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14.

"After I'd been selling organs a while, I thought I was
about the best salesman there was. I was some conceited boy, but
I thought I was a man of incomparable ability. I went to a house
and knocked at the door one day, when I had the strongest sort of
feeling that my salesmanship was simply irresistible. An old lady -
that woman must have been a hundred years old - came to the door,
and I politely asked her if they had an organ in the house. Instead
of replying, she began calling, 'Sallie! Oh! Sallie!' I thought she
was calling one of her family, who would be interested in the purchase
of an organ. As footsteps were heard approaching from the rear of the
house and I was planning my open sales speech, that old woman said,
'Sallie, let that bulldog out!' My elation was suddenly gone. I
hurriedly told her it wouldn't be necessary to release the dog. I
would go.

"I'd saved up some money and it seemed a good idea to ramble
some more. Thought I'd go to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago.
When I arrived at Hannibal, on my way to St. Louis, I bought a cheese
lunch to eat on the train. We had about a hundred miles more to ride
before getting to St. Louis, and it was still a good while before
lunch time, when a man sitting behind me said, 'Son, if you'll throw
that dern box away, I'll buy you any kind of dinner you want when we
get to St. Louis.' I had not discovered before that my cheese lunch
was made with limburger cheese.

"It was about two o'clock in the morning when we reached St.
Louis. I'd always thought the old Union passenger station in Atlanta

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