The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-05-19
ROUND ABOUT GOTHAM.
THE MEN WHO MAKE MONEY PED
DLING.
CHAT WITH MARK TWAIN, THE
HUMORIS7.
THE JUMPING FROG OF CALAyERAs
COUNTY"
why Have We Not an Embiematc
FIower?-The Choice Of Different
People - The Beauty of the
Pond Lily Praised.

Especial Correspondence OF the TTMEs.l
New YORK, May 1s.-There are
I'm New York a number OF men,
actually peddlers, though they repu-
date that designation, whose business
Is almost wholly confined to the police
force. They sell jewelry, watches, cloth
ing, household goods, and other things
upon "the instalmeni plan to members
of "the finest" The business is good
one. collections are sure when the
monthly pay-days come around,
and the expenses Of trade are, to
those engaged in this line, much smaller
than are borne by dealers who have
store rent and clerk hire to pay. Conse-
ouently, the merchant who is his own
salesman and clerk, and whose pockets
are his store, or who, dealing in bulkier
goods than those he can carry, sells on
large commissions from manufacturers,
Is very anxious, when he has made a
profitable line of acquaintance and pa
irons in the force, to retain their good
opinion and confidence Hence, by rea-
son of a little expose last week, one of
these gentry is at present on the verge OF
distraction. His business Is in jew
elrv. gold watch chains and watches
mainly. During a month or two past
he has been selling a great many large
and heavy watch chains which were rep
resented as "s0lid fourteen karat gold,
in several of the uptown station houses.
one night an officer. in the course of an
agitated conversation with tough citi-
zen. got one Of those big chains broken,
and the next Gay took it into jeweler
on his beat to be repaired. While doing
the little job the jeweler innocently re-
marked
"This is the heaviest filled chain |
ever saw
Filled nothin'," CALCULATED the officer
with snort Of contempt. " that's solid
gold"
ooh, no" persisted the jeweler, " it is
| filled with silver
Eventually the indignant policeman
was convinced, much against his will,
that the gold Of his chain was really
hardly as thick as an ordinary business
card. and that all the solid interior was
silver. Much more than half Of the en-
tire weight was of the baser metal.
The furious officer swore and fumed,
getting madder and madden, until the
next pay day, when the peddler came
around 10 the statiOn-hOuse TO collect
another instalment on that "solid gold
chain Then he seized upsn his credi-
tor. shook him up violently, reyiled him,
called him all names that were com
mon and unclean,' and wound up by
swearing to send him to the penitentiary
or the State prison for the fraud.
Several other officers who were equally
victimized and had been informed Of the
fraud. Joined him in his denunciations
and threats The poor peddler was over
whelmed with dismay, called upon all
the patriarchs 10 witness his innocence
and swung his hands over his shoulders
until bis wrists ached, emphasizing his
prOtestatiOns that nothing could tempt
him TO "shyindle such honorable shente-
mems unit gOOt friends" He was so
earnest about IL that he even impressed
his accusers that il might not be alto
gether the fair thing to "show him at
once TO his dungeon cell" Still he
could not deny that the chains two or
three Of which were broken upon the
spot for examination, were fraud. Final
" the ward detective took the peddler by
the shoulder and marched him out to
look up the facts The first evidence in
his favor was his bill Of sale for the
goods. Undeniably he had, according 10
that evidence, bought "sOlid l4-karst
gold chains Then they went down to
the manufacturer, in Nassau-street loft,
from whom the chains had been pur-
chased, ostensibly 10 get more Of them,
and In five minutes had clear proof that
he was lyingly palming off bogus articles
AS solid gold. The peddler, hot with
thought Of the hole he was in impru-
IDENTIFY said enough to alarm the manu-
facturer, who demonstrated that he
was wise in his day and genera.
ton by selling his place and
skipping out for parts unknown before
they could get a warrant for his appre-
hensi0n. Until he can be found the Aft
davit will be kept as quiet as possible,
and it Is even questionable if he would
be prosecuted were he to show himself
here after a few weeks, as some of the
victims will by that time have compro-
missed with the peddler, while others will
have worked of their chains upon
other persons, and it will be TO nObOdy's
interest to stir the matter up. Even the
peddler will want the whole affair for
gotten as soon as possible, as ii cannot
be, even in its best light, creditable to
his business acumen. Doubtless very
large proportion of the chains made in
that Nassau-street loft went directly to
pawnbrokers, who, employing their Ordi-
nary methods of testing, were as likely
to be deceived by the ingeniously filled
hollow gold wire as anybody else might
have been.
! met Mark Twain the other day
wandering around the Capitol building
in Washington, and looking at pictures
fifty years old as if they were new, and
inspecting with the interest of rustic
stranger the vivid bronze doors whose
Columbian glories had cleared his eye
balls more than two decades ago. He
strayed into the press gallery, threw
back his gray oyercoat, adjusted his
gold spectacles on his nose and looked
around.
"A good deal changed" he said.
glancing at the life-size photographs of
Whitelaw Reid and younger editors
which now decorate the walls, land it
seems a hundred years ago"
! asked when he was here
81 had a seat in the press gallery" he
meditated, lets see-in lS67-and now
| suppose all the veterans are gone-all
the newspaper fellows who were here
when | was, Reid and Horace White.
and Ramsdell and Townsend"
"The ones you name happen all to be
gone | admitted, "some to the control
of newspapers and some to the place
where DR.. Potter says there are no
newspapers, but some OF the real yete-
rams are still here. On those pegs in the
corner some of the ancients still hang
up their coats"
General Boynton and Byinzton and
Uriah Painter and Judge Noah, the King
OF the Jews and Dean Of the corps.
Most Of the old fellows are dead
Whitley Of the Hernia, Grouse of the
Times, Adams Of the W0rld. Henry of
the Tribune, Gobright of the Associated
Press. Jim Young is executive clerk of
the Senate, John Russell Young is
journalist at large, Ed. Stedman has
grown 10 be the banker poet. and Henry