BUSY AND BEAUTIFUL STAMFORD
PHILOSOPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHS IN
A STORE Interest and Beauty Systematically Arranged.
(A naturalist's view of
business)
HESE are qualities pre-eminently desired by the student or lover of nature who
searches for the things that appeal to him, who admires their beauty and then
seeks to arrange them conveniently for the inspection of others. These principles
well practiced not only produce an efficient naturalist, but an effective business,
for, after all, a part of a naturalist's world is to seek out things that will
interest and benefit others, and the secret of success in business is, first
of all, to find the things that interest human beings, and then to arrange them
in a manner that will make them most efficiently available. You may remember
the story of Frank Stockton's queen and her museum. The queen meant well, but
her museum was not successful. She travelled far and near, and at great expense
of time and money equipped an elaborate exhibition. But the people would not
go to it. They would take no interest in it, not even after she had issued an
edict that for that lack of interest they should be put in jail. Soon the whole
town was in jail. Then came a stranger who advised the queen, and made her museum
successful in just two moves. First he found out what the people wanted, and
second, he gave it to them.
It is this stranger's principle that has
made so successful the great store of the C. O. Miller Company in Stamford.
The managers have learned the secret of getting what the people want. They have
the goods in quantity and they are so arranged that they are easily accessible
to the people.
THE INTEREST AND
ATTRACTION OF THE C. O. MILLER STORE, VIEWED FROM
THE FRONT OF THE LEFT
AISLE.
No one lives to himself. We have heard of olden times,
and it is as true to-day as it was of yore, that if one would live successfully
he must have regard for all his fellow beings, he must accept their point of
view and consult their wishes. When one fails to do this it is time to go off
to some lonely place and die, and in matters of business it is time to quit.
Life, after all and in all its varied ramifications, comes down to the one principle
of leaving self and helping others. This is true whether it is a matter of scholarship,
religion, scientific investigation or selling cloth. The greater the helpfulness
and the greater the feeling for human needs, the greater the success and the
greater the satisfactions when success arrives.
HALF WAY UP THE LEFT
AISLE, TO SHOW END OF BEAUTIFUL, CULTURED SHOWCASE.
The skylight
curiously reflected the floor into the farther end of the main case, and
the
floor
and stools into
the other, obliterating a view of the contents of the cases – an
interesting
study
in reflection
well worth careful attention. The cases are filled the entire
length as attractively
as are the parts shown in the foreground.
From time to time I have read newspaper eulogies of the
C. O. Miller Company's store and have recognized their fitness, but while visiting
that store these bits of fundamental philosophy came into my mind, and I determined
that instead of retaining them there I would give myself the pleasure of sharing
them with others. So in the spirit of a naturalist, I shouldered my camera and
visited the store. We human beings form a unit with many and varied activities.
I have many times expressed profound pity for a brain so besotted by commercialism
that it can find no use for the naturalist, and the naturalist would be a fool
if he could not see and occasionally take delight in telling of the beauties
and of the interesting concomitants of well conducted commercialism. Let us
hammer the iron, let us search through scholarly lore persistently, let us roam
the woods and fields with enthusiasm, I but amidst it all let us not forget
to appreciate the labors of others in other pursuits. All are working, or should
be working, for the good of humanity. I have kept my eyes open in the Miller
store as in the woods and fields, and I have come to this conclusion that the
reason why everybody—proprietors, clerks and customers—is happy in
this store is because the proprietors and their assistants have a kindly feeling
for others and serve them in that kindly spirit. It is a two-sided prosperity—a
I store and its customers.
Stockton's queen had no pleasure in her museum until
her people rejoiced in it; then both were happy.
THE WELL ARRANGED
GLOVE CASE.
A SECTION OF ONE OF
OFFICES AT THE FARTHER END OF THE C. O. MILLER
CO.'S STORE.
A VISTA IN THE CLOAK,
SUIT AND MUSLIN DEPARTMENT ON THE SECOND FLOOR.
HOMES NEAR TO NATURE
AND ELSEWHERE CAN FIND HERE AN ABUNDANCE OF
BEAUTIFUL
CARPETS AND RUGS.
ONE OF SEVERAL ALCOVES
IN THE CURTAIN DEPARTMENT.
CUT GLASS AND FRENCH
CHINA HERE ABOUND IN PERFECT SYSTEM AND
REMARKABLE BEAUTY.
IT REALLY MAKES ONE
HUNGRY TO SEE SO MANY PLATES!
Development of a Big Store. 1916
Completing Fifty Years in Business. 1917
Obituaries, 1919
Picturesque Stamford 1892: C.O. Miller
The C.O. Miller Company (Photo Selection of the Month, February/March 2002)
The C.O. Miller Department Store at 15 Bank Street (Photo Selection of the Month, May 2008)
C.O. Miller Store, Architectural Rendering for the 1882 Building
