The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-06-26

dealers and printers. and big IRE was
made at the kitchen stove under the
medicine kettle All day and all night
and all of next day the family brewed
and bottled. and then the '1ve gross
were ready for the express company
During the nine years following,
through H. p. Hubbard OF New Haven.
then one OF the great advertising
agents of America, the family spent
Sl,500.O00 for advertising. They began
on $1,000 worth of credit extended TO
them by Mr.. Hubbard on the strength
Of their sales in and around Boston.
When the mother died she left a bust
ness valued at several million dollars.
What the Woman Left With Change.
Another fine advertising story. al
most as fascinating as that of the fam
lily from Lynn, had its inception on a
hot summers afternoon in the thrlV-
ing Ohio town Of Tiffin. Its final char
acters cannot be written, but the ac-
ton of the story has already carried 70
New York. and finds expression there
IN the finest building TO be seen in the
wholesale dry goods district of that
city. This building, only recently COM
pleted. is located on Mercer street,
near Eighth. The street door leads into
an outer office and spacious as an as
sembly hall and here is generally 70
be seen the man out of whose idea the
house grew-A- J. Stewart
Mr.. Stewart was a dry goods clerk
in Tiffin. On the summer day when MS
real life story started he had gone TO
work as usual, put his stock in order
as usual and waited on his customers
as usual. without dreaming that he was
at the turning point in his career. In the
course Of the afternoon there entered
a woman who asked for two yards Of
black velveteen. After he had cut it
off and wrapped 1t up for her and she
had left the counter Stewart turned to
one of his fellow clerks, John u May
John" he said, did you see what
that woman boUght?"
NO"
Two yards of velveteen for skirt
well, that's nothing remarkable, -
replied John.
No" admitted Stewart. 1T isn't. But
it has given me an idea. Women are
coming in here constantly for the same
thing. After they get the velveteen
and finally turn out a very inferior ma
terial with which TO bind skirts Now
why wouldn't it be a good thing to save
them all that trouble?"
And how would you do that?' in
quired May.
Why, get machine that will cut the
yelveteen and sew the strips together.
Then put it up in rolls and sell it ready
for use.''
May instantly saw the value of the
idea. When business closed that even
ing and for many evenings after that
they talked the matter over and finally
concluded they would go into the buSi-
ness, then unknown, of manufactur-
ing velveteen skirt bindina They in
terested one of their friends named
Potter and organized the firm of Stew
art, Potter & May. Stewart and May
resigned their positions and moved TO
Cleveland. where they secured the
services of a mechanic to work out
Stewards idea of a machine. With
their machine finished they started into
business and found a limited market
for their wares. The dry goods mer-
chants were quite alive to the merits
| of ready made skirt binding, but the
processes of introducing it to the Gus
toner were necessarily very slow.
About this time there appeared in
Cleveland a salesman for a Boston
jobbing house, named L. F. Howe.
Stewart and May made it their busi-
ness TO interest MIN in the new inven-
ton and succeeded so well that Howe
I bought Potter's interest, the firm being
reorganized as Stewart, Howe & May,
as it stands today These three young
/ men worked along until 1892, when,
| feeling the need of advanced methods,
the firm was incorporated and moved
to New York Mr.. May retired and
I George S Curtis of New York. an eX-
/ pert in financial matters, took his
place.
Mr.. Curtis, even more than his asso-
cIates, appreciated the field open TO the
! new company If only the women of
/ America could be educated to the use
/ OF ready made veiveteen skirt binding.
! This seemed a difficult proposition, for
I at this time-only ten years ago-prob-
/ q bly, less than 1 per cent of the dresses
/ worn were bound with this material.
/ Mr.. Curtis had had no more experience
/ in educational work of this kind than
| had his associates, but, thinking the
/ matter over, he made up his mind that
/ there was one certain way to achieve
I the end he was after.
What we want to do" ne said to the
/ other members of the concern. ''is to ad-
vertise. If we continue in the way we
/ are IL will take Us forever to get the
/ business on the basis il ought to be- We
/ must continue to depend on the good viii
/ OF the retailer to push our goods AS
4 he's got other things to DO. and skirt
binding is a small item with him, our
/ progress will be slow. If we go directly
/ to the women Of the country. telling them
/ of the great saving of time and money
I and labor that may be effected by buy
/ ing skirt binding ready made we shall
/ create a natural demand and our goods
I Will sell themselves.
! At first this proposition was received
| cOldly. especially when Mr.. Curtis an
/ nOunced that they ought TO appropriate
! at least S5.000 as a starter. Five thou
/ sand dollars was a very large sum OF
money to the firm at that time. and to
I invest this in an unknown field was
J considered fOolhardy.
But Mr. Curtis is a man who rarely lets
90. and before he finished he had his
I So 900 appropriated. This was in the
| spring of 1894. Within five months the
I business had jumped 20 per cent. Ever
I Mr.. Curtis was amazed. As for the other
I mem bers of the company they were fairly
! carried off their feet. and when Mr. Cur.
/ tbs asked for additional funds for adver-
Using they told him he could have ans
| amount he thought necessary At his
( sum. In less than a year the business
had doubled nd OrT"~~ Wa cOmiTs
in faster than they could be filled.
From one ilOOr the business spread L
/ two. then to three, then to four. and ther
/ TO five Finally the company bought the
[ present site on Mercer street. and erected
/ there the building that stands E monu
/ ment to the genius of advertising. The
| yearly output of the company is toda2
| sufficient to encircle the earth seveTa
I times. Its wares are found in every
( hamlet in the land. and it is doubtful i
I there is a woman. even in the backwoods
| who does not know their trademark
The Necessity For sticking to tt
1t is characteristic of most conspicuoui
| advertising campaigns that their success
is generally to be traced, as in the cas-
ing, to an underlying idea, but the failur'
! to understand the necessity for perse
| verance has caused the ruin of some o
l the most PROMISING properties that haVl