The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1882-03-24
wILES OF Statesmen.
Row the Conntry Merchants Are Enter.
tatned by Ghem.

philadelphia sun.l
In nm interview with restauranteur d
reporter asked "Who are your best
customers r.
Statesmen, by long odds, !" was the
reply.
ttThat augurs well for the prosperity
Of the salesman" remarked the re-
porter, CHANGING at bill 81 fare whose
prices would not give any particular
precedence to those Of the West End.
",rhey must have almost as much
money to throw away as reporters ?"
You don't suppose it comes out of
their pockets, do you ?" asked the pro
prietor. "It's mighty little Of it they
pay for. The general expense account
is what suffers.
"And why should the general expense
account suffer for salesman's dissipa-
tions n
because it makes business. The
statesmen who spends money here are
those who entertain country customers.
| have them here at all times. Some
times they'll come in for breakfast after
nights spree. Then it's champagne
cocktails to begin with, and brandy and
soda as a settler got up breakfast
for a salesman and two gentlemen from
the West this morning that cost him
$25. Lunches and dinners that run
from $25 to $50 are common, and have
them heavier, too. Champagne is tho
pet drink Of all the country merchants
who come to Philadelphia. They think
no one here with any pretentions to
fashion drinks anything else, and if
they are good buyers, the salesmen sup
plies them without stint. 1t is the Gus
tom to treat all customers, big and
little, Hospitality, but the statesmen never
waste money.
The dealer who has bill Of q few
hundreds of dollars gets good dinner
or two with bottle or SO Of wine, but
none Of the gilt-edged banqnets and
cobwebbed bottles come his way. The
people who get them pay for them in
directly, you may be bound. However
big the salesman's expense account runs,
it is always well within the profits Of
the department in whose interest it is
built up.
The system by which the restaura-
teur profits so much is one which has
become fixed feature Of the commercial
system Of the city. Nowadays the visit
Of heavy buyer to Philadelphia always
means spree to him, if his tastes are
at all convival If they are not, the ac-
commodating salesman will take him on
nice quiet drives, with nice little lunches
and dinners at each end Of them, and
swell church to drop in on Sundays. and
weave business with pleasure all the
while until the buyers whole trip has
been quite as ecstatic dream TO his
taste as that Of another rural trader is
who has anatomized the elephant from
tusks to tail, and who carries home with
him head which is as heavy as his bill
"a dream from which he, possibly,
awakes when the invoices begin to come
in out in Greentown, and cold common
sense demands the auditing Of bills. OF
course, the buyers spend something on
their own accounts, but the zalesmen
spend more, and spend it with dash
that makes it show for double its actual
amount. II is the saleman's business to
impress the customer with an idea Of the
lavish generosity Of the great house he
deals with. That impression in ninety
cases out Of a hundred, means bigger
bill than the impressed party would ever
dream Of contracting il it were not for
the delirious recklessness into which his
princely entertainment transport him.