It was a comparatively new thing then, and even now it has not been entirely worked to death. There was then a fair profit in pictures or portraits, and by the time one sold a high-priced frame the outcome was immense. I got my instructions, and when I first started out was half inclined to believe that the trade would prove too humdrum, a too every-day sort of an affair, to suit my hustling nature. I soon found, however, that it took as lively working as anything I had been engaged in if I wanted to make it a success; hence, I fell to in earnest, determined that a success it should be. It is not worth while to relate all the little, ingenious dodges employed, or the extraordinary efforts I made upon emergency. I remembered the maxim, that what made a good argument for one line would do for another, and so, altering it to suit the article and the circumstances, I drew largely on the fund of expedients gathered in other fields, and worked on human nature in the same old way. I soon got to be very successful, and when once I decided there was a chance to place a picture I seldom gave up until I had succeeded. I never was ashamed of my business, and generally managed to have my presence in a town pretty well advertised. When I had been there a couple of days, and went swinging down the street, there were few if any of the citizens who saw me but would know I was the picture man, who was taking orders for enlarged portraits and the like, and plenty of them would have some remark to that effect. I carried a fine line of samples, was a pleasant, fluent talker, and I fairly believe many a lady would have been disappointed if I had not called on her with my wares. Sometimes I took orders direct for frames to the pictures; sometimes I waited and delivered the picture placed in a frame, trusting to be able to sell the latter at a good price. If a town at large did not turn out the average profit, then a single individual or so would have to bear the sins of omission of the rest. There are more tricks in the picture business than one would imagine. I know of one fakir who works the following scheme: After staying in the town long enough to make a study of the inhabitants and the peculiarities and foibles of the more prominent, he selects his victim. He calls on some lady leading in social circles, church work or the like, and obtains a private interview. He tells her that a number of her lady friends and admirers have decided to present her with a fine, enlarged, crayon portrait of herself, and that he has been instructed to call and get her photograph. Naturally, she is surprised and highly gratified, giving him the picture without the least hesitancy. At the same time she is probably anxious to learn the names of the donors.