GROCERS WHO HAVE WON RENOWN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 41, 28 May 1910, Page 10

GROCERS WHO HAVE WON RENOWN

THE ROMANCE OF A GREAT TRADE. Before the days of palatial store's we were lapfc to (regard the "little shop .round! the corner," from which we obtained the family supplies of tea, sugar laud coffee, as a necessity rather'than an ornament to the town (says a Home paper). It was the grocer's shop, and that .was the beginning and end of it. AM this is changed nowadays. The grocer follows one of the oldest trades in the country, winich has not only helped largely to develop the Empire and add to its prosperity, but has also given to the nation men of sterling worth. To quote Mr. Aubrey Rees,°author ot "The Grocery Trade: Its History and Romance," not only is b..e grocer a most important member of the community, but his trade can challenge comparison with -any other calling in the matter of the number of men of eminence in .polities, literature, philanthropic and civil life who have sprung from the ranks." From 1231 to 1500, for instance, the illustrious roll of Lord Mayors of the City of London included the names of thirty-mine grocers, many of them .-jewing more than once in the exalted office. FROM GROCER TO LORD CHANCELLOR. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the trade produced many OT en of intellect and power in addition to Lord Mayors. There was Baron King, for instance, Lord Chancellor of England, whose father was an Exeter grocer, and who was duly apprenticed to the trade' and served some years behind his father's counter and delivered customers' goods. It was his uncle Locke, the famous- historian, who "discovered" the ambitions of his nephew, and helped him to become a barrister and member ot Parliament The brother of an Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Unehele by name, smd sugar /and spice in the City of London. Then Abraham Cowley, -the poet, was traced Ms descent to the grocery trade, his father being a 'gjrocer in* Cheapside.

_ In philanthropy, too, grocers have distinguished themselves. Many schools and charities were founded by them: and it is interesting to note that the founder of Rugby School was Laurence Sheriff, a native of Rugby and a successful London grocer. The new speechroom at Rugby is enriched with a memorial; window of painted glass, in which the old-world figure of Laurence Sheriff ■appears as a perpetual reminder or the niiiinificenice of this worthy citizen and grocer. And the country owes a debt of gratitude to Richard Beekenham, a London grocer, who, in the sixteenth century, founded at Guildford a free grammar school for "thirty of the poorest men's sons of that town, so that they might learn to read and write English and cast accounts perfectly, thereby fittea 'to become apprentices." . : And, as Mr. Aubrey Reos points out in his interesting work, our own day and generation has produced men worthy to ran'k with any of those whom former ages have possess and been proud oi. "When one ireciaills the names and deeds of such men as Sir nudson Kearley, Sir William P. Hartley, W. H. Lever, Sir Joseph Ellis. Sir Thomas Lipton, Sir W. H. Peck, Sir James Duckworth, M.'P.. Joseph Stows Fry, and George Cadbnry, one cannot but feel that the high tradition of former timets has been well and nobly maintained."

GROCERS AND EMPIRE-BUILDERS. Many, indeed, are tide curious facts connected with the grocery trade recalled by Mr. Aubrey Reesi He tells now much of our Empire has been gained for us by pioneer navigators seeking groceries for London houses. The Levant and East India Companies sent out many voyages of exploration to discover new routes to the" East "for .the sa'ke ot the trade in fruit and spices. Sebastian Cabot and' his men sailed westward .wren the same ambition. A passion for pep.per was the direct cause of our conquest of India. Professor Thoi-old Rogers, one of our most serious historians, asserts that there are few objects for which more blood has been spilt than the exclusive right to sell cloves! The whole world was ransacked, and the daring of the English people (was devoted for several centuries to the interests of the grocers' shops. Several of the grocers' shops of a century or more ago aire still in existence,- notably that of John Burgess and Co., Ltd. (founder in 1700), and late of the Strand, who have quite recenuy remove '.; to Willesden. Until the removal took place they were offering their '•.£'«'•!t variety of rich sauces" in premises ttat had altered but little from ■the foundation of the firm. This firm claims the proud distinction of being the only one now existence which advertised in the first number of the Times, when that journal appeared on January Ist, 1788.

THE ORIGIN OF DAY AND MARTIN. No firm connected with the grocery trade, however, had such a remarkable origin as Messrs Day and Martin. "It is to an obscure and nameless soldier that this great firm owes its success. Mr. Day whs" originally a hairdresser, and he was once minding ms shop when a soldier called and asked relief on the plea, that he needed a lift in the coach in order to join his regiment before his leave had expired. "The benevolent hairdresser gave the soldier a guinea, Whereupon the poor fellow exclaimed, 'God bless you, sir: how can I ever repay your kindness? 1. have nothing in the* world but this'—.pulling out a dirty piece of paper from his pocket—'lt is a recipe for making blacking. It is fhe bes>t that was ever -seen, and many a half-guinea I have had for it from the. officers, and many bottles I tare sold. May you be able to get something for it to'repay your kindness to a poor soldier.' "Mr. Day tried the recipe, found the soldier's praise of it true, and soon began to make increasing quantities of tire product, thins laying the foundations _ot a. business which has endured until this dav." JOHN RUSKIN. TEA SALESMAN. By the way, how many people arc aware that John Buskin once set up as a tea merahamt? In 1574 he opened a whop in PiaddSncton street, in order, as be termed it, to "supply the poor in that neighborhood with pure tea in packets, small as they choose to buy. without making a profit on the subdivision." Rwskin actually decided to paint the sign for the shop, which he placed in chare* of two old servants of the family, but could not mwkc up his mind as to the design, and before he could so the experimental shop failed, and Mr. Ruskin's temporary role as a retail trader came to an abrupt termination. .