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They used to come in with the old patent medicine and they'd sell them and some barker would come up there and he'd come up with some special liniment or something, I don't know. I ahvays recall the time I had a fellow selling eyeglasses. And I was a kid then, real young. And he stayed at the hotel and he needed somebody to ride along with him and show him where people lived. He'd give me a few bucks a day and that was a lot of money in them days to get a couple dollars a day. A lot of people worked for a dollar then. I'd make two dollars. That was a .lolot of money. Just to show him where they lived. Aed I always recaIled be went to one place and he was getting thirty-five dollars I think or twenty-five for his glasses. And thew people didn't want to pay and he kept coming down and coming down. He come down to nine dollars and ninty-five cents. And he come back down and hell, he'd still made five dollars. Q: (laughter) He did pretty well. What was your first venture into business? A: In business? Well, buying this truck was the first thing I - things were pretty tough for us. We didn't have much money. A lat of times we didn't have enough, hardly enough, to eat. As I said, we was wealthy at one time, and then my dad had to sell all of his farms out because he had signed so many notes and he had to make them good. He had to sell this piece of property and that piece of property. In fact we was going to lose this building one time for - the mortgage was fifteen hundred dollars on it at that time. Everybcdy thought he was going to lose it. We used to kneel down before the lighted candle and pray that the Lord would save our home. In fact I told that story one night. Do you care if I go ahead and tell this? Q: No, fine. A: I was out campaigning one time in Adams County and I said I'd never go back in a bar again on a rainy Saturday morning. It was early, about this time of the day, and I went in and the place was filled with people. And [when] I got in there, I wished I'd have never stopped. YOU could just feel the atmosphere. And so 1 always asked the bartender if it was proper to buy a drink because in same places the people are insulted if you buy them a drink. You know, they think this kind of over. They argue with something. They think they're just as good as you are. They want to show that they've got just as much money as you have. So I always asked the bartender if it was proper. Yea, he said it was okay, so I then give him a drink. And here come two old fellows, pretty well loaded - ''You actually make a million dollars in the legislature, aren't you?" Q: Well. A: And well T didn't know what to say because if you argue with them, you're going to get into trouble if you're out there drinking. So I stood there a while and I decided to pass it up and they kept raising hell about it. And finally I said, "Just where in the hell did you get that idea?" And they said, "Oh your opponent was is here." That's the reason they were drunk to begin with see. He'd been in there drunk. I said, "Well he didn't tell you that quite right." I said, "You know, 1 had that million dolIars before I got into the legislature." Well that would have been bragging. That wouldn't have been any good you know, ao I had to recall real quick. And I said, "Boy but T can remember the time when we used to kneel down before a lighted candle and pray that the Lord would save our home." %fore I went out of there I had them all for me. But that was sure a ticklish situation to get into. 1 always recall that. I never want to get into a psitian like that again because I didn't know what the hell to say because if I'd have argued with them I'd have gotten into a big argument with them. And this way I let them gain their point and T went along with their idea and then brought up another deal and before I went out there, why, they felt sorry for me. Q: Well, (chuckles) Using a truism that actually . . . Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
A: Yes it really happened. This thing really happened. But then I bought this truck and the guy, Frank Powers - he's atill living over - he often mentions it. I ajways tell him he's a fellow that sure give me a start in life. And he let me have this truck just on my own note of three hundred dollars. And I went out here and bought all of these damned apples on the ground. I had to get all of the school kids after school to go out here and peddle them. Nobody ever did that in those days. We'd take these apples - in them days people left their orchards more grassy and it didn't hurt the apples as much. It didn't bruise them any. But you still couldn't put them in a barrel. They couldn't seH drops. I'd take them and get these kids to shine them up and we didn't have no apple brushes those days, you got to do it by hand. We'd take this truck and we'd run, in them days, all of this area - like St. Louis was never expanded like it is now. You'd have the little settlements like St. Anne's and St. John's and Carsonville and all those towns. They were just little towns they were, and they wasn't connected with St. Louis like they are now. buntry people would move off the farm, couldn't exist anymore and they went into the city to get a job. And they would be god buyers. They were looking for something. You'd go to one of them and they were friendly and they would call up every neighbor, "This man's got some apples here," and they'd buy big quantities. Gosh, we a lot of times would make a hundred, a hundred and fifty dollars a day, And, my God, that was money in those days. I remember we made m much one time - we used to wear leather boots and leather jackets md went down to the Jefferson Hotel. That was an elite place in St. Luis those days, We decided we were going to stay there. And, hell, they didn't want us there. And [when] they seen us come in, they upped the room, fifty dollars. But we didn't give a damn what they charged, We were going to stay there. (laughter) I kept doing that for years. I mean nobody else ever got the idea. And nobody else ever peddled apples. They didn't know what that was, going from door to door like that. So I often remember we got the market saturated in these little rural areas and went into St. Louis proper. Then we'd have to climb the steps and then the people would - they wanted to buy ten cents worth, fifteen cents worth, and, hell, 1 couldn't fool around with that. I remember we had a half a load left one day and we pulled them up to Altan and took them all and gave them ta the orphanage. Q: Oh is that right? A: Rather than fool around trying to sell them. But these smaller towns, guys, people that - see, they were used to country life yet. And they would buy five, ten bushel and make apple butter or make appte sauce or store them in their basement or someplace. But the people who lived in the city, they just didn't do that. They'd keep buying ten, fifteen cents worth at a time and you couldn't fool around and sell them that way. So, that put me in position to have a little money. I had a little cash and then 1 got trading around, buying automobiles and getting in the automobile business. And I made a Tittle money. I had cash when nobody else had any msh. And . . . Q: Now let's see, this would have been what, about 1920 or 1921? A: Well, ~ es, 1919,1920 and 1921, yes. I was pretty young then. I wasn't very old. Q: You say you were trading in cars at that time? A: Yes I bought cars. The Dodge dealer over here, I'd get two or three old used ears and then trade them for a new one, then sell the new one and make some money on it. I could always trade. Seemed like 1 was an adapted trader. Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
Page 1: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 5 and 6: CARL WIITMOND ILLINOIS HOUSE OF REP
Page 7 and 8: orrrniilnity in central Illinois. A
Page 9 and 10: Carl Wittmond SESSION I, TAPE 1, SI
Page 11 and 12: A: Yes. Q: Okay. And then your fath
Page 13 and 14: County that had a spur on this side
Page 15 and 16: A: It's peculiar how you always rem
Page 17 and 18: Q: I see. (chuckles) A: Out of the
Page 19 and 20: A: . . . and he took care of you. A
Page 21: A: Oh yes. You'd have a showboat he
Page 25 and 26: my motber had to scrape around here
Page 27 and 28: that's how narrow people are you kn
Page 29 and 30: you know. It wasn't too prosperous.
Page 31 and 32: A: Well, I guess it was. I guess 1
Page 33 and 34: to stay all night to go to a show a
Page 35 and 36: A: I guess that just becamea a knac
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Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Sp
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Q. (chuckles) We11 this kind of gav
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Q: You sa) you were going to school
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A: Sunir. yes, oh yes. I've got sev
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Q: LVell hou did he po about gettin
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A: Oh yes sure, they used to dl, a
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ha\.? to come hc,ll:r to t'3t or so
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Anii the Eagles anif the Elks, I ha
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half of the peul,lr never elen knrw
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A: Well, in the first place, they'd
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Monday morning from Brussels. And m
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an argunirnt Iatrr UII a1111 the12
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Q: I I a n e llad you known Paul Po
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.4: Yes, somehody got hurt and Q: .
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him. Down there - see. Blackie uras
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Nuniber two, the secretary of state
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kind of a mystery place anyway, no
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anything you'd want if you'd want i
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Q: Kind of cleaned it up then. A: B
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Q: Yes that \+-as later A: I can't
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A: Probably was I think, yes. I did
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Maybe a lot of them was in. Like Bi
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other people would go see until the
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- "Oh." he said, "he makes eighty f
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.A: Oh, in his ofice, many a time.
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district. Powell said, "YIIu'~ h~tt
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.A: Oh atlout - yes, hr shall have
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thrsrr. ant1 Iru) them. And I don't
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;mil the key Dcrnocrats. the) xverc
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you ran't beat." I said, "Some day
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:I: Yes I ren~ernher that. :I: I pr
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.A: Yes. they was \.otiny and vice
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Q: What was your position on that?
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Q Did she usually do it at your des
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a lot of the cunstituents don't un~
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A: Yes I remember him Q: \Ye11 let'
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11: 011 I never did get excited ove
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'1: Oh 1 probahl) thought there wer
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to hlock it if he wanted to. So man
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it would he alright or whatever the
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Q: Yes. A somrthing. fle might have
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Q: Well let's see, he lived in Edwa
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Q: Oh, I see. A: Ht. thought that 1
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in the Granite City area - he was t
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:I: Oh yes, oh yes Q: What other ro
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So I put the bill in anyway to get
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A: . . . get credit for it, see, if
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A: I ctin't rrcall anymore \\.hat i
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A: hutuhahn, over in . . . Q: Germa
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Q: Well. Do you recall any particul
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I'd voted for the bill. That would
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Q: Let's see, the Zion [Illinois Be
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:\: Ile nrust not have run ;my more
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A: Wide open sparrs, that's right.
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Q: I'd like to ask first today abwt
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.A: Yes 1 can rt,call something of
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Q: Oh. He wanted the department you
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kno~r-. (;- I could have got on but
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who knrn. sonrething ahuut agrirult
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.A: \Vr ~ntrrtainzd several - one t
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town. And a lot of people was compl
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:I: Oh, n-c went a few other places
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.A: Not at that timc but they promo
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some of then1 - hut their unions ar
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sonielhing happened. I think I had
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Index .Ahl.nhani Lincoln Hl~tcal. 1
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Hinan, Martin, 79 IIitler, Adolph,
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