Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1884 — He Made a Fortune Swapping Jack- Knives. [ARTICLE]

He Made a Fortune Swapping JackKnives.

“There’s a man,” said the oracle, as he walked down Broadway with the Jtfew York World’s (own listener, “who deserves a great deal of credit.” He pointed, not at a man, but at a battered sign on the other side of the street, which indicated that a business in diamonds was carried on within. “That man,” continued the oracle, “began life by swapping jack-knives. He used to go around the streets with a little bundle of cutlery under his arm, and his method was to approach and ask a man if he didn’t tfant to exchange his old penknife for a new one of firstclass Sheffield make. About nine times in ten the stranger would accept the invitation. Then the peripatetic dealer in blades would open his bundle and negotiations would begin. The end of it generally was that the stranger received a good, new knife in exchange for his own blade und gave the dealer a little something ‘to boot.’ The old knives were cleaned, polished, and supplied with new handles, and swapped over again. The idea was novel, and its originator made a good deal of money out of it. Wh n he had amassed a snug little capital he set up a diamondloan business over there, and he is worth a cold million now. When the dudes want money they go in to sea him and raise the wind on their diamonds. He won’t take any other kind of security, and ho makes money hand over hand. ” De chap dat am stoopin’ ober hoein* out his tater patch ain't ap’to see all da lectle failin’ ob his naburs. — Life.