On the 57th day of the current year (Feb. 26) the H. J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh, famed makers of 57 varieties of pickles, celebrated the 57th anniversary of the founding of the business.
Years ago, when national advertising was toddling and stumbling over itself and when Henry John Heinz (founder) was still alive, the company had decided on a quiet, pervasive, yet persuasive, type of propaganda. Heinz' 57 Varieties became its slogan and was so skillfully broadcast that the mere numerals 57 on a billboard told a story, sold the goods. This policy of effectiveness without flamboyancy grew from the very character of Henry John Heinz, continues in that of his son Howard, now company president.
In 1840 an energetic young German, Henry Heinz, emigrated to the U. S. His ancestors, Bavarian winegrowers, had acquired high esteem from as early as 1709. In Pennsylvania he met and married in 1843 Anna Margaretta Schmitt, also an immigrant. Her father had been a burgomeister, an elder in the church. A year later their baby, Henry John, was born. In 1850 they moved to Sharpsburg, Pa., where the young father established a brick yard. Frugal Anna wanted her own kitchen garden, had one laid out much larger than her own family needs, sold produce to neighbors. Here among the cabbage tops, the bean vines and the other garden truck Henry John used to play. In the house basement he used to watch his mother pickling and canning. The grating of horseradish was an eye-smarting task. But Mrs. Heinz' preparation of this root was so appetizing that it found a ready sale. Henry John was its eager boy salesman.
When he was 15, his father, realizing his nascent business ability, let him come into the brickyard as bookkeeper. The boy reorganized the yard, developed year-round work instead of seasonal.
In 1869, 57 years ago, he went partners with one L. C. Noble, into the firm of Heinz & Noble, to bottle vegetables for the market. This firm grew, changed names, moved to Pittsburgh, expanded. In 1888, at 44 Henry John retired for a season. He had done some traveling, wanted to do more, eventually had seen the continents. From Rome he brought and erected in his Pittsburgh administration building a fountain. Ivory collecting was a pleasant avocation. His gathering contained 1,300 carved pieces, one of the few of its kind in the U. S. In 1919 he died, 25 years after the death of the Irish girl, Sallie Sloan Young, whom he married the year he set up in business for himself, 1869.
Henry John was religious. For more than 20 years he was superintendent of a Methodist Sunday School, although he had been brought up a strict Lutheran. His parents wanted him to become a minister and this religious attitude he kept throughout his life. How sore his heart when word was brought to him that smart-Alex Pittsburgh saloonkeepers had wanged out a ribald ditty at his expense. Nigger-prancers,* bum- mers, street sheiks, tenderloin riff-raff were chanting all over Pittsburgh, all over the U. S.:
Heinz! HEINZ! WHAT'S the matter with Heinz?
Heinz come wobbling down the street!
What's the matter with Heinz' FEET?
Heinz! Heinz!
What's the matter with HEINZ?
He's been in 57 stews,
And HEINZ IS PICKLED AGAIN!!