Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-09-26
OUTSIDE POINT. OF VIEW

Is there a natural antagonism be-
tween travelling men and preachers
Aud does this. admitted, IMPLY one
class OF our citizens are bad and the
other altogether good Hardly. but
that the average travelling man finds
sort OF grim satisfaction. INDUCES
as it were. in "ghoulish glee," when
hs picks up his daily paper head-linea
another preacher gone wrong" can
not be gainsaid But just NOW IN cen-
trail Iowa the shoe is on the other foot.
| IFS another travelling man gone
wrong In fact this latest Eldora
tragedy brings to pind that only a
short time ago in this same Hardin
county, occurred an almost similar
case In both cases, travelling man.
and also Il married man. were the
principals in an awful social drama,
They were the williams of the play, as
deep dyed as any theater audience ever
saw, and worse than all 1t was realism
only too true. And their dupes, their
victims, by strange coincidence, both
earned living in an occupation that
threw them constantly in contact with
the public-and travelling men. And
so now it's the preachers inning. IL
not in sermon, yet in private the traV-
cling man per s.. is a bad one. so say
these good brothers. Now this screed
is not defense of travelling men, for
they need none not an attack on the
preachers for they do not deserve it,
but it is a plea for charity In thought,
in tongue, in pen.
of to flr diff
ferent from his prototype of thirty or
forty years ago; and so is the modern
preacher AS a rule the knight of the
grip does not attend church. And
equally true is it that with but few ex-
ceptions the peacher has little or no
friends or acquaintance In the ranks
of the travelling men. These two classes
of our citizens are not acquainted with
one another. and do not thank anyone
for an introduction. The consequence
is the preacher knows as little of their
real life. ''theil. daily work" as he does
Hence the too frequent, the often un-
just and generally the collective con-
domination of travelling men. He
serves to adorn many a tale, to point
a moral, generally touching on immor-
ality. And the travelling man knows
of all this. Knows 1t as well as an ac-
tor or actress A travelling man in
church is always on the lookout. He
knows not what "a day may bring forth.
Equally true is 1t that the preacher
does not ride in the smoker. and is not
at home In the hotel office. One cah
hardly blame him, especially if the
daily paper has fresh case OF "an-
other preacher gone wrong" Billy
Sunday, Reverend Billy one should say,
has whole lot of this antagonism
charged up to his account.
Billy is a preacher, Billy is an
evangelist, Billy knocks the travelling
man and he knocks back. Hits the
whole profession of clergymen as hard
as Reverend Billy hits the whole crowd
of travelingmen. Billy holds ups to
scorn the man selling goods on the
road to make an honest living, and the
travelingman expresses his opinion OF
the preacher that saves souls at so
much per. Billy makes more money In
four weeks by preaching the Christian
religion, than some of these travelling
men do by selling goods a whole year.
Hence these tears.
There ought to be a clearing house
for these two useful and necessary
classes of average good citizens. A
place where they would be forced to
bump UP against one another 1t
would astonish many travelinsman
to know what good fellow Rev. A.
really is. And if the preacher could
witness some of the generous acts OF
the knights of the road, if they were
aware of the lives of deprivation some
of these men lead for the sake of their
families, some sentences would be left
out of some sermons A fad of the day
in business circles is the formation OF
a get-together cub. An association of
this kind, making only travelingmen
and preachers eligible for membership
would be grand institution. 1t would
open the eyes of many a preacher. and
close the mouth Of many a travelling
man.
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