Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-05-16
MEN WITH ONE IDEA.
HOW STICKING TO A SINGLE
THING BROUGHT WEALTH.
A Fortune in Clothes Pins and Mil,
lions in Other Queer Things Med
ical Men and Engineers with Prof
table Specialties.

Wnen any man VINO can 90 one lnllt
better than any other person, or even
better than most persons, reaps the
reward, is proven in a Thousand ways, III
small matters as well as in those under.
takings that leave their impress upon al
age.
There is an old fellow down on Mas
sau street who has grown richer than
half the big merchants around his hum
BILE store, and all that he sells is insect
powder So great did the fame of the
vermin destroyer become that dozen
imitators sprang up in various parts OF
the city, yet without injuring the pros
perity of the original
Goodyear was a one-idea man, and
no haunted capitalists with his gum
shoes until they began 10 call him a
crank, but he carved out for himself
fame and fortune enough to fit out a
dozen average men.
Governor Ames, of Massachusetts,,
acknowledges that the colossal fortune
of his family was founded upon shovels.
His firm made shoyels and shoyels, and
at last the Ames shovel led the world,
which, presto Ames was rich.
One chap made fortune out of
thes-pins that shut up with 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 Incorporated
them for paper clips and made run on
him.
A Yankee began the manufacture Of
padlocks to fasten dog-collars. He
made no other padlocks, but got rich all
the same. Another man, who hit out
the idea of the return ball, and stuck to
that and nothing else, amassed a COM
petence.
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 aud various styles of archi-
lecture 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
combined efforts of the single-idea fly
paper man, and the equally solitary-idea
window-screen man. Both these worth
les declared a revolution against the
house-fy, were victorious, and retired
upon ample fortunes.
There is 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
fountain.
Among the professions the scope of
the specialist is more pronounced than
among the commercial branches of
human industry. The neurologist, who
studies the nervous diseases, and who
would consider himself insulted If asked
to prescribe for case Of measles; the
oculist, who charges you an outrageous
fee for looking into the iris of your eve
with microscope, and who chiefly looks
wise and talks mysteriously; the aurist,
and half a score of other medical and
surgical specialists, reap the big rewards
of their profession, and get most of the
glory. The dream of the newly-hedged
medico is to blossom out into consult
ing specialist, sit in his office and take
fat fees, and refuse to so out of his
Office save to see old Money Bags, who
is willing to pay handsomely to cheat
the gentleman who is bound to get him
sooner or later.
Among engineers specialties pay
enormously. One engineer puts all his
time into studying railroad bridges, and
corporations have been known
to pay him S25, 600 for supervising and
passing upon plans. One celebrated
engineer celebrated among railroad
builders but hardly known outside of
that branch Of industry-was asked by
the constructors of Western road what
he would charge for building a bridge
of considerable length, and presenting
some specially intricate engineering
problems.
twenty-five thousand dollars down,
all my expenses, and carte blanche
to employ any engineers, if 1
find any, who know more about certain
portions of bridge-building than / do"
was the answer, and although the rail-
road people took time to consider The
they acceeded to his terms
al have been all my life trying to learn
how to build bridge" said he, ''but /
am only generalizer as yet, and have
to avail myself of the services of men
who have confined themselves to certain
specialties of the art" This from the
greatest bridge builder in the country.
1t is curious to note what odd special
ties will make men famous. Bradlaugh,
the English Radical, may be a great
man, but his single idea, which he de-
into a perennial kick against the
Parliamentary oath, made him famous,
very much as Boquet Johnnie's eccen- |
tricity makes that Harmless lunatic
Berry Wall, the quandam
of the dudes, is now success
full man in commercial line, owing |
solely to his single idea in the line of |
dress, which made him famous. Henry |
the Worlds London special
achieved his worldwide |
celebrity as much through the use of
the first personal pronoun in the editor
ial columns of Truth. which idea he 1
pursued until he popularized it |
wherever the English language is read,
,c 41,,-S.-<.1, Al, ~,,o4&.~- Ill., 4