St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-25
ODD WAYS OF MAKING MONEY.
Men Who Have Become Suddenly
Rich by Means of Trivial lnven-
tiOms..Tvvo Curious Characters.

Men Who Have Become Suddenly
Rich by Means of Trivial lnven-
tiOms.-Tvve Curious Characters.
Two curious characters drifted into the
current of fashionable life here the other
day, writes Long Branch correspondent
of the Philadelphia Press. They came in
private palace car. in which they had been
travelling about the country for the past six
month S. Both are men of great fortune
though not yet in the meridian OF life. On
is Philadelphia, the other JerSeyman
Five years ago neither of them dreamed OF
hiring a private car, yet single stroke OF
good fortune brought them out OF the COM
mon places of life and gave them positions
of prominence in the world of affairs. One
made his money out of glass signs and the
other from patent medicine which he
compounded in the seclusion OF his Jersey
home.
Nine out of ten business men would
laugh at the idea of making fortune out
of bits of glass two feet long with gilt let
tering, and many would hesitate before CIV
ing up even a moderate income to risk his
time with patent cure-all remedy. Butnow
the life-work of these two men is done so
far as the accumulation of money is con-
cerned, and they live for the sole purpose
of being amused by the world. They came
down here with car full of the many good
things that wealth commands hamper of
champagne and larder in which Del
monco chef would revel. A stable OF
horses had preceded them, and when they
were not luXuriating in their homes on
wheels they were spinning along the bluff
behind team that took dust from no one.
Yet they tired of all this in two days, and
just because slight rain storm set in
started down the coast to Cape May for
change, as one Of them said.
Before going, however, they picked up
companion who has been struggling IN the
beaten path of commerce for lifetime and
had not reached the goal which they
touched in few years. He could interest
them by the stories of his busy career, and
they took him along with them for the one
purpose of listening to him.
There is man here, the inventor of ali
oyster-opener and of an arrangement for
making coffee in minute. He told me
that he had already formed two companies
for the purpose of putting his invention
upon the market, and. thereby, giving an
opportunity to every man to be his own oy-
ster-opener and coffeemaker. Who can
help smiling at man who builds his hopes
in this way?
''You see," said he, ''every one likes
cup of coffee as soon as he has gotten out
of bed. Now, propose to sell my appa-
ratus for so cents apiece. All you have to
do is to jump out of bed, pour as much
water in it as you want. teaspoontul OF
coffee, and then light the lamp underneath.
You can then go back to bed and take
minutes nap, and when you jump out
a;y, 10 oo6n ar,H WAITING ~
land do you expect to sell great many
of these coffee-makers?" l asked.
"Well," confidently replied my latter-day
Mulberry Sellers, there are nearly a
million coffee-drinkers in New York city
alone; that is enough for me-"
The world always finds amusement In
listening to the plans of these living types
of John T. Raymond's great character, but
there are any number of them who have
made money out of seeming trivialities. l
noticed man driving on the avenue to-
day who twelve years ago saw fortune
in the sale of needles, if he devoted his at
| tention solely to them. He has reaped that
fortune now, and is the only man in the
| country who trades exclusively IN these
| little bits of steel He controls the house
on this side of the Atlantic to which all the
needles in use have to be sent from abroad.
There is another man stopping here whose
| wealth has come from the invention of
scarf-pn, and one of the handsomest cot
| tages at Seabright is occupied by the in
ventor of a patent suspender.
| The first person who thought of attaching
| ball to the end of an elastic cord, so that
| it would return, went to Cabel Gushing
years ago to have him make out application
| to be sent to WASHINGTON for patent. Mr..
! Gushing was busy at the time with an i'm
portant law case, and wondered that the
man was willing to pay the large fee he
always demanded for his work, when he
learned the nature of the patent.
II will have to charge you as much as
imagine you will make out of this thing, !"
he suggested to the inventor.
''Well, I've already made contract that
will net me S., O0O," was the surprising
reply, land can see my way clear to ten
times that amount"