ABSENT-MINDED
Absent-minded people are often met with by the salesman, and might be considered as an annoyance unless they are properly understood. Almost everybody who ever tried to write a joke has taken the absent-minded college professor as a subject at some time or other. The yarn of the old professor who, coming in out of the rain, put his umbrella to bed and stood in the bath tub, proved him to be absent-minded—but he was no fool. While the rest of the world very systematically put their umbrellas where they properly belonged and went comfortably to bed, he was probably thinking five years ahead of the rank and file. This is not an argument in favor of increasing the number of absent-minded people. They are not all college professors and they may not all be deep thinkers, but they do deserve to be treated with every possible consideration on the part of the salesman.
In some stores, where the business is large enough to warrant it, the management has found it to be good business to have salesmen of special ability to serve elderly customers and invalids. This requires a fine degree of salesmanship on the part of the man who is able to tune himself up to such customers and to understand how they should be best served. It is an art worth while cultivating.