The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-05-11
THE ENGLESHMANs DISCOYERIES
Tho Southern Drummer, the AbySm OF
Time and the vim Epzabethan.

WASHINGTON. May s.-A honid but EN-
oient shook flung W from our seats. For
merly / should have inferred that we were
the victims Of q collision. Now l knew
better. Il was merely the engine giving
proof Of the O~mnipotent youthful buoyancy
as II added itself to the cars. The man
sitting opposite TO me In the green velvet
Of the Pullman section scattered leaves Of
manuscript broadcast from his lap as be
lunged forward with an ejaculation to check
my hurting body. We met ahd parted.
Then | helped him to pick up his MS.
Certainly" l reflected. after some little
conversation with my collide, 'the Amer-
can imagination Of the past is peculiar.
But what IL loses in intension II seems to
gain In extension
My companion was, az II happened, a
genealogist. He was also, more normally,
q commercial traveller. No feature Of
Southern travel has more surprised me
than the innumerable host Of drummes
therein unavoidable. have made some
impulsive attempts TO get 'out Of the way
Of the vanished world, but ! could never
get out Of the way Of the drummer. Late
one dreary night ! entered an inn which Of
feTed not so much az the welcome Of a desk
clerk. The register lay open OF It's "
accord; an oil lamp burned beside II, and
not far on stood several unlit candles.
Across the registera loose sheet OF paper
displayed this scrubbed notice, Rooms
70. 81 and 20 (single), and 4S. ~ (double)
vacant. Put lamp out after lighting can
dee Not alone did | face this legend.
Two drummers. sprucely dressed, helped TO
find a vacant single room, and next morning
at breakfast appeared Ave more, as sprucely
dressed, Most Of them had headquarters
In Baltimore, but one came from New York
and one from Philadelphia, and all were so
conSpiouously well groomed and blithe and
g~entemanly in this deplOrable place, where
II seemed impossible there should he any
business worth their attention. that was
utterly amazed. All OF them we're young.
and | have since heard that youths Of the
very best Southern families nowadays
take the road Without doubt they were
Of better families than country drlmmers
usually are in Europe, They laughed at
my supposition that the neighborhood
must AFFORD poor fishing and told me as
founding things about the solid wealth Of
the rural South-which things their own
numbers and high spirits went far to con-
Arm.
| met the brotherhood elsewhere. Of
course. than in pre-Adamite holes, and in
some OF the palatial hotels which are begin
ming TO make habitable the Southern soil
their luxurious ways set me meditating as
hard as their oomplacency under hardships.
For instance, they never wrote a letter II
there was any one 10 take il down and
type il" for them. Writing myself one
morning at a desk in the Office | overheard
a drummer debating three business let
ters to the young oma provided by the
hotel, Then ne got up and strolled about
finishing his after breakfast cigar till she
had done. THE three letters cost him %
rents and he could easily have written
them out with his own hand in less time
than the dictation and typing consumed,
The outlay seemed 10 me another proof OF
Southern prosperity. 1t is certain at least
that European prosperity would not have
stood it, for after all he was an ordinary
country drummer in a country town OF
$1,000 inhabitants or SO. To be sure the
European drummer would hardly be e1-
posed to the same temptation in the same
circumstances, for he would not Rave the
young woman typist at his call.
The unparalleled achievement Of uni
flying and standardizing every hole and
corner Of the United States after one or
two patterns decreed In the great centres
is chiefly carried out, ! gather, nv these
alert agents, an unrivalled body who study
at dawn, noon and eyentide as they pursue
their ways some section Of Brddstreet or
Dun with a devotion unsurpassed by that
OF a priest 10 his breviary.
My literary companion was older than
most Of his order in these parts, and he
certainly came Of an ancient family. The
dihused leaves we're. it seemed, parR Of its
history. which he had been writing for
many years and for which he was just now
gathering some needed data in the South,
par desSus le mdrcht. He hoped to publish
the entire work before long in a fine vol
ume to cost $40 and was already appealing
10 members Of the stock scattered all over
the Continent for subscriptions.
The record Of the family in America was
all plain sailing. and he knew all about the
seventeenth century immigrant-an Epis-
copalian vicar from an eastern county of
England who had been dispossessed OF his
living for un%orthodoX doctrines. From
his pocket he produced a far reaching tree,
whose roots we're not in English soil, and
what impressed me most and almost hurt
me was the purely episode value, so to
speak, which he attached 10 the English
period Of his ancestry. In pdsSdnt, he
linked himself to English kings. but his
vaulting ambition would not rest on any
such bauble, From Britain lightly did he
leap across TO France, and after talking with
him for some while ! should not have been
in the least surprised 10 find him landed on
the dim plateau which graded the Aryan
race. Even 80 l read in the newspapers
the other day that Gen. Washington had
professed himself a Dane. Of a family called
Was emigrated from Denmark TO Eng
land In a period 10 be called recent compared
with glacial epochs, and 80 on. My railroad
companion had a perspective Of the past
not lees inclusive, His family was not
English, 1t appeared, though il had 80
journed there for a few centuries. He
esteemed II J know not what-Aryan or
perhaps purely cosmic. The logic Of his
point Of view was az undeniable as TO me 1t
was novel, and ! had TO admit that most
Englishmen are contented with a much
hr;afar raoord than thia sunnoaadlv mush-