SELLING LUMBER 341 



it." So he stated that he would} try to conform to their wishes, 

 and at the close of that meeting he stated, "My subject next Sun- 

 day will be, 'You can't keep a good man down/ and the text 

 will be given at the beginning of the service next Sunday, and I 

 will try to stick to my text." The next Sunday came, and a great 

 many people went to church because they wanted to know what 

 text in the Bible would refer in the remotest way to the thought 

 that you couldn't keep a good man down. He had a larger con- 

 gregation than ever, and he said, "My subject is, 'You can't keep a 

 good man down.' My text is, 'And the whale swallowed Jonah 

 and spewed him up on dry land/ ): (Laughter.) Then he went on 

 with a very eloquent sermon, and it was correct, because the 

 text was correct, and because the text related so closely to his 

 subject. 



Now, my text is, "The Lumber Salesman and His Possibili- 

 ties." There are a great many possibilities for a good lumber 

 salesman. The only question is, are you salesmen, or are you just 

 order takers? Now, I believe that you are salesmen. I have a 

 way of telling. I have a way of knowing. You can tell by the for'the* * 

 way I have selected my salesmen. There are twenty of them right Lumber 

 in here (laughter and applause) ; and I can pass the same compli- 

 ment all around, I believe. Now, a salesman has a great many 

 trials; he has a great many possibilities. For, in every work in 

 life where there are trials there are great possibilities to overcome 

 those trials; so that it is an' axiom that wherever you have great 

 trials and perplexities you will have great possibilities in propor- 

 tion to your trials. I honestly believe that every good salesman 

 is a real honest, good, Christian man, for I don't believe it possible 

 for a man to go out and succeed through life as a salesman unless 

 he is a real good man; and I believe that when you come to St. 

 Peter's gate you will be asked what you were here on earth, per- 

 haps not in these same terms and not as given to the candidate The Salesman 

 yesterday afternoon who passed such a creditable examination, but Gate* 

 you will be admitted because you have been, as you will say, a 

 yellow pine salesman on earth. St. Peter will say to you, "Just 

 step in. Take a seat a little above the men you have been working 

 for, for you have had your hell on earth." (Applause.) Now, I 

 think that is very true. I think that the men that you are working 

 for ought to be here today and look right in your faces; and if 

 they were here today they would not humiliate you, they would 



