Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — A Protest. [ARTICLE]

A Protest.

I haye yet to see the wife or sister of a taveling salesman who referred to his vocation as that of a “drummer,” or did not wince when his name was coupled with the phrase. And yet the word is used in connection with every business man who travels, whether he be a salesman or not. A “drummer” is one who solicits trade or “drums” trade. In the minds of most users of the word, aside from the employers, it is consciously or unconsciously the vehicle of a large proportion of contempt for the personal character, serious distrust of the probity, and genuine doubt of the truthfulness and social worth of the biped referred to; little wonder, therefore, that self-respecting salesmen object to it. The word should he abolished. As for the justification of its use because it is derived from the word “drum,” no scholar will endorse “drum” as a correct or refined word to express the act either of soliciting or selling merchandise.