I came, to this city (then a town) a poor, unknown, friendless boy to be a clerk in what was then the
largest House in Charlotte. It was very large for those times, as its annual sales reached what then was a
princely sum that o 60,000 per annum Friends I had none, nor had I much money. Saving the sum of
$140 which 1 deposited in the State Bank, standing where now stands Dr. Mc Aden's drug store. It affords me
much amusement now to look back with what solicitude I morning and evening looked at that Bank Building
and its contents. I grew' restless, however, of th,e monotony of clerkship, and in 1856 commenced with my late
lamented partner, Mr. Rintels, -a business for ourselves in the Mountains, with a joint CASH CAPITAL
OF $550. My motto then as and ever will be,f the talismanic
1 .I. . .1
J y j ' - mSSSSmmamSSSSESSESSSSm
VIZ:
, t: r j t
I i x 11 ""Nft ess
t2n -
Which, coupled with fair, honest, upright, business-like dealings, have been the SHIBBOLEIH OP MY
SUCCESS, so that to-day I have reached a point of success never dreamed of either by myself or by Charlotte's
most sanguine optimist
lo-day I am on the vortex of such a successful business career that my friends and every honest lover
of the CarolinasJ points to my establishment with honest pride, and makes every well wisher of successful effort
say; "BEHOLD what with the talismanic 3 P's can be accomplished in good old North Carolina.
In July, 1865, I rented as a Store what at one time was the Parlor of the residence of the late James Irvine,,
of the dimensions of 21x21 feet, and a pitch of ceiling 9 feet, or 441 superficial flooring space, (and it was as large
as I could fill with goods,) bought an old plank partition out of which I put up shelves and a counter (there was no
lumber then to be had to make shelves), and advanced thus step by step until today, 1 have reached a point
where it requires a building 50x92 feet, of POUR floors, and an annex of 75x92 feet to give me moderately
sufficient space to do my busineess in ; and when my store now in course of enlargement will ba completed. I
will have about 25,000 superficial feet of flooring space, and 1 16 counters of 46 feet long each, to hold the goods,
which put lengthwise, one by the other, would reach the enormous -length of 5,336 feet, or about J8 of a mile.
It requires 3 j Book Keepers, 2 Packers, 1 Shipping Clerk, 5 Stock Keepers, 2 House Salesmen, and 6
Traveling Salesmen to complete my force to keep business in motion. Such is a short: hjstory of my business
m the past and present V v.
Visitors would not be, true to'themselves, to Charlottei?to NorthCarolina, if they failed to visit and inspect
my establishment, so that When they go. to .their respective homes they ' may return not only as BETTER, but
WISER by reason of having seen my Mammoth "Wholesale House,,rand b enabled to say to their friends and
4 neighbors, that we have heard since our childhood day of the big concern of & Wittkowsky, but we can exclaim
as did Queen Sheba of old, that "The half had not been told" pf the wonderful business and collossal prpppr-;
tions of the house of the undersigned.
: ; f a. "
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