The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 17, 1898, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY ‘17, 1898. 19 ST THRILLING DUEL IN THE SANTIAGO NAVAL BATTLE Tierce Fight ! e:ween the Gloucester, Millionairz Morgan’s Converted Yacht Corsair, and the Two Spanish Torpedo Boat Destroyers, Plutcn and Furor, in Which the Latter Were Destroyed. Cal - N THE - . GLOUCE[TER] YVICTORY paid nc COMMANDER RICHARD WAINWRIGHT, in command attention to the guns of Morro. f the Maine when she was blown up in Havana har- He was sec- was the last to.leave the wreck, after having toiled over . v recovering the mangled bodies of the American : remembrance of the Maine was too vivid to allow him to wait. » destroyers emerged from the channel leading to the har- \inwright opened fire upon them alone with hi 2 destroyers and the Vizcaya opened on the plucky little of all she could do, the destroy passed her and left her Wainy tered the deadly quickly came as bef n two of Spaln the des , doggedly mmander in by Gloucester as it v their noses to the s famous torpedo-boat on which 1s taken as s quite re- body knows, the ir, flagship of Club squadron, war, w J. Pierpont hs ago, when she hting sea- advised that desired to acquire and with Admiral »an waters. an did not take a of parting with his vice Mr. Chapman is the oldest dry-goods salesman on the road and gives some very valuable advice to ginners. No salesman East or West is better qualified to speak in this particular field. tr aveled twentv years and sed a season. I have been ht years and only spent s with m; But 1 ather be a traveling sales man than a lawyer or a doctor Perhaps it is true that to succeed at » man must prefer that thing. 1 to be guided by my own ex- w e there are reasonable success: to even a Know Work by da Keen your diges Keep your ey steady, and tell not fairy ¢ customers. rel by night. and your temper even. hand the traveler who carries a pistol, a pack of cards, a bottle of whisky and a box of cigars in his chel doesn’t hold out. As a type he apidly disappearing. The merchants United St become edu- nd h re no longe: n friendship. They must have n, and they must be at the right time. An- is half the battle. In the de- of this country the part commercial travelers is rare- Yet it is a most import- it is a great deal easfer £o out and do a thing than it is to t it is d The commerc £ commercial traveler's k being a . spree, with o s and perpetual r , after all, gov- exactly the ime rules as te any other bu iddle man between uyer, and he must ct of each of them. , courteous ing, and polite. drinking and ex- ust work hard each day, and travel by t stopping place. It is 4 v that he must and ke to be able to 1d his digestion must be equal v kind of food he finds. Xperience is of any value 3 1g men who may think of start- ng out in this busin they are wel- tome to it. I began on the road about ile ‘time I reached my majority; al- well ght soon got another chance, however. rain of missiles from the battl hout the Gloucester. soon as they e fire of the destroyer hore and crowded on steam. one of them blew up as her crew er was beached, and her men scrambled ashore.— cabled report of the great naval battle off Santiago. also other essentials | goods, know your market, know | and he can’t well avoid | with the people along | When the ships be- to the conclusion that discretion was and turned back, in the hope of saving themselves She was waiting for them and came within range of her small and the Gloucester, as before, sustained their ’s most dreaded craft on one side and in yacht on the other was the most thrilling fe: The Gloucester was determined to prevent their escape. ture of apparently damaged by the with marvelous bravery she but the face of such tremendous odds was lackened, and a cheer were on fire. seen that the; They had was plunging into the Extract from craft, even at the Government's inti- mation, as he liked her and she was suited to the service required of her, but at last, recognizing the needs of the navy, he gave his consent and she be- came the property of Uncle Sam, while the steam pleasure fleet of the coun- try lost one of its handsomest vessels. As a pleasure craft the Co ir had few, if any, superiors In looks, effi- ciency, speed, seaworthiness and com- fort, and she was yachty from keel to truck. From the day of her trial she w a success. Season after season demonstrated her stability and worth. Early and late she was in commission, and few were the days she was not un- BY HENRY W. CHAPMAN. 