 | CHAPTER III. The western merchant |  |
3. CHAPTER III.
In due course of time we arrived at the new town of
Franklin, situated in the woods, some two miles from the
river. The old town, which had been once the largest
village above St. Louis, was rapidly undergoing one of
the saddest processes incident to western villages on the
great streams. The capricious and rightly-termed “Mad
Missouri,” was undermining and washing away the original
town. More than two-thirds of it had already disappeared;
and the inhabitants were then bestirring themselves to save
what wrecks they could of their property. They were removing
the buildings themselves (mostly frame) back to
the hills; and the new village in the woods presented the
grotesque appearance of a new town built in a measure of
old materials.
My brother gave me a hearty welcome, and furnished
me the means to discharge my debt to General Ashley.
And now began my career as a Western Merchant. I
found my position altogether a novel, and by no means an
unpleasant one. I soon perceived that the merchant was
even of that of the professional gentlemen, who,
at that day, at least, were rarely in affluent circumstances.
Indeed, the merchants in a manner monopolized all the
wealth in the country, and wielded the popular influence.
One of the partners in the establishment, which was to
send a branch up the river under the charge of my brother
Joseph, was daily expected to arrive on his return with
the goods from Philadelphia. Letters had been received
from him, announcing his arrival at St. Louis, a few days
after my departure from that port. He stated that he would
come up the river with his goods on the steamboat Ioway,
which would be ready to start about the first of April, and
might be looked for at Franklin, by the 15th. Boats were
“few and far between” then, and some of them consumed
two weeks, instead of two days (as now), in ascending the
river.
About this time my brother and myself set off on horseback
up the river, to see that the building for our new
store should be completed and in readiness to receive the
goods. Towards noon, we arrived opposite the famous new
town of Pike Bluff, and after some delay in consequence
of the great number of emigrants' wagons which were
waiting to get across, we were ferried over the turbulent
stream in a flat, rickety, open boat. We ascended the
hill and beheld the town. It consisted alone of the new
store-house, in a half finished condition. It was composed
of hewed logs, the chinks betwixt them not being yet plastered
up. It had a roof on, however, and afforded a shelter.
The workmen were that day just sawing out openings for
the doors. We prevailed on them to concentrate all their
forces on one of the rooms, (there were to be just two, each
about twenty feet square,) so that it might be shelved, and
happen to arrive a few days before the time appointed.
They cheerfully complied, and exerted themselves to the
utmost of their ability. The ugly interstices between the
huge logs, were soon filled with clay and lime, and whitewashed
on the inside. A counter was erected, and shelves
put up.
I remained with the workmen while my brother returned
to Franklin, with the understanding that he would come
up on the boat with the goods. All was bustle and curiosity.
The people for miles round came in every day
to inquire when the goods would arrive. There was but
one store in the whole county, which was situated a considerable
distance in the interior, and the beginning of a
new town on the river, by means of the establishment of a
store there, made a considerable noise in that community.
I soon became acquainted with everybody; and after the
first sight a mutual familiarity exists in new countries. I
must own that I felt flattered by the novel importance of
my position, being a sort of centre of attraction; and as I
was not deficient in personal address, made the most of
my advantage for the interest of the concern. Without the
slightest knowledge of the value of merchandise, it was
yet no difficult matter for me to produce the impression that
our goods would be sold under the prices the good people
had been in the habit of paying for similar articles; and,
in consequence, the anxiety grew more intense on their part
for them to arrive.
It was not long before I had explored every part of the
town. The site was high and dry, but unfortunately broken
up immensely by abrupt hills and deep hollows. With
the exception of the road which led from the ferry to the
prairie, and the small space of ground, some forty by twenty
deer paths, every foot of the town was covered with bushes,
brambles and trees. And these in many parts were impenetrably
united by complete webs of wild vines. More
than once in my explorations, I was under the necessity of
using my knife as a means of extrication. Not unfrequently,
the weather being now warm and pleasant, I was
startled and terrified by the warning sound of the rattlesnake.
The deer leaped through the bushes within forty
feet of me; and the wild turkey crossed my path with
seeming unconcern. These little incidents gave an additional
glow to my anticipations of future enjoyment.
I have said that the building my brother and myself
were to occupy, was the only one in town. This was an
error, provided a mud shanty of eight by ten feet dimensions,
might be considered a second house. This hovel
was occupied by a Canadian Frenchman, who had married
an American woman in the vicinity, and who dwelt there
only at intervals, when he returned from his annual expeditions
far up the river, with the fur and trading company,
of which General Ashley was the proprietor. But there
was another house in the suburbs of the town, accessible
by a narrow serpentine path, (literally, as well as figuratively,)
through the hazel bushes, along one of the ridges
terminating at the intersection of one of the valleys. This
was a dwelling built somewhat after the fashion of our
store, only the logs were not hewed; they were merely
barked. The crevices, however, were stopped sufficiently
to hide objects within; and the clap-board roof afforded
tolerable shelter from ordinary rains. This house was occupied
by Mr. White and his family. This was an amiable
family, recently removed from Virginia, (on the James
river,) with the wreck of what had once been an ample fortune.
negroes, and about a dozen of their children and grandchildren.
