The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-20
Goes Far Out Into the Country to Gre.
ate Trade-covers Whole States
Wagon Men the Aristocrats
Most Of Them Become
Merchants.

The wandering peddler who, with
his wonderful pack of wonderfully as
sorted goods, used to come around to
homes in&the residence parts OF the
cities has in the last few years dinin-
4lishel rapidly In numbers until he is
now almost, if not quite, extinct in the
city. There are. according to 4 man
who does an extensive business il
nedd1ess: supplies. rct over halF u
dozen general peddlers in the city.
4 selves and their packs to the foreign
1 districts, particularly to the Ghetto.
s So aszfar as the city at large is con
cerned, it is practically in this day and
age without peddlers. Occasionally
there comes TO the back door woman
or girl or even an old man selling arti-
Giles, but the real peddier, he who
spread out his pack and showed an
assortment of goods ranging from a
z bar of tar soap to a small meiodeon,
lis seldom seen. says the Chicago Tri-
bune
Department stores, it is alleged, are
the force that have driven the wan
dering merchants out of business in
small goods and notions, extensive adj
yertisement of innumerable small gen
eral stores throughout the city have
all helped to make the peddler's voca-
ton Improbable here. But the ped
Sdler is still at his trade. Deprived OF
1.-The opportunity to make q livelihood
by following it in the city, he has not
abandoned it and gone into something
else, as do many. He has taken him
self and his pack away from the in
fuence of hostile stores and now does
his peddling in the country
Where before his district was limit
ed by streets it is now measured by,
counties and even States. He knows
that the city housewives will have
none of him because OF the bargains
that may be had at the department
stores, but he knows also that the
farmers wife, out in the country,
where department stores are unknown.
is ready and even anxious to look at
his stock, and being a thorough bust
ness man in all instances, the peddler
wastes no time in this city. but goes
countryward when his pack is COM
plete.
There are in the city two large |
downtown firms who make a specially
of dealing with general peddlers. Over |
in the Ghetto district, where by far |
the majority of the peddIerS come |
from, there are to be found a half |
dozen more who do similar business. |
The stocks carried by these houses
comprise every imaginable thing that
can be carried by u peddler. There
are imported razors- from Germany,
wax matches from Italy. perfumes
from France, suspenders, shoe laces,
and caps that are all made within
stone throw of the place where the
pack is made up; everything that one
sees in the windows of small notion
store is to be found in the stock which
the peddler may choose from.
The amounts that the prospective
peddler is forced to invest before he
has sufficient stock TO take the road
varies with what he intends to sell,
the country. he is going into, and the
state OF his finance. There are ped
.dlers stocks in which the. average
cost of the items contained is only one
cent apiece. The variety that obtains
in this stock will surprise the layman-
and its cost is sometimes as low as
So. To prove the shrewdness and bust
ness capacity of the men who take
out these small packs an outfitter said
it was not infrequent for one of them
to be gone one month and then come
back with $50 TO show that he had
disposed of his stock prOfitably.
From the So packs. which are sell
dom taken out unless as a side line,
the peddler's investment runs up to
$500 and $500; but when one OF them
goes out with such a stock he has q
wagon and generally a helper 10 assist
him in his work. These peddlerS are {
the aristocrats of the profession and
the envy of all those who have not yet | '
TO the dignity of horse and [
wagon. They leave the city with their :
stock generally in the spring and il |
they go to the North. or in the States {
they stay out until snow and | |
Indictment weather actually drive man q
and beast back to the city for the win 5
ter. If they go South they sometimes {
stay out full year andTeach far down h
into Louisiana and other Southern I