Yet he was every inch a man of business, and even more clear-headed
and far-seeing than the senior partner, his father.
It was he who commenced the railway bookstall business.
Every one knows the familiar look of Smith's bookstalls, with their
energetic clerks, and their armies of pushing newsboys, and perchance
think they were born with the railways and have grown up with them.
But such is not the case. It was not till about 1850 that Mr.
W.H. Smith secured the entire bookstall rights on the London and
North-Western Railway, much against his father's advice. The vast
improvement in the selection of books and the service of papers,
however, induced other companies to desire to have a similar
arrangement, till the chief portion of all the English railways came
to be girdled by Smith's bookstalls.
From this date the business advanced with giant strides. Managers and
clerks had to be engaged, the latter in large numbers. Here the genius
of Smith as a judge of character was abundantly shown. He came to a
determination almost at a glance, and seldom erred in his judgment.
In 1868 he was returned to Parliament, and in 1874 Mr.
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