The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 26, 1906, Page 3

/temarkable Life §'tory of an Qak- land Aerchant who has won suc- 2288 though r—e—_—— By Agnes Fogter Buchanan. ] AXY men and women affiicted Iness have had and 1 de- es firs 4 to enable these sy minds have en at work, giving their full powers e service of the less fortunate f menity around them. This endeavor has pe a ric arvest, the fullness of 85 not even yet been reached i orers in the fleld ve al- action of seeing omen, who, from acci sfortune, have been mlight and other life, reading and g ple € musical Ins ments den to selves ected with joys the di- s of severa 1struments s omp sist. To ousa of er “soul N g of N gers & t lig « r s ; gand . a w ho ca reac jed with but little more ance eir eq Niterate eg es and pon coupling sir erbs w iral substantives ¥ £ sightless e orce any one. The insight and required to bring great from string and key do g hae opened an avenue of rapid writing to the blind as well s to those ng of a flower means ombination of colors a master's hand speaks rie ave beem the de P es followed the has been necessary for make living. But know of a man, s shut up within him- onducting a n Oakland. His omas. The unpre s two-story building w ts his business gives no indication f the going on inside. The W B. Thomes Company sign above t door may mean everything or it may ean nothing. It may be merely the e of corporation or W. B ses may be the presiding genius self. And so he turns out to be Mr. Thomas is 2 man who makes his lity felt the moment he gives is hand. You know, because you perso. ‘dds been told, that the eyes behind the dark glasscs are sightiess, but you hnave at the same time a queer, not sltogether comfortable, feeling that they are looking you through and Any one who lives con- in that atmosphere must willy rough stantly nilly be consclentious and square. that same force of personality 1t that carried him through the first HE LGOKS AFTER> ERY DETAIL OF A WITHOUT EYE BIG BUS » EVE SAL e T R 5 e A T o) BLVD HLERCHANT EL S change would faculties to to brush up his mental arithmetic. piece was sent to the office, check for a the check came a re- of the change be in small Mr. Thomus happened to be at His bookkeepe Not at all! The delicate humming bird 1 to make the change. Thomas chose to do it himeelf, and certainly had silver granted. e nickels and dimes and quar- them, enough shut a naturally these resource takes but a few shop to disc bunches of confound any of the store personal supervision When stoc the work. business there t this keen busi- is taken it is he There cer- 1ly is a place for everything in his He walked —is quickly and quietly removed. is anything make-up that suggests dependence. the contrary, it is an impression of in- herent strength and down the center of the in :this man’s impression measuring his distance by the number of steps taken in a certain direction. Then, turning abrupl.y to the right, he walked In the same manner toward the herdware department. hand, an individual uervous hand, one a palmist Would like to read, touching ever so lightly two or three boxes, only to move quickly on to another. once he stopped and pulled out the “Isn’t this what you want?’ turning around. tomer was saved a trip downtown and Mr. Thomas had scored a point. In this connection, ene cannot but no- tice the consideration and attention hown Thomas by his employes, an at- tention accorded not so much to an af- flicted fellow man as to an intimate friend. There are about ten of them and every one from the bookkeepei, hand bower, boy who “polishes up the handle of the big front door” watches and waits upon er with a personal interest, Every ‘obstacle—a chalr in his way, a anything that would in any ‘way retard or impede him ad 30 make his affiiction more keeuly felt cult one to m into system This even to a , everything is in Its place, imperative. would be completely at sea— y his hands on self-contained re- ter a few ion with him. he is able to 1 arything at a moment" A man stopped there the other day in search of a certain kind of hinge. The clerk informed him that they had none Disappointed, and anticipat- ing a trip into town, the customer, who was a personal friend of Mr. Thomas, went back to the office. ‘“Hello, Mr. Thomas.” The quiet man at the desk turped and paused just a perceptible second. Then, with a smile: of welcome: “Oh, it’s Mr. Blank. How do you de?” came positively and definitely, with no suggestion of possibility of “What can I do for you to- Up went one impression watching the speed and precision with unguided trips Operates a Cash Register. it grew slowly at fi he makes through the big store. Invents Business System. is more than anything And his is of ordinary were not suited to the B. Thomas was the the shop, and as such attainments Mr. Thomas else an inventive genius. the sort of invention that is practical— the kind that saves people work. entire system upon which he ruans kis establishment has been added to gradually the eight vears of his by until he. has state of perfection. In the Thomas system the bookkeeper has no ledgers to confuse—no dayhooks has systematized. the keeping of the accounts until balancing recreation and up statements child's play. register is his daily cashbook. register- . but actial cash re- The file Is he was deter- To achieve this there be considered. First of all a cash register was needed, one which According register shoul, counter in were mady its present in the office, not on bookkeeper and this a special structed with Some of the keys at regular intervals have been covered with sand paper, so that Mr. Thomas ca. and instantly place the lation of this othing, I'm afraid. Your steck has 1 wanted Ssome hinges, but t2lls me you're all Another pauvee.