Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1886-11-09
MISCELLANEOUS.
Lessons of Experience-Phiios-
ophy of Success.
From the October Monthly Auction Trade
Journal of Chas. Broadway Rouss.l

1
From the October Monthly Auction Trade
Journal of Chas. Broadway Rouss.l
Our mail aggregate one hundred
and eighty thousand letters a year
of these there are at least one-fifth
with the pertinent enquiry " Would
it pay to come to New York;" The
cost of a trip to the Metropolis is not
to be considered in view of the ime-
date inevitable results hat are sure
to fOllow-if you had but $500 capt.
tai and it will cost 500 for one week
in New York it would be one of the
lucky lottery tickets of your mercan-
tile life. Clatlin was running a little
one horse concern in Worcester,
Mass, buying of drummers with an
occasional visit to Boston, and it was
not until he first saw the city that he
began his big jumps, nor was it long
after that he knew that instead of
wasting his glorious prime in that lit
tie village it vas here that lay his big
chances for supremacy and he fol-
lowed that faith and resolution until
he stood at the top, not alone of the
mercantile capital of the Western
World, but of the whole earth, with
but one man standing in his sunshine,
the heaven-born merchant prince, A.
T. Stewart.
New York's millionaires are made
up of these country rough diamonds
and not of the natives alone. The
Astors, Stewards, Girards, Jaffrays,
Vanderbilts, Arnolds, Mills, GIBBS,
WardIaws, Rices, Whitesides, and
RidIeys came from across the water.
The Clafins. B~lisses, Peakes, Macys,
Dan Williams, Opydykes, Tefts, and
Tildens came from the country. And
there are many just such children of
genius, ambition and enterprise,
grinding out the precious years of
life's early prime in locations en-
tirely inadequate to the measure of
their undeveloped ability and latent
talents. There are many who would
match, rival and outrank these mer-
camille monarchs had they the place
and independence and moral courage
to cut loose from their native hills
and march into the arena and meas
Ire swords with these proud intellec-
tual giants. This writer, n mere boy
then, and without n dollar of capital
and an old antebelum debt of eleven
thousand came from the ancient little
town of Winchester, Virginia, and
matched his audacity, and nerve and
patience with the mastodons of the
Metropolis and won. but not until he
had passed through the quartz mills
of King Credit and the still finer pull
ve~rization of Copartnerships. Then
with the ace of the mercantile deck
that card called in the play "THE
ALMIGHTY DOLLAR" it was rapid and
solid work.
A visit to the great city would en-
courage you in that self-confidence
which is the corner-stone of all sue
cess, you would see here merchants
high in rating and strong in finance
who had not a 1.-THE of your own abil-
ity, application and industry, men
who we're no match whatever in point
of judgment, force and calibre. You
would discover a thousand chances
here to climb to the top where a
scant one stood in your way in the
quiet little village where there is a
line and limit beyond which no ambi-
ton could lead you. You would
learn new ideas of how to enlarge,
improve and create. New lessons
taught only in these great busy marts
and crowded channels of commerce.
New stirring thoughts would intensity
your ambition. New lines of goods,
immense in variety that you had
never dealt in, and it would show tie
fortunes lost year after year in deal
ing in secondhand markets of middle
men and drummers, on time, instead
of p%lanking down the bullion at the
mill, at Headquarters, or under the
Red flag. Even in our own ware
rooms you would see oceans of goods
that never appear in our own month
lies you would ignore your memo of
wants and wade in for the big values,
the sledgehamers and triphamers that
would make your competition howl
and awaken the hills and valleys with
the reverberation of your tremen-
dous advertisement. Then you would
wonder why you had not tried that
splendid, speedy easy road before, in
the long, hard, tiresome years of
early life. Then the ecstacy
of prosperity, of popularity, of pres
tige and final success.
You would make twenty-five sales
at the bottom margic of profits where
you made n at regular rates of un-
fair and unbusinesslike prices, in a
sentence you will coin more money
in one short year upon our plan thar
in a dozen upon the old fashion OF
getting all you can
You will learn here in a single week
more than can be gathered up in 8
business lifetime elsewhere. This j:
the high grammar school for mercan.
tile graduates. In this busy mart are
all classes, grades and conditions Of
hnsiness bread Rinnera-frnm fhf