San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-01
THE MAN WITH ONE IDEA.
STICKING TO A SINGLE THING HAS
BROUGHT FAME AND WEALTH.

Hitchcock's Beef and Beans and Pat Do
ian's Butter Cakes-The Fly Trap Man.
A Fortune in Clothes Pins and Millions
in Other Queer Things.
"My son" said certain German professor
of phiLology, who found himself at deaths
door, after long and laborious life devoted
to the study of the Greek article, my son,
take warning by my fault. Don't attempt
too much see now that ought to have
confined myself to the dative case"
New Workers, who are the greatest "scat-
terers" in the world, whether in business,
literature or the pursuit of professional re
searches, may extract a useful lesson from
the sublime concentration of the old German
scholar, who, although his devotion to a sin
gle thought and aim was carried to the ex-
IRENE and nearly to the point of the ludi-
crous, it nevertheless illustrates the folly of
too great diffusion in any pursuit.
BIG AND LITTLE SCHEMES.
That this is the age of specialists, when any
man who can do one thing better than any
other person, or even better than most per-
sons, reaps the reward, is proven in a thou
sand ways in small matters as well as in
those undertakings that leave their impress
upon an age.
All newspaper men know that Oliver Hitch
cock made his everlasting fortune through
sticking to corned beef and beans. His little
underground restaurant became famous all
over the country, and Mr.. Jay, from Way
back Centre. hunted him up and took him in
as one of the lions of the wicked metropolis.
Coffee Pat Dolan hung his faith upon
butter cakes of peculiar excellence and mys-
ferrous receipt, and consequently has become
a bloated Oondholder Yet the gold mine
that Coffee Pat works is only little box
hardly large enough to permit dozen Gus
toners t. seat themselves at one time.
There is an old fellow down OH Nassau
street who has grown richer than half the big
merchants around his humble store and all
that he sells is insect powder. So great did
the fame Of the ver.nin destroyer become that
a dozen imitators sprang up in various parts
OF the city, yet without injuring the pros
perty Of the original
Goodyear was a one idea man, and he
haunted capitalists with his gum shoes until
they began to call him crank, but he carved
out for himself fame and fortune enough to
fit out dozen average men.
Governor Ames, of Massachusetts, acknowl.
edges that the colossal fortune of his family
was founded upon shoyels. His firm made
shovels and shovels, and at last the Ames
shovel led the world, when, prestol Ames
was rich
One chap made a fortune out of clothes
pins that shut up with a spring, but the funny
point in his success is that the people never
found out that his pins were intended for the
security of the weekly wash, but misappro-
priated them for paper clips and made a run
on him.
Yankee began the manufacture of pad
locks to fasten dog collars. He made no
other paddock, but got rich all the same. An
other man. who hit out the idea of the return
ball, and stuck to that and nothing else,
amassed a competence.
But, perhaps, the most singular single idea
worked in the mercantile line was that of the
fly trap man, who had place of business on
William street He sold nothing but fly
traps and had them of all varieties and va
rious styles of architecture, each one better
than the other He had crowds of customers,
and got rich just in time, for the poor fellow
to whom he sold out was ruined by the COM
bined efforts of the single idea fly paper man,
and the equally solitary idea windows Green
man. Both these worthless declared a revo-
luton against the house fly, were victorious
and retired upon ample fortunes
The original weather strip man was one of
the one idea contingent, and middle aged
New Workers remember that he We'd with
the Dally's Pain Killer man and Railways
Ready Relief man in desecrating the face of
nature, ditto back fences and dead walls with
his advertising. They all got rich at the ex-
pense Of their fellow citizens
There lis famous down town drug store
whose proprietor is a convert to the one idea,
and that one idea soda water. He doles out
oceans of the foaming temperance beverage
to thirsty thousands. and it is safe to say that
his enormous profits are made up, fully 80
per cent, from the sales at the fixing foun-
tain.
SPECIALISTS IN THE PROFESSION.
All the patent medicine and speciality ad,
vertising firms are simply working the one
idea scheme. Even in journalism the one
idea man usually gets there-f he has the
necessary financial backing at the start. This
was peculiarly illustrated in the old Danbury
News, which, from an insignificant weekly
blanket sheet, published in an obscure town,
DEVELOPED into the most famous humorous