Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: S.M. Burroughs : through English spectacles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![June 6, 1895] THE PHARMACEUTICAL ERA. 721 Dartford has not ceased staring to this day. Its stare grew moist when, in 1SU4, Burroughs offered a check of £1000 to pay half the expenses of build¬ ing the Cottage Hospital, which the town had wanted for many a long day. The hospital was duly built, and christ¬ ened the Livingstone Memorial Hospital, but Dartford spells Livingstone with a B. In the December of lSy-4, after a slight illness, brought on by a severe cold, Burroughs was ordered abroad for a change. For four years he had win¬ tered in the South of France, and the old love rose strong within him once more. So he started off on a cycling tour across the old ground, and said “good-bye” to multitudes of. friends with as light a heart as of old. He reached Toulon, and passed along the Riviera to his favorite health resort, delightful Monte Carlo. There he took au apparently slight chill, and was or¬ dered off to bed. On February fith, after three days’ illness, double pneumonia claimed another victim. Burroughs as Worker. Not a remote canse of Burroughs’ un-} timely death was the fact that he per¬ sisted in doing too much work, andi failed to allow himself sufficient rest.; Hard in muscle, lithe and agile in bodyj quicks in movement, strong and-'healthy? as he was, he yet'ouly maintained his good health by constant bodily exercise; He had the energy and nervous force of a dozen ordinary men, and his restless spirit dragged his weaker body to an open grave. Nothing less than the phy¬ sique of a Samson could have kept up< under such a spirit. It is related, as an example of the im-, mense amount of work that he would cram into twenty-four hours, that in the; early days of the Dartford factory he would frequently be found by the early workmen waiting for the works to open, and tilling in the spare time by writing letters to the papers on the subject of Laud Reform, or Taxation of Machin¬ ery. After three or four hours’ work at Dartford, he would go by cycle or rail to Snow Hill, put in as strenuous a day’s work as any man in London, and then hurry off to some social function political meeting, often at a great dis¬ tance from home. Every minute of his life was crammed with work, he uever allowed himself a moment’s pause. He took his .pleasures at the same feverish pace as his work. He made his business a pleasure and his pleasure a business. But his pleasures were none the les3 real to him, and fortunate indeed were those who could call him friend and share them. As Friend. lie had more best friends than any other man in the drug trade. We have mot scores of them since his death. That was one of the chief reasons of his so¬ cial success. He brimmed over with cordiality and good fellowship, and exer¬ cised a magnetic attraction over the best of all sorts and conditions of men. He compelled friendship, no one could deny him. It is said that if, as was often the case, he had been travelling all night and arrived in a new town about five or six o’clock in the morning, he would have little compunction in ringing up the nearest chemist, introducing himself and engaging that gentleman in conversation. And the strange thing about it was that before long that chemist would cease to resent his visitor’s unconventionality, would soften under the ready flow of conversation, and finally thank his stars that this prince of good fellows had not elected to ring the opposition night-bell. As Salesman. This marvellous gift of language was never so freely exercised as when Bur¬ roughs was pushing the firm’s business, and he spent the greater part of his time travelling. When a chemist told Burroughs that he did not want to stock any of the firm’s products, but would get them to order if asked for, and con¬ sidered that statement final, the traveller would smile a tender smile. He knew better. He would proceed to chat to that chemist. He used that man’s fads as levers, he identified himself with that man’s interests. He was sweetly reason¬ able, but gently argumentative. He had at command a rippling stream of conver¬ sation flecked ever with the sunshine of humor. He was irresistible, in the space of ten minutes the hard lines round that chemist’s mouth began to soften, in a quarter of au hour the world opened out to him. He perceived what a great aching void there had been in his life. He found that for many a long day he had been yearning for just such goods as were now offered him, aud his heart went out to the man who had brought the unattainable within his reach. ■— As Employer. —- As a set-off to his marked keennessi in pushing business must be chronicled'; his openhanded generosity to the firm’s employees, and his munificent donations to political, and charitable objects. To “our people,” as he lovingly called them, he was everything that a considerate man could be. He watched over their comfort and happiness as a father watches', over that of. his family. ' Both;; partners,} in fact, rivalled each other in their ef-‘ forts for the welfare of their staff. They; introduced an eight hours’ day and a} profit-sharing- system. They .gave the} empioyees a library and reading-room,; a swimming-bath, and beautiful grounds} for their recreation. They were never} tired of pianuing excursions, sports, con-; certs, and lectures for their people’s'- amusement, and, if possible, always} made a point of being present to assist in promoting the general enjoyment, it seemed to them a real obligation as weLl as a pleasure to look well after the peo¬ ple who were assisting iu building their fortunes. In Burroughs’ will a twenty- fourth