Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-31
THE TRAvELINe MEN.

The travelling men are sucn good
fellows, they do SO much for any corn
munity with which they cast their lot,
and receive SO little praise for their
estimable services, that the occasion
cannot be. allowed to pass without re-
producing an editorial which the Chi
cago Inter Ocean dedicates to the gen
tlemen of the road. The Inter Ocean
says:
The American travelling man has
held his national convention in Chi
cago There Is not only one of him.
There are many thousands. They are
spoken of in the singular because it !s
convenient thus to personify a social
group whose members, despite the!c
T. Individual differences, are remarkably
and pleasingly similar in essential
character and in high quality of pub
lie service.
A social and economic PHILOSOPHERS
has remarked that the nearest approx
imation in human nature to the omni-
presence of divinity is the American
travelling salesman. In this compari-
son no irreverence was intended and
none should be felt. 1t is simply Ell
effort to illustrate the truth that there
or out of the way as not to feel the in
fluence of this ambassador of conn
merce, this stirrer of stagnation, this
prophet of prosperity, this discouraged
of dullness.
He has not yet quite pervaded all
chimes as he so buoyantly pervades
the American dominions, for we have
not yet really begun to &c after for
eign trade as we cultivate domestic
diffusion Of commodities. When we
do SO begin-when we seriously give
our minds to the task-there will he
such an intellectual awakening-suct
irving Of the mental crusts Of cen
turies-as the world without the shad
ow Of the Stars and Stripes has new
er yet known.
Yet even as 1t Is the American trav
cling man often outruns the missionary
and commonly anticipates the scien
tiflc explorer. He is found-thougf
not yet as numerously as he should
be for the human welfare-from the
Arctics to the Equator and back agair
lin darkest Africa, in remotest AsiS
and In all the isles Of the sea. These
however, are specialized pioneers, too
few as yet to become a recognized In
stitution of high and welcome eff
cheney, as the travelling man Is In this
blessed land Of ours.
We owe chiefly to the travelling maj
that while innately the most conser
vative of peoples we are also thu
most progressive. His influence il
really wider than that of the press
No newspaper can have a man-to-mal
touch for more than few hundred
miles beyond its publication Office. TIL,
travelling salesman is a bearer wht
passes his torch from hand to hand
from ocean to ocean and from til,
tropic to the pole. He speaks not will
dead type but with the living voice
man to man and face to face.
He is said to be not without faults
He is said at times to look upon tn
cocktail when it is compounded, an,
observe with interest the chips tina
pass in the night But he also spread
the gospel message of faith in CO.
through faith in the average decenc;
of His human creation. For the con
firmed and incorrigible pessimist i
not found in these ranks. Their att
tude is never that this Is probably
world of devils, in which we might a
we'll all be devils together. If such mel
ever go selling goods on the roa'
they die young or quickly becom
stock for the commercial cannin
factory.
Not the least among our blessing
as a nation is that our travelling me-
are so numerous and are such
recognized and welcome institution
In those small towns which, despit
It's great cities. the United State
mainly is. For as they go and com
they scatter not only new devices an
commodities, but new stories, hey
ideas, new ways of looking at thing:
and, best of all, knowledge of ho'
others look at things. They are
ways stirring at stagnant waters G
thought, breaking the mental crust'
and opening new windows OF vision
4 May their powers, their shadows an
their sales never grow less!
THE YOUNG MANS CHANCES.