Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1898-06-11
WOMEN DRUMMERS.
MAKE REGULAR TRIPS FROM
NEW YORK CITY.
What Man Says of Tt--TriaIs which
Beset the Placxy remInfne Dru1mer's
way-cannot Treat Her Customers a.
Men DO.

There IL new profession In the field
for women. and one which, whether it
requires harder work and more expos
ure or greater amount OF tact and
diplomacy than women generally pos
sess. SO far has very few adopts In it.
There are hundreds and thousands OF
women buyers In almost every branch
OF trade. but few, unless their attention
Is called to the fact, know that there
are also women drumfners," says the
New York Telegram. 1t seems nat
ural thing for woman to go among the
wholesale houses TO buy. Shopping is
Woman's second nature and In many
trades she Is much the more compe-
tent to choose what shall be worn by
her sisters. Therefore we have come
TO look upon women buyers as a per-
fectly natural outcome Of the greater
independence Of women, and accepted
them as altogether best the adapted for
that purpose. But with the drummer 1t
is another story. Even when women
nowadays do assert an equal right with
men there is certain amount of hard
1eAR aAao t&ROS1tc dlLdEutu 10 the
drummer's life which does not seem
compatible with woman's more deli
cate organization. 1t is true that the
mode of travelling today is much more
comfortable than IL was ten years ago,
but for all this drummer's life is far
from being an easy one. There are IN
New York city. all told. not more than
dozen or fifteen women who are
drummers In every sense OF the word
that is, that they start on on long
trips with sample trunks, go to drum
mers' hotels, engage a regular room
set apart for their use. unpack their
samples. set them out TO the best ad-
vantage and then send word to the
merchants that they are In town and
ready TO do business. Women may be
all very well as far as they CO." tray
cling man said, but we have one ad-
vantage over them. and that is this:
You must nearly always treat the man
20 whom you want to sell q bill Of
goods. and they cannot very well do
that So, you see. we have one i'm
mense advantage over them at the very
start. OF course, am not attempting
TO run them down, for some OF them
are very clever and good workers and
We men help them as much as possible
and would do anything In the world for
them II they were In distress: but the
road Is no place for them, and know
what am talking about. / would not
allow relative of mine to go out as a
drummer. She should scrub floors
first" There is one woman in the city.
q widow with three children to sup
port. who took her husbands place on
the road after his death. He had been
In the hardware business and had built
up splendid trade when the burden of
the family's support fell upon her
shoulders. She conceived the idea of
taking up where her he had left of and
offered to her husbands firm to make
trips for six months on commission.
and IL at the end of that time she sue
coeded she was to be paid her husbands
salary. Her first trip was fairly sue
cessfnl. She interviewed all her hus-
bands customers. explained her posi-
tion TO them and asked them to give
her fair trial. With mems usual
courtesy to woman in distress they
agreed to do what they could for her.
She is today in receipt OF the same
salary paid her husband and is support
ing herself and children as they were
supported before his DEATH