A New Way to Pay Old Debts.
After Handy had complacently smoked a pipeful of Fogg's tobacco he laid
the comforter aside and started in one of those characteristic chapters
of incidents to be found scattered here and there on the pathway of
nearly every player who amounts to anything either at home or abroad.
"You may remember that a few years ago I got together a company with a
view to endeavor to enlighten as well as to instruct the public of the
so-called wild and woolly West."
"Yes."
"Part of the company I picked up here, the remainder I managed to scrape
together in Chicago. Times were not good; actors were easily had, and
were willing to take long chances on the prospects of even getting bread
and butter. Please don't take me too literally. They were well aware of
the fact that if the money came in they would surely get their share.
All who know me are pretty well satisfied on that score. Deal squarely
with the people about you, is my maxim, and they will stand by you when
the pinch comes. I have gone on that principle all through my varied
career and I know the benefit of what I speak."
"Yes; all things considered," replied Fogg, "you have been on the
Square."
"Good! You're improving! Well, as I was saying, I got my company
together and set out. We opened in Denver. Did fairly well; pushed on
still further. Struck bad business, and at the end of a couple of weeks
landed high and dry on Saturday night in a far Western town--No need of
mentioning names."
"As soon as that--two weeks?"
"Just two weeks. Oh, don't affect surprise. I've known companies to go
where the woodbine twineth on the third night out. There is nothing new
in that. Well, the night I have reference to was so bad, that is the
receipts were so slender, that we didn't take in money enough to pay for
the gas, and remember we were under contract to play the following
Monday in a city not more than fifty miles or so away."
"Well, you had all Sunday and most of Monday to get there, and keep your
date. There's nothing in that," remarked Fogg, with a smile.
"Very true; but, my optimistic friend, permit me to inform you that my
company was not solely made up of pedestrians, and, moreover, walking in
midwinter as a rule is not good. So you may readily recognize I was in a
perplexing predicament. After I glanced over the box office statement I
hardly knew where I was at. As I thought the situation over before me
arose the stern reality of a large-sized board bill, for bear in mind I
had guaranteed to pay the traveling and hotel bills of the company.
Hotelkeepers are such matter-of-fact and precise individuals in their
peculiar ways of dealings that it is difficult for those of empty
pockets to get along pleasantly with them."
"Absurdly so," admitted Fogg.
"Pleased to hear you say so, but then, my boy, you never ran a hotel."
"No, but I kept the books of a traveling politician one season!"
"You did?"
"Fact."
"You weren't traveling with a show?"
"Nit, I was attending political conventions."
"Oh, that settles it. That was a dead easy job. The party put up the
dough and the public in the end pays the score. That's another
proposition altogether. But the poor player who--well, no matter. No use
in becoming sentimental or spoony about it. Now, own up, my position was
unpleasantly embarrassing, wasn't it?"
"It was not exhilarating."
"No. There was nothing cheering about it. However, I put on no long
face, though between ourselves I wished some other fellow stood in my
shoes."
"How considerate for the other fellow!"
"Well," continued Handy, "that's neither here nor there, but I made up
my mind to get out of that town bag and baggage and keep my date Monday
night, all the samee."
"I admire your pluck."
"Pluck? Nothing of the kind. Pluck had nothing to do with the case. It
was tact and resource that came to my assistance. Season your admiration
for a moment and I'll give you a wrinkle worth remembering. After a bite
and a snack I went to bed, not to worry, but to sleep. Let me say, by
way of comment, that a few hours' rest is a powerful rejuvenator. You
can do much better work in the morning after a good night's sleep than
if you had passed weary hours tossing and tumbling about in bemoaning
your hard luck and picturing to yourself what might have been if you had
done so and so. All rot. Let the other fellow do the worrying. Remember,
my boy, the past is irreclaimable, the present the life we are
struggling in, and the future what we make it, or rather try to make
it."
"Handy, I had no idea you were such a philosopher!"
"Indeed! Well, experience teaches me to be practical," replied the
veteran, "and I trust I may be able to prove to you the truth of what I
say. As I told you, I retired to my bed to sleep, and sleep I did, as
soundly as if I owned one-half the town and had a mortgage on the other
half. Next morning I got up refreshed and with a good appetite for
breakfast. After the morning's meal I settled myself down to the
enjoyment of a cigar. At that stage of the game I could not afford to be
seen smoking a pipe. Never give your poverty away to the world unless
you can make final disposition of it. Then came the real task--the
crisis."
"The tug of war, eh?"
"Just so. The tug of war, so to speak. I braced the landlord! I invited
him to take a chair beside me and began the siege."
"Commenced operations. Fire away."
"I had already made a study of the man, and had well considered my plan
of attack. I opened by telling him frankly I was in trouble. The week's
business had been bad, receipts next door to nothing, my share slim. To
make a long story short, I confessed I could not settle my bill."
"That must have been an interesting communication for mine host of the
inn. How did he take it?"
