Chapter VIII —
THREE DOLLARS WELL INVESTED—LEARNING TELEGRAPHY—GETTING IN DEBT—A
FULL-FLEDGED OPERATOR—MY FIRST TELEGRAPH OFFICE—BUYING AND SELLING
DUCKS AND FROGS WHILE EMPLOYED AS OPERATOR—MY
RESIGNATION—CO-PARTNERSHIP IN THE JEWELRY AND SPECTACLE BUSINESS—HOW
WE SUCCEEDED—OUR DISSOLUTION.
The next day after making this trade and procuring the ten dollars, I
bought an old silver watch from a stranger who had become stranded,
paying him three dollars for it. This I traded for another watch and
received five dollars as a difference. From this I continued to make
trades until I was the owner of ten head of fine sheep, three pigs, a
shot-gun, violin, watch, and a few dollars in money, besides having paid
my board at the hotel and bought necessary clothing.
When I found a buyer for my sheep and pigs, my mother said of course I
couldn’t be contented until I sold them and lost the money. I [Pg 92]explained
to her that, in order to speculate, it was necessary to keep
re-investing and turning my money often.
Mr. Keefer said I was right, but advised me to be very careful, now that
I had quite a nice start from simply nothing.
After selling out, I one day called on the day telegraph operator, Will
Witmer, and while sitting in his office, asked him to explain the
mysteries of telegraphy. He did so, and I then asked him to furnish me
with the telegraph alphabet, which he did. I studied it that night, and
the next day called at his office again, and began practicing making the
letters on the instrument.
He paid me a very high compliment for my aptness, and said I was foolish
for not learning the business.
I asked what the expense would be.
He said his charges would be fifteen dollars, and it would take four
months anyhow, and possibly six, before I would be able to take an
office.
Two days later, after giving special attention to the business, I had
become quite infatuated with it, and paid over the fifteen dollars to
him and two weeks’ board at the hotel.
My intentions were to try and sustain myself[Pg 93] by speculating and
trafficking, but I very soon became so absorbed in my new undertaking as
to be unfit for that business.
My mother was immensely pleased at the turn affairs had taken. Mr.
Keefer was both surprised and pleased, and said he would help me pay my
board, although he couldn’t see how I ever happened to take a liking to
that business.
During this winter, my associates and habits of life differing wholly
from those of former years, I became what would now be considered “quite
a dude.” And having no income from business, and a limited one from Mr.
Keefer, with a fair future prospect, I took advantage of my good credit
in town, and bought clothes, boots, shoes and furnishing goods, and
borrowed money occasionally from my friends, who never refused me.
Three months from the very day I began learning the alphabet, through
the advice and recommendation of Mr. Witmer, I called on Wm. Kline, Jr.,
General Superintendent of Telegraph, and made application for an office.
He sent me to Whiting, Indiana, sixteen miles from Chicago, with
instructions to take charge of the night office, at a salary of forty
dollars per month.
On arriving there I found only a small station, and one family, with
whom I was to take board, and who were living in an old abandoned
water-tank.
The young man whom I relieved from night duty was promoted to day
operator, and as he was thoroughly disgusted with the place he kept
continually writing to the Superintendent’s secretary, who was a friend
of his, to get him a better office, which he did in just six weeks
afterwards.
I was then promoted to his position, with no raise of salary, but which
I gladly accepted.
There was plenty of duck hunting and frog catching among the settlers
there, but they didn’t seem to understand how to find a market for them.
I at once took advantage of this by getting a day off and a pass to
Chicago, where I bargained with a commission merchant to handle all I
could send him. I then returned to Whiting and arranged to have the
settlers consign all their game to me, which I in turn consigned to the
commission merchant. I had plenty of business and made money fast.
One day the Division Superintendent happened to get off the train, as we
were loading on a lot of frogs, when he asked me who was shipping[Pg 97]
from that point. I told him I was. He looked at me a moment and asked,
in a gruff tone:
“Does this R. R. Co. pay you to buy frogs?”
