J.C. Plimpton, 80th Birthday Article
This article appeared in the 'Liverpool Post and Echo' on a date I have not yet been able to determine. Thanks to Malcolm Hanson for providing me with these photocopies of the original [left and right, below]. |
||
Rather than describe the article, I think it's probably easier just to reproduce it in full, so here we go : - |
||
 |
AN OCTOGENARIAN BUSINESS MAN |
 |
ROMANTIC STORY OF LIVERPOOL FIRM |
||
The head of a Liverpool firm who, despite his four-score years, works almost as hard as he ever did, plays golf, travels to London frequently and to America once a year, is to celebrate his eightieth birthday by inviting his employees to dinner. |
||
He is Mr. J. C. Plimpton, founder of the firm of manufacturers, import and export merchants, of Gibraltar-row, Old Hall-street, which bears his name. At a dinner on Saturday there will be present 240 of the employees. There will be twenty-four with over twenty-five years' service, seventeen with over thirty years, and one with forty-six years. |
||
£8 a Year Office. |
||
It is fifty-one years since Mr. Plimpton started in Liverpool his business, which has become one with national ramifications, and he has never displayed a desire to transfer to London. He built the property in Old Hall-street, occupied by the British-American Tobacco Company, demolished slum property, and built the present large works in Gibraltar-row. |
||
When he arrived in Liverpool from America there was no Liverpool Buildings, and no Overhead Railway. Horse buses ran along the dock road. Sailing vessels moored at the bottom of Water-street, in St. George's Dock. His first impression when he arrived, a very young man, was of a gigantic policeman. |
||
The scene in Lime-street on his first night, was he said, “a sight to behold. There was a tremendous lot of drunkenness, and I watched a fight between two women. A ring was formed and a policeman looked on.” |
||
He started an office at £8 a year in Benns Gardens, where he used boxes for furniture. The first caller was an income tax collector. He still has on his desk one of the samples he brought over fifty years ago. He started by selling nails, and has since sold gas stoves, leather belting, sweets, celluloid collars, and cuffs, carriages, harnesses, whips, clocks and furniture. A young Liverpool man who followed his example has since made a fortune in Australia, and he thinks that any young man who has determination can meet with the same success. |
||
Still an American. |
||
Mr. Plimpton is still an American subject. He has made fifty-five single trips across the Atlantic, and came in a vessel lit by candles. |
||
He has been a member of the Reform Club for many years and plays regularly on Wallasey golf course. He attributes his vitality largely to golf. He has a handicap of 22, and recently beat a player who went round in 72 a few days later. He never has a doctor except when an accident makes one necessary. He has two sons and one daughter. |
||
The, to modern eyes, quite idiosyncratic proliferation of hyphens within the street names and numbers is a faithful reproduction of the original article. I certainly find the street name usage to be somewhat unusual and have never come across it before. There are other similarly slightly discordant syntax eccentricities dotted around the article. The “shoots and leaves” punctuation police surely can't claim this approach to be superior! |
||
For the record, while I understand and sympathise with the Liverpool-centric emphasis of the article, I have to point out that J.C. Plimpton actually arrived in Liverpool via Peckham, in London, as evidenced by his entry in the 1891 census. |
Finally, having had contact with fans of such things, I know that J.C. Plimpton was, at one point, a significant importer of lawnmowers, so I'm surprised by their absence from the list of businesses, particularly with the Lawnmower Museum just up the coast in Southport! |
Well, that's it I'm afraid, but if you know anything else about J.C. Plimpton or his business interests, then I'd love to hear from you… |
Below here are links to related info : - |
Click on any of the links below for related information.
|
||
Latest update - August 10, 2022
The BAYKO name and Logo are the Registered Trade Mark of Transport of Delight.
© COPYRIGHT - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
WEBMASTER - PETE BRADLEY.