The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-30
AN INCONSISTENT SALESMAN.

CUPPOSE A TRAVELLING MAN rep
- resenting a clothing house should
walk into the store of a Salt Lake
merchant and endeavor to sell him a
supply of goods with an argument like
this:
IT never wear these clothes myself
and anybody who does wear them is
a fool. They don't fit; they can't be
made to At. Although they seem to
be all wool they are nothing but shod-
5y. The garments are badly made.
They VIII rip at the slightest pressure;
they will tear as easily as rotten pa
per. Nobody who. cares anything about
his personal appearance would be
caught dead in one of the suits I am
trying to sell you"
How many suits of clothes do you
think the travelling man would be able
to work off on the merchant? Wouldn't
ne be laughed to scorn and driven out
of the house in contempt? Wouldn't
his employers be notified at once of
his peculiar actions, and would they
not discharge him as quickly as he
could be reached by wire? The an
swers to these questions are obvious.
The travelling man would not only lose
his position but he would be lucky to
escape Incarceration in some asylum
for the hopelessly insane.
This supposititious case is suggested
by an interview in one OF the Salt
Lake afternoon papers last week. The
man interviewed was a travelling sales
man for a wholesale whisky house.
You would be surprised" he said, in
effect. "to know how few men who
travel for whisky houses drink whisky.
There was a time when practically all
Of them drank, but the competition
has now become so keen that we can
not afford to drink any more.
Fully rs per cent of the whisky
statesmen are total abstainers. Those
who drink ann compete successfully
with those who do not drink" Ap-
parently the ~absurdity of his DO
sition didn't strike the travelling man.
1t didn't seem to occur to him that
If everybody could be persuaded 10
follow his example the distilleries
would be driven to make kindling wood
out of their mash tubs and copper
wire out of their worms"
And yet the .distiIIers do not COM
plain when their travelling statesmen
are models of temperance. On the
contrary, while they in
ebriety in others, they insist that their
own employees must stay sober. They
are willing to ruin the bank clerk. the
employe of the dry goods stores, the
man who works hard with his hands
for a pitifully small wage, the pro-
fessional man and all the other ele-
ments that go to make up society.
Somehow The Herald has more respect
for h whisky salesman Who drinks
than for the one who doesn't. h
former at least shows that he is will
ing to take the poison of his own brew
ing: he is consistent.
When the man who sells whisky can
not afford to drink it, and ssys so
frankly, Notwithstanding the fact that
his whisky costs him nothing. how can
anybody in this whole wide world af-
ford to drink whisky that costs them
not money alone. but everything the
human heart should hold most sacred?
Those who drink cannot compete sue
cessfully with those who do not
drink said the salesman, and he
spoke not merely for the whisky trade
but for every worldly occupation.
The merchant who drinks win even
tuaIly be driven out Of business by
the merchant who lets whisky alone;
the lawyer who drinks will sooner or
later see his practice drift into the
hands of a more temperate fellow prac-
titioner. And Illustrations of this char
acter could be multiplied indefinitely.
There might have been a time when
men could drink and be successful, but
the time has long since passed. As
the whisky salesman says. the compe-
tition has become too keen.