Continued from the previous post……
SUCCESSFUL CAREER OF A MERTHYR GENTLEMAN IN NEW YORK
Merthyr Telegraph – 20 September 1878
“The next week after landing in this city he began work in a job printing office in Beekman Street. In a very few weeks after that he heard that the American Grocer, a new publication at that time that was struggling for existence, wanted a foreman, and very fortunately for him and it, he obtained work on the paper. He remained in the position of foreman, receiving a moderate salary, upon which he lived carefully and economically, saving some money and laying it by every week doing his work thoroughly and well, and showing his ability in the best way it can be shown, viz., by practical demonstration. Changes subsequently took place in the office, and Mr Jones having some money invested in the stock, and having gained the confidence of other stockholders in his ability to conduct its affairs, in July, 1876, assumed control, and under his management our readers can testify to the marked ability with which the paper has been conducted.
Our mail list testifies to the enormous growth of its circulation, our advertising columns to the great increase in advertisements, whilst our advertisers can bear witness as to how great a hold it has on the minds of its subscribers by the large returns they receive from advertising in its columns. If the stockholders do not receive large dividends it is not the fault of Mr Jones, but of the policy of devoting all the revenues of the paper to improving it and extending its circulation.
Mr Jones is now a large owner in a paper that is acknowledged to be the representative journal of the grocery trade in the United States. This has been due to his own exertions, to his working faithfully and ably for his employers when on a salary, thus impressing them with the importance of raising him from step to step, until confiding the sole charge of the paper to his hands. By his economy in saving a portion of his wages every week, thereby having a fund to assist him in purchasing an interest in the paper, he gave confidence to his associates, inasmuch as a man who was a good manager of his own affairs, was careful, economical and saving when on a salary, must needs be the right man to have charge of the financial, editorial, and mechanical departments.
The result has proved that they did not make a mistake, and that the right man was put in the right place. The rigid economy that Mr Jones was obliged to learn in his youth is carried out in every department of the American Grocer. Every person on the editorial staff, and every man and boy in the composing room and job office know that he thoroughly understands what can and ought to be done, and also that he will insist upon its being done properly and at the time wanted. The result of such a course has been that every department of the American Grocer is filled with hard-working, steady men, and, as Mr Jones says with pride, he can turn out more work, in better style, from the composing and job office than is done with the same force in any other office in this city.
We hope by the 1st of September to see him back at his post, refreshed and invigorated by rest and recreation that his travels will widen his business experience, and that the prominent business men whom he will undoubtedly come in contact with, will give him broader views, so that he may be able to lie even more useful to the readers of this paper than ever. We do not doubt that this will be the case. An energetic, observing man, who has the opportunity, is always picking up and storing away in the storehouse of his memory facts and figures to be put into practical use at the proper time, and there can be no question that our readers will be the gainers by our chief’s trip to Europe”