Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-01

,
If you tell me how to increase my salary
five dollars week | can see five; but |
can't see fairy
Again, suppose you had said to the cloth
ing merchant hero of the mail order fairy
story that his success in life depended upon
advancing fifty thousand dollars to a firm
that already owed him money. Why, bless
your heart! he would have called clerk to
ring for an ambulance. Go out some day
for yourself, hunt up floor manager, a drug
clerk, and clothing merchant, and tell
them you have formula for every one of
the three, cut and dried recipe or equation,
or what you like, that will insure their sue
cess. Tell your story and-why, the laugh
ter is audible even in print!
WHAT has gone before may be consid-
cred as indicating that success hinges
on luck, at least in the instances cited, be-
cause neither the drug clerk nor the floor
manager had the least inclination toward
the walk in life into which each was thrust.
Now let's turn to an incident of business
and see if an absence of luck did not spell
disaster. 1t may prove something, after
all.
A physician, we'll versed in anatomy, who
practised in Western city, decided that a
certain tool used constantly by mechanics
was not so well adapted to it's functions as
one that might be developed after due con-
sideration of the construction of the human
hand. If the implement could be made with
fingers, as it were, its efficiency would be far
in excess of that of the existing and univer-
sally used tool.
So the physician donned his thinking cap,
studied the human hand, and eventually de-
signed steel implement based upon the
hands articulation. He worked at it for a
long time, changing it here and there and
improving it to meet the demands he felt
would be made upon it as part of a work.
mans kit. When his device reached per-
lection, as he understood it, he went among
his friends in the medical profession and ex-
hibited it. They, with their knowledge of
anatomy, saw at once its advantages, and
the result was the formation of a company
to exploit the device. One hundred thou
sand dollars was subscribed by the physician
and his friends, and representative of the
company came East to market the tool.
Demonstrations were given for dealers in
tools and supplies, and they were enthusiast
tic at once. They saw at once or said they
did, the superiority of the tool over the one
in common use.
Everything looked as rosy as the dawn,
and the company got out pencil and paper
and began figuring its profits, because the
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appeared "sure thing A factory was
constructed in which to make the tool, and
money was not spared. AS was said, it
looked like about one hundred per cent.
profit for the doctor and his friends. A
manufacturers agent took up the device,
and said he felt sure it would 60. Tests
were made of it, and they demonstrated its
efficiency to his entire satisfaction.
Then, in order to determine what an arti-
san who would employ the tool might think
of it, he went into the street and hunted up
man who was working with one of the
standard tools. He handed the new imple-
ment to him with request that he try it.
The workman said it was the best thing he
had ever seen, it did the work handily, and
was far easier to manipulate than the tool
of older design.
"I'd like to have one of those he said.
"Where can | get one?"
"They're not on the market yet the
agent replied; "but take that one and show
it to your fellow wOrkmen.'
The artisans testimony to the tools effec-
tiveness decided the agent, and he sent
statesmen throughout wide territory to sell
it. The tool was made of the best of ma
terials. and it could not have been intro