I answered: “No, they pay my board to watch the station, and I buy and
sell frogs to make my salary.”
The conductor and other employees who heard our remarks laughed
heartily, and the Superintendent returned to his car with a broad grin.
As soon as the frog and duck season was over I began urging Mr. Kline to
give me a better paying office. I also wrote home expressing my
dissatisfaction with the business, and my contempt for the small salary
it paid, and closed by saying I could make more money swapping
jackknives than I could telegraphing, and that I never would be able to
pay my debts were I to continue at it.
My mother answered; saying, that if I threw up that position and came
back home she would leave the country.
In a few days I was transferred from Whiting to Swanton, Ohio, with no
raise of salary, but better facilities for spending what I did get.
I remained there until the following spring, and managed to spare about
five dollars per month[Pg 98] towards reducing my home liabilities, and tight
squeezing at that.
While there I made frequent visits to Toledo, where Mr. Kline’s office
was located, and never failed to call on him or his secretary, with a
request for a better position. One day I wanted to be extra operator,
and another day I would insist upon being placed in the train
dispatcher’s office, and again thought I would like the general freight
office, either of which was considered a fine position.
Finally the secretary asked, one day, how I would like to have Mr. Kline
resign in my favor.
I told him I would like it first-rate if the salary was sufficient.
As soon as the green grass and flowers of spring commenced to show
themselves, I began to get nervous and anxious to make a change.
One day while several people were sitting in the depot waiting for a
train, a young enterprising looking fellow came in with a small
sample-case in his hand, and began talking to an old gentleman about
spectacles, and very soon made a sale for which he received two dollars
and fifty cents, spot cash.
After the train had come and gone, carrying[Pg 99] with it the old gentleman,
I entered into conversation with the young man, and finally asked him,
confidentially, what that pair of spectacles cost him. He laughed and
said they could be bought for one dollar per dozen.
“That settles it right here,” I said, and added:
“That settles the telegraph business with me. I’ll send my resignation
to Mr. Kline forthwith, by telegraph.” And I did so.
After about ten days he accepted it and sent me a pass for home and the
amount due me, which was sixty-five dollars.
On my arrival home a stormy scene ensued.
My mother said it was just like me to leave a sure thing and traffic
around over the country, with no future prospects whatever.
Mr. Keefer said the business was too slow for me, anyhow, and he had
thought so from the beginning. I explained that the experience was worth
a great deal to me.
My mother replied that I had for years been getting nothing but
experience.
Mr. Keefer said he’d bet I would come out all right yet.
“Yes,” my mother said, “he will come out in the poorhouse, and drag you
and me with him.”
She then what I expected to do next, and I told her about the immense
profits made in the spectacle business.
She laughed, and with much sarcasm remarked, that a dozen pair of
spectacles and an old tin box to carry them in, would probably be the
height of my ambition.
I told her that remained to be seen; but I would some day convince her
differently, and show her how to make money fast.
The next day I received a letter from an acquaintance residing at
Kirkersville, Ohio, in answer to one I had written him, in which I
stated my intention of going into the spectacle business.
He informed me that he was the owner of a fine horse and carriage, and
suggested that I take him in partnership with me; he to furnish the
traveling conveyance and I the money. This I agreed to, and wrote him my
intentions to start for Kirkersville on a certain day, where I would
expect to meet him, and we would drive to Columbus, a distance of twenty
miles, and buy our stock.
On my arrival at Kirkersville I found him ready to start. We drove to
Columbus and called on a wholesale jewelry firm.
After looking their stock over I decided that there was more money in
cheap jewelry than spectacles. I had about forty dollars in cash, and
after buying one dozen pairs of spectacles, for one dollar, invested the
balance in jewelry, after which I prevailed on the firm to give me a
traveling sample case. In this we displayed our jewelry nicely and
started down the Portsmouth pike.
My first effort to make a sale was at the toll-gate, a short distance
from the city. Finding an old lady in attendance, I introduced the
spectacles. She declared she never would buy another thing from a
peddler.
