Andrew started work again the first of February, going by buggy north to Mendon and back through Cache Valley. At Preston the snow was so deep and visibility so poor he and his companion ran off a bridge and tipped over in the snow but were not hurt.239 In Weston the bad storm forced them to stay over another day. On the next day they started out again but had to turn back because of the blinding snow.
On February 20, 1894, Andrew and Charles Hill, traveling together, started from Cache Valley over the mountain to Malad.240 The mail carrier kept the road open all winter, traversing it three times each week by coach. The two travelers went up the canyon two or three miles, as far as the road had been used, discovering that the mail stage had not yet opened the road. They decided to break track on up the canyon, expecting at every turn to meet the stage coming down. With falling and drifting snow the road was often obliterated. To stay on the track, one man used a long stick to probe while the other led the horse and kept the sleigh from upsetting. Wading, plunging, and floundering, they inched forward as night fell. Finally, they reached the top and started down the other side when they came to two hundred yards of narrow dugway with a steep drop-off to one side. The horse foundered in a huge snowdrift.
On a second try to get through the drift the horse fell on his side with head and back over the edge. The sleigh would have slid down, dragging the horse with it had the sleigh not been so deeply embedded in the snow that it served as an anchor and kept the horse from sliding further. The men managed to extricate the horse from the harness, but he slid ten feet down the mountainside, Andrew sliding with him. They found it impossible to get the horse back up onto the track, so they helped him struggle and slide on down into a hollow where he could remain right side up until rescued, if he did not freeze to death first.
They had no choice but to go on afoot. After a few hundred more yards they came to where the mail stage had turned around because of the impassability of the road. From here on they could proceed without breaking such deep snow. By the middle of the night they came to a ranch near the mouth of the canyon and found shelter.
The next morning, with the help of the rancher and his horse, they laboriously managed to regain the dugway, recover the horse, and make their way down to Malad, unhurt and wiser. Andrew felt “well worn out” from the experience.241 The next day they turned homeward, arriving home after a month on the road in terrible weather conditions.
After other shorter trips, Andrew went southward all the way to Cedar City, having rented a team in Fillmore for sixteen days and covering a great deal of territory.
Mr. B. F. Grant fired the bookkeeper for the soap company, and he had Andrew do the work temporarily between trips,242 so Andrew’s regular duties involved not only selling soap, but also billing and collecting.243
Andrew developed skills in making exhibits with soap.244 He created displays for various fairs. In one the display was a monument nineteen feet high and twenty-one feet around with lights inside and soaps of different colors. In another instance, the Grant Soap exhibit won the gold medal for the finest exhibit at the fair. Although he had help on the projects, Andrew did all the soap carving. Another exhibit used two blocks of soap three feet square and ten inches thick, carved to depict the temple and the City and County Building.245 He used soap to create a model façade of ZCMI for the ZCMI store window.246 His skill in creating these advertising displays brought him more such assignments. At April conference time in 1896, Andrew decorated the Freeze Mercantile Company window with a soap display, and he decorated the window of Barnes, Hardy and Company with an exhibit of “home manufactured” articles.247 He also made a display of crackers and soap to promote products he specialized in.248
During a November trip south, Andrew nearly missed his train in Fountain Green. He was scheduled to speak in Nephi that evening and felt he must not miss the train:
I started to walk ½ mile taking ½ hour to go up to the platform west of the town. I saw the train coming in the distance and hurried as fast as I could being loaded with grips. Was about 50 yards away when the train passed me. I got left. Stood a moment or two and concluded to try and catch the train at the station a mile distant. Left my things and started out. Sure enough the conductor saw me. I hired a boy to take care of my affairs [luggage]. I went on to Nephi. I did not get over the effects of my running for hours. At Nephi had [a] bath and cleaned up.249
During the year 1894, Andrew was gone 38 percent of the time. He took seven selling trips that added up to 120 days, and he took 20 days for his trip to Indian Territory. Ollie was pregnant again this year, a matter about which their journals had nothing to say.
Grant Soap paid Andrew $50 a month for the time he worked in Salt Lake and $100 a month on the road, though he had to bear his own expenses. He sometimes saved by sharing the cost of conveyance and team. In one such arrangement a representative of the Solomons provided the horse and wagon, while Andrew helped sell noncompeting articles. By this time, too, Andrew took on representing American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company on his travels. He received from them $25 while he sold at home and $45 while he was away. Utah Slaughtering Company paid him $5 a month. V. T. Remedies paid him 7½ percent commission. And Salt Lake Vinegar Company, Lambert Paper Company, and Utah Chewing Gum Company all paid him 5 percent. He prospered.
