Page 59 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.
judgment, and added, by its course, materially to the financial reputation
of the city and to the facilities of her business men. We do not propose
to be fulsome, when we state that the management of this bank has mani-
fested a degree of high-toned principles and honor, and an intimate and
thorough knowledge of finance, that has reflected credit, not only upon
themselves, but upon this city as well. The present officers are:
G. W. Brackenridge, president; J. T. Brackenridge, vice-president; John
Withers, cashier; Ferd. Herff, Jr., assistant cashier. Mr. Brackenridge
has been continuously president of this bank since its organization, being,
in fact, its founder. Mr. Withers has been connected with it for many
years. Managed, then, with such a proficient, conservative and prudent
corps of officials, whose probity and efficiency has thus far made it a suc-
cess, the future of this bank will grow still brighter, in a ratio correspond-
ing with its past history. The policy of the government is to designate
some bank as the national depository and financial agent, usually selecting
the most prominent and solid one for this position; this bank has been so
designated; the position, however, has been voluntarily relinquished,
much to the regret of the government. No successor has been appointed.

HUGO & SCHMELTZER—Wholesale Grocers; Alamo Plaza.
Commerce, merchandizing or trade, by whichsoever title one may
select to designate it, is as old as the commencement of civilization, when
it began is unknown, and the oldest writings show that it was in a state
almost as perfect as it now is fifteen centuries before the beginning of
authentic profane history. The different branches were not so plainly de-
fined or individualized as in modern times. Still the transactions implied
fired conditions of trade or barter. Dry goods, groceries, hardware etc.,
did not exist as distinctly "sui generis," and those articles of general con-
sumption in modern times that enter greatly into trade, as sugar, coffee,
tea, tobacco, etc., were unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Articles of
manufacture, which we hold to be of prime necessity, were also unknown
to them. Trade became divided into generic systems during the fifteenth
century by the Venetians, whose commerce embraced the whole world as
then known. Political economists divide trade into two classes : the in-
dispensable, or those dealing in staple articles of actual necessity and those
of immaterial necessity, dealing in luxuries. At the very head of the
first-class are ranked those who provide and deal in articles for the food
supply. The very laws of nature give them the position. Instinct teaches
all conditions of men, civilized and savage, to protect and value that
which conduces most to vitality arid comfort. In establishing com-
mercial reputations they also occupy the most important and influential
positions. In the history of the advance and development of cities from
the condition of villages, through the period when, throwing off the ha-
biliments of uncertain youth, they begin to assume the lusty, vigorous
characteristics of self-reliant manhood, and assert their claim to metro-