The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1901-01-23
BOOK AGENTS GOING.
Recent Census Shows a Falling OFF
in Their Numbers.
Many Are Giving Up the business He-
cause Of Their Inability TO Cope
with the HeartIess People
who Buffet Them.

To the book agent life is q refusal, a
constant rebuff, continual struggle
against the tide OF human opinion, a
negative quantity or rather quanti-
ty of negatives, says the Washington
Times.
No wonder that the tribe is becom-
ing gradually extinct, as shown by the
returns of the twelfth census. The
prospect is that the next ten years will
see the passing of the book agent con-
summated, and his professional exor-
dium, long the terror of countless thou
sands, viii have faded from the mem-
ory of mankind, unless, indeed some
enterprising collector of graphophone
records should induce one of the Last
of the Mohicans" to breathe into the
machine those once dreaded words,
and thus preserve the same to future
generations as an anthropological Gu
riosity.
OF course in considering the book
agent we have always regarded him as
without feelings of his own, sort OF
human machine, so to speak, which
was wound up and which it was desir-
able to stop by any means. Those new
members of the profession who are
really gifted with an inconvenient
amount of sensitiyeness usually aban-
don the field in a short time, leaving it
to others whose nerve and philosophi-
cal natures justify, to a large extent,
the popular opinion of them.
The book agent who succeeds, or
rather, who has succeeded (and there
have been some such), was a remark
able person, not wholly underserying
the attention of the poet and historian.
Yet, alasl SO little is human genius ap-
preciated in certain walks Of life that
the possessor Of vending genius for
AN amount far exceeding its real value
seems rather inclined to ire than to
admiration when he thinks of the in
sinuating address and irresistible elo-
quence of the agent.
The attitude Of society generally
toward the average book agent pro-
duces different effects upon various in
dividmals Some, whose supply of the
'milB of human kindness" was always
perhaps somewhat Indifferent in guam
tity and quality, after the first days |
experience in canyassing, become COM
pletely curdled as to that commodity |
and manifest ever thereafter an exas-
perating insolence Of manner which is
not calculated to procure for hem a
large measure Of success in any walk
Of life.
Others Of somewhat sensitive ma
lures, being soon rebuffed, end their
book canYassing career il utter failure. (
Those persons, however, who are gift
ed with what Pope Gregory the Great I
called the terrible gift Of familiarity |
and which is described in more modern,
if less classic, parlance as the gift Of
CAB, contrive to make book canvass
ing pay, even under the present adj
verse conditions. But even these few
are beginning to recognize the fact
that they may employ their abilities
more advantageously in other fields,
and so they are gradually drifting into
more ambitious pursuits.
As regards the unsuccessful book |
agents, the wonder in many instances
as TO what induced them to follow the
vocation is only exceeded by the mar
vel as to what will be their fate when |
this apparently last hope fails them,
as fail it is reasonably sure to do. The |
wistftl look that meets a refusal in
some cases carries with it a certain
pathos which is less easily denied. This,
of course, is a more one-sided view
of the soft" book agent There are
many persons whose worldly tact and
ability in small matters enable them
TO borrow" from the credulous book |
in order to Examine" the
work and who either politely return
the same after an extended interval or
show a deep appreciation Of its mer-
its by retaining it, without, however,
going through the formaIity of offer
ing any remuneration. These are
the same individuals who ac-
cumulate libraries by the simple proc
ess of borrowing and never returning.
The passing of the book agent in
this city is principally attributable to
the closing of the public departments
and many private Office buildings to
of every description. Be
sides this. there is to be taken into
the fact that the adTer-
tising of the latest volumes through the
of the press has very mate
rally increased.
As the general public has guarded IT,
self, individually and collectively. more
and more against the wiles Of the