PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 215 



buy 100 to 300 baskets and sell at cost, but I consider this as advertis- 

 ing, not as regular business. 



E, the peddler or huckster, buys everything left. It may be "fancy" 

 or "good" out of condition, "scrubs," "trash" — anything is grist for his 

 mill. With equipments worth ten dollars for horse, wagon, and har- 

 ness of the Greek beginner, up through the various grades to the 

 splendid two-horse team and |200 wagon (carrying supplies of all kinds 

 and manned by three active, enterprising men) of the successful huckster, 

 the 2,500 members of that great division of distributors are powerful 

 factors. 



Taking their purchases into their wagons they at once start for their 

 routes and cry their wares. There can be no fixed margin. They get 

 what they can, take a margin or sell at cost; live on the refuse, and 

 probably they have only a dollar per day on which to support a family. 

 While their transactions on the whole are enormous, their profits are 

 very small, and with long hours, penetrating every street and lane 

 of the city, they earn what they can get. There is not a lane, street, 

 nor avenue of the city where their voice is not heard, not a block but 

 is visited by their ram-shackle old wagon, and their apology for a horse 

 with his harness of straps and strings. Not a house is passed unnoticed, 

 they are everywhere, and sell the fruit at a margin so close that, as I 

 have said, their profits are exceedingly small. I honor them, for they 

 are engaged in an honest calling; I respect them, for they bring to the 

 very poor, in the poorest sections of the city, a taste, at least, of the 

 richest and best offering of the country to the city, and we use them 

 freely in our business and treat them, rough, uncouth, ragged, and 

 ignorant though they may be, as men, and avail ourselves of their 

 assistance. 



There remains F, the shipper, whose aid is valuable in the disposition 

 of the receipts from day to day. His selections have been made on 

 the basis of his orders in hand or prospective. He has carefully studied 

 the country that can be reached from this city, and by a course of cor- 

 respondence or personal interview has built up a clientage that orders 

 from him in such quantities as may be sold profitably. 



The entire northwest has been carefully studied, and from central 

 Illinois to middle Missouri, western Iowa, central IMinnesota, and all 

 of Wisconsin, orders have been solicited and some have been received. 

 Weekly quotations are sent, some houses sending 2,000 to 3,000 at a 

 single issue. These reach every city, town, village, or hamlet within 

 reasonable rail communication, and everything else is out of the ques- 

 tion. He studies the needs of each customer, and having secured the 

 amount needed to fill his orders, at once commences to send by express 

 (and there are no less than 185 of these express, trains daily), and to 

 many points where through freights run the fruit goes largely in that 

 manner. It is safe to say that there is no spot within 200 miles of 

 Chicago, with fair means of connection with this market, that can not 

 have a full supply of fruit. 



Now, as to the expense or cost of these shipments. The broker, dealer, 

 or shipper, is well satisfied if he can realize ten per cent, on his pur- 

 chases. Let the shipper of fruit to this market consider what it means. 

 There is the careful selection of fruit, the marking, billing, practi- 



