The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-09-15
LIFE STORY OF Upton
EARLY HARDSHIPS EARNING A LIv-
ING IN UNITED STATES.
How He Succeeded as q Butcher Of
Business-Won His Knighthood.

The story of the life of Sir Thomas Lip
ton is of interest just at this moment to
more people in these United States proba-
bly, than that of any man ever born under
the flag of her Britannia Majesty, Queen
Victoria For we are a commercial people
who make the boast that the man of brains
has here an uneQualed chance-a boast that
on the whole is well founded-and so we
are of the mental capacity to appreciate one
who has done for himself in a country
where chances are not so good as we'll as
the most famous of our WI self-made men.
He has not only done remarkably well in
trade and as a fnancier, but he has done
what many another self-made man has
failed to do-he has preserved untarnished
the good name his hard working father and
mother gave him
Sir Thomas Upton is many times a mil
~lionaire. but with all the covetous envy
aroused by his success among his COM
petit0rs, no one has yet said that he holds
one dishonest shilling. To tell the story,
however brief, of such a man as that must
be a pleasing task to any American writer.
Sir Thomas Upton was the son of a
Scotch wage-earner in Glasgow, where at
the age CO ten years he began his business
career as a messenger boy. His wages
~ JUST 8 AliAAii6 SAAPCACC pei
week-say 60 cents of our money-l0 cents
a day and board himself. But, young as he
was, the germ of the great man showed it
self even then. He had to work all day to
earn his sixpence, but ne had the energy
and ambition to go to school at night
whether he were weary or not from the
work of the day.
Eventually-it was when he was fifteen
years Old-the ambition of the lad made
him frrrn from the Ctroofh Af GLASGOW and
look away to America, where so many of
his countrymen had won fortune and some
had won fame. Taking a steerage passage,
complete notes do not tell, but it is likely
that Charleston was the port. for he was
plantation in the lowlands of the coast.
. In the old days of slavery Scotch young
st4rs. in spite of Presbyterian training, were
known to get on swiftly in making money
when employed as managers-slave drivers
-on any kind of a slave plantation. But
Carolina the plantations there had not re-
covered from the destructive work of the
civil war. Wages were in inverse ratio to
the work, and at the end of two years of
that life the lad. now a sturdy youth Of
seventeen, had so little money that on de-
termining 20 cave he had to walk to
tom he had to stow himself away on the New
York packet. OF course, when found on
board this steamer he was promptly set at
work shoveling coal in the stokehole.
When Sir Thomas Upton, in pacing the
deck Of his beautiful steam yacht Erin to-
day. chances to feel through the .ventilators
the hot breath of the furnaces below, he will
be reminded of the days when he sweated
out his own life in a hotter hole than that
below, and he got for it only necessary food
and a passage to the port where his W
magnificent cruiser now awaits his wishes.
Not one stoker In a million has ever earned
that, but that the contrast was possible has
been amply demonstrated to the honor Of
the man and the nation that he represents
In more ways than one
o A STEERAGE PASSAGE.
Reaching New York young Upton sought
employment, but now he had only one OBJ
ject in view. He wanted to go home. What
he did while in New York has not been told,
but the chances are that he worked in a
market of some kind, as will appear further
on. At any rate. he saved the money for a
steerage passage and home he went. Nearly
three years had passed since he sailed from
Glasgow. He was eighteen years old. He
had no money to show for the work and
time spent in the new world. but he had
what was to serve him better. He had
MY experience in America sharpened me
and l always felt that 1 got a good CONNER
Sc much Impressed were his parents With
the effect of this experience on their son
that when he returned they decided, In spite
Of the financial failure of his trip 10 set him
~ 1@@0R
They had saved by such economies as only
British workmen can understand and prac-
tice, 500, a great sum In their eyes because
of the years that had passed in accumu-
lating II, and this was intrusted to the boy.
Such a risk as that ought rarely to be taken.
Not more than n boy In ten thousand Is
worthy Of such confidence. But Thomas
Upton was the one boy.
With this sum he opened a provision
store, They tell a good story of his open
ing day that. whether true or not. Is char
acteristic of the man. They say he bought
two of the largest hogs In the market,
cleaned and decorated them. and then drove
them about the streets of his district with
a placard bearing the words: "Lipton's Or
We guess that Thomas Upton had
learned while In America that an original
idea in advertising is the best possible cap
ital in business. AT any rate the shop drew
an abundance of customers. and the youth
was steadily at HIS place to wait on them
with greater courtesy than they were ac-
customed TO In other shops of the kind.
Along with his talent for attracting and
keeping trade. young Upton had one other
of equal Importance in his career. He knew
how to choose capable assistants. Better
his interests. No sooner had his first store
proved profitable than his ability became
apparent. He obtained capable assistants
and opened another store. and then another
He went To London eventually and opened
stores there until he had sixty In London
entered every considerable town until at
last there were 4D Upton stores I'm Great
Britain.
But before all this expansion had come
mani had developed necessarily other char
acteristics. He had learned. for instance.
that one must deal generously with his cus-
toners to succeed How TO do THIS and yet