Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-02-20
THE TRAVELLING MAN.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ADDRESSES THE
COMMERCIAL DRUMMERS.

Words of WaCnceSt Sympathy-The
Safeguards and OpportuEities-Tim
Passed on Railroad Trains.
ICopyriGht. 1899. by American Press Asso-
ciation.]
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.-In this dis
course Dr. Talmage gives words of good
cheer to commercial travellers and tells
of their safeguards and then opportuni-
ties; text, Nahum ii, 4, ''The chariots
shall rage in the streets; they shall JUS
tie one against another in the broad
ways; they shall seem like torches;
they shall run like the ightnings.
1t has been found out that many of
the arts and discoveries which we sup
posed were peculiar to our own age are
merely the restoration of the arts and
discoveries of thousands of years ago. L
suppose that the PAST centuries have
forgotten more than the present century
knows. 1t seems to me that they must
have known thousands of years ago in
the days of Nineveh of the uses of steam
and its application to swift travel. In
my text I hear the rush of the rail
train, the clang of the wheels and the
canning Of the car couplings ''The
chariots shall rage in the streets; they
shall justle one against another in the
broad ways; they shall seem like
torches; they shall run like the light
nings."
Have you ever taken your position in
the night far away from a depot along
the track waiting to see the rail train
come at full speed? At first you heard
in the distance a rumbling, like the
coming of storm, then you saw the
flash of the headlight of the locomotive
as it turned the curve; then you saw
the wilder glare of the fiery eye of the
train as it came plunging toward you;
then you heard the shrek of the whistle
that frenzied all the echoes; then you
saw the hurricane dash of cinders;
then you felt the jar of the passing
earthquake and you saw the shot thun-
derbolt of the express train. Well, 1T
seems that we can hear the passing of
a midnight express train in my text,
t'The chariots shall rage in the streets;
they justle one against another in the
broad ways; they shall seem like torches;
they shall run like the lightnings.
I halt the train long enough to get on
board, and / go through the cars, and
find three-fourths of the passengers are
commercial travellers. They are felix
peculiar to themselves, easily recogniZ-
ed, at home on all the trains, not startled
by the sudden dropping of the brakes,
familiar with all the railroad signals,
can tell you what is the next station,
how long the train will stop, what place
the passengers take luncheon at, can
s,,f0 oI7 oac&
subject, are cosmopolitan, at home ev-
erywhere from Halifax to San Francis
CO. They are on the s O clock morning
train, on the noon train, on the mid
night train. You take a berth in a
sleeping car, and either above you or
beneath you is one of these gentlemen.
There are 100, 900 professed commercial
travellers in the United States, but $780,
900 would not include all those who are
sometimes engaged in this service. They
spend millions of dollars every day in
the hotels and in the rail trains. They
have their official newspaper organ.
They have their mutual benefit associa-
ton, about 1000 names on the rolls,
and have already distributed more than
$500, 600 among families of deceased
members. They are ubiquitous, unique,
and tremendous for good or evil. All
the tendencies of merchandise are to-
ward their multiplication. The house
that stands back on its dignity and
waits for customers to come, instead of
going to seek bargain makers, will have
more and more unstable goods on the
shelf and will gradually lose its control
of the markets. While the great, enter
prising and successful houses will have
their agents on all the trains, and ''their
chariots will rage in the streets, they
shall justle one against another in the
broad ways. They shall seem like
torches, they shall run like the light
nings."
Entitled to Warm Sympathy.
I think commercial travellers can
stand a sermon of warm hearted SYM
pathy. If you have any words Of good
cheer for them, you had better utter
them If you have any good, honest
prayers in their behalf, they will be
greatly obliged to you. I never knew a
man yet who did not like to be prayed
for; never knew man yet that did
not like to be helped. 1t seems to me
this sermon is timely. At this season
of the year there are tens of thousands
of men going out to gather the spring
trade. The months of February and
March in all our commercial establish
ments are very busy months. In few
days our national perplexities will all
be settled, and then look out for the
brightest ten years of national prosperi-
ty which this country has ever witness
ed. All our astute commercial men feel
that we are standing at the opening
gate of wonderful prosperity. Let the
manufacturers put the bands on their
wheels and the. merchants open new
set of account books in place of those
4sll1.a x1-itI lo,,ce ool11,,,1,c 1,E bod dolt-