e of
school supplies to the superintendent of schools in a large western city.
The contract was a considerable one and meant a large commission to the
salesman. As he studied the situation, he learned that one of his
competitors had been furnishing all of the supplies for the schools in
this city for a number of years and that it was very difficult for the
salesmen from other business houses to get a hearing. The superintendent's
usual manner of rebuff was to say: "No, I do not care to look at your
line. We are being excellently served now, sir, and have no desire to make
a change."

This salesman proceeded to the office of the superintendent early in the
morning, before that official arrived, and was waiting in the ante-room
when his prospective customer came in. Observing the man quickly, as he
walked through the ante-room into his private office, the salesman noted
that he was tall, square-shouldered, with a square face and jaw, wide
forehead and a slow, elastic, graceful stride. In other words, he was
distinctly a man of the bony and muscular type. A few minutes later the
salesman was ushered into the superintendent's office. He carried with
him, instead of a huge sample case--this he left in the ante-room--an
ingenious little mechanical pencil sharpener. Stepping up to the
superintendent's desk, he set the machine down squarely in front of the
official and, without a word, picked up a pencil from the desk and
sharpened it.

"How much by the dozen?" asked the superintendent.

"Twenty-five dollars," replied the salesman.

"Send me five dozen," said the superintendent, drawing towards him a
requisition blank.

While the superintendent was writing the requisition, the salesman quietly
slipped out and brought in his sample case. When he returned, the
superintendent was sharpening a pencil for himself with much evident
enjoyment.

"What else have you?" said he, without looking up.

Of course that question opened up the salesman's sample case, and when he
left the office, he had at least broken down that ancient barrier and had
secured an order for considerably more than one-third of the year's
supplies.

In our story of the railroad man who was induced to buy an automobile
without even suspecting that his patronage was being solicited, observe
how skillfully the salesman drew his customer's attention to the
mechanical features of the machine. The colonel, being a railroad man,
was, of course, of this bony and