Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1891-02-10
Rouss Monthly Auction Trade
journal for February.

u
steel trax of cash aas the turning point Of his
destiny. He had etopt looking back over the
melancholy and iremediabIe past, worrying over
Ecruel fate. he stood facing fortune with con-
scious pride that suces Ia rite befor him and in
his grasp; he hnds the stuff that slowly but
surely melted down in the time book Mt one
dollar railing over bis counters faster than he
can get them. the self-same thing at seventy
i've cash down. He makes ten sales and
profits to one on the old plan; his profits and
his capital ar in hts pocket-book, aud with
this solid stuff he can buy at other CUES prices
than when he delt on tho basis of VEGETABLES
and sWetbook promises.
| Yes, thares many reconstructed mercantile
master who remembers well the time when he
made but one sale seson at 100 per cent,
chalking II down on the fatal pages never to
lcum to life agen, contrasting strangely with
his present aEresiv progre0IV, tWenty.AV-peT-
cent. plan, making hundreds of saiss evry do,
scraping In the oinnfpotent eyry time.
/ always thaut IS per cent. tho short cut all
my lif.-bnt manners and customs aud people
change. When | look at Ridley and Ehrlc
aud Macy and Bloomingdale. when study the
career of these progresiY and successful MGR
chants and the biidings tina own and occupy. 1
beiiey that twenty per cent. cash on the nail
is decade qniker in the average life time.
/ In other days we used to ca that our sicdg-
hamcrs wcr cast under Topping's Red Flag
and that of Hoguet and Kobbe and Townsend
& Montant and Hoyt and Aaron CIanin and
the Fenncr BOYS. now we quote from markets
flooded with over productions in the wales of
Cashmere in India and Persia and China and
Japan, and in that primitive land wIIer labor
! Is 10 cents day, and wher they worship
wooden gods and idols insted of the good
Lord wher our check will Lring 100 aud Is as
current as the Bank Of England, which will
not fetch 101. .
Yes, in those markets we NIX our ngurs and
tho Mckinley and his gang tax MS fifty per
cent. we can quote an article ut 25 that can't
be made hero under one dollar. The simple
question then for peple TO decide is whether
they viii submit to Mckinley and deal with the
Lords fayoritcs at one dollar, or buy from the
daredevil at 25.
At holesale, the strait, short cut is 1--WE per
cent. cash; the long road is ten per cent. on
time. The sign bords of Broadway recall the
fate of the ten-pcr-centers; the landmark of
the graf Metropolis elinches the Ave-per-cent.
as the quik, short wa.
Baltimore jober passing thru the stor one
do, xpresta desire to &c the proprietor; after
the usual xctange of words, asked, "buy
anything7n ''Yes." "Why don't You look
thru al our DEPARTMENT." "Well, rmin hurry
to each thctran." "spend little time In the no
lions; I've got sum things can't afford to bl
anywher else marbles, for instance. I've
baut, ful up. U paid IS, II sci ut ST." 'tWeI, .
sed he, ''Il buy al i've got at that" he spent
another da and, after buying. sWore that Nc
Klnley didn't cut much Of lgur In our varius
departments. The difference between imports
direct and Importers, he declared was ten in
stcd OF five per cent? and the difference te-
tween Germany and Japan, he swore, was not
les than forty, aud ther was wher we got him.
: Underby and undersel ar the foundation
stones upon which success vii stand but you
must have the real vRlus and not the counterht
or imitation; time purchases will not comand
the avenus along which the Raqueter wbirls
= with his sledghatners. There's many genu-
i inc enthusiast who started out on the correct
system. dazled by his splendid suces and fac
mated by the siren song of the drummer, who
soon saw that the peple wer wei posted in
value and cud tel at glanc the thirty and
sixty day STUFF from the lcders that fel under
the hamer of the Red Flag slawtcr pen. The
masses who have the hard coin to plank down
ar not fools, tina ar thoroughly posted thru the
: the graf, keen and wide-awakc pioneers of al
} the commercial centres of the land. The coun-
tryman taking his marketing and cash to town
carriesin his pocket the clos cutting fgurs of
Macy and Ridley, and thes the long-time-fifty-
per-eenters catot approach, but the felo who
has the live yalus shorn of the tariff of tim, can
aud viii, and peple ind the leveI-heded fellow
ont quik, and he rides on the swift winds into
poppla: esteem as the champion and protector
of the masses, twenty per cent. cash down and
not fifty or the lottery plan; and the peple who
pa get at thes facts at ono, tina who seldom or
lneTer pa care not continental, only as n mater
of curiosity and form, occasionally enquire the
price. -
In oil the battles for supremacy the chances
favor the hustler. Tho da-braker will beat
the slepyhed; the enthusiast in perfect Inv
with his enterprise, feels naut but pleas
urc all thru the busy da, whilst the Iedg-
er's UNHAPPY victim sWears and SWEETS all da
long waitin for the unweIcom mite The Sport
who's hart was rapt up in tho races and pla
and cards, lost what the genuin trade-wfner
won who felt the thrill of xtacy in the inimita-
BILE music Of the almity dollar. He who boast
ed on the big stok and superficial sho was esily
bcten by the hard-hiting tickets that adorned
eyry item In tho little windo of the twenty-fy
per centeri one was standing still resting on
his credit ldurels and his credit ledger, the
rustler with the intens buz-saw bulldog resoIu-
tion was forging ahed smashing records. and
the big wheel was whirling. This recalls the
story of our battlefield of 1881 at 81. Our
stok was then about 200 n and beside CO.
losal antagonist with ten times the amount,
some two millions. OF cours tina laft at COM
parison. We swor by our valus, tina bet on
the gigantic sho, standing and credit popular
ityi even my old lifelong friend. Peake, was
employed at salary of N year to nd to
the tone and reputation of the powerful rival
Al that ther was of tone and dignity in our
ratrap futerd in tho red flag of Topping and
Hoyt and Fenncrs. We wer fitting for the mas
terry and cared little for the old-fashioncd ideas
of mercantile warfare according to Hoyle.-
Our net spot cash sparks of dynamite splinterd
and shtvercd the huge credit bouIders into an
Initiation. We cut closer and faut harder; and
the cream and pity OF comercial upercrusters
cald the heroic little band of dardeyils, out
laws-and Dun then rated us as cuthroats and
record-smashers. With q Ext gaze upon the
Il gidy attitudes of $40 we prest ON and-won.
The cold-bluded and cruel fate of destiny that
arose, hurisht aud persist within the ledger's
fatal pages is the story, bold in oil, Of my old
unfortunate and unhappy friend, L. " Bates.
he had made fortune of over two millions in
long and creditabIe career al svent avv, g.,