Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-12-14
The City Drummer In the Country.

One Of his "tricks that are vain" is
pretending to be exceedingly deaf at
the houses where he stops to inquire
the way. The wretch will thereby keep
some dignified but kind-hearted old
woman yelling in his ear for full 10
minutes a. a solo, and bring out the
strongest vocal qualities of the whole
family for the chorus. He will call a
farmer from his spring blowing across
a 1O-acre lot merely to remark on the
~fneness of the weather. He will keep
a school-marm at the outside door a
quarter of an hour trying to convince
her he is somc half-forgotten cousin
from remote parts, while bedlam in
carnate reigns within. In winter, if he
happens to be cold, he will stop at some
back country school, represent himself
to be an agent of the Board of Eduea-
ton, have a hot fire made up for his es-
pecial benefit, examine the children and
I" address, them on the blessings of
rural life. It was at Chesterfield, one
winters night, that two of the fraterni-
ty, finding their quarters uncomforta-
BILE, first tied the landlord door-handle
to the stair-banisters, then began a
game of ten-pins in the "ball-room"
with pieces of stove-pipe and pumpkins.
1t was on the road between Conway
and Ashfeld, n spring morning, that
the Ashfield stage-driver met five ex-
pectant Changers, at different times,
each leading a new milch-cow a wicked
drummer had pretended to buy for the
use Of a summer VISITORS rising family,
and which he said the driver had kind
1- D9F,-ol 70 &ol1o 70 A1hEa1d o~A kL4
money for which he would return the
next day. 1t was at South Lee, one
very dark night, that a drummer car
ried off the guide-board which he found
lying ON the ground and which fur
nished him no clew to the right road,
and, On reaching the first house, called
for a lantern and demanded of the as
tonished bearer which way the thing
pointed. He carried that guide-board
TO Pittsfield and expressed it to another
drummer in Lynn, who had made him
pay 81, that morning, On a batch of
telegraphic nonsense. The profession
make a speciality of overhearing the pri-
vate conversation of newly-married
couples, and carefully ~rehearsing it at
the breakfast table. They can shine,
On occasion, in social gatherings. 1t
vas up at Cummington, the other night,
that three of them captured a church
sociable, and, after leading off an ami
mated discussion among the elders rel
alive to the electoral vote, instituted a
reform" by substituting for the
somewhat boisterous game of
"Jerusalem'' the ~quieter one of
"Msgic Writing" or the 'Black
Art" At hotels, they delight to mis-
mate the guests shoes that are set out
to be BACKED, and contrive to lock up
q few odd pairs in another fellows
closet. They will also get into the
clerks place, whenever it happens to
be empty, and charge some "Sover-
eign," who abhors all "middle-men,"
double his bill, and then step out and
tell the landlord a guest is going off
mad because the waiter-girl has insult
ed him. OF course the girl is called in,
and an impromptu theater amuses the
crowd. But while all these things have
been in the past, it is noticeable that
the class of commercial travellers is i'm
proving. The men who carried more
trunks for their own wardrobe than for
the samples they were trying to sell,
who had the loafing-time for a good
deal of foolishness and as much wick
edness, are being weeded out. The bus
mess CT the cities has come to be done
largely by these agents sent out to work
up trade, and SO far as this has come to
be true, so far the firms are sending
out their best statesmen, to-day, sharp
sighted, keen-witted men of business,
with "no nonsense about 'em."-
SprtnQfeM (MGSS.) Republican.