The Harvester World: Volume 3, number 10, October 1912

              The Harvester World

A BIT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY

By Hamp W^illiams, IHC Dealer, Hot Springs, Arkansas
I began the hardware and implement business in Hot Springs, Ark., the greatest health resort on earth, in February, 1896, in a room 18x60 feet; capital,$775.00; no commercial rating as a merchant; and no experience
in the hardware business. At that time I lived in the country two miles from my place of business. I did all my work, and walked to and from my business. I was always at my store before sun up and never closed before sun down. Ate a cold lunch from a tin bucket every day.
I was burned out in a general conflagration in the great Hot Springs fire which was in 1905.
I had $37,000 worth of hardware and implements burned, with only 120,000 insurance. Some may ask why I did not have more insurance. I had to pay a rate of five-forty. Tliat answers why. In 19051 erected the brick store in whicli we are now doing business. It is three stories, 100x100 feet, with a warehouse in the rear, 60 x 80 feet.
On resuming business in my new place in 1906, we incorporated under the firm name of Hamp Williams Hardware Company. We now have a branch store at Womble, forty miles west, and one at Benton, Ark., thirty-five miles west of Hot Springs.    We have added
Hamp Williams
58
CARS QX CARS
Bought and Contracted for at the Same Time
Once More We Have Broken the Record on Quantity BuyinR
15 cars COLUMBUS WAGONS.
AnwUBling to Twenty TTlouwnd DolUri.
5 cars MOWERS and RAKES. 5 cars "Oliver Chilled" PLOWS. 2 cars Chattanooga PLOWS. 1 car B. F. Avery & Sons Plows. 1 car "Oliver Chilled" Cullivalors. 1 car DYNAMITE & POWDER.
3 car. I. H. C. HAY PRESSES.
2 cMi Sorghum Mills and Pans.
3 cars Buggies and SpiIng Wagons.
3 cars FURNITURE.
7 cars Wire Fencing and Nails. 1 car Doors and Windows. 1 car Roofing. 3 cars Stoves.
BuyiDB for Onr Three Stores Civet Ui a Decided Advantage in Pric»
W« HiTe Ihe Good* and Want Your Tiad«
HAMP WILLIAMS HARDWARE CO.
One reason why Hamp Williams has a growing business
these branch stores to increase volume and not to scat¬ ter our business as is usual when branch stores are opened.
Our sales have increased from year to year.    Since our early days we were agents for the Deering  and
McCormick mowers, before the International Harvester Company was formed, and we have represented the IHC line since its organization. We have found its lines have paid us well, have given us volume and a fair profit, and best of all, the IHC goods have been the greatest advertising medium we could have.
IHC machines are well made, and they have done their part well in advertising and pushing sales. The Company has gone a long way in developing the agri¬ cultural interests of this country, and aside from its line of tillage implements, it includes the best wagon we have handled.
It is the first and only line of wagons we have ever sold that gave us no trouble. We sell them at all of our stores, and it is a great pleasure for us to recom¬ mend them to our trade.
We sell implements on time, not unlike the jobbers or manufacturers. We are not compelled to know a man personally to extend or refuse him credit. There is a way to do it and we do it that way, and have succeeded fairly well.
We are members of the Arkansas Retail Hardware Association, and attend every meeting. We are opposed to the Arkansas anti-trust law as it appears u])on our statutes. We believe in capital being invited into our state and then offered such protection and inducements as will hold it. We believe that our national govern¬ ment has the power and the ability to regulate and con¬ trol all corporations if necessary, thereby giving equal protection to all states alike; but we are unalterably against legislating capital out of our state into Tennes¬ see, our neighbor just across the Mississippi to the east.
If it becomes necessary for the protection of our citi¬ zens, to regulate capital within our borders, I would favor it, but driving it out of the state is not the protec¬ tion we desire. I can regulate and restrict money in my own pocket much easier and more satisfactory to myself than I can the same money in some other man's possession.
PRECISION IN LANGUAGE
A man who is constantly traveling over the same railroad has become well actiuaintqd with the porters of the sleeping-cars.
On a recent trip he hailed his porter exuberantly, and said:
" Hello, Matthew! I have some good news for you. We ve had a birth in our family since I saw you— twins.
Matthew grinned. " Well, sah," he said, " I wouldn't call dat no birth, sah. Dat am a section, sah."— Youth's Companion.
This is where E Millidge, Deering Agent at Selkirk. Man., helps make Manitoba a great agricultural province