SALESMAN AND CUSTOMER 245 
guage of the Dons he will ask you to do so in 
that of the Gauls. Only in the largest estab 
lishments of the big seaport towns will one find 
merchants with an employe or two familiar 
with English. It is therefore obvious without 
a knowledge of Spanish a salesman in this ter 
ritory is hopelessly and seriously handicapped. 
In fact he is inefficient. Europeans recogniz 
ing the importance of this employ only repre 
sentatives speaking the languages of the coun 
tries wherein they travel. I recall meeting a 
German in Assam talking fluently the native 
tongue and later ran across him in Arabia con 
versing in Arabic in the market place. Amer 
icans have never been linguists, but in our 
business lexicon there should be no such word 
as “impossible.” 
I remember an American traveller for an 
oil machinery house startling those in the din 
ing room of the leading hotel in Lima, Peru, 
by pointing to the menu and alternately grunt 
ing and squealing aloud. He could not talk 
Spanish. In a few moments the place was in 
an uproar. Some thought he had gone crazy;