ERRAND BOY WHO MADE MILLIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16987, 10 March 1923, Page 2 (Supplement)

ERRAND BOY WHO MADE MILLIONS.

THE WORLD’S DRY GOODS STORE KING. These are the milestones in the life of Mr John Wanamaker, who has died in Philadelphia:— Born 1838, son of a hrickmaker. Aged 14—Errand boy. Aged 18-®Sellor of “ ready-mades.” Aged 23—His own “boss” in a shack. Aged ol—Cabinet Minister. Aged 80 World’s dry goods store “ king.” Wanamaker was a man who spoke of his stores in terms of acres, numbered his workers in thousands and his money in thousands of millions. It had not always been so. Wanamaker saw the light as the son of a hrickmaker, and at an age when lads nowadays have to be at school he was running errands in a bank store for 4s a week. Then he drifted into a clothing store, and at 23 he had set op in the clothing business for himself It may be apocryphal, but the story is ; that Wanamaker and Ili s partner wheeled the stock to the shack they had rented as a shop in a wheelbarrow, and their first day’s takings were 24 dollars 67 cents. With characteristic daring the 24 dollars were spent in advertising, and the business forged ahead. l n 1876 a derelict railway station was converted into a departmental store, and this was famous America over when Wanamaker opened a similar house in New York. In the vast buildings he set up half a million people did their shopping daily. Two acres of space in his Philadelphia store lie dedicated to educational and welfare work for his employees, of whom he had there and in New York more than 1-1.000. At 20 he founded the Bethanv Sunday School in Philadelphia, and he supported it over since, besides giving addresses there every Sunday. Tt is now known as the biggest Sunday School in the woild. He has set up Y.M.C.A. buildings in America. India. China. Japan. and Korea, was Postmaster-General in President Harrison’s Cabinet <IBB91893). and was probably the most heavily insured man in the world, naying premiums on life insurance policies for £595,000. In the war he had intense sympathy for Belgium and o-reat admiration for tlie stand Britain had taken. In July. 1015. lie suggested that the United States: should raise a fund of TOO million dollars (then about C 20.000.000) to buv ‘Belgium from the Germans. “ Yes-” he replied, when asked whether his proposal was to be taken as a jest or earnest, “ and I would nav mov“, T would mortgage the whole of Philadelphia for nnv sum necessary to stop the bloodshed.”