* ’ vou sure? machine was con- to perplex has become 1 think we have box or stepladde His manipu- With a auick, deter his ledger bination and the thatsat of the com- ent’s notice the state of the fimances of the W Thomas Company can be ascerta But his greatest pride—his greatest labor saving deviee is his adding ma chine, which occupies the place of honor in the ofice. The agent who made that particular sale must be & wender "he task of selling an adding machine blind man Is not on the face of it an easy or an-alluring one. It was neces: to make the prospective pur- cha ee with the agent's s while feeling at the same time with his own fingers. However, the salesman had an sy job. Mr.Thomas' keen perception recognized at once that here.was a ma- chine which, if it could be made practi- . would be of inestimable assistance to him in simplifying the office work and in enabling him to render state- ments of accounts himself. The order was given and created a commotion in the company’s headyu and kinds of unique machines had been made to order, but t was the first and as far as 1= known is the only add- ing machine made for the individual use of the blind. The question was, how could it be made practical? How could such a machine meet all the re- quirements demanded of it? Nimble wits went to work and brains were cudgeled n the determination to make this as far as possible a perfect ma- chine for the specigl use for which It was designed. At last, after four months! it arrived. Never In his moest sanguine moments had Mr. Thomas dreamed of such an aid in mechanical device. TFor one who could not see, there was of necessity some distinction to_he made in the keys. There were 117 of them. Accordingly some of them were made convex, some contave, some surfaces were smooth. others reugh. ‘Uhen there were twe relief keys. Plac- fng his little fingers on_these. Mr. Thomas ‘had his bearings. and in less thme than it takes to tell about it he can reel out a statement while you walit. Thomas should copyright many of his ideas for reducing work to & minimum and elucidating the Tntricacies of bhook- ofe-- — e long ago a maen me injo the office and wanted a hur- -up statement of his account with the Thomas -Company tn the office at the time but Mr. Thomas new nothing® of the No one was a clerk who books eor the accounts. ‘s pumber on the file. r that it was plain sa ng while Mr. Answering The bell rings, and Thomas starts immediately quest of the in over the quick, buzzing it a word or gquestion work and with pencil and order book, s a long order being bookkeeper All sorts il ruzsing attachment to inspiration and bookkeeper next to her. But the moment the s establishm absolntely conselidationist the president Central Improvement Club of Oakland, 2 man who has the confidence and re- spect of all who know So through years Mr. Thomas has come to see the “see the stars and has for time been of twenty trees whose thickly interwoven How many of us, ing in the same impenet have made selves that he has ble aarkness, rd for our- THERE MAY BE SOMETHING ANY names, illusirious and other- M wise, have been rescued from oblivion by comparatively trivial circumdtances. The story runs that Brougham, on being rallied by the Iron Duke as a man whose name would go down to posterity as a great lawyer, statesman, ete., but who would nevertheless be best known by the name of the car- riage that had been christened after him, retorted that the Duke's name would no doubt' be handed down to _posterity ag that of a great general and the hero of a hundred batt but that he would he best remembered by a particular kind of boot named after him. The cobbler who, after the Welling- ton boot appeared. seized upon the idea of placing a Blucher boot upon the market. made a large fortune therefrom. Sailors will never let die Admiral Vernon's nickname of “Old Grog” (so called by reason of the breeches he wore. made of grogram. a mixiure of siik and mohair). in the same given by them to the rum that he ordeved to be diluted with waier. The name of another drink—negus—has sur- vived from the time of Queen Anne, when it was the favorite of one Colonel Negus. More common than either, - —— - IN A NAME AFTER ALL vented it as a means of taking a hasty while engaged the admiralty in his duties Cambridge letter-car- rier on whom Milton wrote two shert will probably always be better remembered expression the Spegtator, kept a certain number of horses in his stables. which were so arranged tha: each should be taken out in turm. the cholce being between the horse stand- ing next the stable door at the time— “that or none. ‘ertain towns and districts, too, such Oporto, Champagne and Bur- the' productions named after them: In fact. the two latter provinces: ceased to exist after the substitution of departments for the oid provimees,| before the days of the French revolu-; undoubtedly better outside France for the red pep- per it produces than for being the lo-! to which French conviets arel transported, while the town of Cognae,’ in France, owes it celebrity solely to| | the brandy distilled from its grapes.' Cologne is, perhiaps, mors famous its manufacture of eau de cologne for its magnificent cathedrak