The Traveling Salesman’s Clever Ruse
A skeptical livery stable owner meets his match in a traveling drummer who refuses to pay for his own horse.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A well-known livery stable keeper was approached by a drummer (traveling salesman) who wanted a team for a ten-day trip. The owner refused to rent to him because he was a stranger. The drummer offered to buy the team for $450, on the condition the owner would buy them back upon his return. Ten days later, the drummer returned, handed over the horses, and demanded his $450 back. When the stable keeper asked for the rental fee for the ten days, the drummer retorted, 'You aren’t fool enough to think I would pay anything for the use of my property, are you?' He left the stable owner wondering if all drummers were that clever.
“Well, now, you aren’t fool enough to think I would pay anything for the use of my property, are you?”
This is a classic 'trickster' anecdote common in 19th-century newspapers, highlighting the social tensions between local business owners and the growing class of itinerant workers who navigated the territory.
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