Random Recollections of a Commercial Traveller ILLUSTRATED. LONDON SHERRATT & HUGHES Manchester: 34 Cross Street BUHRIGRAD GIFT 09/15/06 Random Recollections. Build where thou wilt, unspoiled by praise or blame; Then, if at last the airy structure fall— CHAPTER I. It is not intended by the above lines to prepare the reader for anything very profound or heroic; neither are they quoted in anticipation of the glory that awaits the failure in attempting great things, but rather in extenuation of an endeavour to recount the experience of a very ordinary, and consequently not immaculate, commercial traveller of somewhat extended, if uneventful, career, remarkable only in its immunity from anything at all incredible or startling, for he can hardly recall an incident, or find one recorded in his notes, that a novelist could turn to profitable account. If, however, as Valentine says, "home-keeping youth have ever homely wits," then to have spent more than half the time allotted by the great Psalmist to a man's life, in journeying among nearly all the towns and villages in the United Kingdom, with the consequent intermingling with the different orders of society, without some passing incidents more or less worth recording-from Dan to Beersheba and cry, "'tis all barren "-would, indeed, be more than remarkable, as it certainly presents a wide field of innumerable opportunities, as far as the life of a B Commercial is concerned, and at the same time gives one some little title to chronicle events that might be of interest to others as well as himself. It is, however, in regard to his faculty as raconteur in pourtraying what he has seen, rather than the fertility of his subjects, that gives him most concern, so much easier is it for him to tell a story by word of mouth than puzzle over syntax and good English necessary in putting it more correctly in writing, despite all that care and deliberation can effect in the way of embellishment. At the outset, therefore, he had better ask his critics not to refer his style to any standard of literary excellence, power of language, or happiness of expression, but rather to accept in their place his adherence to facts in not substituting mere lay figures or creatures of imagination for actualities, some of which may doubtless be identified by those of his discerning readers who are Commercial contemporaries. They are, however, in no sense heroes, and only concern us as representatives of individuals met with " on the road." Examples draw when precept fails, To a supersensitive individual some of the author's animadversions may bear a semblance to lampooning, but he can faithfully disclaim any unkind intention or desire to gratify personal feeling by acrimonious allusions. Many of the actors have joined the vast and ever increasing majority, and therefore cannot be either cross-examined or concerned; still, in these personal references the ice is sometimes very thin, and it therefore behoves one to tread very warily and do all that is possible to avoid giving offence. In making use of material gathered from a good many |