The statistomat pitch

By CHAN DAVIS
Illustrated by JOHN SCHOENHERR
The product looked okay, and the salesman was sharp ... dangerously sharp!
The little salesman buzzed into my hotel room exactly at 10. He must have been waiting in the corridor, ambushing the second-hand.
I watched from my deep chair in the corner while he slid open his raincoat, lifted it neatly off his back (the casual shrug wasn't his style), and stood with it hanging from his forefinger. With a bright, apologetic smile he hung it up in the alcove behind the door. I decided not to object to his using the hook without asking; it'd just slow things up.
The salesman smiled again, ducked out into the corridor and back in with a flat 24x20 brief case and a large, oddly shaped suitcase. His presentation charts and a mockup of the computer, obviously. More apologetic faces, and he sat down.
He said, It was very good of you, Mr. Borch, to give me this chance to tell you about our new, personalized Statistomat. I know you're a busy man—
I raised my drooping eyelids just enough to see him properly.
—with all your responsibilities, and I hope I'll be able to answer all your questions on modern estate planning. That's what I'm here for! He smiled as if he were pausing for questions, but he didn't pause.
He intoned, The man of wealth has a special responsibility in our society. He is the trustee of invested capital, on which our economy rests. His proud charge is to direct and build his holdings wisely; and natural economic laws have justly placed the nation's considerable estates in the hands of men equal to the charge.
At the same time, such men owe themselves freedom from deprivation. And they owe themselves a financial plan adapted to their own—er—preferences and tastes in freedom from deprivation. This is why we speak of personalized estate planning. Maybe this will be still clearer, Mr. Borch, if we look at an example.
Here we go again, I thought, as he hauled a packet out of his brief case, opened it out into a little stand on the table, and flipped up the first chart.