Mr. White had met with misfortune by being
too kind and generous to his friends. To relieve them
from pressing pecuniary difficulty, he had become security
for them, and the return made for such benefits conferred,
was the entailment on his family of permanent distress. His
two plantations, one inherited by himself, and one by his
wife, were sold to meet his liabilities; and the surplus proceeds,
after discharging the debts not of his own contracting,
merely sufficed to defray his expenses to the far west, and
to buy him a few scanty acres in the wilds of Missouri. His
family consisted of himself, his wife, his wife's sister, and
three children, one son and two daughters, all nearly
grown, and pretty well educated. But notwithstanding
the privations they had endured, I do not remember to
have met with a more happy family in my life. Their
uninterrupted cheerfulness, and unassumed contentment,
in the comparatively miserable condition to which they
had been so heartlessly reduced, afforded a most convincing
exemplification of the consolations and advantages of religion
to those in adversity; and it may be hoped that its
benefits apply as well to conditions of prosperity, though
perhaps not often with the same force and effect. With
this family my brother and myself engaged to board, for
about one dollar and a half a week, each.
Nevertheless, Mr. White, in Missouri, was regarded as
a rich man, and his daughters, Mary and Ellen, were
looked upon as heiresses. The fact that he possessed
some twenty negroes, old and young, made him somewhat
famous there as a man of wealth. That he had no considerable
real estate, in Missouri, where land of the very
best description could be had for one dollar and a quarter
unlimited, that bane of improvident families; and every
species of property he might desire, was easily attainable.
In truth, Mr. White's circumstances and prospects were
equal, if not superior in most respects, to those of the generality
of the inhabitants of the country. His cheerfulness
extended to his servants, who made the little huts they
occupied in the rear of the rude mansion, vocal with their
“Old Virginny” songs. With a hearty good-will they drove
the oxen, and ploughed up the virgin soil of the prairie a
mile or so distant, which as yet belonged to the government,
but which Mr. White designed at some convenient
day in future to purchase. Mr. White followed the example
of others; and at that early day it was rarely the
case that any one fortunately possessing the ability, dared
to incur the odium of entering public lands cultivated by
previous settlers.
By the 15th April, we had the room, originally designed
for the counting-room, shelved round, and prepared for the
reception of the goods. The cash-drawer was ready, and
I had cut a hole through the counter to slip the money into
it. We postponed making a desk, until we could empty
one of the shoe or hat boxes for that purpose. The last
thing we did on the memorable morning of the 15th, was
to put a lock on the door, and a bolt on the window shutter.
About ten o'clock A. M., the people began to arrive.
The first that came were from below, some eight miles
down the river, who had distinctly heard the steamer puffing
on her way up. At that day the steamboats puffed,
and coughed, and wheezed immensely louder than they
now do. These voluntary messengers had spread the
news as they came along, and many others followed them
to town to see the new goods landed.
It was not long before the cough of the boat could be
heard at Pike Bluff, and she was only hid from view by
an intervening island. By the time I had procured three
or four wagons with ox teams to haul the goods up the
hill, the boat had landed, having our goods on board sure
enough, and my brother Joseph, also.
Some six or seven boxes of dry-goods, and thirty or
forty other packages of less size and value, piled up on the
river bank, made the people stare; and my brother and
myself were regarded as young merchant Crœsuses. And
some six thousand dollars worth of goods made a respectable
pile, even then: but at this day of low prices, when two
hundred dollars worth of dry-goods will fill a W box, that
sum would make a very different show on the bank of any
river. There were other descriptions of merchandise besides
dry-goods. Hardware, queensware, shoes, hats,
sugar, coffee, salt, spice, pepper, dye-stuffs, medicines,
(calomel and barks in enormous quantities,) besides a long
catalogue of other articles, made up the merchant's assortment
in Missouri, eighteen years ago. And the beauty of
the business was, no flaming advertisements or red-letter
hand bills were required to make known the establishment
of a new store in a new place. Every one took an interest
in it, and lost no opportunity of spreading the news
far and wide. In the hearty welcome the farmers gave
every new merchant, there was a deep policy which we
did not perceive at the time. It was natural that each
“new-comer” would increase the competition, and the
more competition that existed, of course the lower would
be the prices. And at that time, it must be confessed by
every old western merchant who may chance to peruse
these memoirs, we made splendid profits. “One per
cent.,” as the trader termed it, when he sold an article that
the merchant would only sell some ten or twelve thousand
dollars worth per annum, instead of twenty or thirty thousand,
as at this day, yet his balance sheet generally exhibited
a more satisfactory result than it has done in more modern
times.