THIS, MADAM, IS THE STEREOSCOPIC LENS.—PAGE 101
I told her I had not asked her to buy, and said: “Madam, I have here a
stereoscopic lens.”
“A stereo-what?” she quickly asked.
“A stereoscopic lens,” I repeated.
“Well, my!” she ejaculated, “they ought to be good ones, if the name has
anything to do with them,” and began trying them on.
She very soon found a pair which suited her and pleased her exceedingly.
While she was looking my glasses over, I picked up her old ones, and
while examining them the thought occurred to me, that as my[Pg 102] stock of
spectacles consisted only of a dozen pairs it would be a good idea to
try and trade spectacles each time instead of selling outright, and by
so doing always keep my stock up to the original number.
Acting on the suggestion, I remarked to the old lady that her glasses
must have cost at least three dollars, and if she so desired I would
give her a trade.
She asked the price of my glasses.
“Four dollars,” was my reply.
She said she didn’t just remember how much she did pay for hers, but it
was about the price I had mentioned.
She then asked me how I would trade. I offered to allow her two dollars
for her glasses on the deal.
She said she would if she had the money. On counting it she found but
one dollar and thirty-two cents, all in pennies. We made the trade, as I
had a great deal of sympathy (?) for her, and knew she had never before
found a pair of glasses so well suited to her eyes.
The third house we stopped at I found a young lady who was very anxious
to see my jewelry.
After opening my case she selected a very[Pg 103] showy set, ear-drops and pin,
which I sold her for one dollar. When she paid me I noticed she had more
money left, and said to her:
“See here, my young miss, I hardly think the set you have selected is
good enough for you. Let me show you a handsome set of jewelry such as
you would be proud to wear at a fashionable ball, or entertainment of
any kind. It will of course cost you more money, but I know it will
please you better.”
I then took from the bottom of the case a set which was nicely put up in
a small paste-board box (although they all cost the same), and offered
it for inspection. She was at once infatuated with it, and after asking
the price (which was five dollars), expressed her regret that she had
made her purchase before taking notice of that particular set. I then
very kindly offered to exchange for the set she had just bought, and
allow her the same as she paid, when she remarked, after reflecting a
moment, that she couldn’t do that as she hadn’t money enough within one
dollar to pay the difference. But when I offered to trust her for the
other dollar until I came around again, she traded, remarking, as she
counted out her last three dollars:
“All right, I’ll do it, and if you never come again I’ll have a dollar
the best of you anyhow.”
We had excellent success during the first ten days, after which we
experienced four days of probably as poor success as ever attended a
“Yankee peddler.”
We stopped at every house, and never sold a dollar’s worth during the
four days. Doors were slammed in my face, and dogs were set upon us. Yet
I insisted that success must necessarily follow, sooner or later.
My partner, however, was not so hopeful. He became impatient and
disagreeable in the extreme. At every house we would come to he would
sullenly remark that there was no use stopping, they didn’t want to buy
anything; and finally went so far as to insist that we make no more
stops.
As I considered myself the senior member of the firm, I ordered a stop
made at every house.
This led to unpleasantness, and brought out a few personal
characteristics of his which induced me to think he had been raised a
“pet” and was accustomed to having his own way in everything.
But as I was not one of the “petting” kind,[Pg 105] and rather inclined to have
my way about things in general, we gradually grew into a controversy.
He declared the horse and carriage was his, and he had a right to stop
when and where he pleased.
I gave him that privilege, but also gave him notice that I owned the
goods and carried the money, and as “the walking was not all taken up”
he could drive as fast and as far as he pleased, but I was going to stop
at every house, even though I might lose a piece of my unmentionables by
every dog on the road.
At last I was successful in trading spectacles with an old lady,
receiving two pairs of old glasses and two dollars in cash for the pair
I let her have.
This enlivened things up for a while, but only temporarily. We drove
back to his home at Kirkersville, where, after invoicing and dividing
profits, we dissolved partnership.
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