The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-01 00:00:00

OF SOllOO

THE SUN LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 1, 1855.

CO.II;IIERCIAL TRAVELLERS' SCHOOL

On Saturday evening the annual dinner in aid of the
Commercial Travellers' School took place at the London
Tavern. About two hundred gentlemen were present.
Mr. Charles Dickens was in the chair ; and amongst the
other guests were Messrs. Albert Smith, P. Cunning-
ham, and Horace Mayhew. After the usual loyal toasts
had been duly honoured,
The CHAIRMAN proposed the toast of the evening,
" Success to the Commercial Travellers' School." Ile
said that he thought it might be assumed that most of
those present knew something about travelling—he did
not mean travelling in distant regions and foreign coun-
tries, though he dared say some of them had associations
connected with that—but about travelling within the
limits of the -United Kingdom. He dared say most of
them had had their experience of extinct fast coaches—
Quicksilvers, Taglienis, Tally-hoe, Telegraphs, and what
not ; that they had "heard the chimes at midnight" in
postchaises, and driven gigs along interminable roads,
through slush and darkness, into little country towns
with no visible population except half-a-dozen smock
frocks smoking pipes under the lee of the Town-hall,
half-a-dozen shining umbrellas, as many pairs of wet
legs, and a washed out dog or two. (Laughter.) They
could all, he had no doubt, if so minded, dieceurse about
their recollections of the Talbot, the King's Head, the
Royal, or the Lion of those days. They had all been to
that room on the ground floor, on one side of that inn-
yard, not quite free from a certain fragrance of tobacco,
where the cruets on the sideboard were obscured by a
collection of great coats hanging from the wall ; where
driving seats waylaid them at every turn like humane
mantraps ; where that county member, framed and
glazed, was continually presenting that petition which
had somehow made bin, glorious in the county, though
nothing else had ever come of it ; where the book of
reads always wanted the first and last dozen pages ; and
where some man who had arrived alone at some unholy
hour of the night, known only to the nearest turnpike-
man and the porter, was eternally having breakfast by
himself at any period of the day. (Applause.) He had
no doubt they could all, if they would, be very eloquent
upon the charms of their favourite hotel—its bar, its
stables, its ♦ast amount of posting, its enormous cheeses,
its head waiter, its capital idea of pigeon-pie, its 1820
port, their chaste and innocent admiration of its land-
lady, and possibly their fraternal regard for its chamber-
maid. (A pplause and laughter) A celebrated drama-
tic critic once wrote of a famous actress, renowned for
her virtue and beauty, that she "gave one the idea of
being elegantly gatherable to one's arms." Perhaps some
of those present i❑ their time might, in a perfectly ho-
nourable and irreproachable way, have a similar mental
tribute to the ladies associated with the administration
of their favourite inns. (Laughter.) With the travel-
ling characteristics of later times they were equally
familiar. They knew all about that station to which
they had taken their ticket, although they had ■ever
been there. They knew that if they arrived at it after
dark they should find it a mile and a half from the town
—the old road abolished, and the new road only go-
ing to be made—half the neighbourhood pulled down,
and the other half net yet built up. They knew all
about tha; porter on the platform, who, with the
best intentien in the world, could do nothing parti-
cularly efficacious in regard to their luggage, except
look at it with a bell in his hand—about that particularly
short omnibus out in the dark which brought one ♦io-
lently up by the crown of one's head, and about that "fly"
which was never there. They knew how instantly the
whole station would disappear when the train had
gone away. They knew all about that long bewilder-
ing grope in the dark to the "New Railway Hotel,"
which would be a capital hotel when the custom came,
but which at present had nothing particular to offer in
place of refreshment except a liberal smell of damp mor-
tar and new lime. (Laughter.) He recalled these little
incidents ofhorne travel as an introduction to the main
object of their assembling. Every traveller who had a
house of his own learned from his wanderings to prize it
the more in the intervals of his return to it ; if he had
no home, he learned the same lesson unselfishly in re-
gard to the homes •f other people. Therefore, one
might be prepared to learn that commercial travellers as
a body knew how to prize the domestic relations from
which their pursuits so frequently severed them ; but
nothing could be more delighteul, more generous, or more
convincing testimony of this than their founding and
maintaining the school for the children of deceased and
necessitous members of their body which now appealed
to the assembly in mute but eloquent language from
the gallery. [The children of the school had been sta-
tioned in the gallery at the lower end of the room,] It
was to support that school that they were met that night.
It was to roof in the building which wan to shelter and
comfort the children of deceased aid decayed friends
that their active sympathy and exertions were now !soli-
cited. They knew how to put their hands to the
plough, for he was informed that they last year raised
fur these schools no less a sum than 8,0001., and that
while one-half of that sum consisted of new donations,
the annual suhecriptions for the support of the school
were only diminished by the nominal sum of 301. He
would net urge upon them the casualties of life and
travel, the vicissitudes of business, the claims of friend-
ship, and the bond of brotherhood which there ought
always to be among men united in one common pursuit.
They had already recognised these considerations so
nobly that he would not presume to lay them before
them. Suffice it to say that lie did not believe it was
in their nature to do things by halves ; he did not think
they could dis so if they tried, and he had a moral cer-
tainty that they would never try. To those who were
nut members of the cumtnorcial cllcre body, he
would whi-per the adage, " Heaven helps those who help
themselves." The commereial travellers having been true
to themselves, it was clear to him that their visitors and
supporters came there as a sort of accredited celestial re-
presentatives--no doubt with that aid in their pockets
which the precept taught them to expect. (Applause.)
The toast was drunk with much enthusiasm, after
which the children of the school, who were in the
gallery, sang a ♦ocal piece, and then walked through
the room.

Mr. ROBEUTS proposed "The health of the Chairman,
which was duly honoured.

The CHAIRitAN briefly acknowledged the toast, and
proposed the health of Mr. Geo. More, the treasurer of
the school fund."

Mr. MOORE, in responding, stated that he had on the
previous day obtained 150 anneal subseriptious in Man-
chester. Ho hoped the institution would be opened,
free from debt, in June next.
A list of subscriptions was then read, amounting to
about 8004.

The CilAram,lN proposed " The healths of Messrs.
Albert Smith, Peter Cunningham, and Horace Mayhew."
So many travellers had recently gone up Mont Blanc,
either in fact or is fiction, so that he had had pro.
posals for the formation of a company to employ Sir
Joseph Paxton to take it down— (laughter)—but only
one traveller had been able to bring Mont Blanc into
Piccadilly, and to make the ascent so easy that the most
timid lady might undertake it without danger or fatigue.
Mr. Albert Smith was undoubtedly a traveller ; and
though he (tire chairman) did not know that he took
many orders, yet be could testify, on behalf of the chil-
dren of his friends, that he 'mai most liberal in giving
them. Mr. Peter Cunningham was a traveller, not
only in right of having edited Goldsmith's " Traveller,"
and of ether works, but also in right of that ad►nirable
handbook which proved to have been a traveller in the
right spirit through the labyrinths of London. They had
also among them his friend Mr. Horace Mayhew, well
known for his books of lively social adventure, arid he
therefore proposed that they should drink the healths of
these three gentlemen.
The toast having been duly honoured, Mr. Smith sang
"Galignani's Messenger," and Messrs. Cunningham
and Mayhew briefly returned thanks.
Several other toasts were drank, the list concluding, as
usual, with " The Ladies ;" and the proceedings did not
terminate until a late hour.