Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-10-04


system and plan Of marking by which
| he knows the yearly, monthly and weekly
record of each of his 1000 employees.
Promotions are made according to the
| showings of this plan. There Is profit
sharing system in the business, too, and
by it about $4,000 is each year ap-
portioned among employees, in addition
| to their salaries.
Wanamaker's Philadelphia store is q
| third larger than the world famous Boz
| Marche of Paris. In the busiest season
| it disposes of a million dollars worth OF
goods a week. It is an ideal place &c
work. There is plenty of room, light
and air for the clerks. They are not
forbidden to sit down during business
hours. They are given a full hour for lun-
cheon, and luncheon hour at Wanama-
kers produces a spectacle worth going
miles to see. Here is spacious room filled
with little tables. Hundreds of young
women are eating their luncheOns. Most
of them have brought food from home,
and these cold lunches they supplement
with cups of fragrant coffee, glasses of
pure milk, summer drinks, soups or hot
dishes served them from the big kitchen
ut prices barely covering cost. In the
adjoining room are scores of easy chairs
and lounges, a dozen singing birds,
plenty of plants and flowers, piano
and an organ, and large library Of well
selected books Luncheon hour passed
amid such comforts is not only rest and
refreshment, but delight and benefit.
The men are similarly cared for in an
other part of the building.
Field is not known by sight to more
than one-half of his $500 employees. He
puts certain men in responsible places,
and holds them accountable for results.
AS rule he spends no more than five or
six hours a day at business, has little
originality and his personality is not strik
ing, though strong, while Wanamaker
and Armour are fairly picturesque.
Fields face is dark, handsome and strong
with a gray mustache and plentiful hair
almost white. He talks little, and has
more the air Of a student than a great
merchant Armour and Wanamaker
are brilliant and ready takers. The lat
ter looks one straight in the eye, speaks
in a low tone, using the simplest words,
and the charm Of his conversation lies in
the directness, clearness and rapidity Of
his speech. His remarks are like cleav-
ers, not intended to be kept polished and
pretty, but warranted to go to the heart
of things. Armour is the only one Of
the trio possessing much humOr. He is
an epigrammatic talker, is full Of quaint
illustrations and SMILES. He likes to
speak self deprecatingly, calling himself
"a butcher" His laugh is strong and
hearty, and he is the cause of laughter
in others. Armour abhors q man who
speaks in his throat and doesn't know
how to ''spit it out"
Armour is not hungry for money. He
goes working along simply because work
is his delight He gives away in year
more money than any other man in
America. He is, too, content with small
profits on his business. The net returns
do not exceed three millions year on a
total of fifty -five millions, or less than
per cent.
Armour has striking, a unique indi-
viduality, but is to all who know him
we'll one of the most lOvable of men.
Though carrying on business greater
than that of any railway corporation in
America, and though at times he makes
a great deal of money in speculative
deals-he never yet lost fight in that
feld-he is singularly irritable about
some little things | remember one Oc-
casiOn in which he funed and fretted
for nearly a whole day about a fifty
pound box of sausage which a careless
shipping clerk had sent to a wrong rail-
way station, where it lay all day on the
platform in the sun and was spoiled.
For several hours the Office men heard
chief was not appeased till the offender
had been discovered and reprimanded.
The sausage was worth 81, and that
same day the provision market, in which
Armour wa largely interested, fell off
so rapidly that nearly $500, 900 of mar
gin money was required to protect the
houses holdings. The packer gave no
more than five minutes of thought to
the provision market. He was too busy
marking down the loss of the box of
sausage.
These three men of success are of about
the same age. Wanamaker is the young
est at 81, Field is So and Armour 55. Ar
mour was farmers son, who made his
business start in life with a yoke of
steers. Wanamaker was a brick yard
boy, whose first mercantile employment
was as clerk in book store at S1.25 a
week. From his own lips l have heard
the story of how his first lucky strike
was made after he had started in bust
ness for himself in the sale of a dozen