The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-13
BRILL BROTRERS' CHAIN OF STORES
 29 YEARS OF AGE
And Appropriate Birthday Parties Will Be Held in
 Many Cities.

. IOInOrrOW brlll bFOIueTS, tIlc Well known New York clothing house, will celebrate it's twenty-ninth anniver- sary. In 29 years the business has grown from one small 15x40 store, opened Nov. IA. 1887, at 45 Cortlandt street, Manhattan, to nine large, hand some, successful clothing shops From more than modest beginning they are now, and have been for some years, among the foremost clothiers in New York.
 How this business grew is told in the following interesting interview with Samuel Brill, senior member of the firm:
 Tomorrow will be 29 years since my two brothers, Maurice and Max D., and I opened a small shop at 45 Cort- landt street, 13 feet front and about 40 deep. Our capital was $500. The store and part of the stock in trade we secured from my former employer, who had been unable to make the business pay. I remember that when we had our opening he gave us lot of empty boxes to place on the shelves and help our small stock of mems linen, underwear, hosiery and neck wear to make a brave array. The Cortlandt street of those days was not the thoroughfare it is now, and the easy-going old merchants shook their heads and predicted that our young firm would fail; but energy and atten- tion to details placed the store in such shape that after a months trial we felt we would surely succeed. We worked early and late, and it was not long before we gathered sufficient money to open a bank account iii the Old North River bank. One year after this account was opened, the bank failed, and we lost $1.500. We were not discouraged, however. We just begged right along without the aid of any outside capital, and today. after a steady healthy growth, our business fills nine successful stores.
 "In the early days we saved the paper and twine that was wrapped around packages coming to us from wholesale houses, and used it again in doing up our own bundles for cus- toners. We practiced the economy so we'll set forth in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard,' and believe that any young man can duplicate our success IOOdy. buL I10 1luSI ICCuS nave COIl- centration, he must work hard, he must watch the smallest details. The large defects show quickly enough. It is the small ones in business that need, watching. And if success is made in a small thing, the chances of suc- cess in a larger undertaking are vastly increased. Many of our or igina1 customers of 29 years ago are II, vryI.- into the stores and if I or my broth CTS are about, they never fail to greet us and congratulate us upon our sue cess. We tell them that it is not only our success, but their success, for, as a firm, we owe the largest part of whatever we have accomplished to the loyal support of the buying pulp lic
 I've used to keep our little store open until and 10 o'clock at night. I used to dress the windows at night myselfi We had little gas stove back of the store, on which we would boil coffee and send around the corner to the bakeshop for some little things to eat. While this was done for economical reasons. it was also neces- sary, because every moment of our time was required in the store. We gave the public what it demanded. We treated our customers as friends whose good will is more to be desired than profits. < We won the confidence of the buying public-a confidence we are proud to boast we have never vio- lated.
 And so our business grew. We made money selling on a legitimate profit basis. There was mans fur nishing store struggling along at this time, on Sixth avenue. We bought it out, and on Saturday, March 15, 1890, we opened this store on Sixth avenue. We added hats, shoes and mems and children's clothing to our stock of furnishings, applying the same princi- ples of economy and perseverance that helped us in our first store. We were able successive1y to open our Broadway store, which, by the way, is located on the very spot of ground, 279 Broadway, just above Chambers street, where A. T. Stewart first kept shop. And then, on Saturday, July 31, 1897, we opened our Harlem store at 125th street, corner Third avenue.
 "Our store on Sixth avenue became too small and old-fashioned for our rapidly growing business, and on Sat- urday, April Is, 1905, we moved it to Union Square South, in larger and handsomer quarters and better To- cation.
 "On Saturday, Oct. 1, 1910, we opened our largest, handsomest, and most modern store, on Broadway, at Forty-ninth street, at that time con- sidered a wilderness
 "It is undoubtedly one of the finest mems apparel shops in New York. Here we added to our other depart ments a spelndidly equipped Motor Apparel Shop and later most exclu- sive Women's Speciality Shop and Mill linery department.
 .Iast June, Saturday the 26th, to be exact, we opened the sixth store in the Brill chain-the third on Broadway-at 1450 Broadway, near 42nd street, the Hub of New York. And one week later we celebrated the Fourth of July by opening the seventh Brill store on Saturday, July 3, and realizing an old ambition, the inva- sion of Brooklyn I have always had a more or less abiding faith in the mystic powers of the numeral 7- Lucky Seven-and have considered 1t