SELLING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS—TRICKERY AND DECEPTION—LOOKING FOR SOMETHING
NEW—SELLING THE ROASTER—THE CANVASS.
I got to selling pianos and organs by the merest chance.
I was canvassing with a furniture polish, which was really a very good
thing, and one day went into a store where musical instruments were
sold, hoping to do a stroke of business. I did, and a very good stroke
of business I made of it.
The dealer had some talk with me, apparently liked my style, and finally
offered me very good terms to work for him a scheme he had in view. He
thought I knew enough about the instrument to handle pianos successfully
in the way he proposed.
He had several Beatem pianos, which were listed at a high figure, but
which he had obtained at a large discount. So far, he had been unable to
sell them, and as he was well known he did not care to manage the fake
he thought of suggesting to me. He offered to fix me up in style, and
pay my expenses and big wages, if I would go to a city not far away,
representing myself as from Beatem and attend to the disposing of a
piano through the Woman’s charity organization of the town. I jumped at
the chance, and went to Tirbyville, splendidly dressed and in every way
well equipped for the scheme.
When the piano had come I called upon the president of the society and
made known the fact that I was representing the Beatem Piano Company of
New York; that their pianos were of the finest kind, and that the firm
had adopted a new way of introducing them. Instead of paying big money
to the newspaper men, I had instructions to give the benefit of all the
profits to some charitable association; in fact, I was in town for the
purpose of giving away some of them now. The instrument was here, on
exhibition and trial, and what we wanted to do was to call attention to
it. At the same time, of course, we were more than gratified at the
chance of doing a little good. I wanted to advertise the pianos, not to
sell them; and in order to hurry the affair through as quickly as
possible, I was going to offer special inducements to those taking an
interest in the matter.
I then stated that the instrument was worth eight hundred dollars, and
the best way to determine its destination was to raffle it off at one
dollar per chance. I would have eight hundred tickets printed, and the
W. C. O. was to have twenty per cent. of the proceeds for managing the
affair. As a still greater inducement for the ladies to assist in the
scheme for getting the piano before the country, we intended to give a
twenty-dollar gold piece to the lady who sold the greatest number of
tickets, and ten dollars for the next.
I knew the scheme could not fail. The ladies took hold and worked like
beavers, attending to the sale of the tickets, and likewise to the
drawing. On my side I saw that an advertisement like this appeared in
the regular reading matter of the local papers:
“The finest piano in the world.
“Tirbyville enjoys the reputation of having the finest amateur musical
talent of any town in the state, and Beatem Bros. of New York have the
reputation of making the best pianos in the United States.
“A representative of this firm is now in our city with one of their
samples. In order to introduce their goods he will give away one of
their superb instruments.
“It will be raffled off under the auspices of the Woman’s Charity
Organization, the tickets selling for the nominal sum of one dollar.
“The piano is a gem, costing eight hundred dollars direct from the
factory. It is now on exhibition at Kirby Bros.’ music store, where the
musically inclined public is invited to call. Professor S. James Weldon
will be there at all hours, ready to explain the merits of the piano,
and our citizens will do well to call. The worthy charity organization
reaps the benefit of the drawing, and we trust our citizens will
liberally subscribe.”
It took about six weeks to work up this scheme, but it paid well. After
deducting the twenty per cent. commission, prize money and personal
expenses, I went away with about one hundred dollars profit for my
employer, who at once sent me to another place to work the racket over
again on the same lines.
I succeeded in exhausting his stock of Beatem pianos in this way,
largely to his profit, and fairly to my own. When there were no more
pianos he tried me on organs, and I remained with him quite a while.
Sometimes I disposed of the organs by the lottery scheme, and sometimes
canvassed through the country to sell them outright. Either way I made
money out of the proposition.
I remember that I once called on a farmer who, I knew, was a close
buyer. He had two buxom daughters, who, besides feeding the chickens,
milking the cows, and churning the butter, found time to play “Home,
Sweet Home,” on the organ. They had none of their own, and wanted one
awfully bad.
I exerted myself to the fullest to make the sale, but did not—until I
was almost ready to throw up my hands.
As a last resort I succeeded by a bit of trickery. I took out a piece of
paper and began figuring on it, remarking:
“Mr. Farmer, I am going to figure on the actual net manufacturer’s cost
of this instrument, and then I may be able to make you another
proposition.”
After figuring for a while I said:
“This organ never sold under one hundred and fifty dollars, but if you
want it you can have it for one hundred and twelve dollars and
forty-five cents. That is just about what it cost, but as I don’t want
to take it back to town with me you can have it for that price. You
consider the offer while I am out watering my team and when I come back
give me your answer.”
With that I started for the door, carelessly thrusting the slip of paper
into my pocket. Accidently (on purpose) it fell to the floor, and I went
on without noticing it. Of course, he picked up the paper and looked it
over, seeing that, according to my own figures, the organ cost just one
hundred and five dollars and fifty cents.
Poor, unsuspecting man, when I came back, thinking he had the drop on
me, he said:
“Say, young fellow, I’ll give you an even hundred dollars for that
organ. What do you say?”
Of course, I hesitated and talked a lot, but finally gave in. The organ
stood us, counting freight charges and all, an even eighty dollars.