1y T had served a useful apprentice- I in the retail trade. Why was that | useful? Because you can't sel! goods 3 you can’t con- | you can answer ate his objec- vince a customer unli | his questions and antic tions. trying to make friends with him unless you can sell him goods. Drinking with him and telling him good stories don’t | count for much nowadays. It's more |and more straight goods and straight busine Every week I get letters from friends asking advice about the road. I believe it is true that I am the oldest man in my line, dry goods specialties, traveling out of New York. For 20 vears I have | made reguiar trips through the South- { west. I have never carried a pistol in that time and never needed one—in spite of the saying that when you need | a pistol in Texas you ‘‘need it like h—L."”" I never saw trouble that I felt T had to take any part in. Indeed I never car- ried a weapon since my early days, | | when there were not somanyrailroads, !and I had to make wagon trips some- | times by night, from one backwoods | town to another, with a colored man { driving me and a Winchester on the | seat by my side. | When a youig man asks how he can start, all I can say is, begin in a small way. Experience and reputation, in your line, are absolutely necessary to secure employment by a good house at good | money. Until you have these try for them, as a retail salesman, anywhere. Unknown quantities are not wanted in | big houses. | 'There are certain kinds of trade, such | as the shoe, the hat and the clothing, | which do nearly all their business by | | means of traveling salesmen. And they | | do nearly all of it in four or five months | | of the year. These salesmen go out in | | May and June to take their fall orders, | and they =o again in November and | December to take their spring orders. | | A salesmanwhowould travel tenmonths | in the year and carry five times as | many goods could not sell any more | than they do in four or five. Which in- dicates that there a two kinds of | salesmen, the “pikers,” who grind away | | all the time, and the men who bunch | | their hits, to use a baseballism, antici- pate their customers’ demands, sell spring goods, say in my line, in Novem- | ber and December, go vut in March to | keep in touch with their customers and | then epend the warm months in New | | York selling goods in their own houses | to their road customers who have come der way. Mr. J. Beaver-Webb of New York designed her and superintended her construction and in a general way he alw had her in charge. She was launched in April, 1891, from the yard of Messrs. Neafie & Levy of Philadel- phia, her builders. On the Sound and and Eastern waters she reeled off thou- sands of knots without mishap or in- convenient detention to owner or guests. That was the mark intended r construction and it was easily Her hull is stanchness itself engines and boilers are of the most approved styles. One order went with her contract. From her keel up she should be of the best, and care was taken that there should be no departure from that man- datory uirement. And during his ownership Commodore Morgan let it be understood that the yacht should al- s be in the best of condition, and sh was never lost sight of. Twice a year she was overhauled in hull and machinery—at her laying ur in the fall and going into commission every spring. Thus she was never a disap- pointment, but a craft that was always satisfactory, always a pleasure to use and always a pleasure to see. Her graceful model was known in all our vachting waters. Her spick and span appearance was a subject of pleasant comment by yachtsmen, and landlub- bers, too, grew enthusiastic when the Corsair was pointed out. The Corsair is 241 feet 6 inches over all, 204 feet on water line, 27 feet 2 inches beam, 16 feet 5 Inches deep and 13 feet draught. Her engines are of the triple expansion type, with cylin- ders 21 inches, 33 inches and 54 inches in diameter, by 30 inches stroke of pis- ton, and her boilers are of the old re- liable Scotch return tubular descrip- tion. The dimensions given allow plenty of deck room and ample accommodations below. Tt was the delight of visitors to stand well forward and look aft. The graceful sweep of her broad deck re- sembled that of an up-to-date liner. At night, with hundreds of electric lights alow and aloft, this view was partic- ularly charming. From forecastle to (CJONOROJOROJOJOJORORCRORORONOCRORONOXOROXOXOROXOROROXOXOROROXOROROROXOXOROXOJOJO)] w to Succeed as a Salesman. on here to buy for the fall. While it is true that it is the advance business that pays, it is also true that | there isn’t any man who can make what 1 call a salary unless he sells goods in New York as well as on_the road. While