Twenty Years of Hus'lingJohnston, J. P. (James Perry)
General
Twenty Years of Hus'ling
Johnston, J. P. (James Perry)
Business; Johnston, J. P. (James Perry), 1852-
This plan was carried out; and in every instance when I called on a
merchant and displayed all of my trays on his counter, he would take the
cards up one after the other, and after reading the word "experience" on
each and every one, would ask its meaning. I always explained that I had
more experience than capital, and as I valued it very highly, I
considered it perfectly legitimate to figure it as stock in trade. This
generally brought a smile from them, and as a rule seemed to work to my
benefit. At any rate, I sold jewelry to almost every dealer I called
upon.
As I was then owing my wholesaler fifty dollars for the first bill, I
at once ordered several small packages sent on ahead of me C.O.D. to
different towns, and as I came to them would take them up.
This gave me a chance for some "tall hus'ling," and I made the most of
it.
I began by showing up my jewelry early in the morning to clerks or
porters at the hotel, and in the evening before retiring, to the hotel
girls.
As soon as the stores were opened I visited every merchant in town, and
sold to Jewelers, Grocers, dealers in Dry Goods and Hardware, Druggists,
Restaurants, Milliners, in short, to every one who had a show-case.
At noon I would open up in the hotel office, ostensibly to arrange my
jewelry, but for no other purpose than to attract the attention of
boarders or guests to my stock of goods.
Whenever they asked to buy I would assume an air of independence and
indifference, and quote the price of every article by the dozen, and was
sure to mention that it was the wholesale price. Of course almost every
one was anxious to buy at wholesale, and I had no trouble in disposing
of goods.
When at the depots awaiting trains I always got into the good graces of
the Telegraph Operator by convincing him that I could read readily from
his instrument, and usually sold him an article of jewelry, and often
several dollars' worth. I might add here that in traveling about the
country it was quite entertaining to listen to every telegraph
instrument, while waiting for trains, and consequently I kept in fair
practice. As I still cling to that habit, I find little difficulty, even
now, in reading rapidly.
When going from place to place on the cars, I made it a point to "spot"
my man as soon as I entered the car, and managed to either get into the
same seat with him or one very near; and before I was fairly settled I
would find it necessary to open my sample case, and if possible would
ask my would-be victim to hold some of the trays while I arranged a few
goods in the bottom of my case. It was never necessary for me to offer
to sell to them, as they were usually eager to look through my stock,
and very anxious to buy when informed that I was a wholesaler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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