Page:Life of Isaiah V Williamson.djvu/51

Rh experience similar to Isaiah's in a large country store at Taylorsville. The young men were congenial in tastes and training. Both had been accustomed to the practice of rigid economy in the country stores from which they came, and where they had learned also habits of hard and diversified work. They ran the city business with the same frugality and energy and adaptability. Many a time Williamson might have been heard to say something like this:

"Nelson, get out the wheelbarrow, and we'll bring over those goods I bought at auction."

If they could save cartage, so much the better. What work they could do themselves they did. They followed the principle of watching every penny. But rigid economy and close attention to the details of the business did not blind them to the bigger things. They were always reaching out, dreaming dreams and making them come true. Burroughs soon developed a remarkable capacity as a salesman, and he is said to have been one of the first in Philadelphia, if not the pioneer, to go out and solicit business for a wholesale