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The Persistent Fringe of House to House Selling in American History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

“Good morning, Madame! I am working my way through college and have called on you today in order to obtain your help. For the paltry sum of seven cents a week you can assist me in my project, and what is more you can provide yourself with the world's best magazine.” What modern woman has not on a hundred occasions heard these or similar words poured from the mouth of an effervescent young man confidently poised on the front door step. Turn back time one hundred years and we find another American housewife, living in an unfrequented hamlet, who has been greeted by an assuming young fellow with words to this effect, “Madame, are you in need of any pocket sawmills? Horn gunflints? Wooden nutmegs? White oak cheeses? Tin bungholes? Or calico hogtroughs?” Having gained the attention and smile of this housewife, the peddler would then have launched into a laudation of his wares.

Type
Other
Information
Business History Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , March 1935 , pp. 24 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1935

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References

1 “Hawkers and Walkers in Early America,” by Wright, Richardson.Google Scholar