My first day as a merchant, or rather as a merchant's
clerk, was a busy day. The opening and marking of
goods, and placing them in order on the shelves, occupied
the whole of the day, retarded and obstructed as we were
continually, by the remarks and inquiries of the eager
crowd around us. Every piece of goods taken from the
boxes was subjected to the inspection of the bystanders;
and it would have been impolitic to have repulsed this interference.
It was our policy to cultivate the good will of
all. But there was a mark beyond which they could not
go, or rather they could not go through it at all. Several
of them had been either merchants or merchants' clerks
themselves, in Virginia, or Kentucky; and had secretly
conspired to ascertain our private mark, proposing to derive
advantage from a knowledge of the cost of the goods.
One of them had the following letters pencilled on a slip
of paper: b1l2a3c4k5s6m7i8t9h0; another c1l2e3a4n5s6h7i8r9t0;
hoping by comparison with the letters placed on the tickets,
to find that we made use of the same letters so long used
by other merchants. But they were mistaken; and their
countenances exhibited unequivocal signs of disappointment
when they began to inspect our letters, which were
as follows: s1u2a3b4d5t6h7r8v9z0. They gave it up in despair,
and relied upon our generosity not to impose upon
them.
Towards night all our inquisitive company left us, many
of them promising to bring in their wives and daughters
to wait upon them. After night, and deep in the
night, the labors of my brother and myself continued. The
practiced merchant will need no special assurance from me,
to believe that it was no slight undertaking for us to open,
mark, and properly arrange, ready for business, six thousand
dollars' worth of goods in one day and evening. At
length our labors were completed, and we sat down on the
log steps before the door to rest, and to arrange our plans
for the next day. But we were completely exhausted, and
mused long in silence. The loneliness of the scene made
a deep impression on me. The moon was midway in the
heavens, casting down a flood of light, which made the
smallest objects distinctly visible. The river, so turbid by
day, resembled a sheet of liquid silver by night. The
trees that fringed its margin, and those around us, were
perfectly motionless, not the slightest breath of air disturbing
the repose of their half-grown leaves. The only
sound we heard was the plaintive note of a solitary whippoorwill.
The stillness which brooded over the scene,
threw but a momentary shade of melancholy over Joseph,
as he was less susceptible of poetical influences than myself.
His mind was more inclined to dive into the chances
of the future, than to dwell upon the past; and I found all
my romantic meditations suddenly put to flight by the following
inquiry:
“Luke, how much do you say we will sell to-morrow?”
“I suppose,” said I, after some little bewilderment and
hesitation, “about seventy-five dollars' worth.”
“How much of it do you think will be in cash?”
“I predict about half.”
“That is your belief,” said he, smiling; “now I will
make a guess. I say we will sell one hundred dollars'
is always the case that the first day's sales in a new establishment,
exhibit a larger proportion of cash than they do
afterwards. At first the really good and responsible men
feel a delicacy in asking to be credited. They wait to
have their undoubted responsibility made known to us by
their neighbors. This is the pride and pleasure a rich
man enjoys in a community; and when you shall have
learned to flatter this vanity in a dexterous manner, you
will possess one of the requisites of the merchant. On the
other hand, it is quite natural for those men who are `not
good,' in mercantile parlance, to thrust themselves boldly
forward at the beginning, presuming we are ignorant of
their inability to pay, and endeavor to obtain credit. Of
this class you must beware, and keep constantly on your
guard. Mr. White has kindly consented to furnish me
with information which will be of service. He has given
me the names of most of the `good' men, for ten or fifteen
miles round; you will find the list in the cash-drawer.
You can easily refer to it when people are looking at the
goods, without any one perceiving what you are doing.
And when you find any one present in the `good' list, it
will not be difficult for you to intimate to him in a low
tone, so as not to be overheard by the rest, that you will
be happy to sell him whatever he may need, on a credit of
six months; at the end of six months, if he is not ready
to pay, we will take his note, bearing ten per cent. interest,
which, you will remember, is the legal rate in Missouri.
We must sell all we can to `good' men on time;
they are not so particular about the prices as those who buy
for cash. Nevertheless, when we can get the money down,
it is still better; and it will be well for us, when we perceive
it all, before we hint anything about credit.”
“Very well,” I replied; “but must I always adhere to
the selling prices marked on the goods, in figures?”
“I was just about to speak on that subject,” said he;
“and it is one of the most difficult parts of the business to
manage adroitly. It is better learned by observation than
by verbal directions. To cash buyers the prices should be
as uniform as possible—and only varied in consideration
of the quantity they buy. In regard to the others, there is
always more or less risk of ultimate loss when goods are
sold on time. The `good' man to-day, may be ruined
by some unforeseen mishap to-morrow. But there are certain
degrees of risk between which you must learn to discriminate.