merchants came to New . York twenty years ago more than) they do now, it is still true that they continue to come on now at certain | times. It is New York, then, that the | traveling salesman who has been in| their stores, and mixed with them, knows what they want and how to sell to them. And it is here above all that the value of the traveling salesman to his parent house is proven, above all mercantile agency reports. The best customer last year may not be so good this year; disccunts may have fallen off, ill health hurt his busi- ness; he may have quarreled by letter with the home house. Now. the home | house not only wants to weed out un- desirable customers, but to replace them with good ones. It is the expe- rienced traveling salesman who alone can know not only when but where to | go. 'If T tell a Southwestern merchant | in July, in New York, that I will be in | his place on December 1, and I have al- ways “toted fair'” with him, he’ll wait to buy my line of goods until he sees my samples. I have traveled 2000 miles in one week, and 600 miles in another week and made from flve to seven towns in each. On the 26th day of last November I was in Dallas, on the 28th | in Waco, on the 29th in Galveston, on | December 1 in Houston, and on Decem- ber 2 in Fort Worth. That would meas- ure only about 700 miles over the State, but it was 1500 the way I went. Expenses? Expenses don't cut any figure. You must get the business, no matter what it costs. Your expenses may be $60 one week and $160 the next. To meet them you draw drafts on the parent house—not on a bank. I never knew a reputable house to refuse to pay a draft drawn by a reputable traveling man. And for Iintegrity, traveling men are away above the average. The old timer who drank hard and told stories is no longer “in it.” The merchant of to-day knows when he is “getting a run for his money.” It doesn’t do any harm to “jolly” him a bit; naturally, you wouldn’t take your troubles to him. Tact and truthfulness generally win. And sometimes you tell him a story you have heard. Experienced men, who have their health, are never out of a job. Such a \ A OVER "TORPEDO-BOAT DESTROYERS- “FUROR "%~ PLUTOR / TEUT con. SZAINRIGHT = O THE GLOUCESTER™ WHEN A YACHT D HE ' CQORIAG * Lieutenant Commander Wainwright did his part in laying low the Pluton and Furor there have been sweeping under the sea and over the land to the commodore scores of messages congrat- ulating him upon the efficiency of the yacht he turned over to the Govern- ment. When Mr. A. F. Yarrow, the eminent English engineer, was in New York last fall he inspected the Corsair and other of Mr. Beaver-Webb's boats, and remarked that for the service intended they could easily be made 30 per cent after staterooms there were comfort, ample accommodations and luxury, which thousands of guests may attest. And among the latter have been many prominent people, a few now recalled being Lord Russell of Killowen; Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of the Colo- nies; John G. Carlisle, former Secre- tary of the United States Treasury; Benjamin F.” Tracy and Willlam C. ‘Whitney, former Secretaries of the Navy; the Bishops of New York, Al- bany, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Minnesota; Admiral F. M. Bunce, U. Soah William Rockefeller, August less in weight and be thoroughly effi- Belmont and Charles Lanier. cient, and then, if the weight thus Commodore Morgan regarded the saved were added in power, the yacht Corsair as a model cruiser. He was would be the faster for the change. Mr. Webb’s reply was that in his opin- ion they were best as constructed, and the work of the Corsair since she has been owned by the Government has shown that he is correct. The last survey of the Corsair was made in Aprii, 1894, by the New York Standard Association, when she was classed ‘“Al, sixteen years,” and no doubt she is good for every day of the time with any kind of luck attending her. That she may hold her own for this period and much longer, all sail- ors. soldiers, yachtsmen and other good citizens of the republic will heartily wish. so well pleased with her that his new vacht, now under construction, will simply be another Corsair, somewhat enlarged, in fact, as well as in name, and is from the hands of the same de- signer. It has been sald that since the story of the Corsair’s (Gloucester’s) achieve- ment off Santiago Commodore Morgan has been asked to say something about his late yacht. *‘The yacht has spoken for herself,” he answered, “and I can- not add anything.” That is and al- ways was true. Whether on the Sound, far to the eastward, down the bay or up