REVOLUTION IN TRADE. 37 



My association with these peripatetic agents 

 taught me that a greater revolution in trade 

 than I had supposed possible had taken place 

 since the days of old. Readers of my own 

 age, and even those many years younger, will 

 remember the Exchanges in our cities where 

 merchants congregated for the transaction of 

 their own business, and how they have long 

 ago been abandoned, a swarm of brokers kindly 

 acting as intermediaries, while the principals 

 sit at ease in their ofifices and pay them their 

 commissions, which they, of course, charge 

 back again on those poor devils the consumers, 

 who are persons of no account when there is a 

 question of tariff or exactions of any kind 

 whereby a few men may be benefitted at the 

 expense of many. 



But it must be admitted that by this com- 

 paratively new system of drumming, the coun- 

 try merchant often finds that he can purchase 

 his goods at a cheaper rate than when he was 

 obliged to make his semi-annual tours to the 

 great cities to obtain his supplies. It used to 

 be a costly trip for him, especially when^ as 

 was not unfrequently the case, he fell into the 

 hands of the Philistines. One business often 

 ruins another; that of the decoy ducks is 



