The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

144 It was phenomenal, that was all there was to it. Why, it was unheard of that for five days straight none but old customers should come into any kind of a store. Not a solitary stranger among the lot! By eleven o’clock, having been re- fused the opportunity to wait on three patrons in succession, Barlow was pretty nearly ready to quit. He had about made up his mind that he would be as well off if he stayed where he was, leaning up against a showcase at the rear of the store. Any customer who so chose could come to him, in- stead of his breaking his neck in a fruitless pursuit of one himself. Could a tougher situation be imag- ined? Here it was Friday; not a sale had he made so far; tnless his sales totaled the number that the other clerks had made by Sajurday night he would be fired; and he couldn’t make a ove or raise a finger to sell a thing. “Hello there, sport! Why so pen- sive?” Barlow turned to see one of the other salesmen standing behind him. “Oh, hello, Smith!” he sighed. “Gee, what’s happened to you?” the other exclaimed. “ Lost a relative —or a million dollars? ”’ “ Nothing like that, only I’m sore!” “ At what?” “Pretty much everything. Day be- fore yesterday I was called up on the carpet, you know.” “T didwt know it. And what was the subject of our genial manager’s lecture—if you care to whisper it?” “Tt was bad news. I was told there was a chance of my being bounced on Saturday night! ” “Go ’way!” ejaculated Smith sym- pathetically. “ What have you done, for Heaven’s sake? ’”’ “It’s what I haven’t done,” Barlow replied. “ Up to Thursday morning I hadn’t made a sale this week. The boss informed me, naturally, what a rotten showing he thought that was. And—” ‘““Cesar’s ghost!’’ broke in the other. “ What’s the matter with you? THE ARGOSY. Not a sale for three days? You don’t mean it! Why, when you began here you trimmed us all; as a salesman you were the little bell-cow and no mistake. What caused the slump? ” “Slump?” cried Barlow. “ Slump be blowed! Could yout sell any goods if there was nobody for you to wait on? Could the manager? Could any- body? Then neither can I. “ And, since Monday morning, there hasn't been anybody come into this store that I could sell that much” (snapping his fingers) “to if my life depended on it. You other fellows have had the good luck to run into something soft, easy. Since the first of the week there hasn’t been anybody conie into this store who wasn’t a past patron, with a favorite salesman who had waited on him before— ” “ Hold on, hold on!” Smith broke in. ‘ What’s all this? What are you saying about all the folks who have called at the Bon Ton lately being old customers? Why— Smith drew out his order-book and flipped back the leaves. “beginning Monday morning I’ve sold fifteen—no, sixteen—pairs of shoes. I’ve waited on stxteen people in four days and a half. And not one of them did I ever set eyes on before in all my life!’ Frank Barlow fatrly gasped. “ What—what’s that?” he barked. “} mean what I ‘say,’ Smith went on. “If you think Pve fallen in soft, through having anybody come in here to pick me out and hand me any sales on a platter, you’re crazy. .Crazy!”’ Barlow held up an impressive fore- finger. | ‘Those two middle-aged men who dropped in here last night,” he asked earnestly. “ You know the two I mean? They came in just before closing time. Do you mean to tell me that you never handled them before? ” The other nodded. “Never saw hide nor hair of the couple until last night at five minutes to six!” he said airily. CoOMmicbook CO