The Portland daily press., 1874-07-31
The Other Side.

One of the pet subjects of real or wculd-be
satilists of our current life, has long been the
nuisances OF travel, and particularly the peri
patetic venders of sundries in railway cars.
About all the professional humorists, from
Gail Hamilton down through all the grades
to Eli Perkins, have taken turn at these
lively and aggressive dispensers OF wares, and
have depicted in moving strain the suff1rings
of travellers. The paragrapher has also
pounced upon this tempting theme and has
set ahoat many of those immortal and per-
pstualy recurring squibs which become a
perennial bore to newspaper readers.
While there must be some basis for so gen.
eral protest from all quarters, it is equally
true that there must be wel-defined de-
mand for the wares thus protruded upon the
public, or the system would cease. These peo-
pie could not carry on the traffic simply for
amusement, or solely for the qualification Of
malevolent desire to exasperate the unof-
Tending citizen, and its continuance demon
strates public want which it to some ex-
tent supplies. The only question for our civ
ilization to solve in connection with it is the
best method of regulating and managing it,
so as to accommodate those who wish to buy,
with the least possible Inconvenience to those
who do not. We of the East may see this
problem in most satisfactory progress toward
solution on nearly all the railroads running
out of this city. And this effort to alleviate
the annoyances of travel deserves hearty
recognition.
The weli-known firm of c. r. Chisholm &
Bros. ale engaged in probably the largest
railway supply business in the world. They
have control of the traffic on all roads east
from Portland to Halifax, on the Eastern
Railroad, On the Grand Trunk and all the
railroads and steamboats, of Canada, with
one exception, besides many restaurants and
news stands in depots at important points.
They have large capital invested in the bus
iness and employ corps of one hundred and
twenty-five agents, all neatly dressed in the
uniform OF the company and governed in all
their movements by a strict code of rules, in
tended to secure the comfort and con-
venence of travellers. They use only
the best quality of wares of all kinds,
and purvey carefully selected and en-
tirely respectable class Of literary mat
ter, The best publications of the Harpers,
Osgood & Co., and other leading houses and
all the standard magazines and periodicals
are afforded by them to the pablic, which is a
grateful change from the rubbish which
formerly nauseated the unhappy traveller who
had not taken along his own mental pabulum.
Their wide system of operation also enables
them to furnish the daily journals promptly at
all accessible points in each case and this
service is in every respect done for the pub
fishers and the public in faithful, impartial,
business-like and satisfactory manner. These
gentlemen seem to have an honest pride in
their business and are constantly improving
all parts of it.
We invite those who have suffered from
the ill-trained, obtrusive and irritating youth
who sell things on rail cars in the Middle,
Western and Southern states to fairly compare
the guerrilla system there with the perfectly
organized and convenient methods of service
on our roads and then confess that we are
blessed among travellers anI have less tempta-
tion than our countrymen in other sections
to wander far from home. We feel as if this
were fit subject for some little glorfication as
the nuisance has been fragrant and relief
from it is correspondingly conspicuous; and
tribute to men who are doing such good
work in the vineyard is simple justice.