The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-12
A NEW FIELD F6HiMo,rEN.
Drumming Up Trade Mt Summer Re-
sorfs-NOt Extrnyagnnt.


From the New York Advertiser
81 suppose your business in these things
drops off after people get out of town for
the summer" said the interlocutor 10 the
head of one of the largest dealers In sport
ing goods in the country. holding toward
display of tennis and golhng parphernalia.
But you don't suppose right" was the
answer. '1f you think, as we ourselves used
to think. that our trade is done after the
retailers have stocked up for the summer
rush.
Last summer we got a new idea that
we are going to boom this year 1t came
in one day with one of our travelling men,
pretty, stylish young thing, who turned
out to be his sister She wanted to try
her hand at travelling for us in the sum-
mer and it was not an easy matter to
tell her that she probably would not be
worth her saltto us. Still that was what
we thought. and we had to refuse to give
her a salary and explained to her that
summer was not our season for trade,
our business being done. in the main
months ahead of the opening of the vaca-
ton season.
But she was one of the persevering
kind, an age-end young woman, with con-
victions and the courage of them She
said people often find themselves in the
mountains or at the seashore' or in the
country minus half the implements for
playing games that they meant to take;
others lose or break those they started
with; others become converts to one or
another sport, and wish to provide the
means of playing, but cannot do so at the
2-cent country shop.
This we believed to be true after she
spoke of it, though it had not occurred to
us, but we told her we could not infringe
on our retail customers trade, and that
she better see some of them, 81
She did, and came back to say that they
would not give her a salary and would
not allow her commission enough TO make
II worth while. She proposed to become
one of our retail customers herself and
acceded. / had become so interested in
her 'sticktoativeness' and general air Of
knowing what she vas about that offer
ed her line of samples TO start out with
1T was the middle of the summer before
she began, but she did amazingly well.
This summer she has been out since
the first summer hotel opened, and when
she was in the other day she told me she
meant to so south next winter to the re-
sorts there and travel the year round
Yes and no. She does and she doesn't
follow the methods of the man drummer
She works like the smartest travelling
salesman, but we do not get any expense
account for cigars or drinks onli1er ro,ite
a
Vantageous room, shows her samples and
takes her orders. As she turns in orders
for more goods than do many Of our small
retailers, there is no reason why she should
not have the lowest net prices, and we give
them to her" 1
This glimpse behind her back Of the
summer girl drummer opens UP line Of
promising possibilities for the smart. young
business woman. A dealer In all the details
of the toilet table, from hand mirrors to
cold cream, Is going to send a young wo-
man round to the summer hotels to supply
those who have run out of the luxurious
necessities of feminine life and do not have
the fascinating, high-priced summer shops
of Newport or Bar Harbor to buy from.
A big New York wholesale clothing
house has had one Of its largest routes in
charge of woman for the past two.years
She goes over the. ground herself, visiting
the old customers Of the firm for which
she travels, and Introducing their goods
to new dealers.
The claim being made that a woman I'm
such capacity would have.a number of
annoying experiences, Mrs. Blank. who Is
a handsome young widow, was asked about
this. II have found men universally ready
to accord me the treatment that self-re-
specting woman's manner makes a bid
for" was her reply "Fve no doubt that II