Commercial Travelling. By Algernon Warren. (T. Fisher Unwin. 6s.)—There is
much in this volume which may be praised without reserve. Chap. 19, for instance, contains much useful information, gathered from Blue-books and the like, about the conditions under which the traveller's occupation is pursued abroad. Licenses vary strangely in amount. In some provinces of the Argentine Republic nearly .2150 is demanded. But then a great deal of business is to be done there. Then. again, there is some excellent advice about the demeanour which the traveller is to maintain. Resent any imputation on your firm ; be as patient as you can at any personal reflection. The difference between travelling as it is carried on at present and as it was in the past is made the subject of some useful descriptions. And there is a defence of the occupation and of those that follow it from popular misconceptions and misrepresentations. The com- mercial traveller has, Mr. Warren contends, been unfairly treated in literature. It may be so ; but then every profession has the same complaint to make. Clergymen, lawyers, doctors, agents of all kinds, commonly appear in fiction in an unfavourable light. This is not malice on the part of the writer; it is a literary necessity. The story has to be spiced, and the spicing is much more tasty when acid is used, not sweet. And it can hardly be denied that the commercial traveller does lay himself open to some ridicule. The regular dinner of the Commercial Room, as described by Mr. Warren, is a burdensome formality. Any outsider who perchance has taken part in one will at once acknowledge this.
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