Sierra County advocate. [volume] (Kingston, N.M.) 1884-1960, 1886-02-20
MODERN SIRENS.
Female Canvsssers anu the Bright
Weapons OF Their Success.

O NAf1St@S N~ttA@ 9 %-ACAiS CIV N'AS Ia
weapons OF Their Success.
The female canvasser lost her grir
on place in mythology by being borr
so recently. Had she been around
when the willy Ulysses was going about
with those impressionable Greeks or
yacht cruises, she would haze com.
manded good salary in any chorus OF
sirens. Coming into existence in the
Ammo Domini period, she is perforcC
compelled to change her tactics. She
does not try to catch a tar, although q
Tartar every now and then falls in her
way, but sets about Turing the business
man into financial ruin. The female
canvasser is one of the few things OF
contemporaneous interest that were
not created to fill long-felt want No
one has ever been known to yearn for
her coming or to feel that her absence
manufactured vacuum in his exist
ence. The result is that she has be-
come an interesting waif hunting for
an opening, who dihuses herself over
the fair face of nature wherever the
sbekels are ripest.
The female canvasser is generally in
the book or advertising line. She
somehow contrives to find something
in both with which she can make appeal
to the sluggish charitable instincts of
humanity Gho ta 1n
working for business, but only for the
love jf the cause in which she is en-
listed, and there is always some ulte-
rior person or purpose to be benefited
by a sale or subscription. Upon the
deserving character of this person or
purpose she always brings her elo-
quence to bear. 1t is not the mere
money she seems to want Her object
appears to be only the stimulation of
interest in the scheme she represents.
When she does take the money or It's
equivalent-and that happens pretty
often-she does it as though she were
only performing subordinate part of
the donors duty for which he ought to
be grateful to her.
The man who contributes to q char
ity or buys bill of goods from
drummer has vague notion that he
has done q service for the solicitor.
But the female canvasser never permits
him to harbor any such idea about her.
He is given to understand that he has
done only what he should have done
long ago, and it was highly improper
for him to wait till she reminded him
of it. That is the reason every one
feels himself humble and abashed
when female canvasser looms up in
the horizon, and feels humber and
more abashed when she leaves.
There are two kinds of female can
vassers-the old and the young varie-
ties. Their methods are Numerically
opposite. The one says everything she
can; the other as little as she can. The
former is born eXhorter. She can
get in more vocal work in given
space than any male agitator of the
organ of speech extant. The young va
riety of canvasser does not run the
campaign that way. Her strong
points are her eyes. Once her tongue
has set forth her business it suspends
and her eyes begin to issue dividends.
Thereafter all operations are carried on
from that quarter.
She finds this the most effective way
A whole park of artillery would not
hold its own as an instrument of de-
structioh against the eyes of we'll
canvasser. If she is coldly
received she throws little warmth and
feeling into her glances. If she is re-
butfed the eyes fill. If she is turned
away she suliiuses them with look of
pleading that would reduce adamant at
a hundred PAGES. She begs with them.
prays with them, urges with them and
eXhorts with them, and as there is no
force known to science that will over
come this mute insistence, humanity
has to yield and the reluctant purse
strings have to loosen.
Cunning business people know this.
They know that female canvasser is
more fatal than any other engine of
war that can be brought to bear upon
the works with which mankind has
trenched itself against booksellers and
advertisers. So nowadays they reserve
her for the forlorn hope work and
launch her against the Stoutest pointed
LcslSlduCts Gbnnutui VI AhC IoSutbs
A reporter yesterday had a talk with
one of these long headed people. He
found her in an Office which exhaled
more aroma than aSixth avenue phar-
macy, and contained more feet of femi-
nine artfulness than any known insti-
tuition outside OF charity fair. The /
ladies in it were all canvassers One
could tell in twinkling from the flu
ency of the utteranees of the more ell |
DERBY and the limpid catch-on-fulness |
of the eyes of the younger ones. After
they had each poured a few gallons of / /
melody into the boss ears and varied it |
every now and then with little mirth-
ful refrains descriptive of how certain
positions were carried and the 'loot'
Iaken, they all got up and went out.
The reporter quailed as they filed |
past him, He thought of Amazons
going TO war and trembled for the
store-keepers and Office clerks upon |
whom all those resources Of rhetoric
and optics would soon be brought to
bear. Then he accosted the gentleman
Eho owned and operated the line Of |