MEN OF THEIR HANDS

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1907, Page 37

MEN OF THEIR HANDS

HOW BAGOT AND BAGSHAW ESTABLISHED THEMSELVES IN BUSINESS AND INCIDENTALLY HAD A VIGOROUS STRUGGLE WITH A MONOPOLY.

(By

IAN MACLAREN.)

THEIR fathers took an unselfish view of life, and were inspired with that particular and unworldly devotion to commerce

which is characteristic of England and unknown in the United States. When their sons left a publie school, at the age of seventeen, they apprenticed themselves together at about the same time to an enterprising firm which had something to do with shipping, and supported them in the service of that firm for five years. At the close of that period, the senior partner thereof, seeing an interminable procession of callowlads and simple-minded parents making for his office door with humble petitions for an entranee, informed those fathers that the firm had no further need for their sons’ services, and hade the young men good-bye. This was how Bagot and Bagshaw entered and left that respectable and opulent office. By this ingenuous method the firm conducted a large and profitable business with a staff of eight apprentices, who cost them less than office boys, and two poorly-paid chief clerks.

For six months the two friends hunted for a berth, with the assistance of their fathers, and could find none. One day, after a long council of despair and many pipes, they came to a sudden resolution. As no one hungered for their services, which proved the blindness of the business world, and as they had a modest confidence in their own abilities, they decided to start for themselves. Had the word been in their vocabulary, they would have called their decision an inspiration; as it was, their friends were left to supply the description: and they frankly pronounced it an act of idiocy, partly because no one had been struck by their genius for commercial affairs, and partly because they had chosen the most hopeless of callings. As it happened, however, the same idea had occurred to other minds, and four firms had entered into it with such spirit about the time the lads were born, that they had secured a virtual monopoly. And they united solid against a new comer. They were honestly convinced that in the plan of Providence it was distinctly intended that the marine victualing of Westhaven should be carried out by the elect four, and they were always ready to co-oper-atc with Providence in the fulfilment of this beneficent design. The lads scraped together a few hundred pounds from trustful relatives, and rented the lower floor of an old warehouse which some long-enduring man had given up in desperation, and put up their sign, which had au air of distressing newness. “Bagot and Bagshaw, Ship Chandlers.”

Their best capital was really in themselves, for they were both clean skinned, upstanding, well-mannered, straightforward young Englishmen, the best product of the public schools, who might starve, but who could not cheat. As neither, however, could speak German, nor live off the gum from the postage stamps, they failed in those conditions which give the foreigner such a strong position in modern commerce. Their friends, in fact, cheerfully prophesied that they would not “stick it” for more than a year.

Whether this venture would turn out a moderate success or a swift failure lay on the lap of the gods, who looked somewhat grim; but at any rate the “Bags” were in the highest of spirits, and enjoyed the starting hugely. Their “business establishment,” on which Bagot openly declared a brass plate would be inserted by an admiring posterity, consisted of a limited office, a fair sized store room behind, and a cavernous cellar beneath. The first step was painting and furnishing, and one partner took charge of the former, and the

other of the latter. Bagot, who could do a thing or two with his hands, although they were as well kept as a woman’s, shut himself up every day for a week in what was supposed to be the empty building, with a tub of whitewash and three pots of paint. When h e had finished his work, the office was a study in two shades of green, and the store room and cellar were one blaze of white, while the doors were in a rich black.

