The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-05-09

man to stand prosperity"
Nevertheless, his is story that
in its brilliance outshines the most
imaginative of the Arabian Nights.
This is being written a few weeks
after his fiftieth birthday. | saw a
magnificent silver cup in his office,
inscribed: May you enjoy fifty more.
"A token of remembrance and affec-
ton from your boys.
And those so years have been
crammed with as much hard work
and. achievement and sheer business
enjoyment as any so years that it
has been my pleasure to chronicle.
In Canandaigua, New York, his
father owned a small brick and tile
works and a paper box factory; a
quiet, frugal man from whom the son
got the great lesson in life: That
even boy has right to expect an
honest wage for his labor, and that
some of it should be saved.
BORN WITH SALES INSTINCT
That he was born with an acute
merchandising instinct is apparent
to even the most casual student of
his life. Even as boy Of nine or
10 he could sense what the public
wanted, sell what he had, buy what
the other fellow had to sell at the
right price.
His first business deal came at the
| tender age of 10, when he noticed that
! driving reins had an exaspcrating
habit of falling down among the,
horses feet. So out of his meager
savings he bought dozen little
! clamps to hold the reins in place.
These he sold promptly. And on the
| proceeds he bought an additional two
dozen, and quickly disposed Of them
at profit.
Before he was IL, he was working
| in his fathers tile yard at 25 cents
day for after-school labor. Later
he tried to sell books, the Life of
Garfield" being his ware. And made
the only flat failure of his career.
Perhaps he was too young for the
grandiloquent Grafton that is the
standard stock in trade of those who
sell books across the door sill.
BUYS LAUNDRY AT FIFTEEN
=, Through grade school and into
high school he saved money. When
he was Is, chum IL years old came
to him with the idea that they go
into the laundry business. The chum
| had worked in local laundry and
would supply the practical exper-
| fence; Johnnie WHY'S was to furnish
the capital and selling ability. In
Seneca Falls, 80 miles away, there
was laundry for sale. 1t was a
great chance to make money. WHY'S
Wheedled his parents for permission
to become one of its owners. His
parents acquiesced, hoping that the
disastrous circumstances that would
surely follow would teach him that
| fifteen-year- olds should remain away
from the stern realities of business
and be content to acquire the print
| ed learning of books.
No sooner had the two youths
handed over their money than they
discovered that they had purchased
| a lemon-a business which had never
paid any profits and which enjoyed
no local patronage to speak of. So
! it became a case of tearing into the
job and putting it over or losing
their investment and opening them
selves to the parental eve told-yo u-
So" 80
1t took a year of work, boyish but
none the less savage, to rehabilitate
| the laundry and build up profitable
clientele. Whereupon the business
was sold at price that gave each Of
the partners "a hundred dollars pro-
fit.
TURNS TO LAW
The long, arduous hours of the
laundry business and their meager
compensation forced on WHY'S the
realization that he had made mis-
take by not getting an education
when it was easily obtainable. So
back to Canandaigua he went, resclv-
ed to become lawyer. He studied
at home, and worked in law office,
and laid plans for putting himself
through college. Then his father
died, and at the same time passed
his dreams of becoming legal light.
His capital dissipated in an
unlucky. venture, WHY'S became
a travelling salesman, represent
ing the Boston Woven Hose and Rub
Der Company, in that section of
eastern New York in which Elmira
was located. In that particular town
he called on the Elmira Arms Com
pany, sporting goods store, which
either by fate. jinx, or mismanage-
ment had sent four owners to the
wall.
! BUYS ELMIRA> ARMS co.
One day he dropped into the store
and found the owner badly smitten
with gold fever. The Klondike rush
was on. So strong was the spell of
the Yukon on the proprietor that he
offered to sell out .'dirt cheap-offel
me $500 for this $4,000 stock" he said
"and the place is yours. Good will
and everything"
WHY'S bought.
Working fast, he organized thu
business on sound principles, rear.
ranged the store with his unerring
sales instinct, hired manager te
whom he laid down the principle that
The windows had to look nice, thu
store had to be clean, and that tn
D job was his only as long as he stuci
J to it right. That. done, he hastenet
out on the road to his own job again
This did not last long. One day s
dispatch in the newspapers informe,
him, along with the rest of the world
& that the. house for which he wal
working had failed. His job as z
travelling salesman, gone he hurried