Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1915-11-27
HOW We OWED The MONEY

The furniture department in orr
catalogue WIS a great amt immediate
success The take" Iulstra-iOu7
caught rho eve OF the people eal tine
orders poured in with eyer. NAH We
found ont that Whenever q customer
ordered one article .b.Ie vel. always
4 number of others Ie.u-.d With -r.
first And the orders ve-. au cash
Of course. | don't remember I'll those
days that We ever had an inquiry Tor
credit. They seemed clad to get The
GOODS by paving the cash ard they
seemed 20 get the money together in
some manner
We were busy We moved away
from the city where The business was
s,art"u and no., "a. q % t,s establish
'""nt "a ono % ta" .'sra-. OF tte e.. 81.
IN cities. Our tiny iylfe5 OF q cata-
loeue had il,T aeod 10 rs,r Gfty Uo4os
end there seemed 70 be 40 limit 10 oar
prosperity.
Ny WORK was row almost entirely
connected with tho catalogue. ! wrote
the descriptions. ordered the illustra-
lions mode h. the mood engravcss.
aupeTiG-endod the printing and mail
ing departments and was no 70 ny
collar in work oil of the time When
ever anything Of importance arose f.
connection with the business ! was o..
ways called into a conference with Y
and Z and we settled any question
lat arose.
One day l was called in and the
doors were shut and locked There
vas something OF importance to be
discussed
Look here. X. We are going to IN
corporate this business" said Y with
. peculiar expression in his eyes. [
aad seen this expression before ano
I held myself on guard, in readiness
70 be very careful of my speech and
action as I knew / had need of eau
ton. 1t was like the hands up" Of
. highwayman, that look was.
Yes, We are going TO incorporate
and we are going 10 take you in as
one of the incorporators,' supple
mented z.
held my peace. Here was some
hing worth listening 70.
Seeing that | asked no questions
nd was waiting for them 70 80 ahead
hey locked at each other until finally
said: We are going to incorporate
for one hundred thousand dollars"
lie continued to explain, with inter
7olations by z and an occasional ques-
ION by myself until it came about
hat they had decided to make me o
present Of one thousand dollars of the
capital stock.
Sounds generous, don't it? Well. it
didn't to me. We had always dis.
cussed the possibility some day OF
incorporation and it. had always been
held out to me that I was 10 have &
good slice Of the capital stock. So
took up the burden of the argument.
explained my viewpoint, recited the
various services l had rendered, the
departments had introduced, the i'm
proyement in the business, etc. for
all of which l claimed a good part Of
cause l had developed into the handy
man about the shop for doing all Of
the hard work.
We nearly had a row over 1t. /
was determined that if they did not
treat me with fairness, that | would
withdraw and l knew where I could
interest capital if necessary TO start
another mail order business. IN fact,
had the capital myself, for by this
time l was drawing a salary OF three
thousand year, about $50 per week,
and | had saved q good share of my
salary. told them so with all frank
ness.
1t resulted In their giving me $4,000
of the capital stock and an increase
in salary to $1,000 q year. Y and u
took each $4,000, which took out S6G,.
900 of the stock It was decided to
sell out the other $4,000 OF stock at
par if they had a buyer for cash and
of this sum was to have Is per cent.
The deal was put through and l
found myself a comparatively rich
man. Later, when the capitalization
was increased to millions, I got my
share of the increased valuation so
that have made pretty well out of
it. OF course IN this matter am CIV
ing fictitious figures. ! viii not give
any more details now because Il would
be too easy for you to guess more, for
it is no part Of M plan to tell you
too much about the interior workings
of our organization.
We have figured It all out many
times jus: what becomes of your dol.
lar that you send in to us with an or
der.
About one-half OF it goes for pay.
ment for the goods ordered The rest
is divided into dimes and cents for
the payment of postage, printing,
maintenance of plant, insurance, Of
fee help, etc, and last and best Of all
into dividends. for the stockholders.
The families Of ard 2 are now