The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-20

JOHN WANAMAkEK.
Messrs. George P. Rowell & Co., advertising
agents, of New York, have published large and
beautiful octave volume entitled 'The Men Who
Advertise" from which we select the following
concerning one of the most enterprising and
successful of Philadelphia merchants
Though so well known and so extensively pa
clothiers Of Philadeipha, is yet young man and
has very juvenne.appearance This immense busi-
mas peen the WORN OF PsS o1 Ten
than go-ahead spirit, an unhaggng energy, and an
indomtable will. He began his business career in
rather small way In company with Nathan Brown,
and the firm name, Wanamaker & Brown, has
become as familiar to the people all over the coun
try as Franklin's maxims or George Francis Trains
odd sayings. Like all other beginners who start in
a trade that is as old as civilization and open to
every man, the new firm had to encounter the op-
position OF experienced clothiers and of host that
had but a short start OF them yet this did not in
any manner dampen the ardor of John Wanamaker,
who is the acknowledged head of the concern.
He early saw that to sit down, tape
quiring mind to pick out his shop from the many by
which it was encompassed, merely by having two or
three well-dressed dummies at the door or a haf
dozen coats and as many pairs Of pants swinging
and futtering in the breeze along the store 'front.'
these latter days. and he resolved to make himself
and his establishment known through the medium
OF newspapers, as the very best of securing pub
lie patronage and in a comparatively short space of
time he had succeeded in turning the eyes and
feet OF large number of people towards his mart
faint idea OF the large amount of money expended
by some tradesmen in advertising their goods.
They see an advertisement In a newspaper which
they occasionally meet with, long or short as the
case may be, and that is all If they had the prvi-
class newspaper, through many OF which the same
or similar business notices are to be found, they
might well wonder how such expenditures distinct
from current indoor ones, could be met. The
seeming doubt created would be resolved II MIR.
x o s es az the S r OF e 1sv e
drawing custom. In every business in which the
profits are small or moderate, there must be large
sales to warrant such expenditures, and the sales
are not likely to be so without liberal advertising
Suppose they can be increased from five thousand
to ten thousand dollars per week, at ten per cent.
profit to the dealer above expenses there would be
an addition of five hundred dollars every six
working days, and in the same ratio its in
crease can be continued by adding to the lumber
of customers. If ten per cent additional will pay
the whole cost of carrying on the trade the adver-
tsing may be prontably enlarged In the proportion
that the addition to the receipts justi1es it. From
This it may be seen at a glance exactly how the
II iadesman who has given the subject the thoughtt
deserves, can add to his profits and astonsh simple
tSe es wn did eore II the eVer
OF the beaten track.
Much less than hundred years ago, in the days
of slow coaches and very slow people, when bus-
ness men were content with few sales and small
profits, it made little -, difference whether
ttTsmc has has undergone as much s change
should keep up with the progressive spirit OF the
times, and he is certain to succeed best who in bus
leads rather than follows in the race 1t is doubtful
II any retail cothier in the United States scatters as
much money among newspaper people as John
Wanamaker new establishment recently opened
by him on Chestnut street, one OF the most extern
sive on that fashionable tho1oughfare, is being
brought into notice by the same means that the
Market street house was made known. 1t is adyer-
tised as containing clothing plain and nobby, cut
artisticaly, warranted to ut, and superior in all
respects 1t has connected with it juvenile de-
partment as complete in all its arrangements as the
adult customer branch, and affords facilities for
dressing little people not often met with. Thus much
of John Wanamaker as a clOthier outside of his
business he ID as active and energetic as he is in
it. When mere boy he became member OF the
Young Mems Christian Association, and being
ready speaker and pushing fellow, he soon made
his mark and he is now one of the foremost OF that
with others OF his own spirit he set about the col
lection OF funds for the building of a chapel and
Sunday ay-sChOol, on large scale, in a part OF the
city not well provided with either. 1t was gigantic
undertaking, conceived in spirit OF Christian bene-
Violence and requiring efforts OF no ordinary kind to
carry it out. That the work was accomplished ac-
cording to the design OF the founders and that It
directed II 1T are facts beyond dispute.
he subject of our sketch is not one OF those who
would hide his light under bushel or do good act
without caring to let 1t be known. His name is cut
In enduring granite the front OF one OF the foun
tains which stand near Independence Hail. with
s'presented by as prefix, while the lady who sub
scribed sEffcient to erect the other had too much
modesty to let the wayfarer know, as he stops for
Cool draught of water to whose berality he is in
debted for it But the irrepressible ohm was only
following out q work he had begun some time be-
fore. He had caused the universal "Wanamaker
& Brown" to be chiselled on the street crossings
painted on rocks and mounted on h0use-tops. That
they have not been waited to the Clouds and tied to
the tail OF fiery comet, is only because Yankee in
genuity has not yet devised the ways and means.
No doubt the seeming impossibtlity would be at
tempted did not newspaper advertising fall in so
entirely with the views and feelings of the head Of
the firm.