The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-08

49, kOIuIlleQ NOME WIN money III
my pocket sufficient to engage in the
provisions business, as my father had
done before.
OF course, my first venture was in
Glasgow, where my parents had resid-
ed and it was very small venture,
assure you, To describe it to you best
l viii say that was everything con-
nected with it, from proprietor to err
rand boy. 1t was my home. / had a
tiny little room just back of the store,
Wnere slept. / was as long as it
was" and the speaker stretched six
feet out from the reck chair The bus
iness hours of the day were arranged
to suit my customers. Whenever they
wanted anything was there to serve
it."
"sir Thomas" interrupted the visi-
tor, show about the advertising at
that timer"
Novel Ways of Advertising.
A chuckle prefaced the answer. ooh,
that was begun soon after | started
in business. You see had made up my
mind that the one thing necessary to
commercial success was to first at
tract attention and then give satisfacl
ton. knew that once I had a GUS
toner I could keep him by honest deal-
ing, and the problem presented was,
therefore, to get him. Perhaps I had
borrowed an idea from you Americans
in that line. but in any even l put it
first in practice in Glasgow. sy
Il tried hundreds of schemes. One of
these was by placing cleverly drawn
cartoons in my windows touching up
on popular events or of a humorous
character. One of these, recall now.
was a picture representing two men.
one very stout and the other very thin.
The lean man had a legend L am going
to Lipton's'; the stout man was sup
posed to be saying I am just coming
from Lipton's.' itH
Another was sending a drove of
hogs through the streets with signs
saying they were intended for Upton.
1t attracted attention. but was never
repeated. The authorities thought
that was a little too much.
when success began to come, hit
upon another thing. That was buying
without the assistance of a middle
man. In line with this concluded to
make a large purchase of butter in
Ireland, feeling sure that I would have
no difficulty in disposing of it.
II first asked a man to do the buy
ing, and a little later I went over
there to pay for it. I learned to my
surprise that my agent had done too
well. He had contracted for more butt
ter than I had money to pay for. L
was in a quandary To fail would have
meant disaster for me. Look any way
I would, could not see my way clear,
and in my despair told my troubles
to a farmer, who knew me and knew
my family.
He gave me my first CLEAN of hope
by lending me $50. I took that, but
still did not have money enough to get
| out. Then I bethought myself of my
watch. I took it to a pawnbroker, and
he offered me just enough to clear me.
You, may rest assured he soon had it
in his possession. I took the butter
and sold it at a profit sufficient to pay
my debt to the farmer. redeem my
watch and enter anew upon another
butter speculation. never had an
| other experience like this.
Business increased, so that in few
years 1 was able to open second place
in another part of Glasgow. This was
again small provision shop, and in it
installed a man. Here again I en-
ployed advertising methods similar TO
that in the first instance, and when l
opened the third establishment in
| Glasgow in another year I adopted the
| experiment of hiring brass band to
| grace the occasion.
| With three shops going successful
| ly and my business reaching out, ]
| Scotland, and in a half dozen years
| Upton shops We're beginning to spring
up, not alone there, but in England as
we'll The business had increased then
| so that it required a considerable stan
to manage it,
staff Worked Long Each Day
my first Office staff was most con-
genial to me. We were all young, you
see, and all enthusiastic over the work:
Needless to say, we all worked ihard.
It was the rule to find us at our desks
at 8 o'clock in the morning, and Oft
times II o'clock that night would see
us still there. We would not go out for
meals. One of the pleasantest institu-
| ticns can remember was the tea DIN
ner we would have every evening in
| the office. All the heads of departments
would gather at a good meal and dur
| ing the eating discuss the affairs of the
| day and plan for the future. The hours
| passed so quickly we would not reallZe
| it, until late at night had come, and
| even then we would reluctantly put on
| our coats to go home Is
How did you come to go into the tea
| business?" he was asked.
Because OF my desire to get past
the middle man, or broker, in making
| my purchases he answered.
every one knows, ana at that time tea
| drinking was prevented from becoming
| universal because of the expense. China
| tea could not be purchased under IS
cents to 81 a pound and there was no
way in which one could arrange to re-
| duoe the price.
| ''It was then that Ceylon tea sug-
| gested itself to me. ! considered that
| superior in many respects to China
| tea, and / do so now. But at that time
| the business was so poorly managed
| that there was little or none of it in
| the English markets, and that only OF
an inferior grade. / studied the, sub
| ject and came to the conclusion that
| the best way out of it was for me 10
acquire tea plantations of -ewn. I
therefore made a voyage to Ceylon to
| carry out this purpose"
They say you concealed this from
| the world at large" some one in the
party interrupted.
Reason for His Secrecy.
Eyes, thought it best to do this. /
had already learned that the surest
| way to raise the price of thing was
| to let it be known that it was wanted.
| So simply bought a ticket to Aus
| tralia and when the steamship reached
| Colombo, J went ashore and forgot to
come back. = worked very quietly and
| before many days had acquired quite
| an estate in the country. There to-
| day tea in a quantity to supply a de-
mand of $40 tons per week is raised
and prepared for the market by ma