Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-31
DRUMMING UP TRADE
The American Salesman
Abroad and His Methods.
HE'S A GLOBE TROTTER
WHAT A TRIP AROUND THE
WORLD SHOULD COST.
Our Goods Are in Demand in Many
Lands-Opening Up New
Markets.
HE'S A GLOBE TROTTER
Copyright, 19O3 by Frank G. Carpenter.)
Corrocr~OodoDco ~ Tho Eropip0

OOpyr1ght, 190S. by Frank u. CarpenterJ
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
HAMBURG.
The American drummer is the globe
trotter of the future. His sample trunks
are already packed and he has begun to
girdle the earth. 1 have met his ad-
vance guard here and there all over the
world, and have frequently travelled
with him watching him work the ports
en- route, now and then making long
trips into the interior. I remember an
Ohio man from GAINESVILLE who took big
orders for American tiles and porcelain
in China and Japan, and who. when 1
left him, was about starting out to Java
and Australia. With him was a Phila-
delphia drummer who was selling fancy
wall paper and stationery going around
the world placing orders at every port.
In South America I travelled two thou
sand miles with a smooth-faced Yankee,
who was selling American coal to the
governments and business men of our
sister republics and hob-nobbed with an
agent of an American patent pianO-play1ng
machine. which he was placing at high
prices in Peru. Chile, Argentina and Bra
Zil. I have met our drummers in Siberia,
Mexico. northern Africa, India. Egypt and
Greece, and have watched them sell goods
in all parts of Australia, New Zealand and
the islands of the Southern Pacific. They
are fast growing in number, and are rap
idly increasing the amount of our foreign
trade
Around the World.
Indeed a good American salesman can
now plan out almost any kind of tour
and make it pay. The right man can en-
circle the globe and sell enough goods at
the ports to make his expenses and salary.
If he has only the proper address and the
proper things in his sample trunks he will
not lack for customers. There are a half
dozen routes which he can take and do a
big business. He go from New YORK
to Europe and thence make his way east
ward, coming out at San Francisco, or he
can leave the United States on the Pacific
slope and take in Hawaii. Japan. China
and India and come or around through the
SueZ canal to Hamburg. Liverpool or Lon
con. Another good route is over Germany
to Moscow and thence east along the
Trans-Siberian railroad to the great coun-
tries of Asia. Any good trip will need at
least six months. if the man works the
chief places on the way, and year is none
too long for a business trip around the
globe.
The Expense Account
What will it cost?
1t depends much on the man, the time and
the route. You can get a ticket to go d.
rectly around the globe, calling at the
ports for 5000. 1 venture you can go much
the fare on that railroad Is the cheapest
long distance fare in the world. 1t costs
only S12S from st. Petersburg to Vladi-
vostock. a distance of almost 1000 miles,
and the rates going south to Dalny on the
Chinese Eastern railroad are equally low.
The cars are excellent. and on the fast
press they are good as any in cOun-
try There good restaurants at the sta
tons, and many of the trains carry dining
cars.
The man who does not buy a round-trip
ticket for his world tour, but pays his fare
from place to place. will find his expenses
fully a great in the United States. In
my travels the average expense is about
$40 a day; sometimes it drops to 81 and
sometimes goes up to $50 more, but the
average on a long trip is just about SO.
Hotels are much the same the world over
if you demand the same accommodations.
The Grand Hotel in Yokohama charges 81
So. and the Orient of Tokyo the same.
The Aston House at Shanghai is about 81
day hotel, and so is the Hong Kong. at
Hong Kong. Now and then you will find
an out-of-theway place where you can get
81 rate but as rule your hotel expenses
from San Francisco on around to New