THE MAKING OF A MILLIONAIRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 854, 19 July 1906, Page 20

THE MAKING OF A MILLIONAIRE.

A remarkable instance of the rapid accumulation of wealth, which astonishes even the blase habitues of Wall-street, New York, has been revealed by the formation of a syndicate to finance the Chicago firm of Sears, Roebuck, and Company, which is to be constituted a limited company with a capital of £B,000,000. Mr. Richard T. Sears, the founder of the firm, was a telegraphist in the employment of the Northern Pacific Railroad fifteen years ago. He began selling watches and firearms to his fellow-employees, and finally he opened a store in Chicago for the sale of goods, which were despatched to the purchasers by mail. The firm to-day employs 8000 persons. It does a cash business to the value of £8, 000,000 monthly, and makes an estimated profit of £600,000 annually. The plant occupies a great tract of land on the outskirts of Chicago, and the firm has its own police force, schools and hospitals. Mr. Sears is not yet forty-five years of age.