
 
 Advantages of small towns 145 
 
 Advertising in retail trade 22 
 
 Agents and their authority 321 
 
 Agricultural implements and lumber trade yj 
 
 Amusements and business 212 
 
 Annoyances and how to meet them ; 69 
 
 Appearances and their trade value 43 
 
 Arbitration in trade disputes 114 
 
 Associations, retail 192 
 
 B 
 
 Barbed wire fence 358 
 
 Bigness not an excellence no 
 
 Bills should be rendered promptly 49 
 
 Bills should give details 216 
 
 Bills with delivery 47 
 
 Binding and loading 185 
 
 Binder of simple design 196 
 
 Binder for loads 196 
 
 Blind yards 287 
 
 Bolster for lumber wagons 195 
 
 Bookkeeping a protection 129 
 
 Bookkeeping essential 349 
 
 Bookkeeping, importance of it 130 
 
 Books of receipts 275 
 
 Bridge floors 305 
 
 Building hardware as side line 174 
 
 Buying right 168 
 
 Buying, time to buy 18 
 
 Buying yards, methods of 112 
 
 c 
 
 Cancelling orders 320 
 
 Carelessness in bookkeeping 128 
 
 Carpenters and their peculiarities 318 
 
 Cash sales versus credit 74 
 
 Charity and the retail lumbermen 92 
 
 Character reading important 107 
 
 Charging when lumber is delivered 128 
 
 Checks on local bank an imposition 125 
 
 Coal as a side line 89 
 
 Coal house must be strong 87 
 
 Coal trade and its troubles 299 
 
 38' 
 
v.. 
 
 382 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Collection, difficulty of making them 203 
 
 Collecting from farmers 335 
 
 Collecting retail accounts 166 
 
 Comfortable offices 354 
 
 Commercial rating of customers . . . ^ 83 
 
 Competition between local dealers. 179 
 
 Competition, different types 14 
 
 Competition in buying 56 
 
 Competition in prices 55 
 
 Contractors as customers 140 
 
 Contractors profitable friends 102 
 
 Contractors, their importance to the retailers 157 
 
 Conventions for retailers 263 
 
 Cost of selling lumber 209 
 
 Cramped quarters 276 
 
 Credit strengthened by discounting 47 
 
 Credit to customers 307 
 
 Cross sticking device 367 
 
 Cutting prices in local trade 21 
 
 D 
 
 Daily statements 348 
 
 Deadbeats among customers 107 
 
 Delivery, free 293 
 
 Delivery wagons ; . . 293 
 
 Department store idea in lumber no 
 
 Details in bills 216 
 
 Diplomacy in handling customers 39 
 
 Discounting bills 46 
 
 Displaying cottage doors 54 
 
 Disputes between wholesalers and retailers 221 
 
 Door exhibiting device 177 
 
 Door fastener 200 
 
 Doors, method of displaying 54 
 
 Doors of various sorts 320 
 
 Doors, plan for storing 142 
 
 Door rack 142 
 
 Doors, storm 330 
 
 Drain pipes, how to pile 269 
 
 Duplicate receipts 273 
 
 Dust and damage .' 2y7 
 
 Duty on lumber 361 
 
 E 
 
 Eaves troughs for sheds 206 
 
 Eaves troughs on shed hoods 215 
 
 Employees, shortage of in yard and office 238 
 
 Expansion in retail business 150 
 
 J' 
 
