216 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
traveling man—courteous, polite, affable, 
familiar with trade customs, national manner 
isms, and speaking both Spanish and Portu 
guese perfectly was on the scene early, paying 
particular attention to the demands of the 
merchant. If a certain style of cloth was too 
wide, the obliging German made it of the di 
mensions required. If the color was too sub 
dued for the aboriginal customer of the native 
merchant, the pattern and pigment were 
changed to suit the buyer. If plows were re 
quired with one handle instead of two, so that 
the farmer could have the other free for 
manipulating his cigarette, his wish was cheer 
fully complied with. The idea that filled the 
mind of the salesmen from Europe was to 
give the customer just what he wanted, and 
this rule was never deviated from. No at 
tempt was made to force the storekeeper to 
adopt the customs of Europe in anything, but 
stress was laid on the fact that their only ob 
ject was to oblige in every way the buyer, and 
cater to his demands. The suggestion from 
the storekeeper that he got six months’ time