Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 February 1912 — Will Meet Wife In City [ARTICLE]

Will Meet Wife In City

t Hotel Men Have Unique Plan for Keeping Salesmen Over Sunday. Springfield, Mass. —“Meet your wife in Springfield,” the newest slogan among commercial travelers, attracted to this city hundreds of drummers and their wives, not to mention children. The Springfield Hotel Men’s association, comprising the six largest hostelries In the city, is sponsor for the undertaking, which traveling men say is unique. Conspicuously displayed in the' lobby of the hotels is this notice: “The hotels and merchants of Springfield are united in a friendly endeavor to make our city the most popular In New England as a place fqr traveling men to' stay In over Sunday.” Nearly 600 men and women attended the entertainment at Cooley’s hotel. "We stand for a dignified Sunday and the programs we shall give will in no way be vaudeville shows,” said Henry E. Marsh, proprietor of the hotel, to the correspondent. He is also president of the Hotel Men’s association. He has been in the business nearly half a century and is said to know more commercial travelers than any other bonifc.ce In the United States. “The drummers’ reoeptions,” as many call the Sunday affairs, caused a protest from the churches, and in order that they shall not Interfere with the evening worship they will begin at eight o’clock hereafter instead of 7:20 p. m. Musical numbers

include selections by an orchestra and vocal solos by members of a Hartford church choir. “We’ve got the right idea and are going to push it through,” said a hotel man. “The drummer who tells his wife that he can’t be home over Sunday can at least meet her here. If not, he can enjoy wholesome recreation by himself. Without intending it as such, we’ve planted the nucleus of a great reform movement Who knows but the hotel men of Springfield may go down in history with Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Qarrison and other men who had ideas and the courage of their, convictions."