The young American dashed up to the agent’s warehouse.  The agent was an old man becalmed in a sea of empty space.  All his young men were off at the front; a few grey beards aided by some women comprised his working staff.

“I have no American hardware in stock,” he said, “but I may be able to get you some English or Swiss goods.”  This did not appeal to the young American.  He is now making a study of Russian finance.

Full brother to this episode is the experience of another American in Paris who found out that there was great need among French women for curling irons.  Despite war, sacrifice and sudden death, the French woman is determined to look her best.  Besides, she is earning more money than ever before and buying more luxuries.  Knowing these facts, the Yankee sent the following cable to a well known concern in the Middle West: 

“Rush fifty thousand dollars’ worth of curling irons.  Cable acceptance.”  He also cabled his financial references which would have started a bank.

He, too, was doomed to disappointment.  After a fortnight came the usual letter from America containing the now familiar phrase:  “See Blank Blank, our Paris representative.  He may be able to take care of you.”

Manfully he went to see Monsieur Blank Blank, who not only had no curling irons but refused to display the slightest interest in them.

Still another American took an order for some kid skins, intended for the manufacture of fine shoe uppers.  By the terms of the agreement they were to be three feet in width.  The money for them amounting to $30,000 was deposited in a New York bank before shipment.

When the skins reached Paris they were found to be heavy, coarse leather and measuring five feet in width.  They were absolutely useless for the desired purpose.  The average French buyer, however, is not a welcher.  He accepted the undesirable stuff, but with a comment in French that, translated into the frankest American, means, “Never again!”

All this oversight is aided and abetted by a twin evil, a lack of knowledge of the French language.  Here you touch one of the chief obstacles in the way of our foreign business expansion everywhere.  It has put the American salesman at the mercy of the interpreter, and since most interpreters are crooks, you can readily see the handicap under which the helpless commercial scout labours.  A concrete episode will show what it costs: 

A certain American firm, desirous of establishing a more or less permanent connection in France, sent over one of its principal officers.  This man could not speak a word of French, so he secured the services of a so-called “interpreter guide.”  It was proposed to select a representative for the company from among a number of firms in a certain large French seaport.  The firm chosen was to receive and pay for consignments through a local bank and act generally for the American company.