Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-12-12
MONEY MADE ON RAILROADS.
Itinerant Merchants Who sell Papers
and Fruits-Romely Dawes Feat.

Tin Grant Merchants W no sell EAFcss
and Fruits-RomeIy Dawes Feat.
Very few Of the travellers who have
been So often annoyed on railroad trains
bv the persistent and not always refined
elOuuence of the youths who try 10 sell
them stale peanuts, decayei fruit ami
ancient literature, have any adequate -dea
Of the amount Of business these ltlnerant
Young merchants transact. In fact. II
has often occurred 10 many passenger
as an interesting problem how IN the
world train news agent manages 10
make enough 20 buy his salt. They see
him 20 through the car time after NIne
and sell nothing but perhaps nickel
worth If apples, or pint II peanuts, and
they wonder if q Woodworking young
man can pick up 4 quarter day ont 81
that business.
These miSgiviuCs are natural enough,
bu, they are entirely needless. Smart
vouu- men often make Is much Is so or
$50 q week As news agent on railroad
trains. and he i very novice who can
not make from So 20 so without work
ing very hard Some idea Of the extent
AMI value Of the business may be learned
from the fact that from = 10 50 are
often paid for the right u sell on the
trains 81 a single line OF railroad for a
year. In some instances much higher
. figures are reached. The right is usually
bought by some big news company,
which brys all its stock at wholesale AMI
dictates absolutely Just what shall be
sold on the trains. Each news agent
. news butcher is the technical term for
him-has a big book in which all the
stock he takes ont Of the Office on each
run is carefully entered up against him.
When he comes back his stock = re-
counted down 10 the last apple and the
last pint Of peanuts. Comparisons with
. the news agents book and the tab in the
Office are made. and then the butcher
Is allowed - per cent. commission on
his sale nc the established retail prices.
That doesn't seem like very biz margin,
but the boys increase ii very subsjan-
tally By Crowding mp the prices beyond
the limits set by the company, and by
various other devices not always 1t ma
ture that a sunday school teacher would
approve.
Then. too. the sales which appear legiti-
mately on the book are much greater IN
the aggregate than any one not familiar
Win the blSlilcSS NtAANA A4AAsA--ALAS. VA -
day run from here to syracuse, say. they
may average $40. That is not nearly so
good a run - 1t was few years ago. In
fact. the business in all this part Of the
country has greatly deprecated Of late.
So slight matter rs an old banana skin
was responsible for . good deal Of this.
The late Mr.. ". H Vanderbilt was tax
Ing one of his western trips over the Lake
Shore railroad, and in going through a
day coach slipped and nearly fell on a
banana skin that had been thrown on the
floor. The right to sell on the Lake
Shore. New York Central, and nearly all
the eastern roads was controlled by the
Union News company, Of which Mr. Van
derbilr waS the principal stakeholder. At
the next station he photographed home an
explicit order that no more news agents
should be SLOWED 10 carry fruit OF any
description 10 sell. Fruits are rather
important feature of the news agents
business. and trade on the eastern roads
has never quite recovered from Mr.. Van
derbilt's Ortler-New York Mail and EX-
preSS