The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-01-26
QUEER GLASS,
COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS.


COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS.
THE MEN OF THE GUILD WHO LATELY MET
AT MISUNDERSTANDING THE TIME ON THE
RAILRoAD-LIFE AT THE HoTELs-sALAR-
les PAID.
ton of the class known as commercial
travellers, apropos of late convention of
the members at Syracuse.
"Off again." 1 said to well dressed man
hurrying along with travelling bag in one
hand and a shawl in another. "Where are
you bound now?" He was a commercial
traveller, and worked for one of the largest
houses in the city.
"Yes,' he replied cheerily, "I'm of again:
Pm always off and never on. 1 don't know
nv own wife, One of these days Pm going
to stay at home long enough to get &C
quainted with her, if i can. She seems to be
a nice kind of a woman. I've got to catch
the train at Forty-second street in an hour;
lump on the car and 90 little way with
fellow, can't you? That's theonly way can
say how dye do to my friends.n 1 did
as he requested, following the biblical in
junction, "If a man compel you to 60 a mile,
go with him twain"
"rhis is a queer sort of life you Lead" 1
said, on being seated "DOn't YOU enjoy GO
ing about seeing the country, living at first
class hotels riding in palace cars, smoking
the best cigarS, flirting with all the pretty
girls you meot, and, in word. making a
long spree OF life all at other peoples ex-
pense? Seems to me a com nercial traveller
has a mighty easy berth of it. I'd like to be
one myself ?"
He listened to all l said with an amused
twinkle in his eye, and replied: "Welli now
it is strange that about every man outside of
the business has Just exactly your idea of it
which is just exactly the wrong one.
There never was a more incorrect idea of the
duties and animus OF commercial travellers
than the popular one. Why man alivep' he
said, spiritedly, "you mustn't suppose the
merchants OF New York are idiots, or that
they lose sight OF us the moment we leave
the store Thew know all about us, and we
know that they know it, and take care that
they shan't know any harm of u.s."
SELLING GOODS.
sour calling is our bread aud butter, and
we have to earn it by the hardest kind of la
Dor. You needn't laugh, it is SO. Business
of all kinds nowadays is done by actual
personal representation and solicitation. A
merchant has certain kinds of goods which
he puts on the market; he advertises them
fully, and then follows up his advertise
ments 10y his travellers and rakes in all
he can. Commercial travellers are
more numerous to-day in all lines than
ever before. Wh%evr you see smart,
active man going from store to store
in suburban cities talking with the propri-
etOr confidentially, and producing a memo
randum book in which he makes notes
from time to time, that man is a commercial
tourist, as we call ourselves for fun, and is
doing as much business in his way for bis
house they do for themselves. No firm
can get along without them. Some have 20
travellers securing the country at the same
time, and others have TWO or three, accord
ing to their line and extent OF trade. You
spoke OF our seeing the country.
You'd laugh if l told told you that
until / was 80 years old, though
L had been within two miles of it
hundreds of times! 1t is so. 1 never had
time. At last was ashamed of it and alb
solutely took day, and wrote the house /
was going there on spree. | went there
and stayed a couple of hours, aud happen
ing to think of man / wanted to see in
Buffalo took the first train for that city,
and let the falls go to pot; fact is when am
on business 1 can't take ann pleasure in
fun. l scarcely know one place from an
other, except by the business houses in
them, and as for scenery-the finest scene /
know OF is a merchant calling at your hotel
two or three times before you arrive want
ing to know il you haven't come yet, so be
can buy bill of goods of you.
HOW THEY LIVE.
1--WE do stop at frst-clsss hotels. and we
always get just as good accommodations as
there are in the house. Why? Because we
pay our bills; because we are the biggest
kind of walking advertisement for hotel,
aud the men who know how to keep one un-
derstand the fact. We can send hundreds of
dollars worth of business to hotel or drive
hundreds away from it, simply by reporting
to each other how we are treated. We get
together in smoking cars and in our rooms
nights, and detail every mean act
or petty extortion, and you bet that
landlord don't make any millions by
crowdingl some of US have our regular
rooms-best family rooms, too, we occupy
every month for years. and we always get
them, every time, no matter who is In them.
TIE head waiter knows us like book, and
so do the boys; and you bet we don't get
any tenderloin steaks or broiied chickens or
birds aud things! Oh no! they amt for US
Certain towns are celebrated tor their mean /
hotels. Providence, r.. l., was until few
years since; the meanest of all mean houses,
eight or nine years ago, was the City Hotel. |
For a place of $4,000 inhabitants, 1t /
used to be a wonder TO US why such /
hole was in existence; but 1t was
the only one in town, and we had to |
go to 1t. The boys got SO they used TO
DO their business up in day, and then go