The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-06-04

I addresses OF welcome, responses
/ musical numbers and dissertations
bristling with generalities are consid
cred appropriate, 1t is eminently AT
ting that the active agent OF an In
dustrial association should be call %
/ upon to make o few remarks. No,
that the aforesaid special agent is
very particular about making speech
| but that he is supposed to be able to
treat most any subject in most any
manner on most any occasion. It
would not be- right to call upon him
for an address when this convention
would be considering the serious de-
tails and the elements of the order.
He isn't supposed to know anything
about such serious details. However,
when It comes to glittering generali-
ties he IL supposed to be very much
at home. He should be able to re-
gale an audisnce with few epigrams
carefully woven together so as to at
tract attention and leave as little bad
feeling as possible, without saying
anything in particular.
In fact q commercial agent, or Sec
rotary, or neutrality-suspicious. you
wish to call him-is supposed to be q
very widely educated man. In order
to meet the requirements Of the field.
a commercial manager should have
ten years experience as retail bust
ness man; ten years experience as a
wholesaler; ten year sexperdence as
a manufacturer; ten years experience
as real estate man; ten years OF
active PRACTISE at the bar Of Justice;
ten years experience in the pulpit;
ten years experience as an electrician
and electrical engineer; ten years ex-
perience as a sanitary engineer; ten
years experience as a physician and
undertaken; twenty-five years expert
ence as banker and financisr-with-
out capital; twenty-five years as q
successful politician. In addition to
this he should have years OF expert
ence as travelling man, lightning
rod agent and collector; he should be
able to sway thousands with fascinat-
LIZ ClOAuC1SS' 6AOAAu w eSOA0 W
work in harmony with the clergyman
and the church people Of the COM
munity, and, at the same time, get
subscriptions out of the saloon keep
ers to help run his business; he
should be society man, by all
he must not under any cir
cumstances Jar upon the nerves Of
in any walk of life, on any
he should bs able to enter
tain convention as easily as he can
entertain boyhood friend at dinner;
he should be married, by all means;
his home life should be open to In
spsction by the general public, but 1t
should be 80 perfect that not one par
ticle Of criticism could possibly be
hurled at him or his wife on any
occasion; he must never make mis-
lake; he must never have made a
mistake; he should be an athlete; he
should be musician; he should be
! ward healer, a Burns detective and
! m member of every church in the
IN addition to this he
should belong to and attend regularly
,very lodge known in the state In
which he resides; he should also be
.ble to save several thousand dollars
year out of his salary and never
20 on a vacation. With all these ac-
and all these years OF
experience he should not be over thir-
y years Of age and never grow old. |
I'll
Old Order changeth.
Perhaps the above enumerated re-
which are emphasized so
much by the commercial and business
,odies of the land, will explain In
ome measure the scarcity of first
lass up-to-date commercial agents.
Yet, in spite Of this, the commercial
,odies OF the cities of the country |
.rs searching far and wide for such |
men. They are. also, daily and year
y raising the requirements. Because
t this you will see why I have made
he statement that a commercial
gent is supposed to be adept at gilt
ering generalities.
The other Sunday afternoon, when
had two minutes and half to my
elf. I was looking at the leaves OF
he trees, the blue sky. the water, and
njoying the tropical temperature.
While thus engaged I philosophical q