He felt, however, that there were no chances in Ireland for the degree of success of which he dreamed. The potato famine and other misfortunes had laid the country prostrate. Everybody was talking about the golden prospects in America, and great numbers were emigrating to the promised land. One of Timothy Eaton’s elder brothers decided to join the exodus, and Timothy himself lost no time in making up his mind to go with him. After crossing the Atlantic they made their way to the town of St. Marys, in Ontario, and there started a very small store, being glad to accept produce in payment for their goods. Another brother came to St. Marys. One of these remained there permanently, while Timothy Eaton, not satisfied with the possibilities in St. Marys of the mercantile expansion which he had in mind, went to Toronto, and started a modest store on one of the lower streets. This was in 1869. In 1883 he had a larger establishment. In 1887 he had added to his general store equipment a small factory for the purpose of eliminating the charges of middlemen and thus conserving the interests of his customers by reduced prices. The factory was an unqualified success. By means of it, and through Mr. Eaton’s general methods, the establishment steadily grew until, at the present time, he has a store which from a comparative point of view may be regarded, perhaps, as the most successful in the world. Mr. Eaton’s pay roll includes nearly six thousand names, while the largest retail store on earth, which is located in Chicago, where the population is many times greater than that which can be reached by Mr. Eaton, employs only about twenty-five hundred more persons. It will be seen that this Chicago establishment is only one-half larger than the Eaton store. Indeed, the factories of the latter are larger than those of any establishment which deals directly with retail buyers. The two leading elements in Mr. Eaton’s remarkable success have been his store-system, regarded by leading retail merchants as a model, and his constant endeavor to save money for his customers. It is to this end that he conducts his business on a cash basis, and that he has established his factories. He is a very firm believer in bringing goods direct from the maker to the consumer. In a single department in his manufacturing section, for instance, there are over a thousand sewing machines which produce nearly seven thousand garments a day for sale exclusively in the store. The money which Mr. Eaton has been able to save by this policy of producing his own goods is directly applied to the reduction of prices. The fact that his patrons feel that they are obtaining maximum value at minimum cost is the chief reason of the store’s great and constantly growing trade.