The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-05-18
CORP. KERR WRITES
PARTNER EDISON
Suggests That He Get An Attorney
To Handle Big Business

Abbeville, S. c., May i6, 1921
Admiral Thos A. Edison,
Maker of the Phonograph with Soul
New Jersey and New York
Dear Thomas-As member of the
firm of Kerr & Edison, you furnish
ing the. machines which do the talk
ing and have the soul, and Kerr fur
nishing the experience and doing the
signing of the notes, thought I
would drop you a few lines to let you
know that the talking machine busi-
ness in this part of the country has
had something like stroke Of par
alysis, and it seems to have been hit
wrost in the tongue. Of course Roy
Power is giving the matter his best
attention, and Roy sometimes talks
like a phonograph without a soul
when he is about to land a machine
with part cash, but sometimes he
fails, though I can't say that he al
ways knows it. I hope that the busi-
ness will pick up before long, if not
and you want to talk over the mat
ter with me, 1 will run up and spend
month with you and we will talk it
over. would like to be away from
home visiting you when the next note
comes due. If the bookkeeper tells
the collector that am up visiting a
wizard, which Roy tells them you are,
think this will scare the collector
maybe he wont come back until the
next morning anyway.
Now this wizard business think
must be good thing, and that is
one cf the things I wish to discuss
with you. If possible I would like to
be wizard myself. How long does
it take to be a good wizard? How
! long docs it help you to put off your.
creditors, and is it much help finan-
cially in borrowing money? I don't
care anything about being a wizard
about buying goods, because I have
! already bought, but when it comes
, to getting around your creditors
these times, 1 think it would be well
to have little wizard in you, or a
bottle of wizard oil around anyway.
Uncle Jim used to be a wizard when
he was in the mule business. You
could prove that by every man who
ever bought a mule from him, but
when he got into the banking busi-
ness and cotton went down from
forty-two to ten cents, think Uncle
Jim lost all the wizard he ever had
in him and that he felt a good deal
like halvers hand after the debts
had been paid. I think the other fel-
low is the wizard now. But Uncle
Jim is game and he will smile again
if you don't watch him.
Patrick Roche, who came up to
hear the Mocking Bird recreated on
the. Edison, gave a party one night
last week. He had four prominent
men at it, including himself and
myself, who were partners. He had
us dine at the Eureka and every
thing was quite up to date, except
we lacked music. If had known it
in time would have had an Edison
playing while we ate. l do not think
I could have eaten anymore, but I
might have eaten longer and this
would have helped some. Patrick is
one of the noblest setback players in
the game. He is what they call a wiz
ard of setback, just like we are in
the talking machine business. Il
think Patrick always takes his part
ner for wizard too, because he bids
three off of the lone Jack and seven
spot, and wants to know why his
partner didn't save his Jack when
his partner had nothing but the nine
and deuce both of which got caught.
I guess you stand pretty high in the
game in New York and New Jersey.
If you want to see all the latest
plays in the game you should come
down and visit in Abbeville on