A VOUCHER
My life, both in business and socially, in 1892 was not essentially
different from that of 1891. Business continued satisfactory, my
profits running up to within a few thousand dollars of the previous
year.
My senior clerk, George Norman, had been in my employ for eleven
years, coming to me as an office-boy. His salary was now twelve
hundred and fifty dollars. I told him that as a clerk he would
never be worth more to us, and advised him to start as a broker,
which he did.
We gave him a strong endorsement in a circular to the trade, and
how well we supported him is shown by the fact that we paid him
sixty-six hundred dollars in commissions the first year of his
business.
We returned to "Redstone" early in May. Our home, after our New York
experience, was more attractive than ever, and we did not believe
we would again care to leave it.
My readers will remember my reference in a former chapter to a
trade journal which I turned over to George Lawton. On July 9th,
in celebration of the commencement of its tenth year, the publisher
issued a special number, a copy of which is before me. An article
it contains is so completely a confirmation of much that I have
written, I insert it here verbatim, except for change of names to
comply with my narrative and the omission of irrelevant matter.
The article was written by the Secretary of the Exchange:
WALTER E. STOWE.
Since the father is properly considered before the child, it has
seemed to us most appropriate in celebrating for the first time the
birthday of the [name of the paper], that we should not only make
some mention of its founder, but even that we should accord him the
first place in our brief memorial; and we have accordingly, rather
against his own wishes, prepared the fine portrait of him which serves
as a frontispiece to this issue. It is hardly in the character of
a journalist that our readers will generally think of Mr. Stowe,
although most of them doubtless know that he originated and
for several years managed what we have no hesitation in saying is
_facile princeps_ among * * * trade papers; but rather in his more
permanent role of decidedly the most successful among the younger
generation of * * * dealers--as a man who has carved out for
himself a position as commanding in respect of the * * * market,
especially, as is occupied abroad by his London correspondent,
the famous A * * * S * * *
A trifle over a quarter of a century ago--in February, 1866--Mr.
Stowe entered the office of John Derham as a clerk fresh from
school, in which capacity he served for just four years, and then
succeeded to the business of this firm as a broker on his own
account. A broker in those days was an altogether different sort
of cogwheel in the machinery of commerce from the broker of to-day;
success depending primarily on geniality of manner, industry and
intelligence in the execution of commissions intrusted to him by
the jobbing houses; all of which qualifications, Mr. Stowe possessed
in an eminent degree, and devoting himself particularly to dealing
in * * * advanced rapidly to a position in which the major part
of such transactions as were not made directly by importers to
consumers, passed through his hands. But his business ability was
of a broader type than was needed for such services only, and in
the process of evolution, through which the old-fashioned broker
was practically eliminated, his place being taken by a new type
of dealer, who although not always or even usually trading for his
own account, yet makes most of his transactions in his own name,
and is chiefly differentiated from the jobber only from the fact
that he buys and sells in round parcels and does not break them
up to shop out into smaller lots. As this change took place, Mr.
Stowe developed into a dealer of a newer and more progressive type
than the * * * trade had hitherto known. To-day he stands rather
as an importer, the entries to his firm's credit having steadily
climbed the list of percentages until they are now far ahead of
those belonging to any other house; and with his intimate relations
with A. * * S. * * * & Co., of London, it would be making no
invidious comparison to say that he is the recognized leader of
the * * * trade of America.
For all his remarkably prosperous career, Mr. Stowe has been in no
way spoiled by success, and is to-day the same quiet, unassuming
gentleman as when these characteristics attracted the good will
of older men in the trade and secured to him the beginning of a
business which has since grown so largely. He was a late comer to
the membership of the Exchange, which he joined only in 1886; but
has served on its board of managers for four years past, and since
the first of April has held the position of vice-president. Outside
of his business, his life is a thoroughly domestic one, for which he
has abundant excuse in his beautiful home, "Redstone," at Knollwood,
N.J., where he is one of the most popular residents of that charming
suburb and where he has a particular claim to distinction in the
fine stable which he maintains, his chief hobby being horse flesh,
though not on the sporting side, with which we are most likely to
associate such a passion. In short, the [name of paper] has every
reason to be proud of its parentage, and like all good children
delights in doing filial honor and wishing its founder all possible
prosperity in the future as in the past.