the quiet Hudson, the Corsair as a pleasure vessel always spoke for her- self, and recently in the Caribbean, do- ing Uncle Sam's bidding, she has in- deed spoken for herself in a way that the echoes have rolled around the globe. Commodore Morgan knows that. Since —_— e ———— The property owned fraternities at Cornell is valued at $47 liams, $350,000; Yale, $300,00f $200,000; Wesleyan, $125,001 $125,000. o IR oo rororororerorororoororo roroYororosoloxexeXooofofe X X oy ofoRCIOCCOCIORORORONCICIOIOROJ OO oY oY) Cte Yew YPicaragua Canal. one, who travels with a special line of goods for a big house, may make $12,000 or 315,000 a year in commissions. Many make from $6000 to $8000. A good house salesman in a big house may sell in the market (that is, in wew York City, of course) a million dollars’ worth of gen- eral dry goods in a year. But he couldn’t possibly go out on the road with.general samples and sell half that amount in a year. Yet a good traveling salesman with a special line of dry goods might sell on the road a million dollars’ worth of his specialty. So the cost to general houses is less than to special lines to sell their goods, and the general salesmen get paid les: Concentration is what pays the house as well as its travelers. Know market, know your customers and know your special line of goods. Every successful road salesman has offers to take out side lines. refused; thing to sell and to ‘sell that and noth- ing else. In all my twenty years on the road I have never been insulted, never had a personal altercation. ARMIES OF THE WORLD. HE latest addition to the military | census of the world presents some queer figures. At the present time Europe has 3,500,000 men underarms, The following are the figures of the different armies on a peace footing: Denmark Servia Holland . Greece Portugal . Roumania Belgium .. Sweden and Norway Spain Switzerland Turkey .. Great Britaln. Italy .. Austria France Germany . Russia The above armies employ horses in time of peace. e The standing armies of all civilized na- tions amount to 4,610,000 soldiers, with 700,000 horses. The figures in time of war are: over Sweden Roumania . Denmark Belgium . Austria (Including all forces) Italy . Russia . Japan .. South American republics. China .. United States . But I have always | and it’s better to have one | | | among the Spanish-Americans. | Latin-American countries. BY CHARLES R. FLINT. Mr. Flint is one of the most influential merchants engaged in the South American trade. His busi- ness ventures roll up into the millions annually. For years he has made a careful study of the needs of the southern republics and the benefits HIS war is going to open up trade opportunities for the United States in the southern half of this hemisphere. I believe it will result in a quickening of business all through this country, in the bullding of the Nicaragua canal and in the de- velopment of the American merchant marine—all desirable things from a mecantile viewpoint. 1 have never found any feeling there against this country. At least not There are, of course, some Spaniards in those countries, recently from Spain, who have a natural feeling of affection for the mother country. In Spanish colo- nies like those in the Argentine Repub- lic, there is of course a feeling agalinst us; but even that does not prevent us doing business with them. We have orders all the time from Spanish corre- spondents. But the Spanish-American people are with us in this conflict. I know that from the letters of advice which I receive all the time. When this war is over we are going to be in a better condition to do business with the Latin-American republics, because the war is going to teach them to have | a greater respect for us. I believe this will be the last war we will fight for perhaps a half century, for the reason that we shall teach the world to hold us in greater respect and | not meddle with us. The new business boém with the South Americans will probably come in all lines. I cannot think of anything which we could sell to them that we do not send there now. Every means has been used to quicken our trade with South America. We have sent a cata- logue containing pictures of all kinds of machinery to every engineer in the Every one of them knows just what machinery is made in America and its cost. We are getting out now a new edition of this book. There are only a few things which can be done to increase our trade in the south. One of them is to estab- lish an international American bank. That project is now in the hands of Congress. 