 Fair prices trade winners 57 
 
 Farmers and their credit 335 
 
 Farmers as lumber dealers 138 
 
 Farmer customers and how to please them 24 
 
 INDEX. 383 
 
 T, Page- 
 
 Farmers as capitalists ^^5 
 
 Farmer trade, how to get it 1 18 
 
 Farmer yards 138 
 
 Fashions in stock [ 271 
 
 Fences, barbed wire 3-7 
 
 Fencing, not used for fencing '. 359 
 
 Fighting between yards 179 
 
 Filling orders properly 134 
 
 Flooring, hardwood ,/., " ] 246 
 
 Fourth of July 144 
 
 Fresh goods sell best 278 
 
 G 
 
 Games in lumber offices gj 
 
 Gates for yards 313 
 
 Gifts to get trade .!.!.!.!......... 1 19 
 
 Glazed sash, care of yat, 
 
 Good nature toward customers 39 
 
 Good stocks and good trade /_ * " * 229 
 
 Grade adapted to use \ 26 
 
 Grades and kicks / ' ' ' " 22^ 
 
 Grading customers as to responsibility 85 
 
 Grades in yard men 108 
 
 Gutters for sheds 206 
 
 H 
 
 Hardware as a side line yy 
 
 Heavy timbers and how to handle them 72 
 
 Hemlock as yard stock 228 
 
 High grade retail stocks 33 
 
 Holding trade .........!! '. 2-4 
 
 Honesty a paying policy 279 
 
 House bill estimates 242 
 
 Hypnotic power ' ' * * ' " g^ 
 
 I 
 
 Implements as a side line ^e 
 
 Important trade .......! ....... 15 
 
 Insurance by parties not owners !......!. 292 
 
 Insurance on blind yards 201 
 
 Interest on farmer's accounts .!...... ...... 335 
 
 Kicks and how to make them 2^4 
 
 Knowing one's business . \\\ 232 
 
 L 
 
 Large towns and heavy expenses ^5 
 
 Lath and their scarcity .^, 
 
 Lath, patent '.'.'.'.'.".'.'.*'.".'.'.!". 207 
 
 Lazy men in retail trade ^Jj 
 
 Legal points 201 
 
 Lending lumber ^ 
 
384 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Letter writing Page. 
 
 Lime house of novel design. 'li 
 
 Line yard men * ^j" 
 
 Line yards and retail associations. l^L 
 
 Loading lumber *g° 
 
 Loafing in lumber offices. ^^ 
 
 Local trade disputes ^' 
 
 Location and competition .......!..!. ^ '^ 
 
 Location in town as trade setter '^^i 
 
 Location of yards _ '^ 
 
 Lumberjack. v;;;;/;. ?6i 
 
 Lumber returned from jobs. . ^^^ 
 
 Lumber sheds, plans ^^ 
 
 Lumber tariff and business. .....".".'.'.".".".'.". '.*.'.'. V. '///// "* ^^ 
 
 Managers of retail yards __ 
 
 Managers of yards ^5 
 
 Maple and birch flooring." '.*.;.'. ^^ 
 
 Millwork estimates '. ^^" 
 
 Moods in sellinc:. . . ^^ 
 
 ^ 190 
 
 New towns and new yards g 
 
 Oak as bridge stuflF 
 
 Offices, comfortable retail ^^ 
 
 One-man lumber yards. . ^^ 
 
 79 
 
 P 
 
 Paint as side line 
 
 Partners should supplement each other. Ilk 
 
 Patent lath *30 
 
 Patent lath '.'..*'.'..'!.' ^^ 
 
 Patterns in house finish ^^^ 
 
 Payment, prompt and otherwise. .....*. ^^? 
 
 Pessimists j5 
 
 Plaster as side line. .!.....!....'.*.'*.' ^^ 
 
 Picking over stock ^^^ 
 
 Pile binder '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. ^^^ 
 
 Piling in lumber sheds ^^^ 
 
 Piling lumber, an aid '.'.". "^ 
 
 Piling lumber easily .'.".' ^" 
 
 Pleasing customers ^^ 
 
 Pleasing the farmer customer. .".'.* .f^ 
 
 Toachers" and how to keep them out. .... '. Ill 
 
 Politics m trade ; '^a 
 
 Posts, the kind farmers want............' ,^ 
 
 Price advances, reasons for '^« 
 
 Prices and cancelling orders 
 
 Prices at wholesale should be steady ^^ 
 
 Price lists above the market Ji 
 
 Price lists as educators ^ 
 
 205 
 
 INDEX. 385 
 
 Prices too low at retail ^^^02 
 
 Progress of twenty years .......*.*.*.*.'.'.'.'.'.'.*.'.". log 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarrels among local dealers J24 
 
