The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-05-14
Yankee Business Ingenuity
sY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

The American boy should bc taught
that tho ideas which have formed the
foundation stones of the great Amer,
can business enterprises have not all
sprung from the rich and mighty; ne
American disregard for conVrntlonaD-
ties, and the National crying ont Tor
something new, unite TO offer a golden
opportunity TO him who has an. ,dca-
whatever the idea is, or whoever may
be the man To bring IT forward, mat
peculiar quality which enables the
Yankee TO sec into the future by the
light OF a shining coin, ls not gift 10
he lightly priced. Furthermore, IT IS
kind Of prophecy which dcspises not
small things.
Every town in the country. almost,
now has n "pressng club, which con
tracts to press and clean all ono s cloth
ing for a certain amount per month nSn-
ALLY 81 with no limitation on the mum
ber of times the clothes are To he
pressed. The crease in Uncle Sam S
trousers has been much neatcr and more
distinct since the beginning OF pressing
clubs 4 boy working IN tailor shoP
in an Iowa town was kept busy only
part Of The time pressing SUITS OF cioIhcS
for fifty cents each. He had IN idea.
He calculated how many SUITS OF clotnHS
he could press If hi were kept busy al
the time. He calculated what II would
cost his own wages being 81 week.
Then he startled the townsmcn by gong
around offering to press clothes Tor -
a month, "called for and dellEered'
Some people thought him, foolish, pni
when his pressing club had grown untii
il Ind six hundred members, they real
ized that n good many apprentices at
81 a week may be hired for SooO a
month and leave handsome proht be-
sides From that beginning the press
ing club scheme spread all over the
country in a remarkably short time
A small retailer in southern city
was dragging along In business barely
able TO make both ends meet. One dar
he found that the store building next
door could be rented for very small
sum He had an idea. He called on
friend who was interested In the NOV
ing picture machine business. IheY
calculated how many chars could pe
put in the empty store, and now nluch
they could take In at a nlckel heaa,
if they played To capacity and gave
show every twenty minutes, 1T looked
GOOD The store room was rented,
moving picture machine and a big phon-
oeraph installed and the first - Nlckeio-
ceouff was ready for business. AFTER
ward when this man went TO panN TO
borrow money to extend his business 10
satisfaction of the bankers that ne had
net1ed 1000 the first SIX montns.
These fve-cent thcaters are now 10 be
found iii every town IN the country, anu
the;~ number is increasing every day-
There are over 500 of them IN chicago.
Even in these piping times, of peace
and prosperity, with opportunities scat
tered around thick as hops, adversely
n
hard pan. 4 short time ago an un-
lucky fellow struck Atlanta. He was
dead broke and didn' Z know where to
oct lob. There was labor on the
Streets at about dollar day, but
ne had been used to better money lie
had an idea He arranged rattle ana
offered TO work whole week for the
man who draw the lucky number. He
sold fifty chances at dollar each, and
soon had $50 in his pocket. A grocer
won the rattle and put his man to drlv-
ing a delivery wagon. The man soon
pot on his feet, and is now successful
but is still a bit proud of the 1act tha1
he is the only man who ever oroVe "a
grocer's delivery wagon for Soo Il week.
4 merchant in Western city was
desirious of reducing his stock without
delay. and was willing to make liberal
sacrifice OF profits TO do so. He an
nounced a twenty to twenty-five per
cent reduction sale. IT. was bona tide and
the prices had been cut, but the pub
lie had seen such announcements be-
fore and was slow to come IN. The
merchant was discouraged. Then he
had an idea The newspapers next day
carried big "ads" announcing that at
this store every fourth yard or every
fourth article of the same price would
be sold for nine cents, no matter wheth-
er it was worth ten cents or fifty dol
lars. A woman came in to buy an article
which cost FIVE dollars. She bought two
others which cost the same amount and
then a fourth for which she paid only
nine cents Tho fourth, eighth and
twelfth yards of every kind Of cloth
went for nine cents. The store was
packed and jammed and the stock clear
ed up in hurry. Yet it was practically
the same twenty five per cent reduction
sale which had been advertised so un-