Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-21
WHY THEY BUY THERE
Some Suggestions to Washing
ton Merchants Anent Baltimore
WORTH OF THE GLAD HAND
Royal Reception of The Stars Greater
Washington Special.
BIG RESULTS TO SHOW ALREADY
All Along the Line a Willingness is
Expressed to Buy in Washington
Movement Lauded.
BIG RESULTS TO SHOW ALREADY

Special From a staff Correspondent
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va, September q.
The glad hand is a grand institution.
After only one day as a passenger on the
south-bound Greater Washington exposition
special, 1 am willing to make that assertion
in loud tone and to stand by 1t. I've heard
too much today about the lack of the glad
hand in Washington to have any doubts on
the subject.
OF course there are probably seventeen as
sorted reasons why southern business, in
stead of coming to Washington. has been
going to Baltimore and elsewhere. I'll let
sixteen of them rest for the present, but
the glad hand happens to be number one
1t doesn't take extraordinary business
sagacity to realize that severe frost kills
other things than early June peas, and that
tropical vegetation isn't found north of the
arctic circle. To get down to brass tacks,
southern merchants complain that Wash
ington is the chilliest town on earth in
which to do business
Don't for moment think that this is any
one-man opinion. When Merchant One
handed out that line of conversation to me
1 discounted the proposition in advance and
attributed his attitude to common or gar
den crouch. But when Merchant Two and
Merchant Three and Nero - INT Four stood
up on the firing line and told me some per-
sonal experiences, 1 began to sit up and
take notice. Just now it looks to me as if
there was something in all this talk
Would Like to Buy Here.
The average southern merchant is SEN
sible sort of citizen, and. naturally, is per-
fectly willing to buy his goods in Washing
ton II it can be made to his interest to do
SO. The fact that a Greater Washington Is
In the building will undoubtedly serve as
an additional II sentimental, induce ment.
But just the same. Mr.. Merchant, however
amiable and broad-minded he may be, is
not going to go counting a pneumatic chill
just for the altrustic purpose of helping
along the Greater Washington cause. And
that's perfectly natural No mar outside of
a santarium spends any time in Il still hunt
for influenza hay fever or kindred delights,
and there appears to be more reason
why a southern merchant should journey 10
Washington for the special purpose of hav-
ing his purchasing power frost-bitten.
That's the way they feel about 1t down
here anyhow, and 1 am trying to explain
the situation 1t was explained TO me.
OF course this criticism Of Washington
business methods by southern merchants
wasn't made as a blanket proposition.
Some of the. same merchants who COM
planned most bitterly of the uninterested
manner In which they were received in
Washington when they went there to buy
goods spoke in the highest terms Of the
methods of individual firms. But these
firms. they said. were the exception that
proved the rule. and were merely GASES in
the desert of national capital business
ways.
The Baltimore Way.
The comparisons 1 heard of the methods
of business geeting and business retaining
practiced in Baltimore and in Washington
were most entertaining. 1t may be that
am too coniding or too something or other,
but 1 got the impression, after conversing
at length with quite a number of serious
minded gentlemen along the line of the
Southern railway from Washington to
Charlottesville that Mr.. Southern Mer-
chant, when he goes to Baltimore to stock
up, is met at the station by a smiling repre-
sentative of his favorite iobbing house, who
shakes his hand. slaps him on the back
tickles him under the chin and throws him
into the first open-faced hack that hap
pens to heave in sight. Then. after the rep
resentative has asked after Mr.. Merchants
wife, sent a message to Aunt Polly, talked
of the glorious future that lies before Po-
dunk on the-Blink and bought dinner for
two in a place where the walters speak
nothing but French. they get down to BUSH
ness.
In a little while the representative Balti-