The greatest objection I had to handling musical instruments was that
the work was not sufficiently “rapid and devilish.” I think I rather
preferred to handle organs, because I made more sales, even if the
profits were so much less on three or four of them than on one piano. A
hundred dollars coming at the end of three or four weeks was not as
enticing as less money, coming by closer installments.
It was a money-maker for me, but I eventually grew tired of the
business. There was too much hard work in handling those large, heavy
organs, and besides the disadvantage of traveling in all kinds of
weather and putting up with inferior accommodations in farm houses, made
it more than unpleasant. I drove into town one day determined at least
to take a little lay-off and figure on something that would be more to
my liking—perhaps go back to street selling again.
It generally happened that when I quit one thing another showed up right
at my hands. Probably it was because I was looking for it.
Quite accidentally I came across a canvasser. He actually tried to
obtain my subscription to that, at one time, highly popular journal, The
Weekly Rooster, and if I had not been too much in the same line myself I
think he might have made it.
We had quite a talk about the paper, from his point of view, and I
decided to try my hand at it, for a time at least.
I found more trouble in making arrangements than I had anticipated. I
would have to be trusted to handle quite an amount of money, and the
firm required a bond or strong references.
I had no references nor bondsmen whom I cared to give, but I ultimately
arranged by putting up a cash deposit, and after quite a lengthy
correspondence, during which I was several times tempted to throw up my
hands, I secured sample copies and a certified subscription book and
went to work.
The “Rooster” was a twenty page illustrated paper, the subscription
price being six dollars, in advance, per year. As special inducements,
fifty-two paper back novels—one with each issue of the paper—were
offered, and a set of six cloth bound volumes. If preferred, however,
they took installments of fifty cents per month, and that was the
liberal proposition I principally worked on. Very little trickery was
necessary to obtain orders.
For my “mark” I first selected a well-known individual, well up in
public esteem; say, for instance, a merchant of high standing. Walking
into his place of business I would say to one of the clerks near the
door, “Is the proprietor in?”
“Yes, sir. Yonder is Mr. Denim.”
Agent (walking up to the proprietor).—“Pardon me, but are you Mr.
Denim?”
Mr. D.—“That’s my name, sir.”
Agent.—“I am representing the Weekly Illustrated Rooster of New York and
I want to put you down for a year’s subscription.”
Mr. D.—“Don’t want it. I’m taking too many papers now.”
Agent.—“Let me explain a little. The former manager of our paper died
some months ago, and while the matter was kept up to its former high
standard the business end was neglected, subscriptions expired without
any effort to obtain renewals, and consequently half of our advertising
got away from us. Now, a new man has taken hold, enlarged the paper,
added new departments, and is offering special inducements in order to
build up again. I am under contract to get seventeen thousand new
subscribers in this state, and I’ll get them, if I have to give things
away myself and be discharged for it.”
Mr. D. (growing interested).—“What sort of a paper is it?”
When you bring a man into the confidential history of a thing he at once
begins to imagine that in some way he must belong to it.
Agent.—“It is a beautiful, clean, twenty paged paper, illustrated, and
with sixteen departments. The news covers every form and condition of
life, with accurate and thrilling pictures of the passing show. The bulk
of the articles are of an editorial nature, being instructive,
interesting and amusing. We have sixty-seven special correspondents in
all parts of the world, who contribute regularly each week; and special
articles are given from the best known pens in the universe. It is far
above all contemporaneous sheets and costs no more.”
Mr. D.—“How much a year?”
Agent.—“Only six dollars.”
Mr. D.—“Isn’t that a little high?”
Agent.—“It might be considered so for the paper alone, but when you take
into consideration the fact that we give with each yearly subscription
the entire ‘Rooster Series’ of fifty-two novels, by all the standard
authors, books which would cost you twenty-five to fifty cents at the
regular news dealers, the price is reasonable enough, after all. Don’t
you think so?”
Mr. D.—“I’ll admit that it is a nice offer, but I guess I’ll have to
pass it by this time.”
Agent.—“You are one of the pillars of the town, and I hate to let such a
good man go.”
Mr. D.—“There are plenty of good men here besides me.”
Agent.—“Yes, I know; but not the same, either. You are recognized as one
of the leaders, and your name heading my list would give me a prestige.”
Mr. D. (smiling).—“How do you know I am one of the leaders?”
Agent.—“I was told so by another prominent citizen. I’ll tell you what
I’ll do with you, Mr. Denim; I will give you free of charge a set of six
elegant, cloth bound volumes, all standard works, if you will subscribe
for the paper. Of course, this is a confidential proposition, for the
sake of obtaining your influence and to have your name at the top of my
list.”
Mr. D.—“All right, then. Put my name down.”
This little scheme of tickling a man’s vanity worked every time when the
individual approached had any vanity at all to tickle. As I usually
averaged ten subscribers every day my profits ought to have been highly
satisfactory—and so they were for some months, and it was only when
there was a change in the liberal policy of the Rooster, including the
cutting down of commissions fifty per cent., and also taking away the
premiums, that I thought it time to take hold of something else. By this
time I had a fair little bank account.
I had acquired the taste of canvassing for reading matter, and from this
on to reading matter I stuck, save at odd times when I picked up again
almost any old thing and made it pay while I looked around and drew
breath. I believe my next venture was in selling bibles, and I dropped
into it while corresponding with eastern houses with a view to selling
their books. While awaiting developments in that line this new one came
to my hand.
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