Page 94 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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SAN ANTONIO-HER TRADE,
ply, and a sketch of whose business biography will clearly illustrate our
reasoning above, is that of Messrs. Pitt & Meek, who include in their
operations the handling of cotton and wool on the factorage system, the
grocery business and produce commission. This firm, composed of T. H.
Pitt & I. C. Meek. was established in 1884, with ample capital, which has
realized a large increase. Their transactions radiate through this state and
Mexico, and amount to $75,000 annually. Their stock averages $10,000 in
value. They employ four hands. Their business premises are 35x100 feet
in size. Messrs. Pitt & Meek have an experience in the business measured
by the years of their business lives. These gentlemen both belong to a
class of merchants, who are the main-stays of the trade—men whose enter-
prise and public spiritness rebound to the credit of themselves and the
community, which takes a just pride in them and their achievements.
They are also dealers in foreign and domestic produce, and California
fruits, which they receive weekly in car load lots.

CHAS. HUMMEL & SON—Dealers in All Kinds of Guns, Arms and
Ammunition. A Full Supply of Sporting Articles Always on
Hand. Repairing Done With Neatness and Dispatch ; No. 270
Commerce Street.
In all progressive countries whose people have become famous for
courage, endurance and patriotism, the greatest attention is bestowed on
the cultivation of manly sports, competitive exercises are held and the

skilled marksmen achieve special honor. Especially are the Americans
familiar with fowling pieces, and their reputation as marksmen has been
world-wide, even from the colonial days. But from the times of ancient
Rome and Greece, those who excelled in athletic and manly sports, and
pastimes, received marked civic prominence and reward. As a logical
consequence, those branches of business which stimulate and encourage
manly sports, by dealing in the articles required in their prosecution, merit
encouragement and prominence. The invention of portable fire-arms is
attributed to the Italians about the year 1430 they were introduced into
England in 1471. The Germans and Italians were the principal manu-
facturers. During the seventeenth century great ingenuity was exercised