1 - —
for the Canton agricultural implements.
This firm does a very large business,
turning their capital many times during
the year. Their annual business would
do credit to a town many times the size
of Swifton. This is partially due to the
rich farming country tributary to them,
but more to the keen business ability and
public spirit of the manager and secre
tary, Mr. J. N. Moon.
NEW STORY OF STALE BREAD
“Mister, have you any loaves of stale
bread today? If you have, my mamma
wants two, and if you haven’t”—and a
droop of the eyes, accompanied by a
quickly clouded look of the countenance,
indicated the fall in spirits such an an
swer would bring—“w^ I guess we’ll
have to wait till some does get stale.”
But this, was not to be required as an
example of the patience of poverty. The
bakery boy proved susceptible to the
plaintive tear, the hungry look, or the
childish, pathetic words of the little 7
year-old urchin in “raggedy” clothes.
All the bread in the shop was stale for
the poor little fellow, who was doing his
mother’s errands and buying at the bar
gain counter.
ce a 4 « i*
White River near Newport.
2 J. 0. HANDEL & CO. |
The present company was incorpo
rated February i, 1905, with a capital
stock of $10,000, and does an annual bus
iness of $25,000, handling everything
. in the way of supplies and general mer
chandise. Its officers are: Dr. G. D.
Clements, president; M. B. Hare, vice
president; F. L. Bleakley, secretary and
treasurer.
Dr. Clements is the owner of much
fine agricultural land, as well as timber
tracts, and is in business and social life
one of the leading men of the county and
a pioneer who continues active to the
upbuilding and growth of this section.
He is secretary and treasurer of the
but it also has nearby some of the finest
hardwood forests in Arkansas. While
this village has but a few stores in it,
last year it did a business of about $250,
000. It makes an annual shipment of
3,000 bales of cotton and ships out many
car loads of fine timber, principally
quarter-sawed oak. The soil around
Swifton will grow anything that can be
raised in this climate.
Swifton is on the main line of the St.
Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Rail
road, has a splendid school, one church,
saw mill, cotton gin, photograph gallery,
one drug store, four general stores, one
hotel, one barber shop, one confection
One of the leading firms of the town
is that of J. G. Handel & Co., and its
members, J. G. Handel, John C. Hen
derson and C. W. Handel, are progres
sive, substantial and public-spirited citi-.
zens who have made a success of their
business.
Mr. J. G. Handel, manager of the firm,
is a native of Grayville, 111., who came
to Jackson County when 21, without any
capital stock, except industry, intelli
• gence and thrift, but the present pro
portions of the firmi#' business show
what can be attained in this section by
such young men of ambition and high
principle.
From a $600 stock of goods in 1900,
the business has grown until the store’s
contents now invoice $10,000, consisting
of a fine assortment and line of dry
goods, shoes, hats, gents’ furnishing
goods, groceries, hardware, implements,
harness, queensware, tinware and drugs.
The store building is 30x90 feet and two
warehouses are also used.
The firm own some 520 acres of land,
handle several hundred head of steers
each year and are breeders of the famous
Hereford cattle and Chester White hogs.
The Clements Mercantile Company,
while but a recent incorporation, is really
an old institution, which has been prom
inently identified with the history of
that section. Dr. G. D. Clements, the
president of the company, is a native of
Carroll County, Tennessee, who moved
to Arkansas in 1869.
For six years he practiced medicine at
Snapp, locating at Auvergne in 1876.
After giving up the practice of his pro
fession in 1893, he opened a mercantile
establishment the following year, the
firm for four years being Clements &
Woods, then Clements alone for five
years, when, in 1902, M. B. Hare was
made a partner in the firm.
c
Exterior and Interior J. G. Handel & Co.’s Store.
Auvergne Gin and Milling Company, as
well as a stockholder in the Breckinridge
Gin Company, the Jackson County Tele
phone Company and both a Newport and
Augusta bank.
!***** SWIFTON |
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦»♦♦♦
THIS little town, about 25 years old,
has a population of about 200 peo
ple. It is located in the midst of
some of the richest country in Arkansas.
It not only has the advantage of being
near some of the big cotton plantations,
ery store, two grocery stores, one black
smith shop, one shoe shop and one meat
market.
This firm is incorporated under the
laws of Arkansas with the following of
ficers: President, J. G. Smith; vice
president, N. D. Moon; secretary, J. N.
Moon; treasurer, E. B. Gillim. This
company is capitalized for $50,000. It
handles all kinds of merchandise, includ
ing farming implements, buggies and
wagons. They are the special agents
/\nu you get two loaves ior 5 cents,
don’t you?” said the little man, who was
not yet resting upon his oars in the full
satisfaction of a good 5-cent purchase,
for he was not unaccustomed to seeing
the few good things which came his way
vanish at his touch. But the little
twinkles of happiness were not long in
filling his honest eyes when the clerk
again drawled yes in a perfunctory way
that would hide the warmth of his own
heart and pretend indifference to this
little scene of poverty fighting with its
few pennies against the encroachments
of hunger. But stoical indifference to
the ill-fortune of others was not yet
dominant in his business-absorbed mind.
He relinquished his claim to a heedless,
insensitive heart, and manifested his
friendly interest in the young customer
by inquiring his object in buying stale
bread.
Well enough was this shopman ac
quainted with medical theories as to the
efficacies of dry bread as a wholesome
diet; but this knowledge dulled in no '%
way his surprise at the boy’s cheerfully
returned answer: “Well, mamma says
that bread two day’s old will make me a
bigger man,” meanwhile swelling with
pride at this roseate view of his future
dimensions and idealized strength, “and
mamma, she knows.”
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i luu ixiuuuiia uvv-o *v . jl nv wmi
dence of the child is not a mistaken one,
though his highest authority has but a
fancied infallibility.
. A funny little incident, the reader will
say, and yet a pathetic one withal. True
sentiment is a teacher of fine ethics. How
often tears lurk beneath smiles, and a
mockery of seeming happiness hides a
wounded and distressed heart. It is the
world and the world’s way. Even its in
fants adopt the habit, and life proves but
a pretense from babyhood to the grave.
Yet, it is a healthful tendency in many
ways. One stops, contemplates and ad
mires the happy enthusiast who brushes
care aside, the healthful dispositioned
optimist who detests moroseness and
hides sorrow, yet how much greater are
the contented poor, who live not to com
plain but to make light of their in
numerable hardships. Honor to him
who disguises his lot and holds in secret
resentment to his fate. The world has
enough trouble without an airing of all
our grievances, and the hero who, proud
in his poverty, hides self and assumes
the garb of charity in kindly feelings for
his fellowman and the world in which
he lives, is, after all, the greatest philan
thropist. Yes, and the “little one,” who
bought stale bread because two loaves
must secure the price of one, and made
light of such a dire necessity, is just
such a hero; nor is he a mythical or
romantical one. The editor knew him
and took this story fropi real life.
*__
Clements' Mercantile Company.
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