The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-06-05
But They Travel Many Men
and Sell Goods From
the Gulf Up. @
THE ENTIRE SOUTH
is THEIR TERRITORY
THE Hat Business Is Compare
lively New, But Richmond
Young Blood and Indon,i-
table Energy and Pluck
Made 1t Tell 100000
Worth Sold Last Year.

What is Richmond doing? She is doing
something in every lire. Her interests
and her enterprises are diversified, and
In every line in which the South country
Ia Interested, Richmond is right in the
push. away up in front rank among
wholesale csnterB. No city III the South
distributes moro goods; no city In the
South has better banking facilities, better
railway advantages or better facilities
generally as distributing point. and
no city on the green earth has more en-
ergetic. w1dc-awake business men TO take
advantage OF these advantages. 80 to
speak, than Richmond has.
Take tho wholesale hat business. for
instance. and when we come to cnnstder
that It Is something OF q new business
here, tho amount OF business that Is
nono IN tho course OF year Will as
tonish those who have not troubled
the,nselves to find out what Richmond
u doing.
In the Old Times.
In tho. olden times. that is to say,
sway yonder fore de war, !, the W hole
hale hat business was q kind OF tall
ender to some other Lines. Wholesale
Erocars used to sell the common wool
and plantation hats. wholesale dry goods
mon sold the straw hats and the clothing
men wcre expected to handle the better
grades Of headgear.
Times and customs changed and Rich
mond changed with them. Soon after the
war the concern of G. w. Thorn & Co..
which wholeBaled millinery. added a hat
department, and In a short while the
hat department, which was the tall got
TO wagginE the dog. Millinery was
dropped and the establishment became
Ii TNI,, ~foI,t
was the junior member OF this firm, and
BY his energy and business vigor hat
business worthy the name was built
up.
In tho course OF time two or three
pther concerns were started up. and for
while did good business. but gradually
they were either absorbed or played out,
and the concern OF Etchison. Bates &c
6tarke held the fort for several years.
& Another Richmond in the Field.
Along in the eighties the firm OF
Stokes G. Simmons was organized. and
struck ont In the wholesale hat business.
This firm. like the ono mentioned above.
made gratifying success Of their ven
ture and their travellers were not slow
tn letting the southern trade know that
Richmond was first-class market for
hats, as well as for pretty much every
thing else that the needs OF man can
call for.
In time these two firms changed In
name. new and younger blood was In
5ected into the veins OF BOTH and now
they are known far and near throughout
the southern country as T. D. Stokes &
Co.. and the Etchlson Hat Company. in
corporated.
The Vast Territory.
These concerns carry immense stocks,
and their thirty travelling men sell their
goods In every Southern State east OF
the Mississippi River. and even beyond.
for they have customers here and there
In Texas. Oklahoma and Indian Terri
tory. and, just to show what he could
do, one OF these hustling travellers, while
on n pleasure tour In Mexico. sold seVera
bills In that country. Another one made
customer In New York State right un-
dor the nose of great Gotham and holds
his trade there. too,
However. the hat territory that Rich
mond sells In Is Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and parts
of Maryland. A few goods Se sold IN
certain Pennsylvania towns, and. as
before indicated. in New York and IN
Mexico.
1t requires all the hustllng qualities OF
live. wlde-awake drummers to cover TINS
Continued on Second Page')