THE LADY COMMERCIAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13250, 23 August 1906, Page 2

THE LADY COMMERCIAL.

A youn<g laidy mtoio claim's to 'be the original commercial traveller /of her sex in Australia has been telling a Melbourne postimian soon© nrterest&ng facts about her work. She travels in ladies' wearing apparel and her trips take iber far into the coum'try in Victoria and <New South Wales. iFintling 'herself alone in the "worH Bom© three years ago -with 7/6 in her pocket, 'aihe bought a sample of 'an article 'of dress, and 1 by walking aflNday rondel Parramatta took ia few orders, and! cleared abou-t '£1 on her • day's work. Encooi-naged by this she gradually increased her (business and, went further and further 'afield, inn'til teihe now makes £500 a year, ' and employs an; assistant at £3 to £4 a week. She obtains her articles cheaply frottn a wholesale houise, and deals not only witlr s/h ; opk<eepers 5a the country, but goes to all public and private functions •she can 1 'ai -fehe towns, she visits to obtain private orders. Slue finds •ftEe women in the snops prefer to cleal with ftier thato.' with a man, (while 'her own careEul'ly chosen drosses &btract a great deal of custom. &s for the inconveniences of travelling alone she says she does not feel them. '''It is a mistake to suppose that a 1 lady travelling on her own , account will meet with' any disrespect unless silie invites* it by her manner or demeanotir. The mere fac^ of my earning a livelihood hi this unusual way 'coimman i cfe ihe respect of 'all wrth' wh'oan- I aotme faj contact." In fact the only dra^babik iio her unconventional life seems to be ihe emWarrJassbient she- suffers fromproposals I—fm'ainly1 — fm'ainly from rusiio ' lads. The chafltns of 'this clever, wfcHMJresse3 woman witK city style an 3% manners often make Kavoc wi*K the Hearts of susceptible youths. To 'their embarrassing a'Hentions tEe ibehiavioiir of their families sometimes imparts a touch 1 of 'humour. "My son works at —* ' s store, where you call every time 1 you are 'Here/ sobbed one mother. He says He's ''determined to marry you, forgetting the proftn'ise He m a de to Miss . So-and-So omOy, tKree months sance. Oh, youwioke<i city girls, io- come here with" your beau-

tif ul dresses and your finie /vvays, and take a mother's son from her." Another fond mother, who seemed to take, it for granted that the traveller was willing) 'to accept her son's proposal, said, ''1 don't know how you could manage with my son. You would never live in the country, and my poor boy w o uld pine to dteath if you took him to the city." Thebiisi* nes^ of a commercial traveller is easy for a woan-an, she says, so long as she has 'business capacity and 1 no obstructing sensitiveness of disp.osi-