CHAPTER XVII.
Adding to Bank Account—Looked Better, Felt Better and Was Better—Selling Encyclopedias—Complete Canvass—Tricky and Persistent—Advertising Schemes—Tricks of the Present Day—Disguises—How Different Business Men Were Worked—Strategy.
Having found a general line of books so profitable to handle, it might be supposed that I would have stuck to that, and not experimented with exclusive work in a single line. I reasoned, however, that a large commission, made just as easily and rapidly as a small one, was a great deal better for the bank account, and so I finally switched off from the general line to the selling of forty dollar encyclopedias. While engaged in this work I made better money, came in contact with a better class of customers, looked better, felt better and was better in bodily appearance and mental condition than I ever was before; and what was far better, I was able to put by and hold on to a far greater portion of my earnings.
In soliciting for encyclopedias I used a horse and carriage, and made a thorough, systematic canvass of every town visited. I first called on the ministers, then the other professional men, including the school teachers, winding up with all the business men that would or could buy.
This is my canvass, word for word, as it occurred. Walking into a store, I would say:
“Are you Mr. Rice?”
Mr. R.—“Yes, sir; that is my name.”
Agent.—“You are the proprietor, I believe?”