The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-01-19

You can see for yourself that when
! was making, such profits it was but
natural that l should deem it proper
| to spend the money on trips to Europe
and up the Nile, etc. OF course, |
had plenty of money to spend. Even
way back when the concern was in
its infancy | always made big money.
And it made no difference what the
financial barometer said about the
money market. l was not bothered by
bank failures nor by financial stringen-
cies. l did not have to borrow any
money. OF course not. You fur
| nished it.
Good gracious, if you had fur.
nished your local merchants with the
cash you sent to me, in advance, they
would all be millionaires, now, in
| stead of Flooding along trying to make
| both ends meet
| Take it, for instance, that you sent
me an order for lot of things includ-
ing hardware. Did you ever wonder
why the hatchets and hammers and
| other tools broke so easily or would
not keep an edge? Did you wonder
why the locks became broken and out
of order? Did you wonder why moth
ing would work just as it should?
Your dealer in your own town buys
| goods that he feels sure will give
service and be satisfactory. If not
you can make him give you a dupli-
cate that will fill the bill. But he
| is a different proposition. He has to
| be right there in his store to meet you
| face to face while my concern is a
| long ways off.
| In groceries, too. 1t was my GUS
tom to buy up what we call Job lots
of any merchandise whatever If
merchant went broke and went into.
bankruptcy I used to bid on his stock.
| would buy it, for cash, for all the
way from fifteen cents to forty or fifty
cents on the dollar. He always want
ed cash and was willing to sacrifice
his goods at any price. Then 1 would
take this stuff and parcel it out. All
was fish that came to my net | would
offer some old junk that he had kept
on his shelves for many years, as spe-
| cial bargains, and would quote descrip-
| tons as though the stuff were new.
| and yet make a price that sounded
low. would call an article valued
| at say SIS, and price 1t at $3.50. 1t
would have cost us about half dollar
or perhaps less.
Cases of tomatoes, corn, fruit and
other canned goods were my speciality.
Many and many time have I dug I'D
from the cellar or from the back of
the shelves Off some old merchant
whom 1 bought out for cash at very
small price, lot of old cans, bulged
out, and rusted and looking as if they
had been there for years. And they
had, probably. l would set a boy 10
work cleaning and polishing these
cans and then l would paste new la
bells on them. Sometimes there were
no labels and then / could have a lot
of fun deciding what labels to put on
them. There were many surprises In
store for those who bought such stuff
at bargain" I would paste new
labels on such cans as 1 could not tell
| the contents of, and ship them out to
our customers.
Sugar, that had become wet, and
which 1 had to break up with an ak,
salt the same, prunes full of worms,
corn meal alive with reaches, salt
| fish strong enough to float a ship,
flour and crackers filed with vermin-
yes, I bought all sorts of stuff and
sold it at a great profit
| And clothing-there's where I made
some of my greatest profits, for the
clothing I sold, in a majority of in
stances, was made by half-grown Jew
ish girls and boys in what are known
| to the trade as "sweatshops."
The vest I sold as part of your
suit was probably cut by sweating
| young Jew from Russia, who cannot
speak more than a half dozen words
of our language He cuts them out in
lots, pile of cloth a foot deep and he
cuts them with a big knife that looks
more like straw or hay knife-the
kind you use to cut hay out of a stack
with. It's the same way with the
coats and trousers.
Then these pieces of cloth are sewed
together by perspiring young Jew
esses. They get few cents for sew
| ing vest. Another gets few PEN
MES for putting in the pockets. An
other gets similar amount for sew
| ing on a collar, etc. All this work is
done by the dozen. So many cents
| per dozen.
The coatmakers are generally pan,
but some shops have women because
! they are cheaper. Most of the work is
done right there in the shop so an
| inspector can watch the poor sweat
ing men and girls at work and keep
| them speeded up. The poor slaves
who sew the garments l sold have
never placed a hand on well-dressed
man nor worn a well-ftting garment
1 themselves.
| It's the same with the cloaks and