The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-15
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NO MORE "DRUMMERS.
Displaced and Improved Upon by the
Travelling Statesmen.

The action. of the executive commit
tee of the White Mountain Traveller IS
Association in caneeling- the annual
banquet for this year and asking the.
members of the organization to send
their respective dollars to the Red Cross
fund, through their secretary treasurer,
Frank Cressy of Concord, calls atten-
ton not only to the prevailing Ameri-
can spirit of sacrifice in "a national
crisis, but aaso to the live wires and
good fellows who compose this and 9TH
err bodies of travelling statesmen.
"Drummers they used invariably to
be called-but that was before they ar
| rived at the degree of business dignity
which now characterizes them. In those
days one could spot a drummer as far
as one could see him. He blew into
town with the air of one who was mon
arch of all he surveyed-and usually he
was, in a way. He brought with him
the latest and choicest stock of COM
mercial samples and subterranean sto-
ries, and he made his bids for orders
for the former by RECALLING the mer-
chant and his eronies with the latter
He carried good cigars which he dis
tributed with a lavish hand. Some
times he bent his elbow in the company
of other cornwall fellows, and drank
toasts which he would not have liked
his wife and daughters to hear. He
wore sporty clothes, and feminine
charmers were as susceptible to him as
he was to them-whieh was some sus-
ceptible. He knew everybody, from
Fifth Avenue to Wayback -Four Cor
ners. On the trains he was apt to talk
rather loudly-when he was not ex-
changing wireless messages with some
demure but more or less sophisticated
| fellow-passenger of the opposite sex.
But, as Kipling says, that s all flung
behind him, long ago and far away
: Today, as You observe the trains and
the streets and the busy marts of trade
J you can't tell drummer from law.
yer, q sehoolmaster, a newspaper man
or minister. He comes into town like
a man with a single, serious purpose
in mind, and that to sell goods. He
sells them, and is on his way to the
next town for the same serious purpose
: If he has in his possession line of un
expurgated and uncensored anecdotes
! he is so busy that he never-oh, we'll
hardly ever-relates them. He still
, carries good cigars, and is as liberal a:
ever in their distribution, though h,
: distributes them iudieiouslv and with
, out ostentation. He is comparatively {
stranger to the aproned individual be
2 hind the glass laden bar. His clothes
are quiet-even noiseless-but good
= Not all the charms of Cleopatra, Heller
/. of Troy, and the queen of Sheba, com
bined, can divert his attention from
!, his business when he is away from
home, and he has only one home ant
: only one wife, TO which and to whom
! he is devoted. The days of Sunda,
e poker are long past; the drummer ma,
h have known them, but the travelin
n salesman does not The chances arc
at least, even that he belongs to tn
!, Gideons, and that he actually reads til
q Bible which that band of worthy traH
{ cling statesmen has placed in his rooI
{ at the hotel; and on Sunday he goe
to church or remains quietly at HON,
reading about baseball and the war.
In his line, as in every other, moo
ern competition has tended to weed on
the frivolous and the unreliable. Ger
= ciaiS SPedhlS1 oiliy those VINO al
in earnest, and whose minds are o
their business, remain. He and h
r comrades are as big-hearted, as gent,
n and as happy as ever in the days {
1t old. No more loyal bunch exists @
p the face of the earth-loyal in frien,
n ship, loyal to employers. loyal to eoul
Is try. 1t may be that their air is il
II ereasingly that of business dignity
L but perhaps that is why the publ
;; consents to abjure the shorter and mo-
IL convenient term "drummers and r
:, fers to them gravely as "travehn
'e statesmen. -
y Anyway, God bless 'em! They re d
: ing their bit.-Manchester On. Fl
Union.
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