 R 
 
 Railroad extensions and new yards 5^ 
 
 Railroad track versus downtown yard. ^, 
 
 Rating books ^ ^ 
 
 Receipts for delivered lumber.'.' '.V..".'.'.'. ^ 
 
 Receipting for payments " . S^ 
 
 Retail association, some objections ZiZ 
 
 Retail yards, methods of buying ,," 
 
 Returned material * 
 
 Roller for handling heavy stock. ...... . . ! ." . !.....".'..'.';'.'.".';' ' " " yl 
 
 s 
 
 Salesmen's authority repudiated 
 
 Salt to lay dust *.'.'.'.".*.*. i 
 
 Sash racks ■^^'* 
 
 Scant thickness of lumber Jo^ 
 
 Screen door display " ' S 
 
 Schemes for getting orders Z. 
 
 Screens, good and bad Jl 
 
 Selling ability ".'.'.".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. ^ 
 
 Selling aided by good appearance. ,5^ 
 
 Selling by linear measure "o 
 
 Selling for cash ;;;;;;; ^f 
 
 Selling lumber, cost of *."//, ' ^qq 
 
 Selling lumber from sample 7^ 
 
 Selling to the farmer .".'.'.'.'.'.' q^ 
 
 Selling what people want i -J 
 
 Settlements with regular customers jA 
 
 Shed alleys and salt J^^ 
 
 Shed defects 27 
 
 Shed doors * ' ,»- 
 
 Sheds as bu.siness getters ^^ 
 
 Sheds, closed versus open [ [[[ ft 
 
 Sheds, division of bins 117 
 
 Sheds for retail yards, plans for ,7^ 
 
 Sheds for shingles "^{A 
 
 Sheds, length of 28 
 
 Sheds, open and closed q. 
 
 Sheds, ventilation of 1^ 
 
 Shingles, retail display of . . . J^ 
 
 Shingles, thick and thin *.".'. ,0. 
 
 Side lines Jr* 
 
 Side lines \\ ' f 
 
 Side lines ^^ 
 
 Slovenliness in yard management 7cf, 
 
 Small retail stocks ' ^^o 
 
 Small stocks means small business [ . . . . ." ." [ [ ' * .' 290 
 
386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Small towns and light expenses Page. 
 
 Statements and bills "4 
 
 Stationery of a retail business * .' '^ 
 
 Steady prices wanted ^ 
 
 Stock rooms in retail business ^^ 
 
 Storm doors '59 
 
 Substitution in filling orders. ^^ 
 
 Sycamore as a finishing wood '^7 
 
 246 
 
 T 
 
 Tab on yard hands 
 
 Tact in handling customers... ^^ 
 
 Thanksgiving Day reflections... ^' 
 
 Thickness of lumber ^55 
 
 Thinking is hard work '^3 
 
 Tricks of wholesalers. 59 
 
 126 
 
 Use of lumber, knowledge of 
 
 25 
 
 Wagons, device for high load. . . ^ 
 
 Wagons, light versus heavy for deli very* ^^ 
 
 Wagon stakes ^ 294 
 
 Wholesaler's complaint of" retailers. '.*.". ?5° 
 
 Window screens '24 
 
 Windows, profits in glazing. ^^5 
 
 Winter in small towns '. '70 
 
 Women as customers °^ 
 
 Worrying is foolish 297 
 
 329 
 
 Y 
 
 Yard as real estate investment ^ 
 
 Yard location in town ^2 
 
 Yard managers ^'^^ 
 
 Yards, are there too many ^ ^^"^ 
 
 ' 121 
 
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 as provided by the library rules or by special arrangement 
 with the Librarian in charge. 
 
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 Saley 
 
 Realm of ,Vie retailer. 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 0041446496 
 
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