676 



GLEANINGS IN incE CULTuUl^. 



July 



cut all the others that would not bear to be 

 left in the ground an hour longer. We put 

 as many on the wngon as would probably be 

 sold by offering two pretty good-sized heads 

 for a nickel. The rest we placed in the cel- 

 lar, right on the damp ground. I.ettnce can 

 be kept one or even two days in such a place 

 without any apparent wilting. It is better 

 to cut them then than to leave them in the 

 ground ; for the sunshine after the shower 

 would cause them to shoot up very rapidly ; 

 whereas, if they were cut off and laid in the 

 cellar all this mischief would be at an end. 

 IJy this kind of careful management our 

 whole crop was worked off at an excellent 

 profit ; whereas, had the work been done 

 carelessly by some one whose heart and soid 

 were not in it, it might not have paid ex- 

 penses. 



Do you urge that it was not using our cus- 

 tomers right to push thingsV I admit, that 

 this might be carried to sucli an extreme as 

 to be injudicious or wrong. But right here 

 comes a point in regard to selling things. 

 People very often buy that to which tlieir 

 attention is particularly called. We have 

 two good salesmen on our market-wagon, 

 and a small boy to do errands. A few days 

 ago said small boy gave me quite an import- 

 ant fact. We liappened to have a good stock 

 of peas at the same time that we had a good 

 stock of strawberries. IJoth needed pushing. 

 Said the boy, " My pa can sell peas at almost 

 every house. Mr. Weed can't sell peas, but 

 he can sell strawberries at almost every 

 house." Now, tlie probabilities are that we 

 liave many customers that have about so 

 much money to expend for dinner, and it 

 does not matter very greatly to them whether 

 they have peas or strawberries. (3ne man 

 had got started in selling peas, and it came 

 easier for him to make sales^with them than 

 with strawberries. With the other it was 

 the other way. Of course, people should be 

 allowed to purchase what they wish ; but at 

 the same time we all of us unconsciously in- 

 fluence people more or less with m hom we 

 have to deal. Let me give an illustration : 



Some years ago, when we had a counter 

 store on the fair-ground, I was a good many 

 times greatly surprised that a thing which J 

 expected would sell wonderfully, did not sell 

 a bit, and vice versa. For a while I coirid 

 not understand how my judgment was so 

 much at fault. An incident gave the ex- 

 planation. During quite a rush of busi- 

 ness tliere was a complaint made that they 

 were short of help. I accordingly asked my 

 brother-in-law, Neighbor JI.. to please "• lend 



a hand." This lie did willingly, for he is a 

 great fellow to talk and visit. We had just 

 received a fine lot of stereoscopes, jmd the 

 price was exceedingly low. I expected that, 

 on the fair-ground, we should sell a great 

 many. To my surprise, the clerks informed 

 me that the stereoscopes did not sell a bit. 

 Neighbor II. took a fancy to the stereo- 

 scopes, and before I knew it he was selling 

 them to almost every man, woman, and child 

 that came along. Another clerk was selling 

 great big retinned dish-pans to everybody he 

 traded with, and all went away satisfied, 

 and a good many declared their purchase 

 was exactly what they had wanted for a long 

 while. It worked something like this : One 

 of the clerks who didn't care much about 

 stereoscopes would show the instrument in 

 ail indifferent way, not mentioning that it 

 was very much lower than they had been 

 sold ; and I shouldn't wonder if he some- 

 times omitted to tell the price at all. A cus- 

 tomer would sny, " Oh, I guess I don't want 

 one to-day." Now, Neighbor II. would tell 

 so much about it, and show it to such good 

 advantage, that the bystanders were inter- 

 ested ; and perhaps he would set some of the 

 children to teasing papa to get an instru- 

 ment, with a lot of those pictures, to keep in 

 the parlor, etc. 



Now just one more illustration, dear read- 

 er, in regard to this matter of selling your 

 products ; for indeed it is so very important 

 a matter I hope you will excuse me if I re- 

 fer to it again and again. A few weeks ago 

 we purchased a barrel of honey-jumbles— 

 a nice little cake sweetened entirely with 

 honey— no sugar or molasses entering into 

 its composition in any shape whatever. 1 

 was very anxious to have these introduced 

 in our town, and introduced generally, be- 

 cause of the opening it promised to dispose 

 of the surplus honey now in our markets; 

 and I thought I gave the boys on the wagon 

 special directions about showing and ex- 

 plaining what the cakes were made of. I 

 was considerably disappointed, howerever, 

 to lind they did not go off very well. A few 

 days later I did not see the glass case con- 

 taining them on the wagon at all. I asked 

 the driver for an explanation. lie replied 

 that they were out in tlie rain one day and 

 got wet, and so they ate them up, what there 

 were left. The rain water made the case 

 untidy, and so they sent it down into the 

 kitchen to be washed. 



" But," said I, "• aren't you going to carry 

 them any more V " 



He replied that they didn't know whether 



