Chapter I: Introduction

A boy, just graduated from high school, was looking over some of his father's business books and magazines. The more he read, the more disappointed he became, until finally he blurted,

"Say, dad, I don't want to be a business man!"

"Why not?" asked his father, with a tolerant smile.

"Aw, there's no fun in business."

"Get that foolish idea out of your head, son. There's nothing I know of that is quite so much fun--as you call it--as business. Where did you get your ideas of business?"

"From them books," said son, emphatically, if ungrammatically. "All they talk about is efficiency, getting results, checking people up, and things of that kind."

Just ask yourself, Friend Reader, if your business reading has not given you an idea that business should be more or less a cold-blooded proposition, and our business life something apart from our home and social relationships.

Unfortunately, many books, excellent in their presentation of principles, ignore the human side, as it were, of business. I believe--nay, I am sure--that the influence of our home life is an important factor in the development of our business career. Our loves, our dislikes, our jealousies, our unfortunate, yet often lovable, unreasonablenesses are reflected in our business life. Our impetuous business decisions are often made through the subconscious influence of some dear one at home.

Our ambitions.--Are you, Friend Reader, so cold-blooded that you can say your ambition is a selfish one? Honestly now, wasn't it that you want to win something (whatever it may be)? Didn't you want to "make good" just to please some little woman?

When you faltered and weakened in your struggle for success, wasn't it she who gave you the necessary loving sympathy and encouragement to keep everlastingly at it? And wasn't your ambition encouraged a little bit by the delight you knew its attainment would give to that sweet little woman, who thinks "her boy" is just all right? Didn't you want to "make good" so as to please your mother and your father?

I don't care if you are a big, six-foot, bull-necked husky who smokes black cigars and swears, you have to admit the truth of this assertion so far as you are concerned.

Sounds like moralizing, doesn't it? And yet it's God's own truth!

It was convictions such as these which caused me to write "Dawson Black." I wanted to give the world a book which would not be a learned and technical treatise on retail merchandising, but would give a picture of business life as it really is--not as the world mis-sees it.

I have tried to make "Dawson Black" a human being, not an automaton to go through a series of jerky motions to illustrate principles. I wanted him to do some things wrong and suffer for it, and some things right, and perhaps still suffer a little; but I wanted to make his business life _REAL_. I wanted the reader to say to himself, "By Jove! I did just that same fool thing myself!"

And, underneath all this, I wanted to present a few of the principles of retail merchandising. I wanted to show that the result of the correct application of principle was sure, and that a principle of retail merchandising is applicable to every kind of retail store--be it the little corner Italian fruit stand, or be it the largest department store in the country; be it hardware, drygoods, drugs, shoes, plumbing, or what not.

This book will have answered its purpose if it encourages you to persevere by showing that the majority of people make the same mistakes that you do,--and inspires you with the nobility of business, and in particular convinces you that you are not working for money, but for the happiness you can give somebody else in addition to yourself.

HAROLD WHITEHEAD.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION vii I AN UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE 1 II READY TO GO AHEAD 6 III MY FIRST DAY 10 IV IN TROUBLE 15 V BETTY MAKES A PROMISE 21 VI UNTYING SOME TANGLES 23 VII GETTING DOWN TO WORK 30 VIII A WEDDING AND A CONVENTION 37 IX A GOOD PLAN BLOCKED 46 X CURBING CREDIT CUSTOMERS 52 XI MORE FINANCIAL WORRIES 59 XII AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR 65 XIII A NEW KIND OF LOTTERY 73 XIV SOME IDEAS IN BUYING 80 XV HOW TO STOP SWEARING 89 XVI A PROPER USE FOR EYES 95 XVII PLANNING TO REDUCE STOCK 100 XVIII THE GREAT SALE 109 XIX A TRIP TO BOSTON 122 XX A SUCCESSFUL MONDAY MEETING 127 XXI A POOR SALESMAN 136 XXII STIGLER PREPARES ANOTHER BLOW 146 XXIII TRADING STAMPS 153 XXIV PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE 167 XXV SELLING ELECTRIC APPLIANCES 176 XXVI FIRE--AND NO INSURANCE 183 XXVII PROFIT-SHARING PLANS 189 XXVIII GETTING NEW BUSINESS 200 XXIX STIGLER RUNS AMUCK 212 XXX NEW TROUBLES 217 XXXI A NEW COMPETITOR 222 XXXII SOME IDEAS ON WINDOW TRIMMING 235 XXXIII A BUSINESS PROPOSITION 246 XXXIV DOMINATING IN SERVICE 254 XXXV A NEW THOUGHT ON RETAIL SELLING 263 XXXVI BETTY COMES HOME 279 XXXVII WOOLTON COMES TO TOWN 285 XXXVIII A LOGICAL PROFIT-SHARING PLAN 298 XXXIX A BOOMERANG IDEA 308 XL RULES FOR GIVING SERVICE 315 XLI ENDORSING A NOTE FOR A FRIEND 321 XLII JOCK MCTAVISH DISTURBS THE PEACE 329 XLIII MARTIN SPRINGS A SURPRISE 337 XLIV A BUDGET OF SURPRISES 349

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"BETTY WAS A REAL COMFORT" (_See page 110_) _Frontispiece_

"I WAS SO RAGING MAD THAT I WAS PREPARED FOR ALMOST ANYTHING" 120

"THE GIRL IN CHARGE WOULD LOOK UP SWEETLY" 179

"I WAS STANDING OUTSIDE THE WINDOW" 236

"SNIPPED THREE SHORT PIECES OF WIRE FROM THE COIL" 277

DAWSON BLACK

RETAIL MERCHANT