Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1892-02-25
POPULAR INSTRUCTION.
DRuMMERs PUBLIC SERVANTS AND
PUBLIC BENEFACTORs.


PUBLIC BENEFACTORS.
One OF New Hampshire's Veteran Sales
men illustrates the Energy Business
Capacity, Intelligence and Culture Which
Some of them POssess-Something of the
Hard Work and Special knowledge Re-
quired for Success.
There are doubtless many who car
recall the time when the Boston drum
mer was considered somewhat monde
script specimen of humanity. Why all
persons Of this class were called Boston
drummers was always puzzling to me,
but for long while such was the case
Possibly Boston originated the idea OF
drumming up trade or it might have
been the first to try the experiment OF
establishing a line of trade beyond pre-
vious limits. New England enterprise is
ever on the alert to improve every bust
ness opportunity; moreover, after the
late civil war while towns and cities in
the New South were being distributed
over the waste made by the attendant
circumstances of the conflict, base of
supplies, so to speak, was needed at once.
Yankee shrewdnesss and calculation are
proverbial, and knowing just what was
needed and where it was needed, Yankee
smartness in driving bargain might
have been the origin of the drumming
business. However that may be, it has
to-day, thousands of representatives in
the United States, and taking up the
toh I'd r,f tho xUhinh no G
made Blaine more famous than any man
of his time, "Reciprocity," we may say
with truth that the commercial traveller
il hound to enter every nation and every
chime.
In the early days of our knowledge of
the business, the drummer was looked
upon as person to be dreaded rather
than sought. Trades people had not got
over the idea that one mus go to market,
in other words, the tore-keepers must
make semi-annual trip to Boston and
buy the supplies needed at their various
depots, the immense wholesale stores
and warehouses in the young CONNER
cial city. Going to Boston in old times
was as much trip, to the ordinary
country merchant, as visit to the trans
Atlantic stations is at the present day.
Everything was to be gained by going
to market and the average country mer-
chant deemed himself, alone, qualified
to select the goods for his counters.
Then, too, the drummer was considered
q sharper, always ready to fleece the
men he displayed his line of goods be-
fore. eff buy your goods" said the
old-time store-keeper, 81 pay your bills.
They don't send you here for nothing
and, beside that, want to see what |
am buying. l have no guaranty that my
goods will be the same as your samples y
The feeling was universal at the start,
that the jobber and drummer were in
of the buyers. In time this feeling wore
be very thankful for the easy method of
replenishing his decreasing stock,
through the agency of the ,drummers.
Bewildering in the extreme, to many a
country trader, was the task of select
ing his annual or semi-annual stock
The vast blocks, with their innumerable
departments and army Of clerks, each
an adept in his own particular line, was
in itself q confusing sight. Again, the
endless variety of shades, styles and
grades in the dry goods department, the
varying quality in other lines, was be-
wildering, or, at least, extremely per-
picking matter with which to deal and
he often felt the need of an advisor.
Some even dreaded the traversing of the
city streets and felt Obliged to seek con-
veyance to the places they desired to
reach, rather than get lost in the wilder
ness of buildings. just here, in view of
all this, was where the stream was
spanned. The everlasting drummer did
away with all this. To be sure, some
tfYnoc hic 81
required a mountain of boxes and yards
of counter-room but the drummer usual
ly knew his business. He knew the
styles, the required grades and the guam
tity, even, which traders needed for the
local trade and the store-keeper soon
found it out. He learned to welcome
the coming salesman and to trust to his
judgement and was thereby relieved of q
vast amount Of care. Better, far better,
to examine the samples quietly at home
than to hurry off to the city leaving the
business in the care, oftentimes, of those
not quite competent to deal with it. In
the early days of the innovation there
crept into the mind of the ever-immacu.
late public CO the idea that drummer
was a person of doubtful reputation OF
unsavOry moral character. They were
considered persons of great aptitude fol
Misrepresentation and great amount Of
brag, bluff and in slang parlance
s'cheek." Good liquors were considered
indispensable with them and conviviali
ty inseparable from them; in short
some people thought, and to this day
appear to think, the drummer or com
mercial traveller is always on lark anc
shows up at the given time and place fol
the mere fun of the thing. This idea il
false in the extreme. Like all othel
callings, it has some who are no credit
to it, but in the main, taken as class
they are active, able, ide-awake, gener
GUS, courteous men, and may l say
women, for there are women who follow
the profes ion and are successful in it
although they are few.
For the space of 20 years the writer Of
this article had more or less to do with
country store where general merchan.
disc was kept and supplied people fol
miles around. From the staple articles
for household use to the finest showcase
goods; from the plough in the hardware
line to the tiniest brads; and the same