"Well, his reception of the information somewhat surprised me. I
anticipated a storm; but no. He was perfectly calm. I waited for a
reply, but he simply remarked, 'Well?' I then enlarged on my ill-luck,
bad business, terrible weather, and wound up with a pathetic story of
our situation. 'Well,' he again exclaimed, 'I will hold the baggage and
stuff until you can settle up.'"
"The old, old story," plaintively exclaimed Fogg.
"I felt that was coming, but I also judged from the manner of that
decision, cold as it was in all the integrity of its meaning, that I had
a practical man to deal with. Take my word for it, Fogg, it is always
better to have business dealings with a man of that type than with one
who, while he loads you up with sympathy to beat the band, doesn't mean
a word of it. To settle there and then for board and get our things out
of quarantine was out of the question; to attempt to play our next stand
without our 'props' and things was equally difficult."
"Of course, but then," said Fogg, "hotelkeepers never take these things
into consideration."
"No, never. 'Mr. Breadland'--that was his name--'I have a proposition to
make,' said I, 'and as you seem to be a practical man, you will, I have
an idea, recognize its practicability. The situation is this: I owe you
money. The amount I am unable to pay just now. You say you propose to
hold on to the baggage belonging to the company as security for the
debt.'
"'You state the case precisely,' said he.
"'Now, then,' I continued, 'the stuff you propose to seize you don't
want, and you only mean to hold the things as security for the payment
of the board bill--an honest debt.' He nodded his head while he
scrutinized me closely. 'Now, what would you say if I could point out a
way to you by which you could still have security for the indebtedness,
I could have the baggage and things, and you get the money owing to
you?'
"'My friend,' said he, 'I don't want to hold your stuff. It's no earthly
use to me. I only want the coin that's due me. If you can show or point
out to me any feasible plan by which that end may be reached, I rather
think you and I may come to terms.'
"'I guess I can. To be sure it may cause you personally some little
inconvenience for a few days, but the scheme will work out all right.'
"'Let me hear it,' says he, looking me squarely in the face.
"It is this: We are billed to play Monday night in Bungtown. The chances
are we will have a big house for the opening. We stay there three
nights. Now, then, my proposition is that you send your clerk along with
the company; I will place him in the box office, where he will have
control of the receipts, and each night after the show is over he can
take for you a percentage of the share coming to me, and continue to do
so at each performance until your bill is all paid. How does it strike
you?' Well, sir, it set that countryman a-thinking and pulling his
whiskers so vigorously that I feared his goatee would give way. I knew
almost to a dead certainty that I had won. The man, Fogg, who hesitates
gives way in the end, always.
"Breadland reflected a minute, then spoke out: 'I'll do it,' he said.
''Tis about the easiest and safest way of getting hunk.'
"'One thing more, Mr. Breadland,' I added, when I felt satisfied that
luck was running my way.
"'What is it?' he inquired.
"'The hotel bill, as you are aware, is made out to cover all charges up
to and including lunch to-day. After the train which leaves here at
three this afternoon there is none other until to-morrow forenoon, and
as the company has done a deal of traveling and the people are pretty
well tuckered out, a day's rest and a good night's sleep would not be
amiss, and it would enable us to give a rattling good performance
to-morrow night.'
"'I agree with you,' he replied.
"I thought so, but perhaps I didn't make myself as clear as I might.
Your good nature, however, emboldens me to respectfully suggest'--and
this I said in the most tender and convincing manner I could
employ--'that for the sake of art and good fellowship, for this little
extra hospitality you make no addition to the hotel bill. Let it stand
as it is.'"
"What!" exclaimed Fogg, in open-mouthed wonder. "Did he show you the
door?"
"Not a bit of it. I told you he was a plain, practical kind of cuss,
with a tender spot in his heart. He looked at me with a calm, queer, but
not mischievous twinkle in his eye. I stood the gaze with the most
innocent assumption of impudence, waiting for the verdict. It came in a
moment, accompanied with a hearty laugh as he said: 'By jingo, you
deserve to get ahead! You won't fail for want of nerve. It's your long
suit. I'll have to go you,' or words to that effect. 'Come,' he said,
rising from his chair, 'I'll blow you off,' and he led the way to the
bar."
"You don't mean to say he stood treat into the bargain?" asked Fogg, in
surprise.
"Sure; like a prince, he did; and what's more, he made the remainder
of the day as pleasant as if every member of the company was a
first-floorer, paying bridal-party rates.
"That little episode made me very solid with my company. They knew the
actual condition of the exchequer, for obvious reasons, and wondered how
I was able to make things all right without the necessary wherewithal.
That's management, my boy. They never considered for the life of them,
that three-fourths or more of the business of the world is managed and
conducted on credit and promises to pay. I was merely working out the
principle in my own little bit of a way. So the day passed agreeably.
The people knew that everything in the hotel was all right and that I
had the railroad fares snugly stowed away in my inside pocket."