 Assisted by his wife Amelia and sons Fred and Ralph, Simon and his store gradually began to prosper.Simon Lazarus was once described as "a good man, a gentle man, a scholar--and no merchant,"—and Simon's own grandson, the late Robert Lazarus, Sr., was the man who said it.By 1870, industry improvements (primarily attributable to the mass manufacture of men's uniforms for the Civil War), led the family to expand the business to include ready-made men's civilian clothing and eventually a complete line of merchandise.