Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1882 — Who Are the Commercial Men? [ARTICLE]

Who Are the Commercial Men?

No class of men are watched closer and censured more severely than are the drummers. If those who are so prono to cost rc fl' ctions upon this class will stop for a moment to consider the amount of work they do, and the hardships they endure for the sake of their families, we are sure the censure heaped upon them would be lessened to a considerable degree. Just follow one of these commercial men from the time he leaves home until his return, and one trip will be sufficient. To see him riding along on a passenger train or sitting in a hotel office looks very nice, when you happen to catch him there, but it is all work to him. He gets up in the morning, while every one else is sleeping, at 2, 3 or 4 o’clock, and takes the early train. Travels forty or fifty miles, eats his breakfast at some horrid place called a hotel, and is out on the street with his grips by the time the merchant comes to his store. As he must take the 10 o’clock freight to the next village, he works like a nailer, selling half a dozen merchants what they need in his line. Taking the freight to the next point, he is side-tracked half a mile out, and compelled to carry his two grips into town, where, tired and out of breath, he hurries his wont through in that place because he must go on the night train to the next town. It is thus day after day in hundreds of places where our drummers drive the trade of to-day, and, although it is not always observed by people of other pursuits, the drummer is harder worked than any other man in the country. Then, too, he is always expected to wear a smile for every one, and never be cross in his business transactions. If he complains of the country hotel, he is a “ kicker.” If he comes into town in the morning with his eyes looking heavy, after having been jerked around in a caboose all night, he has been “on a spree,” and if a train is wrecked he is. always there to be crushed beneath the flying debris. The drummer is the most patient man in the world. He never complains nor kicks at his treatment or the size of his bills. He knows it would avail him nothing, and no matter how much he may be insulted, the interest of his house and his own personal reputation, especially if hb wishes to escape being termed a “ crank,” demands that he humbly submit to the inevitable. In conclusion it is but just to say that the drummer is as good as anybody else, and, considering liis hardships, temptation, privation and oppor tunities, behaves much better than he gets credit for. It is to him that the wholesale business men of the country owe their prosperity and trade to-day. and without his monthly visits the retail merchants all over the country would scaroely know what to buy. To say the least, the commercial men of the conntry are entitled to better treatment than they rec.uve a$ jnanjr bands,— KOWW City Grist