Show GOTHAM GOSSIP ISle Stewart warl yi stupendous ons store the secret of ills his singular success fro from M the HERALD correspondent 1 EDITOR with wi the present month will go out the house of A T stewart co tile doors are to be b finally closed on juno june soth four hundred employees employ have already been discharged eleven hundred more are to go ive no time and you no space for moralizing moral izing on the DOW DOWNFALL OF A CHEAT the papers have done clone all that for the past three ill ree months stewart died and th alio 0 business has been dying ever over since in england tho the business and good will of so vast tast an establishment would have been taken over by a joint block stock company of practical merchants and the name would have been raved saved to the mercantile world but that is not the american way no one man cared to buy it out and new york merchants do not go into operative cooperative co transactions what wha t will be done with the great edifice e on broadway is not yet known there was talk of making a museum of it but that was an absurdity and would never have paid if it was not so far down town it would bo be more successful as an apartment dwelling house its great rest interior court and ond its four street et sides giving all rooms light and air air and it may come to that yet there seems to be no other as profitable use of brick and marble and mortar nowadays now a days as to put u t them into enormous ermous cn trench iren flat tat t houses which are no more like the genuine 1 parisian flat than european hotels in i new york are like the inns of london and berlin A T remorselessly crushed out and under sold smaller tradesmen and ho lie had bad a despotic and arbitrary way of de dealing ling with his employees winch which made mad a him feared but never loved andyes and yet there was never a merchant who more rigorously insisted on fairness and honesty lion caty toward his customers cu whether you paid high or low prices whether you bought merrimac prints or persian carpets you you got what you paid for and you got it at a fair fuir price an incident will illustrate this char chan act of the dead merchant prince nce at the very last occasion on which h ich mr stewart ever gave a dinner party indeed it was the last time ho lie ever sat at his own dinner table there were present a very few new york 31 people to meet an english gentleman w who 10 is now a member of Glad stones cabinet conversation ensued upon I 1 mr stewarts principles of business which had contributed to HIS 1113 GREAT SUCCESS A retired banker of this city remarked to my mind the great principle which has gu solute e confidence he lie inspired in his patrons the first time I 1 was ever in his store now thirty years cars ago I 1 saw a piece of goods w which ich pleased my eye the price was surprisingly low I 1 asked tho the clerk if it was tile best quality of its kind ilo ile said it if va as sand and was extolling the goods when a voice behind me said young X oung man why do you ou eay say this is of the best quality it it is not the best quality and you know it you will report at the office this evening sir then turning to me the stranger said the clerk made a mistake sir this is second quality goods havivi having a handsome finish but not the wearing wiring quality you may desire to secure at a higher price it was mr stewart that was addressing mcana me and from that day I 1 traded with A co with irith absolute confidence in getting honest goods for my money mr stewart almost blushed tribute to his business honesty li and illustrated another secret of his success a wonderful memory for detail by saying mr S I 1 remember the circumstances so well that I 1 can tell you the exact kind of dress goods you were admiring and ho he did so to the amusement and astonishment ol 01 the com company any around his bis table after sinner dinner on the above occasion mr stewart had a bhail thrown around his shoulders while he lie spent a few minutes in his picture gallery with his guests then excused himself as is he was not well and this was the last time ho lie ever appeared in his OWE own dining room NEMO NEW YORK juno 14 |