The Argosy, Christmas 1912 — page 159: what you’re looking at

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

THE NEW MAN’S DILEMMA. “Well, when I went up to them,” continued Barlow, “ they answered my ‘What can I do for you?’ with a simultaneous headshake, and then both of them turned and walked right across the floor in a bee-line for you!” “Well, you want me to explain it?” “IT certainly do!” “Sorry, but I can’t. J don’t know why you were passed up for me. But what makes you draw the conclusion that they were old customers of mine? ”’ “Why—I don’t know!” Barlow answered, a harried look coming into his face. “I thought that because it’s what I’ve been thinking all week long. That’s how I’ve accounted to myself for the way I’ve been turned down by everybody who has entered the place. I thought it was because ’?m a new man. And now—” He broke off and looked inquiringly at the other salesman. The latter shook his head. “You can’t prove it by me!” he said. “TI tell you Pve sold sixteen peo- ple since Monday, and none of them did I know from Adam. It’s a safe bet that they didn’t know me from E— Adam, either! ” ‘Great assassinated bobcats, then! ” cried Barlow, “ what’s the matter with me? If it isn’t because they were regular patrons of you boys that I’ve seen customer after customer go by me and buy goods of you all—and your case seems to prove that’s not the pro- per solution—what ts the reason that everybody has shunned me like the plague? ”’ Smith scratched his ear. “Maybe you don’t go up to ’em right,” he suggested. “Just what do you mean? ” “Why, maybe your approach is wrong. Perhaps you aren’t onto the knack of meeting a customer. Pos- sibly you open up with a line of talk that doesn’t inspire any of ’em with the confidence that you’re a good sales- man to take ’em in charge. Something like that, maybe, eh?” ‘sell goods before? 145 “What do you think I am, Smith? ” Barlow demanded disgustedly. “ Don’t you think I ever served an apprentice- ship as a salesman? Not approach them right—why, you ninny, didn’t L Don’t ‘you admit that I sold more than any of you other fellows when I first came here? “Very well, then. I knew how to do it once, all right, and I haven’t for- gotten anything I once knew. I haven’t changed my tactics. So why am I absolutely helpless even to show goods to a cttstomer any more? ” “ Well—’” the other began. “Excuse me!’’ Barlow cut in. A man had just entered. With al- most a gallop, Barlow dashed forward to be the first to meet the new arrival. “Good morning, sir!” he panted. “You wanted to see something in the latest style shoe? Something up-to- date, snappy—” He stopped. The man had looked Barlow straight in the face. . And then, with an inarticulate growl, he passed by—going straight to a shoe-clerk wha stood farther up the aisle, his back turned, entirely oblivious to the pres- ence of the customer. “How do you account for that?” Frank Barlow hissed into the ear of Smith, to whose side he returned. “What was wrong, can I ask you, with that style of approach?” “Ty heard it, and it sounded all right to me!” the other replied, shaking his head in puzzled fashion. ‘‘ What was it he said to you when he passed by to go to Hotchkiss? ” “He didn’t say anything,” Barlow answered ruefully. “Just growled and hurried by as though F was some- thing unpleasant and fearful to look at. Smith—am I that?” “What the—what d’ye mean?” “Is there anything wrong with my looks?’ Barlow demanded. “ Have I sprouted a pair of horns, grown a third eye in the middle of my forehead, or changed in appearance to something weird and frightening? ” “ You're nutty!” CoOMmicbook CO