No one questioned Sam Lambert's power as a business getter, nor the
alertness of his store-keeping methods.
He was prodigal of his own energy--never spared himself. He looked
after the important things and left details to others.
As with every man who is a constructive force in the world of affairs,
Sam's friends and relatives shook their heads--said that he needed a
balance-wheel.
This was dinned into his ears so often that he finally came to believe
it. So after many Sunday afternoon business discussions, it was
arranged that he was to take into the business his wife's cousin, one
Lemuel Stucker, who had spent twenty years saving $9000 as general
manager for a flour and feed concern.
Stucker had worked out elaborate sets of figures to prove the needed
economies of management.
He was so tireless and sincere, so careful and exact, that it was with
a great sense of relief that Sam turned the store over to him.
Here, at last, was a man who could lift from his shoulders the daily
burden of management.
Sam's real interest in the change, as those who knew him might have
guessed, was a desire for new enterprise. He had long had an eye on a
fine opening for a clothing store in the neighboring town of
Bridgeville, twenty miles away, and he lost no time in carrying out
this project.
During the ensuing year he was so engrossed with the Bridgeville
branch that Medeena rarely saw him, and Lemuel Stucker's rather
discouraging reports on the state of business were attributed to Lem's
conservatism and natural depression of mind.
Lem was Sam's opposite in almost every particular. A small, sallow man
with a black shoe-string necktie and a look of general regret.
He spent most of his time untying knots in pieces of string, picking
up bits of wrapping paper and sharpening short lead-pencils, and he
was great on buying brooms.
His effect on the store was one of immediate and prevalent blight.
You may wonder why the boys did not complain of conditions to Sam, but
Lem was manager--and there is something so virtuous and convincing
about a first-class retrencher. His wise saws and thrifty sayings are
infectious and he makes everybody so low-spirited that they are ready
to catch anything.
No more good window displays--tacks, colored cheesecloth and other
accessories cost money, and the sun was bad for the goods.
No more trim on the counters and shelves.
Stop the high-power electric light in front of the store and reduce
the lamps inside.
These things did not all occur at once, but so gradually that it was
hard to realize just what had happened to the store.
The windows got streaky and the inside of the store looked dingy and
cold.
Then the conservative spirit got into the buying. Nothing but black
cheviots with a few drab and gray worsteds.
Perhaps it was just as well, for when a customer came into the store
and saw Stucker he thought it was raining outside.
Sam Lambert had always prided himself on keeping alive what he called
the "buying spirit" in the store.
Nowadays a customer got a sense of caution. The feeling was one of
disapproval of all extravagance.
Instead of purchasing a suit, the man wondered where his next month's
rent was coming from, bought a pair of cottonade pants and hurried
home.
Trade fell off steadily. Affairs went on this way for a twelvemonth
and then something happened.
Two of Sam's principal competitors were reported to be remodeling
their stores--and what was more, they were going to put in wardrobe
systems and carry all their garments on hangers.
This aroused Sam and he made an immediate investigation.
He found that one of the stores had contracted for the old type of
wooden wall cabinets where the clothes hung behind panelled doors.
But the other was installing glass wardrobes, where the stock would be
on view.
This discovery cut Sam like a knife.
He investigated further, and was delighted to find that his wardrobe
competitor, with the temptation to save a few dollars, had ordered a
second-rate type of glass wardrobe, with pull-out rods that swing
inside the case, without a locking device to prevent them from
breaking the glass.
Without saying anything to Stucker he telegraphed the best wardrobe
concern in the country to send their representative at once.