The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-04-08
THEY DID BUSINESS.
The Brddley-Jenklns Mercantile Co.
were Simply SWdmped with
Business when they Opened
up last Saturday.

AS announced last week the grand
opening of the Bradley-Jenkins Mer-
camille Co., who purchased the big G..
Biggs & Co. stock of general merchan-
disc on Saturday, was the the greatest
mercantile opening ever held in the
city of Leon. The new firm had adver-
tised that the doors would be opened
for the first time under the new man
agement at 8 o'clock Saturday morning
and that a fine dress pattern would be
given to the first fifteen ladies who
entered the doors of the store on that
morning. People commenced gathering
at the store as early as O'clock that
morning and long time before the
time announced for the doors to open
the entire street on both sides of the
big building was a jam of people. The
new firm decided to do more than they
promised, so few minutes before the
opening hour Mr.. Bradley made his ap-
pearance and announced that instead
of fifteen dress patterns they would
give away twenty-five patterns, which
had been distributed in various parts
of the store and told where they could
be found. Finally, exactly at the ap-
pointed hour the doors were thrown
open and it was sight to see the peo-
die plunging, crowding, scrambling and
pushing trying to get in and win one of
the prizes. Nothing like it was ever
before witnessed in this city. Almost
in incredible time the big store building
which a few minutes before had been
occupied only by the half hundred
clerks employed for the day was liv-
ing, seething crush of humanity. Here,
there and everywhere they rushed
searching for the prizes and it was not
long before all were located. Many
who thronged the store were not try
ing to get in to get prize but merely
wanted to get first choice of the many
bargains which were thrown on the
counters, and it soon became apparent
that the immense array of clerks were
entirely inadequate to wait on the Gus
toners, and everybody was grabbing
and pulling to secure such goods as
they wanted, but the management
handled the big crowd in splendid
shape, and the day passed without seri.
Gus accident, but there certainly was a
tired lot of salespeople when the big
store close that night.
The special sale will continue all
through the month Of April. Mr.. Harry
]. Bradley, the head of the firm, who is
a son-in-law of John w. Wasson, of this
city, has been engaged in the special
sale business for number of years and
has achieved great success, but he says
this was the most successful opening
he ever held, the volume of bust
ness transacted during the day equal
ling the total value of many ordinary
stocks of goods. r. L. jenkins, the
junior member of the firm, has been a
resident of Decatur county for SO many
years and has had so much dealings
with the people that his name is a
guarantee that the new firm does every
thing on the square. During the day
cigars were distributed to every man
who visited the store and in the after
noon the X. P. band furnished splendid
music fer the big crowd at the store.
The firm was not organized simply to
close out the Biggs stock, but they will
become permanently identified as one
of the leading business firms of Leon.
This special sale is simply to dispose of
surplus stock, and while it is in pro-
gress there is great opportunity to
save money.