The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-02
ROADS TO WEALTH.
Some Odd Ways OF Realizing
Large Fortunes.
Men Who Have Become Suddenly Rich
by Means of Trivial Inventions

A recent Long B:anch letter to the
Philadelphia Press says of W. curious
characters noticed there by the CORE
spondent: They came in a private palace
car, in which they had been travelling
about the country for the past six months.
Both are men of great fortune, though
not yet in the meridian of life. One is a
Philadelphia, the other a Jerscyman.
Five years ago neither of them dreamed
of hiring q private car, yet a single stroke
of good fortune brought them out of the
common-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 a patent medi-
cine which he compounded in the seclu-
sion of his Jersey home.
Nine out Of ten business men would
laugh at the idea of making a fortune
out of bits of glass two feet long with
gilt lettering, and many would hesitate
before giving up even a moderate income
to risk his time with a patent cure-all
remedy. But now the life-work of these
two men is done so far rs the accumula-
ton of money is concerned, and they live
for the sole purpose of being amused by
the world. They came down here with
a Cur full of the many good things that
wealth c~ommands-a hamper of cham
payne and a larder in which a Delmonico
chef would revcl. A stable of horses had
preceded them, and when they were not
luxuriating in their home on wheels they
were spinning along the bluff behind a
team that took dust from no one. Yet
they tired of all this in two days, and,
just because a slight rain storm set in,
started down to Cape May for a change,
Us one Of them said.
Before going, however, they picked up
a companion who has becn struggling in
the beaten path of for 4 life
time, and had not reached the goal which
they touched in a 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 a man here the inventor of an
oyster-opener and Of m arrangement for
making coffee in a minute. He told me
that he had already formed two compa-
lies for the purpose of putting his in
vention upon the market, and thereby
giving IN opportunity to every man to
be his own oyster-opener and coffee
maker. WIZ can help smiling at a man
who builds his hopes in this way7
"You see," said he, ''every one likes a
cup of coffee as soon as he has gotten out
of bed. Now, 1 propose to sell my APP
paratus for fifty cents apiece. All you
have to do is to jump out of bed, pour a,
much water in it as you want, a teaspoon
full of coffee, and then light the lamp
underneath. You can then 60 back to
bed and take a minutes nap. and when
you jump out again your coffee is made
and waiting"
"And you expect to sell q great many
of these cotfee-makcrs2" I asked.
"Well," confidently replied my latter
day Mulberry Sellers, ",hcrc 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 charao.
ter, but there are any number of them who
have made money out of seeming trivial
ties. noticed a man driving on the
avenue to-day, who twelve years 20
saw a fortune in the sale of needles, if he
devoted his attention solely to them.
He has rcaped 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 tho
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 a scarf
pin, and one of the handsomest cottages
at seabright is occupied by the inventor
of a patent suspcnder.
The person who first thought of at.
taching a ball to the end of an elastic
cord, so that it would return, went to
Caleb Gushing, years ago, to have him
make out the application to be sent ia
Washington for a patent. Mr.. Cushing
was busy at the time with an important
law case, and wondered that the man
was willing to pay the large fee he al.
ways demanded for his work, when he