The Boy Who Was Paid Seven Cents
for the Job Is Turning Over Many
Millions Now.
John Wanamaker once received seven copper cents for turning over bricks to
dry in the sun. This was the first sum of money that the successful
merchant can remember having earned; but his first regular position, which
paid him a dollar and a quarter per week, was in a bookstore in
Philadelphia.
At that time it was the boy's intention to become a clergyman, and partly
in preparation for such a calling, he became a member of the Young Men's
Christian Association. A remark made by one of its members was responsible
for the change in his intentions, for he intimated to young Wanamaker that
if he worked as hard for himself as he did for the association he would
become a rich man. Acting on this advice, the boy obtained a situation as
stock clerk in a large clothing establishment.
After passing successively through the various grades of clerks and
salesmen, he finally formed a partnership with his brother-in-law to go
into the clothing trade. Their joint capital was thirty-five hundred
dollars. On the first day the firm did a business of twenty-four dollars
and sixty-seven cents, and for the year, twenty-four thousand dollars. But
although year after year the business increased, Wanamaker never lost
interest in religious gatherings. Among other things, he founded a
Sabbath-school, which, commencing with only twenty-seven pupils, has grown
into the Bethany of to-day, with its several thousand members.
Always abstemious in his way of living and credited with many acts of
generosity, it is related that one day, on being requested for the story
of his life, Mr. Wanamaker replied:
"Thinking, trying, toiling, and trusting--in those four words you have all
of my biography."