The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-01-16
OUR GALVESTON LETTER.

GALVESTON, January =, 1910.
The mysteries of trade are perplex-
ing. 1t is taken as general rule that
the merchant will go where he can buy
cheapest. Why, then, will some run
of to New York for their goods when
they can get them here in Texas,
freight and all included, at the same
figures I? Some Of those in the larger
interior towns go to New York because
they want the name of being buyers
direct. But, after all, it is but q name.
The goods they buy from the whole
sale houses Of Galveston are the
same exactly that they get in
New York. The quality is the
same, the brands are the same,
the price lie the same. This singular
notion is q crotchet in the head COM
mercial which common sense has never
yet been able to smooth entirely out. l
have in mind case which fOrcibly illus
trates the foolishness of following
after fashion, especially In matters
where dollars and cents are involved.
Up in Montana they have been eating
Goshen butter for 10 these many years,
getting it from New York by way
of the Isthmus. Shortly after the
war an enterprising party Of embryo
Rothschilds conceived the idea of car
rying butter to Montana by much
better and shorter route, namely: by
going up the Missouri river as far as
they could by boat and then wagOning
it across to Helena. They got their
butter to its destination sweet and
clear, but the firm "iissolved" before
the end of the first year. The people
up there liked their butter; 1t was very
good and all that but sit .warn't 18TH
mus butter" That was the only thing
that was the matter with it. They had
been eating "Isthmus butter" all their
lives, and any butter that wasn't Isth-
mus butter" wouldn't suit them. Now
the butter which lad come up the Mis-
souri, river WAS fr sher-had not been
out of a cold clir ate, and had every
advantage over tn other, but the peo-
pie couldn't be mi de to believe it, or
to buy. They had been in the habit of
thinking Istnmus butter was the best,
and they continued to think so.
Though their eyes and their noses and
their common sense should have con-
'.inced them that q butter which had
been shipped through the tropics, been
melted and then frozen again, and,
moreover, had been some two months
more on the journey than the other,
could not have been as good. Yet they
stuck to the belief that "1sthmus but
teri was the best, though, at the expense
OF the public spirited young merchants
mine, and their own condemnation.
to the eating of bad hutter for the rest
of their lives.
The application is palpable. The
merchants of Galveston import cof-
fee direct from South America. Is it
not reasonable tosuppose that they can
sell cheaper than New York, which
also imports from the same place, but
has to ship fifteen hundred miles by
rail to get it to the e:west. Ergo, should
not Galveston supply the whole great
west with coffee? The sugar and mo
lasses consumed in the United States
is, i'm large part, made here on the coast
of Texas and in Louisiana. Why
should it be shipped to New York, and
then back to Kansas City or Dallas be-
fore it is used? Galveston undersells
New York and st. Louis in these three
articles because she can easily afford to
do SO.
Why, then, IL she undersells other
points do the merchants of the wertern
cities go to New York for their coffee
and sugar? Simply because the sugar
they get il "New York sugar." though
it may have come from the same plan
tation as another hogshead held by
Wallis. Landes 4 Co., of Galv ston
Why do they go to New York for
crockery aud queensware, when here,
fifteen hundred miles nearer Dallas,
and five hundred miles nearer Kansas
City, is one Of the largest importing
houses in the whole south or west, that
of A. C. Crawford & Sons? Why do
they 20 to New York for dry good,
when there are here, at their very door,
such houses AZ that OF Leon Il H. Blum,
which will duplicate any New York OF
st. Louis bill. These are questions
which can only be answered ON the
theory of the Isthmus butter buyers.
Time, however, overcomes these
petty predictions. Galveston must
eventually draw to herself the whole
trade of the great new west.
By the way, there is large delega.
ton of representative business men
from st. Paul, Omaha, Council Bluffs,
st. Joseph, Denver and other points,
coming down to see Galveston and in.
quire into the feasibility of making
this an outlet for the productions of
that vast and fertile region. They
leave Omaha to-day, and em afraid
that they will pass Dallas before this
reaches you. Would it not be a good
idea for the live people Of your won
derful city to hail them =? Stop them
as they come back on their way home,
and show them what another Alad-
din's miracle has been wrought up
there in tue heart of the most beautiful
section of Texas. Show them Dallas.