part of his fortune was be¬ queathed to the firm’s employees. —- - As Christian and Philanthropist. Burroughs had the deepest religious convictions, as became a man with l’uri- tan blood in his veins, and he put in daily practice the belief that was in him. Generally he was tolerant of other men’s oninious, and appreciated a man none the less because he held different relig¬ ious views. He was keenly intolerant of impurity in thought and speech, and any such looseness would bring down a gentle reproof that was often misunder¬ stood. He supported religious move¬ ments after his own heart with a lavish generosity. His ear was ever ready and his pocket open to a tale of distress. At times he had wonderful insight into character and has beeD known to march off a lying claimant for his help to the nearest police station. At times, however, he seemed to be at the mercy of rogues and leeches, who, under- | standing his single-mindedness, professed j sympathy with his religious or political j opinions with ulterior motives. His lib- ] eraiit^ extended itself to the advanced political movements with which he iden¬ tified himself. His name was on the subscription lists of most of the labor and socialistic club3, and, although not himself a collectivist, he lost no oppor¬ tunity of helping forward the wider and more sympathetic projects of real so¬ cialism. As Politician. His own practical creed did not ad¬ vance beyond the gospel of Henry George and the reform of the land ques¬ tion. He scoffed much at the belief that land belonged absolutely to any body, and more at the idea that the par¬ ticular robber who assumed the propri¬ etorship should be entitled to increased value through the growth of a town or municipal improvements. And as the¬ ory was practice with him, he is said to l have transferred to a corporation the proprietorship of a piece of land which had greatly increased iu value owing to uo exertious of his own. He wanted to see the land nationalized, or, failing that, to tax that which was really everybody's property for the benefit of everybody. He was a great believer in Free Travel as a means of untying the knot of town life. Free railways, he thought, would uot only equalize land values in the cen¬ ter and suburbs of towns, but also lessen the congestion and uuhealthiness of towu life. He had been freely spoken of as a possible Liberal parliamentary candi¬ date for Dartford at the next election, aud it is probable that he intended be¬ fore long to enter public life. Some such idea he must have had when he took out letters of naturalization as a British subject a year or two back. secret of Success. . The proving of Burroughs’ will re¬ vealed the fact that he had amassed a fortune of considerably over £125,000. Assuming that his partner has mode some such similar amount, we are cou- frouted with the fact that the firm ac¬ cumulated a sum of a quarter of a mill- iou pounds sterling, roughly $1,250,000, in about fifteen years. This was done iu spite of barbaric extravagances iu all directions, and ' an almost speadthrift disregard of money. ' - Allowing for all the personal qualities of the senior partner, there must have been something else to account for this rapid grow th of the firm’s business in so short a time. What was it? Weil it seems to us that a combination of happy circntustances gave the firm of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. the premier place it occupied. First, they had some¬ thing to sell, something that was want¬ ed. English medicine was laboring in | the slough of big bottles, big closes and »- nauseous drugs. A revolution had al-1 ready taken place in favor of the ele- I gancies of Hahnemann, but homeopathic medicines had proved useless for people with anything the matter with them. “Tabloids” hit the happy mean. They provided an allopathic dose in a con¬ venient and palatable form. They, and the other preparations introduced by the firm, were backed by novel and continu¬ ous advertising, and in a few years the Newer Pharmacy, of which Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. were the English pio¬ neers, had revolutionized medical pre¬ scribing in this country. Another point which should not be overlooked, is the important fact that Burroughs was allied with just exactly the right man. No partnership could have been more ideal in its constitution. The influence of Henry S. Wellcome in I cementing and organizing the business ] of the firm, cannot be lost sight of in J commenting on the brilliancies of the senior partner. While Burroughs was a man of intense mental, physical and commercial energy, of buoyant individu¬ ality and brilliant initiative, he lacked that steady persistence, that capacity for governing and directing others, that shrewder judgment and that love of ex¬ ecutive work and care for detail that distinguished his partner. Burroughs threw off multitudes of crude, red-hot ideas; Wellcome, brimming over with en¬ ergy and originality himself, had sometimes to work out Burroughs’ as well as his own ideas before they could be given to the world as definite, artistic entities. And, again, they were well backed with capital. It has been freely stated in some of the many notices of Mr. Bur¬ roughs’ life that have appeared since his death that he came to London a poor man; in fact, almost walked into it with the proverbial half-crown. Such was far from being the case. The firm had am¬ ple capital and spent their money freely hut judiciously, in carefully considered advertisement of irreproachable prepara¬ tions, and their reward was commensu¬ rate to their wisdom.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30476082_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
