Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1889-03-08


he asked three hundred dollars for it.
The man with the corner lot objected,
but at the end of week they COM
promised on two hundred and fifty.
This, with his salary for three months,
left Jack about three hundred dollars
IN bank
All the time working faithfully for
the Star, he was able, on his rounds,
to learn the whole city pretty accu-
rately.
So we need not be surprised when, a
month after his sale. we find him pur-
chasing a corner lot out in the
edge Of the city, some distance
from the business part, and yet sur
rounded by small houses, inhabited by
day IabOrers. No sooner was the lot
purchased than he made a contract
with carpenter TO put up a fifteen by
twelve frame building upon it, said
house to have two rooms, q large one
IN front and q smaller one in the rear.
As soon as this arrangement was
/ made and the carpenter had begun
work, Jack wrote East to a fPiend.
| Several years before he had met a
small boy who was running errands in
| q wholesale house. The boy was q son
| of friend OF his, and he knew him
/ quite we'll. He was q genuine boy, not
| egotistical nor with his head softened
! by too much petting; neither was he
one of your sharp young Americans
| who OuIld jerk out an oath with free
/ dom and smoke with the disgusting air
| of a rake. On the contrary, he was a
| boy, a genuine fun-lOving boy; yet
! having been brought up to understand
that his living depended upon his own
| exertiOns, he was steady in business.
] !, J~Ovr To
| posed that If he would come West he
! (Jack) would pay his travelling ex-
peEses and take him into partnership
in grocery he was about to start. The
! boy should do the work and Jack
furnish the money, the profits to be
| equally divided. OF. course the boy
was eager to go West, and his friends
sent him.
At the end of nine months you could
have entered a modest little grocery in
Kansas City where the smartest boy
in the West waited upon customers.
He had q good line of groceries, and
was well advertised in the Daily Star.
Nearly every near one around bought
of him in preference to walking up to
Main street; and in summer he kept
lemonade stand in front of his store
which brought in many a quarter a
day, and in winter Jack taught his
clerk how to make savOry oyster stews
on spirit lamp in the back room.
In this back room, by the way. Jack
and the boy slept, and it saved Jack
eight dollars q month One yeRT
passed, and at the end Jack and the
boy found themselves possessed of q
very fair trade. Every cent was clear
gain to both, for the boy had suddenly
been placed in position he had not
hoped to reach IN years, and Jack,
placing only his surplus money in the
business, counted all profit as interest
upon interest.
I like to think and write about tha5
period in Jacks life, for it was SO
prosperous, and, in a manner, happy.
He was progressing in his profession
and each week laying by a sum b
money; in addition to this, he owned
lot and store which gave him q room
to sleep in and yielded a fair profit.
Some days Jack kept store and allowed
Hal to go out.
At the end of a year after the store
had been started, Jack secured the po'
sition Of city or Local editor, with g
salary of $50 a week. His room cost
him nothing, and he took one meal a
day with Hal. so that his expenses
/ 14Of OL Nv q az GU 411CC44 S5OOFO i've N-O4-
lars week. The remaining twenty
dollars he placed in bank.
About this time the building they
were IN grew too small for their trade,
and larger one was built, and with it
came new prosperity.
About this time, also, Jack invested
in an acre of ground near town, and
waited for the town to grow
out to it. The town was Oblig-
ing, and soon did so. Jack
cut up his acre into town lots. and sold
them at the rate Of two lots for what he
paid for his acre. So more money
dropped into his pOcket-boolz, and with
it he built house and home.
Summing up his business, he found
that five years from his entrance into
Kansas City his finances stood: Owner
of house and lot; owner of a store
building and lot; owner of the entire
stock of the best grocery in the city;
an income of twenty-five dollars 81 week
from paper. The grocery averaged
one hundred dollars q day; One-third
of this could be counted as profit, from
which incidental expenses should be
deducted. The clear gain might be
estimated at twenty dollars; this gave
one hundred and twenty dollars week
for both, or sixty dollars each If evenly
divided.
Not a bad start for young man Of
twenty-five.
A Conditional Divorce.
/