St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-25
Development Of the Great job
bling Int erests Of This
City.
A Non-StatiStical Resume of
the Splendid Situation as
1t Is Today.
Something About the Rail-
road and Banking Inter-
estS ofSt. Paul.
Satisfactory Growth Of All
Branches During the Year
About to Close.

The future possibilities OF the JODDiilS
trade OF st. Paul is hardly yet fully
comprehended. That is, only a few
thoughtful men, themselves generally
engaged in some branch of wholesale
trade, understand the immense and con-
stantly Widening area covered by the
different joDbing establishments i'll this
city. Only few short years ago the
ubiquitous travelling man from New
York and Chicago and st. Louis was
the permanent guest of st. Paul hotels.
He visited every retail establishment in
every village and hamlet in the state,
and paid no sort of attention to the in
fantile wholesale houses of st. Paul.
Now this thing is all changed, and about
the only commercial traveller from New
York or Chicago who is to be met with
in Minnesota, is one of the partners OF
some of the great Eastern houses in re-
spectful consultation with the head OF
the firm in the back Office of the mer-
chant prince of st. Paul.
But on every railway train penetra-
ting Northern Wisconsin, Northern
Iowa, Nebraska, the DakOtas, Mime
sofa, Montana, Idaho, Washington and
Oregon may be found the ''bummer" of
st. Paul. He talks business with equal
facility with the jobbers of Helena.
Portland and Seattle as he discusses the
condition of trade with the smallest re-
tail dealer in the remotest dealer on the
banks of the Saskatchewan or in the
fur-producing districts of Alaska. The
drummer from st. Paul is known every
where throughout the North vest. No
village is too small or too remote to es-
cape his polite attention; no contract for
supplies so heavy that he will not tackle
it at minutes warning. and no dealer
anywhere in the Northwest so important
that he does not receive his sOlcita-
tons. He is as ubiquitous. omnlpreSent
and useful as Ariel, as rich in mental
and material endowmentS as the
GENIUS OF ALADDIN's LAMP.
and he sees more strange sights. hears
more remarkable sounds, and can tell
more marvellous stories than the i'm
mortal CULVER.
and all this has been brought about
in less than ten years. Ill 1880, the st.
Paul commercial travellers could be
numbered on the fingers of the two
hands-tO-day they are an army corps,
Differed like legion of the Roman EN-
pire. And it is all easily enough ex-
planned when one stops to consider what
an empire has been redeemed from bar
barism and given to the uses of civili-
cation during the past decade. In 1880
the Northern Pacific railway terminated
at Bismarck. OH the Upper Missouri.
The Manitoba system penetrated from
this CITY ONLY to the Red River of the
North. The Milwaukee d st. Paul and
the Northwestern were each feeling
their way cautiously through Southern
Dakota toward the Missouri river. Du-
Iuth had but one railroad connect
ing it with the Twin Cities
the St. Paul & Duluth. The
Omaha system was incomplete and un-
consolidated. The Kansas City was un-
born, nav, unbegotten. Since 1880 there
has been added to the country tribu-
tary to the st. Paul jobbing interests a
territory greater in area than England,
Ireland aud Scotland-larger than Nor
way and Sweden; and that, too, a virgin
country, which has developed fast er
and is to-day growing more rapidly in
material wealth than was ever before
known in the worlds history. The Da-
kotas, Montana, Idaho. Wyoming, Wash
ington and Oregon have all commenced
paving tribute to our commercial SUI
premacy since 1880. Although this arti-
Gle is not intended to deal in the dull
facts of cold figures to any appreciate
extent. the growth of the jobbing trade
here can be best ipitomiZed by the fol-
lowing brief tabulated statement eX-
tracted from the last report OF the
chamber of commerce.: