Out and Home,By "The Extractor."
Page 13
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Manufacturers of lorries, buses, and vans will do well to note a new departure in the " sundry advertise ments " page this week. We start illustrating second-hand vehicles, so that buyers can see at a glance whether a vehicle for sale is likely to suit them or not. An illustration arrests one's attention, and most manufacturers have second-hand vehicles to offer in connection with fresh deals. They will do wisely to give this new method a trial, for their own or their customers' benefit.
I have never heard of any Englishman who has settled in Germany and has been received into the hearts of the natives like some of the Germans are who commercially invade our territory. As long as they are good fellows, and have something of equal value to sell, we very soon open our clubs and our homes to them, in a very few months you find they prefer English cooking, whilst more often than not they settle down with an English wife. Mr. Richard Bockemuhl, of the Peter Union Tyre Company, fits in with all this, except the last part of the sentence : he has J-esolutely—in spite of all temptations—remained a bachelor person ; but Leap Year is yet young. Bockemuhl has worked strenuously to place the Peter Union tire firmly on the English market, and one only has to look round to see how well he has succeeded. If a personal opinion may be obtruded, I have a great liking to see any man thoroughly earnest in his work, and, if you get this in combination with business aptitude and the faculty of making friends, it is sooner or hter bound to build up a sound and prog-res_ sive business connection. These good qualities are prominent features in the record of friend Bockemuhl's career.
What he is doing with an English Christian name, like Richard, I don't know : to my bucolic mind, it looks suspicious. I hardly like to suggest it, but it seems as if, when he contemplated an onslaught on London, he had rummaged amongst our Metropolitan heroes and had been attracted by the dazzling individual who approached London, via Highgate Hill, accompanied, by a cat. That, however, is by the way.
It is interesting to know that our Latter-day hero was born at Duven in 1872. He joined the Peter Union Com_ pany M 1931, and was very soon afterwards made commercial manager,
whereupon he made a prolonged business trip throughout Europe and the U.S.A., subsequently establishing the present business in London. B.ockemuhl is a member of the Motor Club, and also of the Motor Cycling Club, and for the past two Whitsuntides he has gone through with the latter club
on their hardy jaunt from London to Edinburgh in 24 hours, for which performance two gold medals were awarded. I expect that the new Straker-Squire car, which seems to give him huge satisfaction, will be tried on the Edinburgh trip this year. Altogether our burly friend seems to have taken to our little island " exceedingly well, and, as he is a jovial, likeable man, it is no wonder he has made many friends.
At several West-End establishments where, for years, an excellent trade has been done in contract and day work for pleasure cars, both petrol and electric, business has fallen off to nothing since the advent of the popular taxicabs. No need to contract for a week and, perhaps, to keep the car idle nearly half the time, when a " taxi " can be brought any time to the door by the now familiar three-blow whistle. Then, for Brighton trips, it is constantly Sid to me that formerly a man would pay 5 or 6 guineas for the day ; now, he simply hails the ubiquitous taxicab, and it spells so shillings to see the job through—that is, as far as the conveyance is concerned. The rest "depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller," as Mr. Samuel Weller observed on a notable occasion.
It is quite a matter of interest at the moment to know that motorcabs are being largely disposed of on easy terms of payment, and Mann and Overtons, with the " Unic " cab, has already clone quite an extensive business in this direction. The cabman who has "put a little in the stocking " makes a very sure investment ; he pays down say .too, and the rest by instalments, which he can well spare out of his receipts, and realises the dream of his life—he becomes a proprietor. Some makers, I understand, dispose of the cabs by hire-purchase system, in which case the cab is liable to be seized if payments are not kept up, as one's piano or furniture would be seized, but the " Unic " cabs, I am told, are sold out and out, to be paid for by instalments. The Editor tells me the point of difference is " most interesting."