Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1911 — Five Per Cent Commission [ARTICLE]

Five Per Cent Commission

By LAWRENCE ALFRED CLAY

(Copyright, isu. hr Associated Literary PrsssJ

MtoMaggie Raines and her mother rircssr They had talked all there was to talk. iTbey had tears In their eyes as they talked. * -r'-Vv'C,'; > v ... For a year past Maggie had had a •steady place as a stenographer at fl 2 per week, and she had done wonders with her salary; rent, fuel, provisions, clothing and car fare, and they did not owe a dollar. ffThe average working girl is twice the financier that the average Working man is. Things had gone very well with the little family, but now trouble had come. Maggie had lost her plaoe at a day’s notice. She wasn’t despairing, hut discouraged. She knew all about answering advertisements and tramping from office to office. It might be weeks before she was settled again, and what of the income? - Down at the corner where the girl had taken the car every morning and [left it every evening, was a real estate office. The proprietor was a mid-die-aged man, and he loqked to be a good man. That is, he seemed to •Maggie to have an honest face, and she thought there might be sympathy there for one in trouble. She didn’t want charity, and she didn’t want pity. .[She Wanted a chance to help herself, ijust as it would be given to a young •nan. “W$l?” queried the mother after a long silence. . “I was wondering if I was as smart as most other girls,” was the reply. “One of our stenographers quit her place two months ago and went to selling real estate on commission. She has made a hundred dollars a week." • “Just think of that, Maggie!",. / , “I am thinking of it In the morning I am going down to have a talk with the real estate man on the corner. If I can make |25 a week it will !be a great thing." “But how does any one sell real estate, dear?" y "I don’t exactly know, but I guess most of it is done by talk. You make a person think he wants to buy, and then keep at him until he does buy.” “Well, you have a coaxing way about you. You got the landlord to come down five dollars a month oh the rent, and the grocer will sell you * pound of prunes a cent cheaper than ihe will me." , ■ Next morning Maggie Raines visited the real estate office. Mr. Stryker •had Just opened his mail and seemed [perturbed, but he gave her his attenjtion. In an embarrassed way, and yet (With underlying confidence, she said she believed she could sell real estate, jahd She wanted a chance to try. Mr. jStryker didn’t smile doubtfully nor sarcastically. He had been trying to hell real estate for a good many years, [and had had poor luck at It, but he didn’t even ask himself how a young stenographer who didn’t know the lvalue of a load of sand was going to ■make a success at it He gave* a minute or two to thought and then replied:

“I will give you a chance, and a splendid one. I own 80 acres of timber land at Walnut Point, on Lake Huron. I have about closed a deal with a party In Buffalo. In fact, the deed Is made, out, and If handed to him the money would be passed.'* "And are you going there to close the deal ?’’ Miss Maggie asked. , "I was, but my wife has been taken seriously 111 and I cannot leave her; I can give you power of attorney and sand you, if you can go this evening and close the affair tomorrow. I will pay your expenses and give you five per cent commission. You will net 1860 for three days' work." “Oh, Mr. Stryker, but that’s too much —altogether too much,” exclaimed the astonished girt *TU be glad to go for f 50.” "Your comlmssion will be the sum 1 have named. You will take along the deeds and a letter, from me. You will, of course, say that you are connected with this office. You can say that other parties are after the land. If asked about my standing you can say it Is of the highest You can say that on a part of the land ,1s a quarry of purest granite that when developed will be worth twenty times my asking price for the land. I have been told that the walnut trees alone on the land are worth half the price, and yon can mention, that incidentally. You must talk. Miss Raines—you must talk.” "I certainly will." "And bring back a certified check tor the amount. Make the party understand that he is getting the bargain of his life, and that I am selling more to accommodate him than for any other reason. John D. Rockefeller Would snap'up Walnut Point in a minute at the price asked, but 1 have refused to deal with him. You may hate seen him here at the door of the office the other day. You had beet be ready to take the four o’clock train.” There whs rejoicing hi the house •r Raines. The eale was sure to go through and that SB6O would solve many probleme. It would be a starter for other sales, and after a bit Mlse Maggie might be riding around to her own auto to hunt up customers. She . rode sll night, but she didn't sleep e wink. Over and over—a hundred times over—she repeated her lemon, and after her arrival and breakfast in Buffalo she sought the office of Mr. Oeorgs McLane with the utmost oon-

Adenre Shat hadn't haan tnM whether UUvUvQa flftUfl KJUVaI Ivlil . ushered into an office where sat a young man of less than twenty-five, who had half a dosen letters from the morning mail before him. No chin whiskers—-no benign! A very keen, good-looking young man she called him, and she suddenly found that she had, temporarily forgotten even her own name. He opened two more letters to give her a chance to get her memory back, and then aha began on her first real estate sale. Yes. Mr. MeLane had had some correspondence with Mr. Stryker about Walnut Point. Yes, he had about decided to close the deal. Yes, he had heard something about that granite, and something about Mr. Rockefeller. Yea, it was very kind of Mr. Stryker to offer Him such a bargain. ' " Miss Maggie Raines was exultant That five per cent commission whs as good as in her purse. She was an unqualified success as a real estate seller. And then Mr. showed her a letter from the west three days old. A part of it read: , “The big storm caused the lake to cut through the Point and make a channel 200 feet wide. The gale did not leave fifty trees standing on the whole tract I know that the old shark Stryker has been written to, and you look out that be don't stick you!" Miss Maggie laid down the letter and then covered her face with her hands and wept “Of course, you didn’t know," said the young man kindly. "Will you—yoti believe I didn’t?" she asked. "I am sure you didn’t Stryker was trying to use you to swindle me. He was afraid to come himself. That’s all fudge about a sick wife." . “And I—l am an Idiot!" she said as her tea rr. came aghln. “Oh, no, no, no! It was five par cent commission, you see. I shall be up your way in a day or two, and may 1 call and talk It over with you?” “But what is there to talk about? Stryker is a villain and Tm—l’m—” But yet when Mr. MeLane called they found lots to talk about, and mother and daughter were glad that he came. Mias Maggie dropped real estate and took up stenography again, and Mr. MeLane — Well, when a young man will make a railroad journey of 40 miles every two weeks in order to spend four hours in the company of a young lady, it is to be concluded that there is something doing, and that Buffalo’s next census will show at least another happy home.