ABSTRACT
As years passed on there was an increase allowed on the $8-a-week salary. It reached $10 and $12 and finally $14, which, at the age of twenty-four, seemed to be an income that would warrant taking a wife and assuming the expenses of a possible family. The paper allowed frequent advertising contracts payable in goods, or part goods and part cash, and on such contracts the schedule of discount was held in abeyance. I remember making a deal with a furniture man over the office counter one day that was finally consummated on the basis of so many dollars and so many cents, payable at expiration of the service, one-half in cash and the balance in furniture to be bought at the store “per agreement.” That phrase, “per agreement,” covered manifold details in many cases and explained many discrepancies. When the man had gone the manager stepped forward, looked at the record in the book, and, in a way he had of saying a sentence over twice, expressed himself to me: “That’s right, Mr. Rowell, that’s right. When it’s part cash and part trade get just about as much cash as you would if there were not to be any goods.” With merchandise obtained on advertising account the office was rather liberal with its clerks. Many an overcoat, trunk, hat or umbrella came to me in that way; and I have to this day a handsome black walnut library table and chair that came out of a furniture deal about the time I was contemplating housekeeping possibilities. As the first pieces of furniture I owned I have ever valued these highly, and when, some time after, I established an advertising agency that table and that chair were all the furniture that went into the office, and they were all that was needed. By and by, with added expenses, it became hard to come out even on $14 a week, and advances to $16 and $18 hardly kept up with added wants, either imaginary, ideal or actual. There 57ought, it seemed, to somewhere be an opening for growth wherein genius might spread and expand.
