Manchester trade in Australia: a commercial traveller in the "back blocks", 1909. Messrs. Barlow and Jones of Manchester was ...one of the oldest firms in the Cotton Industry...which, confining itself solely to the manufacture of cotton goods and cotton goods only, has established for itself a pre-eminent position, and built up a trade, which extends over the whole world... Selling direct to the retailers, the firm is now represented by a large body of travellers, whose activities cover not only the British Isles and the whole of Europe, but also Australia, New Zealand, Canada, North and South America, South Africa, Egypt, and other countries. [Our illustration shows one of Messrs. Barlow and Jones travellers at an up-country town ship in Australia, and, while the picture is interesting as showing the way in which journeys must still be made in the "back blocks," it is also representative of the enterprise of the firm and the far-flung web of its business connections. Note straw hats worn by horses. From "Illustrated London News", 1909..