Bagshaw for the same period was hunting the shops of second-hand dealers in furniture, his ability in bargaining touching the point of genius. Before Saturday he had finally secured a handsome set of office furniture, including a writing table with a handsome chair for the senior partner, Richard Bagot, who was really four months older than the other, a standing desk with stool for the junior partner, George Bagshaw, a Milner’s safe of large proportion, with ample room for the books of the firm, and four large drawers for the cash, ten feet of handsome shelving to hold specimens of food, a comfortable ehair with trustworthy legs for sea-going visitors of substantial build, and a eoal scuttle and fire irons, which even an expert would swear were new. And all this the junior partner had gathered in many places, ami after many visits, by persistent depreciation of the goods, and absolute indifference to their purchase, at onefourth their cost price. On Saturday afternoon the paint was dry and the furniture was installed; then they telephoned with much pride to their respective homes, inviting their mothers, sisters, one or two other young women not their sisters, and their friends generally, to come down that afternoon and open the buildings of “Bagot and Bagshaw” with a ceremonial of tea and eakes. And so. with the good will of their kinsfolk and acquaintance, the good ship Bags, to use an appropriate nautical image, piit out to sea. As has been pleasantly said, it is not given to men to command success; all they can do is to deserve it. When two years had passed, no one could deny that Bagot ami Bagshaw had done their best, but everyone was perfectly aware that the results had been the worst. There are two kinds of victory, a moral victory and the other kind, and theirs had been extremely moral. They had worked from morning till night, and they had canvassed the ship owners with unwearied perseverance and shameless effrontery.

It was commonly said in his own circle that if Bagot had the faintest, scent of a possible transaction, he would follow it up like a bloodhound, and if he could get his foot inside au office door, the rest of his body was sure to follow; while a mistake in a farthing was impossible with Bagshaw in the office, and a dispute on any detail was settled beforehand with the junior partner looking after the interests of the firm. No one could say that they lost the faintest chance, and everyone ad mitted that they gave the best of stuff. They did their business well, and they had pleasure in their business, but they were making no way; their capital was oozing out of their hands; it was only 7 a question of time when it would be wisdom to take down the sign and dispose of the office furniture.

They were grateful to one or two firms for kinffness, but actually thciy best stand by during those two hard years was a Scots sea captain whose baptismal name, as inserted in the ship’s papers, was Peter Mcllwraith, but who was known among his friends and in business circles as Mac—because in face and accent as well ns in character he was a walking incarnation of the Scots nation.

Having been cavalierly treated by one

of the four firms, which did not attach much importance to his custom, and was not inclined to discuss things in general with him every time he visited the port, he took mortal offence, being, like all his blood, extremely proud, and set out to discover some other place where he conld obtain his modest private store. When he thrust his big, bronzed face in the office door of Bagot and Bagshaw, and observed that “It’s a wee bit saft,” the rain being a deluge, Bagshaw, who had an immovable countenance and an unerring observation, sized up his visitor in a moment. He invited him in

with heartiness, but without fuss, gave him the chair of honour and a corresponding cigar. Mac then explained his views on. some recent legislation about ships, and the moral character of sailormen. He referred frankly to the mightiness of a certain firm, whose peas were, getting above the sticks, and he finished with a handsome little order for provisions. He then shook hands cordially with the junior partner, and departed with a qualified remark on the weather, returning suddenly, and putting his head in at the door to say, "Ye’re just startin’, I’m judgin’. Gude luck to ye!” And they saw no more of him for two months.

When he appeared the second time, Mac was a little redder and much heartier. He brought with him a brother captain of the same build, and rivaling him in richness of accent; and after both men had explained their mind on the weather and the ways of foreign Custom houses, they gave their orders, and Mac declared, as if he was in a witness-box, that he had never tasted better meat and drink than that of Bagot and Bagshaw. “I’m mentionin’ yir names —1 wudna be surprised if ane or twa ither captains might be givin’ you a cry.” They did, and if it had been possible for the firm to have paid their way and made a living wage on the orders of those sea dogs, there would have been no cause for anxiety.

As it was, it was a question whether they could continue, and they told Mae one day that this might be his last, visit. “That’s no lichtsomc, laddies,” for the old Scot had taken a fancy to “Bags.” "Have you never had an order from my boss, auld Rowlandson ? He has twenty-four ships, and we may tak’ my word for it, they’re aye goin’. He’s hard, is Row, and stiff, and I’m no denying that he a got a temper, but the boss is just and straieht. I ken him well, for I’ve sailed twenty year for him, and never had a word o’ complaint." “Ye never could get speech wi’ him? Verra likely, thae understrappers in the office are impudent little deevils. Dod! I had to take ane o’ them by the scruff o’ the neck and pit him in the coal box before I got in to see Row. Take my advice, Maistcr Dick, and force yir way in and pit yir cas afore auld Row him sei’. And see ye here—a word in yir ear; tell him what a fecht you’re havin’; an’ he sure that you face up to him. He’ll respect you; that’s the way he’s made.”

