NEWSPAPER CANVASSING IN AMERICA. [From the "Emigrant."]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 453, 17 August 1850, Page 4

NEWSPAPER CANVASSING IN AMERICA. [From the "Emigran t."]

In the year '36 we published a «e.ni weekly literary i journal in the city of Det.oit, and at the commeace- i meat of our raieer " out thar" wa employed a local travelling a^eut, one John D— — , a fellow of infinite tact iv bis business ami ordinal jly one of (he merriest, happiest, best naiurcd bipeds we ever met with. John ; had a way of obtaining subscribers, boweve*, peculiarly his own, and his success Was pioverbial. If lie undertook to get a mau't> name and Bubsciiption money, he got it,— t\v re was no dodging' the issue where he had resolved upon the thing. John was a large, powerful man, standing six feet three inches in hu socks, and he feared nothing in the peiformanceoi his duty. At times,, when a resort to the tricks of his tradsnas necessaiy, he '• was at home,'' and his mimicry, smiling countenance, and capital addles ropde him scores of fneuds nlinoat at first sight. But John occasionally encountered a thoiough customei. I " You cnll that a paper ?" exclaimed a rough, bigfisted fellow, deriBi\ely, oue morning, in a coitee house where John was canvassing. 41 Well, I do so," said John quietly. " Oh ! &it out," responded the bully. " And you must subscribe, too j come !" "Not as you knows, no,"' continued the other, gnecringiy. It'» a humbug." •' What's a humbug ?" " That paper o' yourn." '< Come now, ray fine fellow, that won't do, added our agent, not a little piqued. " That kind o' talk aiut just the thing-, my <nend," continued John, for there were several persons present. " 1 say it's ahum," — persisted the fellow, " an' you are another." As the stranger made his last remark he approached the canvasser mstant'y, and offered some uniustake<ib]e demonstration ot a belligerent character. John measured his customer a moment a* he advanced, and chawing back he coolly knocked the insolent fellow down. Then, grasping the rowdy by the threat, " Is my paper a humbug ?" asked John. *• Yes ; cuss your pictur !" *' It is, eh ?" bringing the fellow a rap on the snle of the sconce which asron'shed him immensly j " it js, is it ?" and again he cuffed him vigorously, and then •gain and ogam, until the bully began to believe he Lad commenced operations on the wrong individual. " Is my paper a hum ?'' " No — a—no 1" shrieked the fellow at last. " I don't no." " \cu you do,'* aaid John, laising his huge mauler over this other's head in a threatening attitude, and griaing a ghastly smile, •• yes you do." " Well, le me up, said the victim. '» I'll let you up when you answer me." *' I tell you. I dun' no." " I say you do," responded John, and again he raibed fearful fijt and showed his glistening teeth. " V—Y — y — yes !" shouted the sufferer. •• What kind of a paper is it, then ? Tell me, or I'll break every bone m your ugly skin." •• It's a — n — it's a — " " Quick I" " It's a goo— good— -fuss-rate one. Now let me tip !" 41 Not till you subscribe, old fellow.'' *' I won't." «• You won't," exclaimed John, looking daggeri at the prostrate hero, while be grated his teeth like a mad cararoouch, and thrashed him violently upon the floor once more. «• I will." *• For a year !" asked the agent. « No " " What then ?" " Six — six months." 11 That'll be two dollars," said John, " fork over the tin ; there's no trust ia this trade." •• Le me up, I say." " Not till you've paid your subscription." " Well yer get offer me. '• There" said John, who was naturally very accommodating, and at the same moment he turned, so thbt his '* «üb«cnber'' could get hit hand in his pocket. The tt'tler actually drew forth his puige, counted two dollars in bilver, and the agent releaEed him. John took his address and, tlun invited his new friend to take a drink. The oth u r, nothing loath, joined him at once, for fe,ir of giving further offence. " Then geitin' up his specimen ptperf, and othtr pictures, our canvaaera turned towards bis new subscriber and with a bland smile of good nutu c remmk- «' I think you'll like my paper friend 1" •• Yes, yes," responded the oilier, 11 ll'i a capital paper." i

" Yfl n ." said th'- v u iciber. «' fvn'i you'll »ec-. »u,i t ntl it to fall your friends 1" •' Yes," added the v:a'tn. " It's a good pape;." '• Yes." " I may -ij,a very gnol p«per." " Yes." 11 Good Jay, sir." •' Yes," cuniitiuecl the patron, abstractedly, as the canvassi" 'epartivt, " bu f if )ou aint one nf ibe agents that we read about-, tuea I aim no ju.is;e of the bt-es-wax !" and rubbing the side of his I'lowii. Tvh<ch had been bu sl'gbtly damnged in the melee, he oi«.i, |.cared resolved never again to inteifere with the po.m ot the piets.

FmrTing —Women ofeveiy juouW— the stern, the tender, the truthful, the false — may he said to il.iive their skill of flirting direct from nature ; it is an instinct or primary law of their organization ; nor can any period of time be safely assigned when it ceases to influence their inteicourse with the other sex. Whether nature meant anything serious by this constitutional tendency must for ever remain amongfct the utifolved ptoblems of creation ; but undoubtedly it has produced some serious remits in thp world, and in no instances with more remarkable effects than in in the case of young widows. Unmarried ladies cither are, or think it desirable to seem, very Vague and innocent in their practice of this art of fliration, and hs drawing them, like a piece of witchcraft, into an enchanted labyrinth, of the ways of which they are profoundly ignorant. This charming simplicity and uncm.-ciousness, apparently so defenceless and trusting, is wonderfully agreiable and bewildeiing, and fla'tenng to me superior knowing and power oi young gentUiu'-.n who, with scarcely any down on their chins, and a great deal on their understandings, are thereby led to believe that they have the victim in their toils, and may wind her and delude her at their will and pleasure. Bu flirtation iv the hands of a young widow is quite a different affair. The art here n at its hight, and is conducted with su-niific strategy. There is. no remote unexplored fairy -land in the distance; the finesse of expiession has no escape in indistinct meanings, buc carries avowedly the confession of its aim and end ; the skilful by-play.the advance and retreat, the lures, surpnsas, feints, and evasions are part and parcel of the action of a real diama. tlere the bee of coquetry is not behind an unpenetrable mask ; it only a ears u vail of delicate 4auze through which its glowing fea ures are tantalizingly revealed. — Bent ley s Miscellany. Theieib at present in Bridgend a tenement entirely occupied by widows. The huibandless ladies number seven, some having families and some not. So tar as we hear, the honse is a sort of widow nunnery ; and so far is/ their antipathy to the masculine gender carried, that if one of themselves were dying the rest would club and pay the rent of her appaitments until they got a widow to succeed the defunct. They are to hold Auld Handsel Monday in a manner becoming their cnrioui way ;having engaged a widow cook, widow waiting-maid, widow general superintendent, and widow what not ; and all invited guests are widows.— Perth Courur.