\/ A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO BY ELEERT HVEBHRL THE ROY^ROFTER^ EFI5T ni/RORRERIE ^:Ol/hTy- n.Y Mi (MiiiiTTrnrniiMMiiit r- A Little Journey to BUFFALO By ELBERT HUBBARD Done into print by The Roycrofters, at their Shop, which is situate in the Village of East Aurora, New York State. February, MCMXIV MiHiiiiMiiiiiMimiiihtliiiiiiii Copyright 1914 By Elbert Hubbard ')C1.A371294 1M) / A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO By ^ iM ELBERT HUBBARD AM as well qualified to write about Buffalo as most any one you know. My parents were bom in Buf- falo. They were married in Buffalo. They moved to Illinois three months before I was born, otherwise — but what 's the use ! C I returned to Buffalo in Eighteen Hundred Seventy- three, when I was seventeen years of age. At that time Buf- falo had two horse-car lines. One line ran from the dock at the foot of Main Street to Cold Spring. The other line ran from Main Street out Niagara to Black Rock. Buffalo is four hundred twenty-three miles from New York City, and four hundred ninety- eight miles from Boston. It used to be four hundred ninety -nine miles, but I notice that the conductors now pull only four hundred ninety-eight miles. It looks as if we were get- 3 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO ting nearer to Boston ; I really believe we are. C In the year Eighteen Hundred Twenty, the population of Buffalo was two thousand. In Eighteen Hundred Seventy-three, when I landed there and carried my carpetbag out to Cold Spring looking for my uncle, walking so as to save carfare, the population was two hundred thousand . CL In Nineteen Hundred the population was three hundred fifty thousand. In Nineteen Hundred Ten it was four hundred twenty -five thousand. Now it is five hundred thousand. COf course, I do not claim that my advent into Buffalo increased the population in the rapid way that I have enumerated. How- ever, I can truthfully lay claim to having increased the wealth of Buffalo not a little &^ This does not mean that I have attached myself permanently to any large rolls of cur- rency. Nevertheless I can say in all sincerity that Buffalo has been good to me. IN Eighteen Hundred Seventy-five I was working in a soap-factory on Seneca Street, in the district known as " The Hydraulics.'* This soap-factory was an old, one-story, brick 4 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO engine-house. The original factory had burned, leaving only this dingy engine-house. Three men and four boys were employed. I was one of the boys. In the course of two or three years I had an interest in the business. A wooden structure was built in front of the little brick building, and the next year the lot adjoining was purchased &^ ^^ I went out on the road, and sold all the soap that this factory could grind out. The institution grew slowly, but surely. In the year Eighteen Hundred Eighty -nine I evolved an idea, and that was the selling of the product direct from factory to family ^^ We burned our bridges and put up an assort- ment of household soaps, perfumes, toilet- soaps and toilet requisites, and then gave in addition a premium, selling the whole outfit for ten dollars. It was quite some idea. C How big it was I did n't know at the time, and nobody knows yet. Millions have been made, and millions more will be made out of that little think-germ. Having other interests and ambitions I sold 5 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO out my share of the soap-factory and was paid what I then considered, and my friends considered, a very generous price. Since then, of course, they say I was fluffy in the alfalfa ^«» The concern grew, evolved, expanded — after I got out of it. And some of the boys I hired grew with it. They grew as the business grew, and today this factory is the biggest and best of its kind in the United States — perhaps in the world ^^^ I MADE a little purchase of real estate at the "village of East Aurora, eighteen miles from Buffalo, in the year Eighteen Hundred Eighty - three. For nine years I made a little journey every day to Buffalo and back. I enjoyed the journey both ways. I still live at East Aurora, where I am a farmer with a literary attachment. I raise Durocs and write Poetry. The fact that Buffalo is a trifle jealous of East Aurora does not, I hope, prejudice me from taking a fair and judicial view of Buffalo. In fact, I think I know more about the city than most people do who live in Buffalo. 6 A T.ITTLE TOURNEY TO BUFFALO I have the perspective. And inasmuch as my work takes me all over the world, I am more or less familiar with every city in the United States, and I am also at home in the Capitals of Europe. I have a point of comparison that few enjoy. I know the banks, the factories, the schools, the stores, the parks, and I also know most of the big men of Buffalo. Mo city in the United States has grown so steadily, so surely, so solidly, as Buffalo has ^o» 5^ Buffalo is the second city in size in the Empire State and it is the seventh city in size in the United States of America. It probably will be fifth in size in a very few years &^ ^^ Buffalo has a greater assortment and diversity of manufacturing interests than any other city in America. Many of our cities are built up by what are called '* one-man institutions." One city will focus on agricultural implements, another on automobiles, a third on furniture, 7 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO a fourth on locomotives, a fifth on railroad- cars, a sixth on iron and steel, another on soap, another on lumber, another on oil- refineries ; but Buffalo produces each and all of these staples enumerated. Here business is balanced. No possible slump that can occur will hit all of these diversified interests at one time — at least they never have. If things are dull in the oil-refinery they are booming in lumber ; if they are dull in lumber, soap is still in demand. The things manu- factured in Buffalo go the round