Agent.—“I’ll tell you. I am in the picture business, and only furnish frames as an accommodation. I had some thirteen orders turned back on me, and I want to get rid of the frames. Freight is double first-class, and it don’t pay to ship them back. Besides, I haven’t the time to fool with them, and I’m going to close them out regardless. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If I can get thirteen orders in this town I’ll deliver them, just like this, all complete and ready to frame your picture in, for one dollar apiece. And I’ll bet one hundred dollars you never saw a frame of that kind sold under seven dollars.” Customer (examining the frame and getting interested).—“Well, I must say, that is pretty cheap.” Agent.—“Cheap? Why, it is virtually giving them away, but I want to get rid of them.” Customer.—“You go ahead and see what you can do with some one else. In the meantime I’ll see my wife and find out what she thinks about it. You can drop in after dinner for my answer.” Agent.—“See here, my friend, don’t make so much fuss over a small sum. Your wife would be ashamed to object to it. Would you kick if she invested such a little amount as that at home? Of course, you wouldn’t. You’re not that kind. If your wife don’t say it’s right up-to-date and altogether lovely I’ll let her have it for nothing. What more do you want?” Customer.—“Well, I don’t know. Have you sold any of them yet.” Agent—“Oh, yes; I’ve taken several orders this morning.” Customer—“Well, I guess you can put me down for two frames. You agents are worse than fly paper. You stick a man every time.” Agent—“Ha, ha. Do you think so? If I have the luck today that I expect I’ll deliver those frames bright and early tomorrow morning. Good-day, sir.” At which point I would back myself out as gracefully as I could and go in search of another customer. Perhaps, before I was out of the door, he would stop me to talk picture, and eventually insist on my enlarging photographs for himself and wife to fill the purchases. I was doing well, and making plenty of money, but I wanted to do better. I might have had a presentment of my fate when I launched out, from the fact that I had already noticed a peculiarity about my fortunes. While I could do well by myself, or could work well in company so long as the other fellow ostensibly managed the concern, yet when I attempted to play manager over other people I always went broke, or the aggregation dissolved with breathless suddenness. I thought of this before I branched out in the picture business after the fashion I did, but the idea I had seemed such a good one, and I was already so largely a winner, I shut my eyes, locked my teeth hard, and vowed I would break the hoodoo that seemed to be over me, or know the reason why. Later on I discovered the reason in this particular case, and the knowledge only came just in time to save me from again landing in the ranks of the busted. The brief history of the experiment was about this: