The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-07-03
AUSTIN BUSINESS
CHAPTER NUMBER TWO.
The Lumber Trade OF Austin
Indicated by the Business
of Joseph Male.

l business houses. This will be kept u
l from time to time until all or at leas
nearly all of the business of Austil
: is thoroughly writted up. This weel
| it is proposed that an insight of tn,
extensive lumber interests of the cit,
be given. In order to do this properll
a representative firm must be selected
and CT the number doing business il
the city. There is not one that come.
nearer the point of perfection thar
that of
JOSEPH MALE.
This will be apparent when it is eX
planned that Mr.. Male is a pioneer il
the lumber business in Austin, hav
ing shipped the first car load of lum
Der ever brought to the city.
OF course it is not the subject Of
this article to detract from others, Oh
the contrary, it will deal exclusively
with Mr.. Male and his business. TC
this then is your attention directed.
Mr.. Male commenced business in
Austin in the year 1872 without
many of the advantages possessed by
others and it is therefore easily seen
that whatever success has been made
by him has been due to personal at
tention to business and almost I'M
paralleled industry.
Mr.. Male has now several yards in
the state, each of which is doing an
immense business, They are located
at Waco, Austin, Burnet, Alexandria,
and SlephenSville. The one at Bur-
net was established for the purpose of
supplying the frontier trade with
whatever they may want in the lum-
Der line, and this is done at exactly
the same price at which it can be
bought in Austin.
OF the other yards in the state this
article will have but little to do ex-
cept to show what effect they may or
may not have upon the one at Austin,
In this connection it might be well
to state that goods of any description
can be bought at much cheaper rate
when taken in very large quantities.
This is fact known to all business
men. 1t therefore follows that as Mr..
Male is the buper tor all these lum-
Der yards, he can get lumber much
cheaper than those who buy only in
small quantities. This will be still
more apparent when 1t is known that
the combined sales amount to more
than
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CAR
LOADS
per month. This is rot the only adj
vantage to be gained by him, as can be
clearly shown by stating that he is en-
abled, by the diversity of country and
which his various yards are located to
order
THE CUT OF THE MILLS
and not restrict himself to any length,
breadth or thickness of lumber. Those
who know anything of the trouble
and expense caused by an order of
special kind of lumber, even in the
best regulated mill, will readily see
what an immense advantage is given
to one who can afford to take any and
all lumber cut by the mills
with which the contract has been
made, regardless of dimensions. An
other advantage possessed by Mr..
Male, is that his Austin yard is loca-
ted on the line of the Houston 81 Tex
as Central r. R., in the eastern part of
the city, and convenient to the A. &
N. w. N. G. track. The Central cars
can be transferred to the 1. g Il, N.
OF the Mo- p. road at any time, and
all that is necessary to transfer car
load of lumber from either of these to
the Narrow Gauge, is to unload it
from one Car and place it in another.
In addition to these advantages,
which are manifest, there is still an
other, and that is the fact that no bills
for drayage can ever be brought in
against him, as the railroad runs di-
rectly through his yard, and lumber
can be taken directly from the car
and placed in stack at saving of
two dollars and fifty cents on the car
load.
Some people might ask the ques-
ton: "Who gets the benefit of all
these advantages ?" SIS it Mr..
Nalle?" To which the answer is,
that it is the customer and not Mr..
Male. Any one we'll versed in bust
ness at all will readily see that should
lumber from this yard be sold at the
same price at which it can be bought
for at others, that the sales would not
necessarily be larger, but if the rate
is cheaper, the sales must increase.
This being the case the question
arises as to. whether it is better to
sell two cars a day at half the profit,
or one car in two days at the full
profit that might be made.
Mr.. Male has adopted the "quick
sales and small profi5" motto, be-
ieving that whatever is given to his
customers in this way will be fully
made up in bulk. A fair estimate as
to how well he has been rewarded
may be had when it is known that
his sales in Austin alone, reach
nearly
ONE THOUSAND CAR LOADS
year. If this does not satisfy you
that "business is business" all
the way through with Mr.. Male,
there is no use in trying to do so.
This much was necessary to be said
of the business generally, and your
attention is now invited to part of
what may be found at the yard locat-
ed at Austin. You are asked first to
notice the immense stock now on
hand, although this is 1.-The dull sea-
son." and the stock is run down.
There Is now on the yard, which, by
+ the way, covers nearly five acres of
ground, nerly one and one-half mil
lion feet of lumber, in addition to the
shingles, doors, laths, sash, blinds, ETC.,
etc. OF the lumber, strictly it might
be well TO say that Mr.. Male is the
ONLY dealer in Austin that handles
the celebrated Calcasier lumber, prop
er. This lumber is manufactured
only at Lake Charles, La, and can be
shipped to this market on the Central
road only. The location of his yard
gives him every chance to handle it
at small costs, dS has been shown be-
fore, and this advantage, as well as all
others, is given to his customers.
As an evidence of the result of these
various advantages, it will not be
amiss to quote his prices on the vari-
ous kinds of lumber. These, though
they astonish some persons who have
usually paid more, are the legitimate
results of the many advantages before
named.
The prices are as follows:
For Ne. rough, per thousand feet...--.sIs 9 9
plastering laths, per thousand. 81
And anything else at proportionats
low rates.
His stock of paints is complete
: in every respect, but by this
it is not meant that he keeps
several different different brands
The only brand of paint sold by hin
is that manufactured by Carey, Og
, den s. Parker, of Chicago, each box o
which is fully guaranteed. The stocl
!, of doors, sash and blinds is UNUSUAL,
large and well selected. Two larg
warehouses are literally packed t
the roof with this class of goods
{. His mill machinery is all new, non
of it having been used to exceed 81.
months. In this department yo
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