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Salesman. The Salesman was created by George Kibbe Turner (Marcus Aurelius Browne, Chibosh, Mr. Holeman, John Snaith) and appeared in five stories in Saturday Evening Post in 1918, beginning with “The Decoy” (Saturday Evening Post, Mar. 2, 1918).

The Salesman is a Con Man and swindler, and a good one. He is cold and heartless and clever, and takes a grim, “unmirthful” sort of enjoyment in separating suckers from their money, especially when the suckers are businessmen who think they are cleverer than the Salesman. The Salesman is middle-aged and very experienced and specializes in going into strange towns he’s never visited and finding a new victim and selling him “mining stocks, lands, orange groves. All kinds. Whatever they’re hungry for.” (He believes that victimizing rural yokels is the sign of a true “salesman” or “man hunter,” since anyone can do it in New York City, but only the professionals can get it done cold in the sticks). During unconcealed moments he has a round-eyed carnivorous stare.

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