Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-02-22

no oslad three hundred dollars for 1t.
The man with the corner lot objected,
but ut the end of week they COM
promised on two hundred and hfty.
This. with his salary for three months,
loft lack 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,
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 laborers. No sooner was the lot
purchased than he made contract
With a carpenter to put up fifteen by
twelve frame building upon it, sad
house to have two rooms, large one
in front and smaller one in the rear.
As soon as this arrangement was
made and the carpenter had begun
work, Jack wrote East to friend.
Several years before he had met a
small boy who was running errands in
a wholesale house. The boy was son
of friend OF his, and he knew him
quite we'll. He was genuine boy, not
egotistical nor with his head softened
by too much petting; neither was he
one of your sharp young Americans
who could jerk out an oath with free
dom and smoke with the disgusting air
of 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.
For this boy Jack wrote, and pro-
posed that if he would come West he
Jack would pay his travelling ex-
penses and take him into partnership
in q 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 q modest little grocery in
Kansas City where the smartest boy
in the West waited upon customers.
He had good line of groceries, and
| was we'll 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 a
lemonade stand in front of his store
which brought in many quarter a
day, and in winter Jack taught his
clerk how to make savory oyster stews
on a spirit lamp in the back room.
In this back room, by the way. Jack
and the boy slept, and it saved Jack
eight dollars month. One year
passed, and at the end Jack and the
boy found themselves possessed OF a
very fair trade. Every cent was clear
gain to both, for the boy had suddenly
been placed in a 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 that
period in Jacks life, for it was so
prosperous, and, in manner, happy.
He was progressing in his profession,
and each week laying by sum of
money; in addition to this, he owned q
lot and store which gave him room
to sleep in and yielded fair profit.
Some days Jack kept store and allowed
Hal to go out
At the end of year after the store
had been started, Jack secured the pq7
sition of city OF local editor, with a
salary Of s25 week. His room cost
him nothing, and he took one meal a
day with Hal, so that his expenses
never averaged much above five dol
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-book, 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 store
building and lot; owner of the entire
stock of the best grocery in the city
an income of twenty-five dollars week
from paper. The grocery averaged
one hundred dollars 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 bad start for a young man of
twenty-five.