It is, of course, impracticable for the travelling representative, however
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busy a man he may be, to take a stenographer about with him from town to town. I have seen it done in odd cases, but there is no business that will stand it for long. It is only on special occasions, such as provincial show times, that such a course could be justified. In the large centres, such as Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham, it is an easy matter, should one have voluminous correspondence or " copy " to perpetrate, to find a typist, who, for a stated charge per folio, will reduce dictation to neatly-typed sheets. It is well known that in most of the two-hour expresses between London and Birmingham your correspondence and other business matters can expeditiously be dealt with ea route. The motor movement-, however, must shortly be responsible for a fuller development. Attached to all commercial hotels, even in the smaller towns, must be one or more stenographers to attend to the caligraphic requirements of the army of commercial men who are certain, in the future, to be traversing the country by motor. It is my lot to find my way to most of the engineering towns of Great Britain, and, when I happen upon the motoring commercial man, I am always impelled to find out how it answers in his individual case, I find him invariably enthusiastic. Even this past wet summer has failed to damp their ardour. They can make three times as many calls and can carry conveniently twice as many samples, so at the end of the business day they have three times as much writing to do with probably a fairly early post to catch. The result of interviewing many of these gentlemen is to discover that the only drawback to country travelling for the draper, the woollen man, the fancy-goods representative, etc., etc., is that, instead of one hour of writing-up of orders and instructions, he has nearly three. Thus there arises the necessity for typists ready for this class of work at the hotels about the luncheon hour and in the evening, Smart travellers cannot spare valuable time in laboriously reducing their notes into longhand. The time saved would be better spent in further use of their persuasive tongues in prosecution of their business. These reflections -were brought to a head last week after a conversation with a very capable commercial traveller up in Cambridgeshire; he was journeying with a Unie brougham which his firm had contracted for through Commercial Car Hirers, Ltd. and with which he appeared t;o be highly satisfied. It seems to me, as I told him, it is for the travellers to voice their needs at the various caravanserais at which they put up, There seems little doubt the supply of typists would follow.
Whilst on the subject of the commercial man's vehicle, I was greatly puzzled and interested in the garage of a Colchester hotel where I was staying. A more weird-looking turnout I do not remember seeing. It was years old and the tonneau had either been sawn or chopped off and a box with a sloping lid substituted. The running boards held the luggage and some incongruous-looking packages. Only the tires presented a. fresh appearance in the whole conveyance. Even the dog which was left in charge was fearfully unkempt, but he was perfectly satisfied with himself. I asked the yard man if this was a commercial traveller's "lot," and his reply was very succinct, " Oh, no, sir ; a genileinan's." I kit a shock at this, as T am something of a commercial traveller myself. Anyhow, the dog subsequently became annoyed at a dapper little terrier and stepped down from the car ; negotiations were instantly broken off, a friend of the dapper one joined in and a hullabaloo ensued. The only person who was unexcited and who sat still, continuing to read his paper, turned out to be the owner of the car and a most interesting man. " Tack is always fighting." he said with a smile. He soon gets huffy when other dogs become sarcastic about his appearance. No, it is not a commercial, although I often use it for commercial purposes. You see those brakes. I have purposely lowered thern, so that I can take the box off and move furniture or a piano or farm implements ; and then sometimes I carry manure on it. I can see you're still puzzled about the box." he went on, and a glance inside showed that he carried a tent with bedding and pots and pans awl stores. Here was the secret at las'. and my researches for copy regarding commercial travellers' vehiclefrustral.ed. Here was a new type to me anyhow. Obviously a gentleman with nomadic instincts, stay
ing in hotels sometimes but mostly camping out ; returning from time to time to his own little country place and then disappearing on his motor for a month at a time. His next move will probably be a motor caravan.
Unwittingly I saw something of the manceuvres last week. I was finding my way across by road from Wellingborough to Essex via Cam-. bridge. I had no interest in mimic warfare at the moment, because other pressing things were occupying my attention. A few miles east of Cambridge on the main road, I was congratulating myself when I was suddenly held up by transport wagons, motorcars and the like. Policemen, strange to that district, were in charge, so I had recourse to my map, and I risked a. detour of about eight miles throuftli Saffron Walden and Mare, and I came across at the former place the 12,000 missing troops which not even the air scouts had discovered. It was deeply interesting to observe how they had taken cover under the shelter of a hill, and how they had tucked away their guns, horses, and the motor wagons for commissariat and general-transport purposes. No wonder the airmen missed them. I nearly did myself Letters of -approval concerning the suggestion, that signs should be placed 50 yards in advance of a fork in the road, continue to pour into this office. Some are odd suggestions, more or less practicable, but the main idea is readily approved. One driver had to steer a new 30cwt. Dennis from Guildford to Birkenhead, and after much complimentary reference to the consideration shown to employees, at the Dennis new works in the matter of ventilation, dining accommodation, etc., he seems to have started off on his journey northwards all right (except that he should have voided Birmingham and its traffic), but his chief difficulty was, Ps it is with the majority of those driving motors, his entire inability to read the sign-posts until he had already taken probably the wrong road. It may be that this suggestion of mine will be deliberated on by the "powers that be" and before long we shall see it. acted upon. Everything comes to the earnest waiter, and we have waited long enough.