Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-01-14
won,l,. m.mphi, and the Country Trade.

Il
| We occasionally meet business man
from the Gulf and Bluff cities, and the
invariabIe complaint is that Columbus
and itsyicinage will not trade with either
but insists upon patronizing St. Louis
and Louisville.
With bit few exceptions the complaint
| is we'll sounded, and we propose 70 snow
| in this article that the business men OF
the two CITIES have no one to blame gu!
themselves. Our merchants, WITH pu'
few exceptions, are men of small capital
and as thoroughly alive to their pecun' ,
ary interests As any class in the United
States. They drive their bargains eitner
for buying or selling, with as mucn
shrewdness as if they had been educated
north of Mason and Dixon's line Now.
| il is not to be expected that they should
trade where their custom is neither
sought nor sufficiently appreciated, and
as far ma the inducements to trade at
either Mace are concerned, our mer-
chants are as ignorant of them as they
are of those to trade in furs in Alaska.
Not a day passes but the enterprislng
merchant in Louisville or st. Louis has
his drummer in our city; they bring
their samples and their price list, their
softsawder" and eloquent palaver, and
| in nine cases out of ten they receive an
order for goods. A Mobile merchant
endeavofed to convince me that these
houses could make no money, as the
travelling and other expenses were so
great as to eat up the profits. Let US see:
A Louisville house sends out a clerk
from Louisville via Nashville, to Corinth,
Meridian, jackson, Miss, thence home
via jackson, Tenn. This is one route.
He ia employed by the year at fixed
salary. He is out on the trip two months.
His travelling and incidental expenses
are IS per day; or for the trip, $500;
wages for two months, 5000. Total, $500.
He visits fifty towns en- route and re-
ceives an order on an average for $z00
worth of goods at each place, which is
SI0. 900; commissions or profits, say B
per cent, is $500. swell" says my
friend, "he will not sell 5000 at each
place upon an average, and then his
profits will not amount to 5 per cent
Admitting this for the sake of the argu-
ment, he makes this: He gives employ
ment to an otherwise idle clerk, for they
only drum during the dull seasons and
what is more important--snd the real
advantage and purpose in 1.-THE house
is forming acquaintance along this en-
tire route, it is securing customers by it
who will patronize it probably for years.
Now let us suppose that during the trip
the polite and gentlemanly agent of a |
good house secures fifty customers, and
they buy, upon an average, $1,000 a year,
here is $4,000 worth of goods sold,
which most certainly pays for the drum |
ming in the first of the year.
The drumming system we regard as
second only to advertising. The Louis |
Vile and ST. Louis houses advertise all |
over the country. They begin by pa
tronizing their city papers, and extend
them literally to every county paper.
They thus, by one means and another,
make friends all over the country, they
endeavor year by year to increase the
number of their customers, and the re-
suit is that they have secured the trade
of this country, with but few exceptions.
Now let me ask Mobile and Memphis
question or tive.
Have you sent yeur "drummers into
Mississippi to tell those people what you
can do for them in this or that branch of
business? Have you sent them samples
of your goods and wares2 Have you
tried to convince them that you have
some energy and enterprise2 mol You
have never drummed us, nor sought our
trade since 1865. Have you ever adver-
tised2 You do not support our city
best in the South-as you
should. You have been afraid to scatter
a few crumbs upon the waters, for fear
that you should never hear of them again.
The truth is, Mobile merchants
Grocery rely more upon the patronage
Of the commission merchants than they
do of the country merchants and news
papers both together. Well, now, if
there is a dead cock in the pit it is the
MERCHANT, As long az the
planter could speculate upon his capital,
so long be used him, az the young
English blsods use the Jew; but when
the war cured the South Of the negro
mania, and the planter ascertained that
his money did net come as of yore, why
he ceased to order his goods through
his merchant. Half our cotton goes
North. Why2 The Northern man has
cone down here and paid the planter cash
for It. Let the trade OF the commission
merchants stand, but the Mobile mer-
chant should seek other and better GUS
toners than they. They can find them
at every cross roads and growing city.
CUSTOMERS that pay cash and buy often,
let them advertiser for them in their city
papers first, in the country papers next
- 'hAm send out their clerks and hunt !
,har Mob;1s P,o;sj,r