e has tried to storm
the doors of big business. He asks at once for the president. He does
not give his card because the school where he learned his trade
cautioned him against doing so. (He is perfectly correct, and he would
have been equally correct if he had given it. The more formal style is
to send in the card.) The man at the door sees at once what kind of man
he has to deal with.

"The president is busy," he answers--a safe remark always, because if he
is not he should be; "maybe I can do something for you."

The salesman explains that he has an attachment to increase efficiency
of typewriters. He would like to show the president how it works.

"Oh, you don't want Mr. President," the host answers. "You want Mr.
Jones. He attends to all such things for us. Will you be seated here in
the reception room," motioning toward the door which is at one side of
his desk, "while I find out if he is busy?"

This concern is very conservative about buying new attachments and new
machinery of any kind, but it is ever on the alert to discover means of
increasing its output and saving its manpower. Almost any new idea is
worth a demonstration.

If the man at the desk has an intelligent messenger boy--and he should
have--he sends him in to Mr. Jones. The boy finds Mr. Jones busy. He
will be free in about fifteen minutes and then will be glad to see the
salesman. The man reports to the visitor and asks if he cares to wait.
He does. The host offers him a magazine and asks him to make himself
comfortable while he goes back to his desk to attend to the next
visitor.

This one also wants to see the president.

"The president is in conference just now," the young man replies.
"Perhaps there is something I can do for you in the meanwhile if you
will tell me what you want."

"It's none of your business," he answers rudely. "I want the president."

The chances are against a man of this sort. He may be a person the
president wants to see, but the odds are ten to one that he is not.

"I'm sorry but you cannot possibly see him now. He is busy."

"When will he be free?"

"It is hard to tell. These conferences sometimes last an hour or two,
and I am sure he will not see you even then unless you tell him why you
want to see him. He is a very busy man."

The visitor sputters around a few minutes and it develops that he is
selling insurance. The young man knows that the president will not see
him under any circumstances. He is alre