So Mac went on his way, and within fifteen minutes, and after a brisk scrimmage in the outer office of Rowlandson, MaeKillop and Co., Bagot was face to face with the sole surviving partner of that powerful and far-reaching firm. When the representative of Bagot am! Bagshaw had done his best, Rowlandson spoke briefly and to the point. That he did not know what they were about in the office, to allow this visitor to get into his room; that very likely they had written to his firm and had an answer; that the firm had a ship ehandler who did their business, and had done it for years; that he had no doubt Bagot and Bagshaw were doing-their best to establish a new business; that It would have been far better for both of them to taka

•ituation* in the office of some large, tiriiu; ami. finally llu»( lie, John Rowlauison, did not conduct a pubtie char ity, but wa* a practical ship owner, and wished at pr<‘*enl that he was in a more profitable business. It was not exactly an encouraging response, and Howlandson's face of the granite Scots type did not soften his words. A more timid hearer would have crept out of'the room, but Bagot could play a losing gimc and never give up. With Mac's vise emmsel, and the remembrance That it was neck or nothing, he spoke boldly. .

‘■l don't want to waste your time, Mr. Rowlandson, and I don’t want to say anything disrespectful, for you might be my father, but I don’t think, sir, you are acting like a good sportsman. If we arc beginners, don’t you think we ought to get the better chance? 'And if we want to make a business of our own. ipstcad of being machines in another man's office, isn't that the right spirit? If some man hadn’t started for bimSelf, where would the big firms have been? And if a man has succeeded, shouldn't he give a leg up to the other follows? We don’t ask any favour, sir, cither about prices or about goods; we only ask a fair field. And if you don’t mind mo saying it, you needn’t have used that word charity. We are doing our best, and if we don't succeed, my partner and I are not going to hang round Wosthaven; we shall go to Canada and join the North-west Police."

While Dick was speaking, the old man eyed him keenly, and at his last words he flushed to the forehead. ‘•You're the most freespoken young dog that has ever stood in this room, ami I've half a mind to order ye to the door. Rut I’ll not deny that there’s a measure of truth in what ye say. I'll think over the matter, and see whether ,we can let ye offer; but I make no promises, young man, mind that, and ye must stand on your own merit."

So Bagot departed in chastened triumph, and when two months afterwards they got the Glenshee to victual, which happened to be old Mac's own ship, the foreman of Bagot and Bagshaw waltzed with the assistant foreman' down the middle of the cellar. It was only one ship, amt they could not. expect many from Rowlandson, but for once, at any rate, they had taken’their ipeat from out of the lion's mouth; Between the time the Glenshee left and returned, it had got abroad that the "Bags” had stored her, and a firm which had long looked upon the work of Rowlandson. MacKillop and Co. as their absolute right lifted up their voice. Whether it was that their representative had taken too lordly a tone with old Row, or that independent man resented their contemptuous reference to’ the young firm, or that he was in a bad temper, he fell upon the ambassador from the Quadrilateral. Did they think that he was bound to give them his business’ Hadn't he a right to manage his own affairs? What did it matter to him whether Bagot and Bagshaw were fifty years old or two years old? He knew some old firms whose heads were getting too soft, and their tongues wagging too freely; and before he’d allow any man to dictate to him in his own office about where he wo'fild get his ships’ stores, he would see that man at a remote distance and in unpleasant circumstances. For Rowlandson had in Carly days been at sea himself, and could bn occasion express himself in a plain, sailorlike fashion. When Mae returned, and. as usual, rolled bis way into the boss’ room, none daring to make him afraid, and the first greetings were over, Rowlandson inquired of him concerning the quality of the stores provided for the ship by the firm of Bagot and Bagshaw. "Just perfect!" responded old Mae with great emphasis. "I declare, as 1 hold a master’s certeeficate, I never had such beef and buscuits in all my experience. to say nothing o’ the coffee and the rest o't. They're line laddies, and honest to the backbone. I ken them wool, and I've got my anc stock there for years. And ye eanna cheat a ship’s captain. Na. mi. I’m no wantin' to med ille wi’ ither folks’- business, 'Mister Rowlandson, but I wudna deal wi' than upset!in’ bodies that ye employ— no, though they gave me my stores for nacthing. Bagot and Bagshaw have just one fault. They’re too anxious to please nml they’re too open-handed. ' Ddd! the men lived like fightin’ cocks time twa months.” And when Mac rolled out on the return journey, lie had a shrewd suspicion that he had done no lasting injury to his laddies, mid that although Rowlands gave no sign, he would not.

