Middletown transcript., 1896-05-30
WANAMAKER CLOTHING

/ " lliiiilIStoil, Lei.
| WANAMAKER CLOTHING
--,--~-~o~-~~-------o~~
We change our tactics in ad
vertising-that's all. No Other
change; there has been none
since we started the store al
Chestnutand Ninth, across the
way from the Postoffice.
For several years Oak Hal
and Wanamaker & Brown have
been mine. The store at Mar
ket and Twelfth. has always
been mine. The Postoffice
store, the new one, is mine.
| make this personal expla-
nation because Oak Hall and
Wanamaker & Brown be-
longed to my brother John fol
more than twenty years. ltwas
here on the corner of Market
and Sixth that he started, just
as the war was beginning, a
littlestore with IS, 900, of which
$500 went for fixtures. | need
not repeat the story; it has
been told to every young man
beginning a business life for a
generation, and printed a
thousand times.
| gradually ycame intoposses-
sion, as you can now see, by
my starting the store at Market
and Twelfth under my own
name. | am William H. Wan
amaker.
Perhaps you don't care
whetherJ John or William makes
your clothes but no man can
be Wanamaker & Brown, own
Oak Hall and its two outlying
branches, and clothe a good
share of his city, and be con-
tent to pass for anybody else,
not even his brother, not even
the founder of this great busi-
ness, not even the man who led
the way to the commercial
greatness of his city, not even
the merchant who set the ex-
ample of liberal dealing before
the world.
| am William H.-nobody
else-and nobody shares with
me either the glory or faults of
Oak Hall and Wanamaker &
Brown, as they are today and
have been for several years.
| have another reason. Oak
Hall is the grandfather. Mar
ket-and- Twelfth and the Post
office store are father and son.
The old man makes all the
stuff but he varies it here and
there to suit his boys. The
folks that buy at Chestnut and
Ninth are not the same as Oak
Hall folks; and Market-and-
Twelfth folks differ a little from
both. My brother Samuel at
the Postofhcestore and my son
William at Twelfth and Market
know what particular wrinkles
their customers like; and |
make at Oak Hall to their
specifications.
| am the old man, if you
please; am both boys, too |
am everybody. If you've got
any grumbling to do, | am the
one to grumble at. When you
feel like telling how glad you
are to wear the same name in
your clothes that your father
wore in his when the drums
were calling to arms (may we
never hear EN- again | am
the man to receive your con-
gratulations.
There
I've been feeling for years
like a man with an alias. All |
have had to stand for my per-
sonal credit, in public, has been
the sign at Marketand Twelfth.
Now Ive done with personal
explanation, and can sign the
old firm name with unn1ixed
satisfaction-you know what
it means.
| am as proud of Oak Hall
and Wanamaker & Brown asif
| had made 'em. have made
'em. Why, they are no more
like what they were in the six
ties than pie is like pepper.
One thing more. A year ago
saved $4,000 a year by put
ting two stores into one adver-
tisement. | am going to save
another $4,000 a year by
Jumping all three in one ad-
vertisement.
This is enough for today
more days coming.
WANAMAKER & Brown.
Oak Hall, Market and Sixth.
Ehostnflt and Ninth