The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-10
BRING MERCHANTS HERE BY HUNDREDS Novel Convention to Be Held
 Here This Week ALL EXPENSES ARE PAID Marshall Field Sales men VIII Arrive Today From
 Chicago to Help Entertain
 the Visitors
ALL EXPENSES ARE PAID

A convention for Alabama merchants will be held in Birmingham begin ming tomorrow by Marshall Field & Co.,, of Chicago.
 The convention is for the purpose of getting merchants from every part of the state to visit Birmingham and look over the lines handled by this company. To exhibit properly every line carried by the Chicago firm, 2S salesmen will arrive in Birmin gham this morning over the Louisville and Nashville ta sper.d the week.
 The saiesmen bring with them 70 trunks of goods and in addition to this 25 cases of holiday goods have arrived by freight and will be shown at the meeting. These goods will be located in the Morris avenue sample rooms.
 The forces of MarshallField have been working on this convention for two months and they have promises from 250 merchants in Alabama to come here and attend the convention. These traders will begin to arrive to- day and by the opening tomorrow ev- cry city in the state Is expected to
 be represented here by at least one of its leading merchants. The expenses of
 the attendants will be paid by the
 firm and every effort will be exerted to show them the city and induce them to attend these conventions twice each year. In order to accommodate the salesmen and the large number of
 nd
 sixth floors of the Hotel Hillman have
 been secured for the occasion. The merchants convention Is unique in mercantile annals of this state, It was conceived by H. w. Nevins of Mar shall Field & Co.,, who with Robert w Nicolson has been working this state for the firm for the past 10 years. The company has on occasions held such affairs In the more densely pop ulated states of the union, but this is the first time that the importance of this state has been recognized to the extent of being the place for one of the conventions.
 "The plan of our company" said MT. Nicolson, lis to encourage the mer- chants of the state to visit our ex- tensive salesrooms here and thereby assist us in our plan to cover this state efficiently and also to show the mer- chants what a desirable city Birming- ham is We hope to have two of these conventions every year. We, of course, spend a considerable sum on each con- vention, but we figure that the plan always Is a paying one. We wish to assist Birmingham in every manner pos sible and while other points are more central the fact that we came here IS decided compliment to the metropo'- itan spirit noticeable to everyone who has been in Birmingham. We have been working on this convention for two months and have the promise of over 250 merchants to visit us this week. We intend to give them a good time and hope by this means to en- courage them into often visiting Blr- mingham"
 The salesmen who will arrive tn is morning, including those in the city, are.
 w. H. Nevins. general salesman; Rob- ert W. Nicolson, J. D. Porter, Frank Dunlap, Jesse Armstrong, John Lee, Gilbert Nicolson. w. l. Melvin, l.. Chisolm, N. J. Heisted, $. Perkins, c. H. Jung, H. Jewell. c. Harries, Ii. Knott, H. c. Lockwood, W. Reynolds, John Phelps, Andrew Smith, Cal Do yer, Johnson Rowe, John Avery and Burt Lowry.