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Show i The Boyhood : of Famous I Americans fiuEeii Julius Rosenwald Peddling wasn't us profitable as the ten-year-old boy thought it ought to I 4 I A be. The wares ne had to offer didn't seem to appeal particularly t the busy housewives of Springfield. IU. Older and more experienced ex-perienced salesmen had called on them before the Ind appeared. ap-peared. Those who needed such wares ns Julius Rosenwald Rosen-wald had to offer generally seemed to be stocked up , with them. Not encouraging, to be sure. But the youngster wasn't discouraged. discour-aged. He knew there was a brisk market for him us a door to door salesman If he could hit on wares that were somewhat out of the ordinary. ordi-nary. He put away the staple articles of the trade and stocked up on chrc-nios. chrc-nios. He did a land office business I with them. The boy, who later built up the mail order business of Sears, Roebuck Roe-buck & Company, got his first lessons les-sons as a salesman at the age of ten. He learned then that there was nl-ways nl-ways a market If you had goods people peo-ple really wanted or could use. Springfield was the place of his birth. He was horn in 1S06 In a house not far from the old home of Abraham Abra-ham Lincoln. His father was In the clothing business so the boy seems to have come by his ability U3 a salesman sales-man naturally enough. Even before he turned to selling goods to the thrifty housewives of the Illinois city he had earned money. He got five cents an hour for pumping pump-ing a church organ when he was Just about able to perform the task. While he attended public schools he earned money as a newsboy as well as a salesman of chromos. He sold pamphlet programs when the Lincoln monument was dedicated In Springfield. Spring-field. He earned $2.25 that day and had the added pleasure of getting a close up of President Grant, the great hero of the Civil war. The general was the first man he ever saw wearing wear-ing kid gloves. He was a busy and thrifty youngster. young-ster. He had a chance to work as a clerk In a fancy goods store during his vacation when he was fifteen years old. Even at that age he was known ns a good salesman. Otherwise he would not have had such an opportunity. oppor-tunity. . He saved $25 of his first earnings In the store nnd used it to buy his mother moth-er a tea set as a gift for the twentieth anniversary of her wedding, much to her joy and to the great surprise of his brother and two sisters. He was already a man in the eyes of the latter. lat-ter. That year he went to New York to work as a clerk in the store of his uncles. They thought the youngster was deserving of a chance in the big city. He lived frugally in the metropolis, metrop-olis, developed his natural ability as a salesman and saved his money. New York, even in the early eighties, had many fascinations and time wasting wast-ing diversions for young men from the country who thought more of pleasure pleas-ure than of business. The youngster from the West was Interested In little other than business. busi-ness. He passed up any excessive recreation for the serious task of learning his job thoroughly and putting put-ting by his money. He wanted to establish es-tablish his own business. Even In those days it took real money and good credit to open a store of your own. After six years as a worker In the establishment of his uncles he decided de-cided he had enough money and sufficient suf-ficient experience to take the plunge. He was twenty-one when he opened Ids own clothing store. He made money with his business for four years. But he was looking for bigger worlds to conquer. He had his eyes open for opportunity. op-portunity. He heard of a clothing manufacturer manufac-turer who couldn't fill his orders for summer weight goods because he was unable to meet the demand. The young merchant decided that any business, busi-ness, where the demand was greater than the supply, was an excellent one with which to tie up. He moved to Chicago to put his money and his energies in the manufacture of clothes. His business prospered from the outset. R. W. Sears, pioneer In the mail order business and president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, was one of the young manufacturer's best customers. cus-tomers. Sears, watching the newcomer to the clothes making business, was deeply impressed by his direct methods meth-ods and business acumen. He found the young man to be a person of few-words few-words but mighty quick on the trigger when it came to making decisions. The Rosenwald concern did so well that when Us directing genius was offered a chance by Sears to buy a half interest In the mull order house for $70,000 he was able to finance the deal. That was In 1SP5. The next year he became Vice President Rosenwald. Ros-enwald. He was made president of the company when Sears retired iu 190S. Now- the business is worth millions mil-lions of dollars and the boy who sold chromos at the age of ten is devotiiw bis vast fortune to philanthropy " '(S.byThc Nnh American Newspaper AM,;inc0 |