Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Who's Who in 1921 & 1922 Carl Frank Meyer

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Thursday, September 22, 1921
Page SIX

NO. 30

CARL FRANK MEYER

Talk about your uplift work, we present herewith the Original Uplifter. The guy whose thoughts are ever above the common level. The bird whose eyes are ever turned upward. He has a great and abiding sympathy with humanity which suffers from corns and ill-fitted shoes . To them he points the way upward, ever upward. To those who are poor in purse he holds out a helping hand and leads them ever upward.

Reference is made to Carl Frank Meyer, who is by way of being something of a shoe merchant in Fairfield, his place of business being an upstairs room. If you are a reader of the Tribune or the Tribunette you probably have not overlooked his repeated admonishments to "climb the stairs and save money." For Carl Frank, it may be stated right here, is a firm believer in printer's ink as a business proposition. And in passing it may be said that he thinks the brand of ink used by the Tribune and Tribunette is the best to be had for the purpose; in fact, so strong is his faith in the Tribune brand, he uses these two publications exclusively in his advertising, content to believe that he reaches all of the buying publc (sic) with them. This fact is stated here not to boost the Tribune and Tribunette but merely to demonstrate to you that Carl Frank is a young man of exceeding keen judgment.

Carl Frank got interested in shoes pretty early in life. It was down on the old farm in Illinois where he was born. Pedler came through selling shoes. He had a pretty good brand of work shoes and sold them mighty cheap--about half what the shoe store in the village charged. That interested Carl Frank and he asked the pedler how he could sell so cheap. The pedler, in answer, pointed to the heavens above him. Carl didn't sabe (sic - savvy/understand) and asked the pedler to elucidate.

"No overhead," the pedler told him.

Carl Frank looked up, saw it was true, and the idea soaked in on him. He wasn't fit for much about the farm after that and his dad cheerfully gave him his blessing when he announced that he was going to Keokuk to work in the Huiskamp shoe factory. He worked in the wholesale and retail ends of the business there and learned about all that was worth while of the business. After a time he went down to Moberly, Mo., and opened a shoe store. Those Missourians asked Carl Frank to show them where he had anything better to offer them than they already had . Young Meyer didn't have, so he beat it to Chariton, then to Ottumwa and tried stores. Always seemed to be something lacking. He went to Chicago and worked in a shoe store, trying to find if there wasn't some angle about the business he might have overlooked.

Then, one day a pedler came in and bought a pair of shoes. Carl Frank remembered the old shoe pedler and his "no overhead" ideal. "Eureka!" says Carl, and he hurried to the cashier's desk and drew his salary, quit the job and set out to find a location. That's when he came to Fairfield. Here he found an upstiars (sic) room and proceeded to stock it with shoes.

Carl Frank could have found higher buildings than the one he rented, but he observed that the higher the building the higher the rent. Also, he could have got a nice upstairs room with electric elevator and a uniformed porter and elevator man to usher customers in amid a great deal of pomp, and with no inconvenience to themselves. But Carl reckoned people didn't care so gol-darn much about paying for pomp and that the average man or woman would climb a few steps if he could have a little money. Carl was a good guesser. He has hammered at people, through the Tribune and Tribunette, "climb the stairs and save money," until he has got a lot of them believing him, anyway, whether what he says is true or not.

Carl opened a branch store down at Washington the other day . Down there they have a rather more aristocratic class of citizenship than we do here in Fairfield, so Carl didnt' (sic) feel so much above them that he declined to do business with them on the same level. He has a ground floor business there. You see he's a sociable sort of a chap and didn't like to go down there and set himself up above them. But it's a safe bet that Carl hasn't opened his store in any of those skyscrapers in Washington for the old pedler's words stick with him and he likes to look up and see not too much overhead.

Carl Frank Meyer has done rather well since coming to Fairfield a few years ago, having acquired an automobile and a wife. We name the auto first as it seems to be the first in the matter of attention accorded by Carl. But he explains that by saying that a car demands so much more attention than a good wife--the car is always needing something and the right kind of a wife seldom does. You might gather from that that an auto is sort of a hobby with Carl Frank. You've gathered correctly. His wife is always in fear that he will give up the shoe business one of these days to tinker in a garage. Perhaps it's that sense of "no overhead" which he feels when he gets out in the open air with his car which entrances him so much.

All of the beautiful things in nature--the flowers and trees--turn ever upward. So does Carl Frank's mind. It must be wonderful to have these elevating thoughts always. And, even though the life of Carl Frank Meyer is a constant succession of ups and downs by reason of the location of his business, nevertheless, he manages to keep up pretty well. And you'll always find him all attention if you chance to mention that you're "going up."