Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-04-26
RIVALRY IN BRIDGE SELLING.
Drummers Who Have Also to be Ex-
pIorers.

| plorers.
He looked more like a soldier or an
explorer than commercial traveller as
he sat in the smoking compartment OF
the sleeper running between New
York and Buffalo. Therefore, when
one of the drummers asked him what
his business was, and he replied that
he was a drummer like the rest, 1t was
natural that some one should inquire
with interest what line of goods he
carried.
He laughed, and said: "I don't carry
any goods, not even samples. I could
not very we'll carry a satisfactory sam
pie of my line unless I were to hire a
freight car to accompany me on my
travels. The fact is, I am a drummer
for a bridge building concern.
YES" he continued in response to
another remark, "it's mighty inter-
esting business, and it gives a man lots
of variety.
There's too much Of it sometimes,
for I've just had the experience of hur-
rying from the damp heat Of tropi-
cal forest to the somewhat bleak coasts
Of Newfoundland, where we got big
contract unexpectedly"
well, you're lucky in one way
though" said one of his listeners
You haven't got the competition we
have. Here are four Of us in the same
car, all selling the same kind of goods
and all bound for the same town aIiI
the same customers. I take 1t that
bridge statesmen aren't as thick as
blackberries."
mo, they aren't as thick as that
said the bridge salesman. But to
make up for it the rivalry for big
bridge contract is on as enormous
scale as the business itself, and the
competing firms won't hesitate at any
risk to land the business.
consequently they send out men
who can ride and shoot and command
savages, and they expect them to go
at it exactly as if they were leading an
exploring expedition.
That's about what it amounts to-
in many cases.
you see, the only way for concern
TO figure intelligently on a bridge
building job is to know just exactly
what it may have to do. Therefore
the minute the various bridge compa-
MES of the world hear Of good chance
each strives to get its own trusted ex-
perts to the place first, so that 1t shall
have the best chance to figure on the
LOB.
AT the same moment, men may
start from Berlin, Essen, Liverpool
Birmingham, Pittsburg, New York
and Philadelphia, all bound for some
spot lying half known and half guessed
at in a wilderness that may have been
opened to the white men for only a
few months.
"As our routes begin to converge, we
begin to get news Of each other-gen-
orally just enough to keep each one
guessing. Then, If we all happen to
land in the same port, we have a noble
scrap to get our guides and men for
the journey into the interior.
"Well, after we get away the fight
has only begun. One man will go one
way: one another. Now, after you
strike out into a wilderness and find
yourself ploughing and wading and
climbing and struggling through un-
known country, you are likely to put
in some tough days wondering if you
haven't picked out the worst road and
if the other fellow won't get in and
finish his work before you get through
toiling amid the jungle.
"Then, Of course, there Is the con-
slant need for watchfulness, for the
new countries through which railroads
are to be run are not usually as or
derly and peaceable as a town in New
England Some of us bridge drum
mers have had 10 fight our way to the
scene of our sales, using repeating
rifles instead of sample cases.
1.-The final sale, to be sure, is made
after we get through, and it is not con-
cluded in the heart of an African jun
gle, but in nice, quiet, orderly office In
England or America or Germany. But
the real sale. the work that makes or
breaks, is done by the investigator who
goes to the spot and makes up his
mind what difficulties there are in the
way.
IF he makes too favorable a report
and leads his employers to bid too
low, he may break them; many of
these bridge jobs have been vast
enough to ruin the builders if things
went wrong.
i've sold bridges during the past
year in New Zealand, going hundred
miles in canoe to do it; in Newfound-
land, after crossing the waterways with
fishermen in small boats in the midst
of winter; i'm Brazil where had to go
up a river 500 miles and slosh around
in primeval forests for two months
to get my facts; and in Honduras,
where we camped for three months in
the rainy season to beat another con-
Germ whose men were waiting in the
capital for the good weather to begin.
"One of the men in our line waded
into Uganda to try for that big con-
tract that was finally won by an
American house. He shot two lions
on the way.
One lion he shot because he wanted
his skin. The second lion he shot be-
cause he wanted his own.
"The first one trotted by his tent
one evening and was disposed to mind