Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1894-06-29
Copyright, New York Musical Echo Co., 1894.

about those things to tell him. It's q reg
ular graft down here. There's two kinds
of pricers around. One kind is the fellows
that Just want to find out for curiosity
what their jewelry is worth. Maybe they
got it in some swell jewelry store where
you have to pay extra prices for the name,
and they know 1t and want to find out just
how much the thing is really worth. They
generally get angry If you tell 'em the fair
price, for they think it ought to be more
''Then there is the kind of chap that
wants to hook ring or q scarfpin and
doesn't know really how much he ought to
ask on it. He comes here and asks what
We'll buy it for, to get line on its real
value, but it's cinch that he hasn't any
idea of selling it. Sometimes, instead of
asking how much We'll give for it, the
owner will ask what Wen duplicate it for,
but that doesn't work either. You can
pretty generally tell man that really
wants to sell, and he's the only one that
gets price from this establishment. But
you'd be surprised to see how many come
here to try the pricer graft.
"There used to be young fellow here"
continued the clerk, "that saw a good
thing in business line in this He was
sharp and knew the value of q stone quick
and easy and he never made any breaks.
A man brought in sapphire and diamond
pin for him to value one day, and Barney
turned him down, wouldn't give him any
satisfaction at ALL Next day he came back
again with another offer to sell
Look here, says Barney to him, you
don't want to sell that pin. I'm dead onto
you. You're hard up and want to soak it,
and they're good stones and you know it,
but you don't know how good they are
and you re trying to work me to find out
Is that right
"'That's right, says the man. L got
the pin at the race track from a sport that
was broke, and got it dead cheap. Now
I'm up against 1t, and want to hook the
pin, but they wouldn't give me but S85 on
it"
"'Now, I'll tell you what, says Bar
ney. You can't expect to get something
for nothing. My opinions worth quar-
ter, and if you'll pony up I'll guarantee to
tell you where you can get good price on
the PIN
AFTER little haggling the man gave
up his quarter, and Barney told him the
pin was worth SIS and easily salable, and
that If he went to certain pawnshop and
stuck out for $50 he'd get it. The man
tried it and got his $50. He told his friends
about it, and before long Barney found
himself getting quite little business from
men who wanted to be advised as to the
best places to hook their jewels and how
much they ought to get on them. There
was regular lot of customers he had, and
they brought their friends around, and
finally the boss got ON and kicked, so Bar
ney left the place and started little store
of his own, keeping up the pricing bust
ness too. By joining the two he made
good thing out Of 1t, for he got lots of sales
cheap from fellows that wanted to sell in
stead of pawning, and he always gave good
prices and yet made good profits himself.
He'd be doing a cracking business
now, only, Of course, lot of crooks got
coming to him, and the police got onto
that and used to watch the place, and,
though believe Barney was on the level
and the police couldn't get any evidence
that he did crooked business himself,
yet he had to give it up, and he went
west. But he had some queer deals. One
day q chap came in with little case and
set 1t down on the counter in front of Bar
ney, who was looking over the morning
paper. The man was quiet, middle aged
chap, very soft spoken, and he says to Bar
ney;