world over ^€^ ''All good roads lead to Buffalo.'' Buffalo has the two best railroads in the United States, perhaps in the world. Never mind what they are. If you do not know already, you would n't believe it anyway. In all, Buffalo has fourteen railroads, not to mention the interurbans &^ Then there is the lake traffic. Buffalo was an important city before the railroads arrived — this on account of the famous Erie Canal and Lake Erie. Lake Erie was then the great highway to the West, and it is yet, only we have added the 8 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO Northwest, which is bigger than the West, because it includes Western Canada, and Canada is practically an empire that has been added to the world of wealth since day before yesterday &^ &^ BUFFALO is the third principal grain and flour market in the world. It is the most extensive livestock market East of Chicago. More horses are sold at East Buffalo every year than are handled at any other place in the round world. The climate of Buffalo makes for health and long life. Beside climate, Buffalo has weather. Both are strong factors in making strong men. (I Into the population of Buffalo, Fate poured a German aggregation that has added vastly to the well-being of the city. These Germans got jobs, which is just as beautiful as to accept situations. They bought real estate and became home- owners, and the man who owns a home has given bonds to society for good behavior &^ The Germans have made the savings-banks of Buffalo bulge. 9 A LITTLE TOURNEY TO BUFFALO In Nineteen Hundred a third of the population of Buffalo was of German parentage. And when Chauncey M. Depew, the silver-tongued, once made a speech at Buffalo and in ringing accents asked, " Who was it that built up this great and prosperous city of Buffalo ! " a voice shouted back, '' Us Germans ! " And the man was right. The German may move at a rather slow pace — perhaps they do not exceed the speed-limit — but they certainly do arrive. KUFFALO is on the eve of a great real- estate boom. The splendid State Roads — brick, asphalt, concrete, macadam — running out of Buffalo in every direction are bringing into the market some very choice real estate. Automobiles and good roads annihilate space and cancel distance. Buffalo is on an undulating plain, gradually rising as you leave the city, in every direction. fl As you pass out of Buffalo to the East is Depew, where are immense car-shops and various manufactories of iron specialties. The pavements are superb, the street-car 10 A LITTLE TOURN EY TO B UFFALO lines are all one can ask for, and just a few miles down toward the lake lies the great, active, busy city of Buffalo, with her wonder- ful diversified interests, her schools, her col- leges, her factories, her banks, her libraries, her parks, and all that makes for health, wealth and civilization. He who invests in real estate in the Depew District will not go astray. James J. Hill was bom within a hundred miles of Buffalo. He is a product of Buffalo weather. When he left home, he boarded a steamboat at the foot of Main Street, going on as fireman and working his way to Chicago. » 5€^ Then indeed will we see a city such as the world has never before seen : a city of surpassing beauty, of wealth untold ; a city that will blossom like the rose. No ! Buffalo can never go back ! And neither can Depew ! And as Buffalo is a great city, just because it is a great manufacturing center, so Depew is great, just because it is the leading manufacturing suburb of Buffalo. I know Buffalo — I know every foot of its real estate. I know that if you buy property in Buffalo or its suburbs, you are sure to make money si>^ ^«^ I know that Buffalo property is today selling for less than one-third of its actual value, and I know that people are just waking up to this fact. If you can not make one hundred per cent profit in a short time by buying Buffalo property at today's prices, then I am no guesser &^ &^ 14 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO I make these statements only after comparing Buffalo prices with prices asked for similar property in Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, or any other American or Canadian city about the same size. CLBut if Buffalo property is a good investment, then property in its greatest industrial suburb — DEPEW — is a specially good purchase. I can remember when Depew was given its name, when it was put on the map only a few years ago. <[Then it consisted of a railroad-station only. Today it has four trunk railroads and fifteen large manufactur- ing plants giving employment to nearly four thousand five hundred men. Cl^Its largest in- dustry, the immense plant ofthe Gould Coupler Co. , employs nearly two thousand four hundred men &^ &^ Within a few hundred yards of the Gould plant is a beautiful piece of land located partly within the town-limits and partly out- side. The street-cars run through the heart of the property. It already has electric light and natural gas, and some thirty nice residences have been erected on it to date. This property is known as the *' Buffalo 15 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO BUFFALO Industrial Annex/' <[ Every lot is high and dry, and an ideal building- site. Hundreds of Depew workmen are now living in the center of Buffalo. They should live nearer their place of work. But I understand it is next to impossible to secure a vacant house in Depew at the present time. Hence the wisdom in offering this beautiful residential property for sale. Every lot will be required for building pur- poses. For the artisan employed at Depew, ownership of a Buffalo Industrial Annex lot will enable him to build a home for his family and give him an opportunity to make a hand- some profit by the increase in value which is sure to come. For the investor who purchases one or more of these lots at present prices, a handsome profit is sure to accrue in reselling to the man who must purchase for building purposes later on.