For instance there is Dr. Greenleaf, living some
six miles out in the prairie, who is worth twenty-five thousand
dollars, and his neighbor Gates, not worth one thousand
dollars. Neither of them is in debt, and both are
responsible for any amount they will be likely to desire to
purchase on credit. But still the probability of the latter
`breaking' before the former, should either of them `fall
through,' is quite apparent. Hence, one is safer than the
other; and hence, it would be both just and politic for us
to put goods a shade lower to the former than the latter—
but with a sly injunction that the price is not to be told to
any one, which is another means of pleasing a rich man,
for all like to be made conscious of the realization of the
advantages which wealth is supposed to confer. You will
soon become acquainted with these and a thousand other
peculiarities of the people. A village store is one of the
best places in the world to learn human nature.”
By this time I complained of weariness, and we got up
to make arrangements for sleep. We had no bed; but it
without one. It was not long before the litter was swept
from the floor, and two pallets, consisting of coarse cotton
cloth and blankets, with two pieces of flannel as pillows,
were in readiness to receive our weary limbs.
It was in vain I sought repose. My over-wrought system
refused to slumber. A feverish excitement possessed
my brain, and I turned and tossed on my hard bed for
more than an hour, without enjoying any of the benefits of
`nature's sweet restorer.' Once I placed my hand beyond
my scanty couch, and my fingers dropped into a crack in
the floor about an inch wide. I had noticed a number of
these crevices in the day time, but had then attached no
importance to them. Now my active imagination did not
fail to conjure up all kinds of venomous serpents, gliding
but a few inches beneath us. I fancied that some of them
had ascended into the room, and might be in the fatal coil
near my head, ready to bury their fangs in the first one of
us that should move. By a convulsive effort I succeeded
in springing into a chair on which my clothes were placed,
and after igniting a lucifer match, and casting a hurried
glance at my brother to see that he was safe, proceeded to
light a candle. My movement awoke Joseph, who sat upright
in amazement, and demanded the cause of my strange
conduct. I told him that there were serpents under the
floor, the house not being underpinned; that I was sure I
had heard them moving about under the place where I
had been lying; and that there was nothing to prevent
them from entering the room through the ample crevices in
the floor. Joseph reproached me with silly dreaming; but
at the same time he rose slowly from his position, and
looked cautiously around him. He then followed my example,
and placed his pallet on the counter. The counter
where it turned towards the partition wall, to admit of our
lying full length on it without touching each other's feet.
My head was just under the window, and his in the opposite
direction. Our feet met in the centre, or were only a
few inches apart. By degrees I sank into an unquiet slumber
on my narrow bed. But I was restless, and moved
about a good deal during the night. Once I was awakened
by my feet coming in contact with the floor, and just in
time to arrest my head, which was rapidly following them.
“What's the matter now, Luke?” inquired Joseph,
lifting his head in the profound darkness that reigned
around—I supposed that to be his attitude from the elevation
of his voice.
“Oh, nothing. I merely rolled off the counter, but did
not hurt myself,” said I.
“Why, Luke,” replied he, “the counter is thirty inches
wide. A western merchant ought to be able to sleep without
inconvenience, on a board of eighteen inches width.”
By this time I had composed my limbs for another trial.
But I was doomed to meet with but little success that
night. I could only attain a semi-repose; my mind was
incessantly disturbed by frightful dreams. Once more I
fancied that I was about to become the victim of a rattlesnake;
and just as it was in the act of springing upon me,
I awoke. At that instant I heard a low rubbing sound,
and felt a slight movement against the top of my head.
For a moment I remained horror-stricken, and utterly at a
loss what to do. If I moved, I might be bitten—whereas
it was said that a snake, and particularly the rattlesnake,
would never strike an inanimate object. These thoughts
rushed through my brain with the rapidity of lightning, and
for several minutes I remained perfectly motionless. Again
against my hair, which doubtless stood straight out from
my head. At length I could no longer bear this loathsome
proximity of the venomous reptile. I made a spring to my
knees, at the same time seizing my pillow, with which, as
I faced about, I began to belabor the deadly foe, and brushed
rapidly to the right and left, for the purpose of dashing
him to the floor. It may be supposed that my surprise
was great, and relief profound, when my brother exclaimed:
“Luke, what in the world are you beating my feet for?”
The voice came from the front, instead of the rear of me.
I was completely bewildered. I had contrived to turn entirely
round, like one on a pivot, and had been lying with
my head in the immediate vicinity of Joseph's feet, which
had occasionally produced the motion and the low sound
that my keen ears had detected. But how I had carried my
pillow with me I could never explain. I made a frank
confession of my case to Joseph, who laughed heartily at
my imaginary perils.
| CHAPTER III. The western merchant | |