1 suggested it when I was 12 delegate to the Pan-American Con- to be obtained from the proposed canal. gress. | It is perfectly safe to deal with these The bank proposes to give the people | Governments. In my long experience of South and Central America a chance | I have known only one case where a to do their financial business through | Government deliberately went back on this country. Just now it is all done in | its agreement and I would not care London. This bank would have a Lon- | to be quoted as to that. don branch, but its head would be here | You can deal directly in a, business- and its tail in England instead of its |like way with the Governments them- tail being in New York, as is now the | selves. There are opportunities now case. for street railway building, gas com- Such a bank could handle a business | panies, electric light companies, water with a volume of about $250,000,000 works. year. That is the amount of our busi- A young man without capital has not ness with those countries now. London | much chance anywhere. But I should now handles this and about $300,000,000 | say that a young man without money more. We are the largest buyers of | who wanted to succeed would have to South American goods in the world. | associate himself with men who have In addition to this international bank | capital. As to starting out without a we need reciprocity with the countries | specialty in South and Central Ameri- of South and Central America, and we | ca Wwithout capital, I should say that need encouragement for our shipping |4 young man's chances were no better interests. But about the latter we need | there th@n they would be if he landed not say anything until the war is over. | in any city of the United States with- Just now our lack of a merchant ma- | out money. If he has a mechanical rine is one of our great safeguards. We | trade, though, the chances in his favor have so little that Spain can seize. My | Of success are good. A young man who firm is running most of its ships under | has a knmv]s-dg_n of engineering will a foreign flag, and we are making morel succeed down there. I should say it British charters all the time. was a good place for a young man too, I share the confldence of most public | Decause the people welcome the Anglo- men that one outcome of the war will | Saxon. I have known many cases of be the building of the Nicaragua canal. | YOUNg Americans who have married 1 have always been in favor of the | Into very rich families there. They canal. I was the representative of the | €ncourage these alliances because they president of Nicaragua when the con- | Se€ that it brings good results—it im- cession was made. But I have never | Proves the breed. taken an interest in the companies or- | The United States will never exerclse gaaized for the building of the canal |2 form of sovereignty over the Latime because they were not of the right kind. | American countrie: Where they should have been composed | I should think it very f of substantial men throughout, they |sider such a thing. *We want close re- contained a few substantial men and a |lations with the Spa great many who were not. ple, but they are quite capable of gove I think the present company will not ng themselves. be able to complete the canal. What Their revolutions have been very ought to be done is to get the biggest | much exaggerated. There is not a dis- contractors in this country to examine | turbance of any kind south of the Rio the work and say for what they will | Grande to-day. The belief that the undertake to complete it. When you |southern people are in a constant state have this substantial foundation, a |of insurrection is due to ignorance. company should be organized, composed | Chile had no revolution for fifty years; of responsible men throughout, which | neither did Brazil. Our own record is will undertake to furnish the money | no better than that. And in our Civil for the work. The development of | War we shed more blood than has been South American trade offers plenty of | spilled in all the revolutions in Central opportunities for investment. I put|and South America. We forget the rev- $100,000 into a business enterprise in one | olution at home. A South American of those countries last year. I have |revolution is a very easy thing to man- received $170,000 in cash from that in- | ufacture. When some of the newspa- vestment and I have $50,000 coming to | pers lack a sensation the first thing me yet in deferred payments. There |they think of is a South American rev- are splendid opportunities for capital | olution. As a fact, many of the revo- in Chile, in Brazil and in the Argen- |lutions you read about never occurred. tine Republic Copyrighted, 1898,