There are very few men, in certain sections of the country, who will absolutely refuse to give a letter of introduction to a neighbor on the simple ground of ill-desert.  Men dread the ill-will of their neighbor, and particularly the ill-will of an unscrupulous neighbor; so, when such a neighbor asks a letter, they give it.  I remember such a one bringing a dozen or more letters, some of which contained the highest commendation.  The writer of one of these letters sent a private note, through the mail, warning one of the persons addressed against the bearer of his own commendatory letter.  Those who had no warning sold, and lost.  It would be difficult to find a man, however unworthy, who could not, from some quarter, obtain a very respectable letter of introduction.  One of the greatest rogues that ever came to Boston brought letters from two of the foremost houses in New York to two firms second to none in Boston.  Neither of these gentlemen was in fault in the matter; the train had been laid by some obliging cousin in a banking-house in London.

In making up our account of the difficulties with which a dry-goods jobber has to deal, in conducting a successful business, it must be distinctly stated, that on no man can he count for information which will, however remotely or slightly, compromise the interest of the one inquired of.  Never, perhaps, was it so true as now, that “the seller has need of a hundred eyes.”  The competent jobber uses his eyes first of all upon the person of the man who desires to buy of him.  He questions him about himself, with such directness or indirectness as instinct and experience dictate.  He learns to discriminate between the sensitiveness of the high-toned honest man and the sensitiveness of the rogue.  Many men of each class are inclined to resent and resist the catechism.  Strange as it may seem, the very men who would inexorably refuse a credit to those who should decline to answer their inquiries are the men most inclined to resent any inquiry about themselves.  While they demand the fullest and most particular information from their customers, they wonder that others will not take them on their own estimate of themselves.

The jobber next directs his attention to the buyer’s knowledge of goods:  of their quality, their style, their worth in market, and their fitness for his own market; all of which will come to light, as he offers to his notice the various articles he has for sale.  He will improve the opportunity to draw him out in general conversation, so guiding it as to touch many points of importance, and yet not so as to betray a want of confidence.  He sounds him as to his knowledge of other merchants at home and in the city; takes the names of his references,—­of several, if he can get them; puts himself in communication with men who know him, both at his home and in the city.  If he can harmonize the information derived from all these sources into a consistent and satisfactory whole, he will then do his utmost to secure his customer, both by selling him his goods at a profit so small that he need have little fear of any neighbor’s underselling him, and also by granting every possible accommodation as to the time and manner of payment.