Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1889-07-11
A SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT
RoBERr wEEMs TANsILL.

ROBERT wEEMS TANSILL.
Denver Republican, June SOth
Mr.. Tausill, the founder Of the house
Of r. w. Tansill & Co., is still young
man, although he has been in active
business for over quarter of century,
and is now numbered among those sue
cessful and prosperous business men of
Chicago who have acquired wealth and
independence through their own talents
and exertions. Mr.. Tansill was born in
the State OF Virginia in 1874. His
mother died in 1S46, and his father
being an officer in the U. s. Marine
Corps, the duties of which required
cruises of three years duration, the
subject of our sketch was practically
left an orphan when less than two
years of age. In 1851 he accompanied
his maternal grand parents, Weems,
to Illinois, where he decided to remain
Mr.. Tansill is the lineal descendant OF
the Rev. Mason Locke Weems, who was
ut one time the rector of Pohic, General
Washington's church, and is Familiarity
known as the historian of the revolution.
His works included, among many 9TH
ers, the life of Washin gton which con-
story. On January 1, 1867
he married Mary Z. Motter, of Clayton,
ILL.,, and it was in this town that he
first engaged in the cigar business. AT
an early date he became convinced that
Chicago was the coming city of the
west, and in 1868 he decided to remove
his business to that city, where, in the
great fire of 1871, his entire capital was
swept away. Like great many other
of Ch;cago's young business men, lie
was not crushed by this mist ortune, but
making fresh start in busin ess, paying
his creditors 100 cents on the dollar, he,
for number of years conducted one of
the largest cigar factories in Chicago.
The enormous growth of his business,
covering as it did the whole country, to-
gether with the increased demand for
manufacturing and shipping facilities,
caused him to transfer the manufacture
of his cigars to New York, the wisdom of
which move has been demonstrated by
the continued expansion of his business,
so that he now enjoys the distinction OF
having the largest mail order cigar
house in America.
The causes of Mr. Tansill's success are
not hard to find. He is a man of orig
inality and action. In carrying out an
idea he has the rare faculty of adapting
the means to the end, and once satisfied
of the soundness of his plan, he exc.
cutes it energetically. These qualities
are perhaps best illustrated by his
unique achievement of building up and |
great business with
out drumming. 1t is needless to |
say that this desirable result could not
have been brought about had he not
possessed an intuitive genius for
advertising. 1t is Mr.. Tansill's pol
icy to, in oil cases, do better by his
patrons than lie agrees to do, but back
of all this remains the fact that he is far
in pushing an article which lacks the
merit to back up its claims. His goods
are never allowed to deteriorate, no
matter what the demand for them may
be. The wisdom of his policy is dem
onstrnted by the enormous business
which he has developed.
Mr.. Tansill is probably better known
to the smokers of the country as the
originator of the celebrated ''Tansill's
Punch" This brand lie placed on the
market nearly quarter of cen
tury ago. Its popularity was phe-
nomenal from the start. Its sales
have been unparalleled in the his
tory of the cigar trade, and it is recog-
nized to-day by the smoking public as
the leading 5 cent cigar of the U. S.
In the case of John Smith, convicted in
the United States district court southern
district of California of violation of sec
ton 2l39, Revised Statutes, United States,
In selling whisky to Indians, and sentenced
July u, 1883 to two years Imprisonment in
the county JAIL and 500 fine, the president
has granted a pardon, on the ground that
the prisoner has now served eight months
of his sentence, is a feeble old man, very
poor, and unable to pay his fine, etc.
1t is reported that Senator Plumb of
Kansas has cxtorted a promise from the
president TO issue proclamation granting
general amnesty TO deserters from the regu-
lar army since 1873 President Grant is
sued such proclamation in 1873, and since
then there have been forty thousand de-
sertions and only eight thousand arrests.
The motive of amnesty is to remove the
stain from the personal record of young
men who have enlisted and deserted with
out due apprehension of the enormity of the
nffenCa