The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1923-05-31
The Romance of Business
(By C. H. Nason)

(By c. II. Nason)
That truth Is stranger than fiction"
has seldom been more convincingly
argued than by Edward w. Box in
his recently published biography Of
CYRUS H. X. Curtis entitled "a Man
From Maine"
Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis.
born In Portland, Maine, in 1850, is
as most Of us know, the publisher
and proprietor of The Ladies Home
Journal, The Saturday Evening Post,
The Country Gentleman. and The
philadelphia Public Ledger.
The Curtis building, facing indie
pendence Square in Philadelphia,
where his three magazines are print
ed, houses what Is acknowledged to
be the largest and most complete
printing establishment on the planet
1t covers an entire city block of
TWENTY-FIVE acres, It's million square
feet of floor space are occupied to the
last inch. Its battery of 230 presses,
recently installed at cost OF five and
a quarter million, pour forth
$4,000 complete magazines of from
Sc to 240 pages each, every working
day In the year. Over 5000 peo-
pie are employed.
The Public Ledger, his most recent
acquisition, has now a circulation OF
over seventy-three million copies
year, and its annual pay roll is over
two and one-half millions. Adjoin-
ing the Curtis Building, and under
construction at the present time, is
the new Public Ledger Building,
planned to be the largest and finest
newspaper plant in existence.
Compare these results with the mi
tial business Investment of twelve
year old Cyrus on the streets of our
own Portland, as he purchased for
three pennies the stock of discour-
aged "newsy'' and sold 1t at clear
profit of six cents. Can you con-
ceive of anything more romantic.
Curtis now owns one Of the most
luxurious pleasure yachts In United
States waters. Compare his sailing
into Portland Harbor on this vessel
to the lad who. sixty years before,
without twenty-five cents to go and
see monitor anchored in the same
harbor, climbed upon log and with
a stick padded to the ship, where
he was helped aboard by the admir-
ing sailors. Is not this the climax
of successful adventure?
See boy in hotel reading room.
scanning with eyes of wonder, pic
ture of the first building in this coun-
try devoted exclusively to news
paper; going to the Quaker City to
see it for himself, and, after some
years, owning that building and the
newspaper which 1t housed. Does
fiction often portray stranger things?
Mr.. Box says that the object OF his
book Is to bring home to the young
man of today the great truth that
business Is not drudgery, daily
grind, an uninteresting and monoton-
GUS routine or even the means to an
end That 1t Is, of itself, romance
of the most thrilling order; the most
marvelously fascinating game ever
devised.
The New York Times, commenting
on this, suggests that most big bust
ness men are impelled in their stu
pendous efforts; their days and nights
of unremitting toll; their embarka-
ton on hazardous quests-not by the
lure of the almighty dollar, but by
the search for romance, their desire
for adventure.
But, to the mind of the writer, the
appeal and lasting worth of the book
will also come to most of us in its
revelation of the character, habits
and personality OF this simple, quiet,
modest. patient. kindly, but determin-
ed ''Man From Maine" who, at sew
enty-three years of abe, is called the
youngest man in his enterprises.
The average American boy looks
upon such man as Curtis either as
sort of super-beiDg, endowed with
qualities and talents which he him
self cannot possibly possess, or as
one upon whom Fortune has gracious
| ly smiled and at whose door Oppor-
tunity has knocked in a most unusual
manner.
Mr.. Box, in this narrative, seeks to
dispel these illusions; strives to bring
| home to each one Of us the truth that
| success is within reach Of all; that
greater than when Mr.. Curtis started
out in life.
"A back bone instead of wish
bone" rock-ribbed principles; habits
of thrift; vision and goal; capital
ization of mistakes; thoroughness in
everything, are some of the trail
marks on Mr.. Curtis road to success.
OF the book the New York Times
says; at is sermon with Cyrus Cur
It's as the text and example, and II
this be borne in mind when reading,
the volumes will acquire degree of
dignity and degree of romantic beau
ty which otherwise might be missed
"As a biography, A Man From
| Maine stands out as one of the most
virile and human stories ever penned
But 1t is great deal more than g
| biography. 1t is practical guide to
success says the Philadelphia Pub
lie Ledger.
The author, Edward W. Box, editor
of the Ladies Home Journal for thirty
years, is also author OF 1.-THE Ameri-
canization of Edward Box" which the
late Lord Northcliffe pronounced '"the
best autobiography of the times"