MR BEECHER AND THE PEDLARS.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 378, 28 August 1875, Page 4

MR BEECHER AND THE PEDLARS.

Connecticut beats the world for pedlars. In a small town near the centre of the State I passed the afternoon and evening. Sharp on twelve the regular family dinner table was set : an extra meal was to be introduced at three, when the guests arrived, but the old man wanted his noon dinner all the same, and round a rousing roast we were gathered, ■when a sudden tinkle of the little front bell concentrates the party. "Perhaps it's the bride." But it's a cadaverous man, who has a hair renovator to sell, and he is brought directly in; the whole family are interested. He states he has been a preacher ; but, enjoying poor health, travel was recommended, and he discovered the renovator, and knew he was doing as much good to his fellowcreatures selling this truly wonderful article at fifty cents a bottle as if he were expounding the Scriptures. And so the ex-pounder of the pulpit unfolded his credentials. It is really wonderful to see these simple people pore over the documents. There's not a roll of cough candy, or a ! ewing machine, or a new brand of chewing tobacco, or a safetypin for babies' use, sold in Connecticut but a certificate of its reliability from Henry Ward Beecher accompanies it. The renovator had a capital one. The Reverend Henry testified that he lost on one occasion several important locks of hair, and the renovator immediately restored 'em of the precise colour as the first ones, Mrs Eunice Beecher having carefully compared 'em. The question naturally arises : How came Mrs Eunice Beecher in possession of whole chunks of hair from the clerical head ? Perhaps when Roger Pry or cross-examines Henry we shall know. A bottle of the renovator was bought, and the ci-devant clergyman withdrew, speedily followed by a pedlar of odds and ends, shoe laces, and tapes (no certificates). Then came a woman vendor of corn-plaster; splendid certificate from Beecher; he had suffered dreadfully from the ' true inwardness ' of an exasperating corn ; the plasters had brought relief. A box of 'em was bought and the whole family plastered. A gay young man here appeared with a red necktie and a paste breast-pin. He bore a little green box of tinrinktnms to screw on sewing machines of all makes, to turn any size hem, and facilitate felling. He also had certificates. H. W. B. testified to the introduction pf one of these things into his family ; he had turned all widths of hems with it, and it has made him a tremendous feller. The old lady paid two dollars in ten cent stamps immediately for this wonderful thing. And a pedlar of patent fluting irons was shown directly in. He had a certificate from Beecher. "He never began to flute properly till he bought Henderson's patent iron, price three dollars." One was bought on sight, and the chair set out for a fat woman, who made us feel very streaked when she asked to see the ladies alone. She could not show this article to gentlemen, so Uncle John and Silas got up to go. Some one asked if she had any testimonial. Yes, '' Henry Ward Beecher" endorsed it. Then it came out that she was the sole agent for the '' Destrufleur de Wrides," or wrinkle banisher, and the proprietor of a blush that defied soap and water.— St. Louis Republican.