The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-26
A BEER AGENTS TERRIBLE WOE.
Unlimited Drinking, smoking ana
Eating Makes His Activity shorf
Lived.
From the WASHINGTON Po-t


From the Washington Post.
Few people realize that representing
brewing concern or wine house is ora
Of the most trying, enervating, brain
destroying. and altogether injurious oc.
equations Of modern life. A Post -.
porter made this discovery several DAYS
ago. when he met a man who until
quite recently had earned his uveh.
hood as a beer agent.
Il tried it for five years, but was
forced to retire." he said, ION account
of my health. For the past two years
have been trying 10 get we'll 1t is
the most killing business under the
sun, and. as a rule, beer and wine
agents are very short lived. II 1t were
possible to go about and simply trans
act straight business it would be all
very well, but this, you see, is out Of
the question. No matter where the
beer agent goes he is obliged to do moro
or less eating and drinking, which. in
time, tells on his liver, kidneys and en-
tire inner mechanism with serious re-
suits.
When the beer agent enters any one
or the ordinary middle or low-class sa-
looms to sell some goods he is expected
OS liF- proprietor Sp6nQ considerable
money before leaving. There is always
gang of loafers hanging about who
are never so happy as when following
beer agent into a saloon. The beer
agent is going to treat the house or
set 'em up to de gang, as they say,
and this, of course, he is obliged to do
in order 10 retain popularity for him
self and his wares.
Most saloonkeepers have an idea
that when a beer agent comes in and
treats every one to beer, but fails to
drink any himself, the beer made BY
his firm is not good, and they never
fail to inquire: What's the matter?
Can't you drink your own beer? Can't
be very good when the agent sours on
it 1t is worse still on picnics, excur-
sions, openings, etc. On occasions Of
this sort the beer agent has to make
perfect beer tub of himself and be
agreeable to every one.
The better class of saloons do not
of course, tolerate buns, never even
polite ones, who hang about in order to
drink off the agent, nor do they expect
the latter to guzzle schooner after
schooner in order to prove the excel
lence of the product made by his COM
pany; but, even under these circum-
stances, there is no escape for the beer
agent. He is in duty bound to be socia-
BILE, polite, and genial, and when he sits
down 80 or 40 minutes to transact bust
ness with the house, something to
drink must be ordered and disposed Of
while he is talking. He is introduced
to those about, and, before the bust
ness is finished he has taken enough to
last an ordinary man for a day.
THE health of the beer agent, am
positive, breaks down as much through
eating as drinking. He never becomes
intoxica ted, nor even halfway tipsy.
In his business it is drink, drink, drink,
all day long, a schooner here and
small glass there, just enough to keep
his stomach full of beer all day long,
and until late into the night. His eat
ing is of much the same character. He
is obliged to attend all the openings OF
new saloOns, and every manner OF les
tive occasion where there is an abund-
ance of eatables, and, TO be sociaole'
he must be nibbling and munchlnS
away all during his working hours.
Instead of waiting, like an ordinary
person, until he is hungry, and then
eating at regular hours, he begins eat
ing in the morning, and for fourteen
hours daily his digestive apparatus con-
tinues working overtime to dispose OF
the quantities of food that he is obliged
to stow away. Moreover, beer drinking
creates a sort of unnatural appetite
that causes a man to eat more than
is good for him.
ION numerous occasions l have eaten
as many as four suppers in night,
as a result of attending openings, ETC.,
where the proprietor had to set up
spread. Now, the kind of food set
forth on all such occasions, and in all
the places visited by beer agents, while
on their rounds, is of the richest ana
most indigestible sort, and to stand
such a routine for any length of time
a man ought to have a stomach made
of copper and galvanized iron, for one
thing is certain, no ordinary stomach
can resist such a diet for any length
of time.
1.-THE kind of food that the beer
agents eats at all such places, and on
ALL occasions of the sort l have Just
described, is not suited for regular diet
under any circumstances: Cheese OF
every sort, from Roquefort, Neucnatel
and Parmesan to Limburger ana
Schweitzer; sausages, hot with spice
rich salads, olives, boiled ham, roast
pork, turkey, blood pudding. head
cheese, Iiverwurst, cucumbers, sardines'
salmon, kippered behring's; everything
in fact. that is hard on the stomach
when 1 first engaged in this busi-
ness 1 was enjoying robust health anu
an excellent appetite, and for a tlnls
Ireally enjoyed the round of eating and
drinking.
pail on my appetite, and to-day the
sight of a tempting spread, or tree
lunch. makes me sick at the stomach.
Wine agents have much harder
routine than beer men, for the reason
that they are obliged to attend SVEN
dinners, where food of quality rcner
even than that encountered by tne
beer agent is placed before them Green
turtle soup, terrapin, lobster la New
burg rum omelets, truffied turkey ana
the like. make short work of his diges-
tive apparatus. know there are some
people who imagine that food OF this
sort ought to be conducive to health
but unless a man takes an immense
amount of outdoor exercise, ne VIII
not be able to stand 1t.
You ask me how much beer used
to drink in a day. That is a hard
question to answer. There were times
when, suppose. / drank as high as
6S or rs glasses, schooners, ETC., In
day. Another very bad feature about
the work of a beer or wine agent, and
which, with all the rest, helps TO ruin
his digestive apparatus is the nunpeF
of cigars he win smoke In day. -,
"Often, to avoid drinking, he VIII
take a cigar, and sometimes whiie
holding the cigar i'm his hand, he VIII
be nibbling away on sardine sanl-
wlch Al other times he will be drink
ing and smoking at one and the SAM.
time. so that after the first year OF
such a life you will see Mr.. Beer
Agent walking into a drug store some
morning. and asking for something 70