in future transactions, look unfavourably upon the “Bags.” Mae had certainly made an impression. and that afternoon the ship owner inarched into the modest warehouse of‘ tnc “Bag.*," intent upon seeing things with his own eyes/ ami making up his

mind on lirst-lurfid information. The office door was locked, and there was no one in the store room, but the sound of voices ascended from the lower regions. “Well, Dick." (“This,” said Row to himself, “must be Bagshaw, the other fellow”) “that’s old Mae’s lot tight and right. I’ve chucked in an extra pound or two of that eocoa the old chap likes, and some peppermint drops that would eat their way through any other man's palate. He’s a decent sort, and has stuck by us well. Say, old man, will you come over here for a jiff and give me a hand with this barrel, and we'll start on the Glenshee stuff? Did you hear that the sailors drank our health on the fo'castle because they liked the grub? Torn your apron, have you? Good thing it wasn't your breeches. By Jove! if Westhaven knew that a toff like you. who dresses like Solomon in all his glory, hurled pork barrels, and nailed up boxes tilled with tinned meats, they would get some new ideas."

“But they don't know,” (“They’re beginning. Master Bagot,” said old Row to himself) "and they’ll never find out that we work down here half the night sometimes, with the lights shut off above. If the Quad ferreted out that we did every stroke of our own work, they would have another jape at us, and fairly drive us out of our job. It would end our connection, I guess, with Rowlandson. MacKillop.” (“Perhaps it would,” said .Rowlandson, .sotto voce, “and perhaps it wouldn’t.”).

And then the lads below heard someone shouting: “Is there anyone in this forsaken warehouse, or have Bagot and Bagshaw retired from business? I can’t spend the afternoon hunting for the firm among sugar bags.” ’

“Great Scott!” whispered Dick (cellars carry sound better than a theatre), “it’s old Rowlandson himself. You’re cleaner than I am, Geordie; slip up the ladder and take him into the office. Tell him you were down directing the men, or any other cram that occurs to you. I’p, man. quick! and I’ll go out at the back door, and wash in Hope’s office.: and come in at the front door as if I’d been on ’Change.” At which the hearer above chuckled grimly. When Bagot came in, he found Bagshaw standing in the middle of the office, the picture of shame, while the sole partner and complete proprietor of Rowlandson. MacKillop and Co. sat in the customers’ chair, and held forth with incisive speech and sardonic humour upon the sin of deceit, which he would hardly have expected could have been so ripe in lads without a beard, and, before they died, would make them the champion liars of Westhaven.

“This is the other one,” he said, surveying Dick, who was almost abashed. “I’ve had some of his impertinence already. One would think, to see him. that he did nothing but manicure his hands and tit on clothes, instead of hammering lids and opening barrels. Ye’re the biggest fraud I've come across in my business life, and that is saying a good deal for a man that has had to do with ships.” And the “Bags” for once were reduced to silence and confusion of faee. "Do ye think.” and old Row was now standing in the doorway of* the little office, “that ye could lay your hands on

a few- hundred (rounds more capital, and pick- up. a couple of wareliousemen as trustworthy as the last ones? Because if ye could,” and now that stern Scot looked kindly on the lads,l'll. you the chance of storing The*:fleet" of Rowlandson, MacKillop and Co?’ * ’ *

Before they could say anything, old Row was gone; but they knew that the dark and cloudy day was over for them, and that the sun had risen upon the business of Bagot and Bagshaw.