The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-01-11
SELFRIDGE, SIS TODAY,
GAVE LONDON FIRST GREAT
DEPARTMENT STORE

"But, sly, now, old chap, it baIly
well cawn't be done,'' they said in
London when Harry Gordon Selfridge,
of Ripon, Wis, Jackson, Mich, and
Chicago, Cook county, I'LL, invaded the
British metropolis with the announced
intention of starting a department
store along American lines Those
knockers were wrong in their predie-
tions, for today, the hfty-dfth birth
day of the founder, the store of Sell
fridge & Company, Ltd, is one of the
largest in Europe.
H. Gordon Selfridge was born in
Ripon, Wis. Jan. II, 1858. AS a
youngster he migrated to Jackson,
Mich, where he entertained designs
on the profession of law. These de-
signs were, as Mr.. Potash would say,
kicked in the bud for lack of clients,
and young Selfridge went to Chicago,
where he got a job as clerk in Mar
shall Fields big shop In fifteen years
he had risen, through successive stages
of clerk, hoor-wa1ker, buyer, credit
man and general manager to q. part
nership in the big merchandising con-
Germ. He quit Marshall Field in 1904,
and bought another store, but in
few months sold out again and began
planning his London invasion. After
years spent in looking over the field
and making all preparations, Mr.. Sell
fridge opened his Chicago-p1an de-
partment store in London in the
Spring of 1909. The London Press
for Press is capitalized on the other
side, as it should be-haS not yet
quite recovered from the shock of the
full page advertisements in all the
leading London papers which an
nounced the Selfridge opening. They
were dignified advertisements, illus
trated by some of the best of English
artists, and they turned the trick, for
within tWenty-four- hours every man,
woman and child in London and en-
virons was filed with an eager desire
to visit Se1fridge's. They went to
see, and criticise. and they remained
to buy. Selfridge's success has been
so great that many other stores have
followed his methods, and the mer-
chandising systems which have been
in vogue in London for centuries have
been overthrown. Not that SeHridge's
is entirely and typicaIly American
far from it. But it includes the best
of American ideas coupled with the
best English retailing methods. More
than all, Selfridge's has taught Lon
don the immense value of newspaper
advertising.
thor of Mrs. Wigs of the Cabbage
Patch 'Lovey Mary" Mr.. Opp and
other novels, was born at Shelbyville,
KY, forty-three years ago to-day. Mrs.
Rice has made a considerable fortune
from her literary work, and a large
part of it is invested the stock of
Louisville banks. She also made a
mining inyestmen that-wonder of
| wondersi-returned her money fifty
fold. She was Alice Caldwell He
gan when she wrote the imm orta1
| MRS. Wiggs,'' which at once took it's
place among the best sellers. That
was in 1901. and q, year later she mar
ried Gale Young Rice, also a native of
Kentucky: and also a writer poems
and plays constituting the output of
his typewriter. Their home is in
Louisville, but they spent much of
| their time travelling about the world,
and are now completing their second
tour of the globe.
Thomas Dixon, Jr., who set the
South on fire with his novels and plays,
1.-THE Leopard's Spots '|The Clans
man." and 1.-The One Woman" was
born forty-nine years ago to-day in
Shelby, n. c., and was a lawyer and
Baptist preacher before he began
writing novels and dramas and acu1ng
in them.