St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-27
KING OF The FAKIRS.
Death Of Nathan Sanders, Di-
recting Spirit Of Push
Cart Peddlers.
HAD A PECULIAR FACULTY.
Was What Politicians Call An
A No. 1 Jollier Of
Men.
HAD A PECULIAR FACULTY
HIS MOTTO A FUNNY ONE.
Give q Man What He Thought
He Wanted for Little
Money.

1NoIiAoli eocslloCIoy VIII was DuIlGu
on Good Friday, was an example of
a class of men very numerous in New
York who make an interesting and
instructive study for everybody who
is connected in any way with the vast
commerce of the metropolis, says the
New York Sun. He was known all
over the United States as the King of
the Takers, and he was the head and
the directing spirit of the vast army
of push-cart peddlers who are part
and parcel of the busiest sections of
every large city. A man of very limit
ed education, he had the peculiar
faculty-and a very valuable one it
is, too-of securing education through
the best of teachers, experience with
his fellow men. He studied the whims
of men, and he made money hand
over fist, while having lots of fun in
his studies.
He was what politicians would calf
an A No. 1 jollier. He was a rather
good-looking man, who appeared to
be under forty, although he wasn't
He was small, stockily built, had
brown beard and sharp eyes, and, as
one of his friends once said, "a smile
that might properly be called win
some" So far as anybody could dis
cover from himself, his first wage
earning was done while he was
barber, and he said that it was while
handling a razor and studying his
customers well, with possibly lauda-
BILE idea that if he treated them we'll
and didn't talk them to death he
would get a fee every time, that he
learned the value of discovering just
what it is that a man wants. He GER
time that the only thing necessary to
secure success in the money-getting
line was to give a, man what he want
ed or what he thought he wanted for
the
LEAF POSSIBLE MONEY.
When he was stricken in 1876 with
an attack of rheumatism which dis
abled him completely, so far as ply
ing the razor was concerned, and his
doctor told him that it was absolute
ly necessary to change his trade, he
turned at once to peddling. This
choice of what some people might
call a very humble calling was made
for two purposes. The first was that
he knew that he hadn't much money
and that it didn't require much capi-3
tai to start in as a peddler, and the
second best reason was that he knew
that the field of study that had en-
.tertained him at the BARRIERS chair
would be vastly enlarged in his new
business. Mr. Sanders started out
contentedly, armed with his tray of
faker knick-knackS and with his
smile. That manner which every
body who came in contact with him
was pleasantly impressed with had
its effect upon the general public. He
got himself liked by the brokers of
Wall street, and, as he often said
afterward, he knew that he made q
hit as soon as he had got their good
wishes
Speaking, in 1893, to Sun reporter,
Mr.. Sanders said land he wanted it
in print, because he considered it a
compliment to what he called the
really good fellows of New York;:
Most people will be surprised when
they read the truth, but it is a fact
that the most liberal patrons Of the
peddlers are the brokers of Wall and
Broad and New street. I am not
going to tell you who they are, but
they are, and that's all there is to
it. The next most profitable are the
working men and women who are
employed in the vicinity OF Chatham
square and the army of them who
nave to cross the big bridge"
That the peddlers themselves liked
their master is shown in the fact that
they subscribed from their earnings.
which averaged from $11 to $50 a
week, enough money to buy a very
handsome floral tribute. The fact
that Sanders was considered to be a
good fellow by capable judges of the
qualities that go to make a good fell
low is further evidenced by the an
nouncement that he was a thirty-
second degree Mason and a member
of Cornucopia lodge.
IL WAS a SHORT TIME,
comparatively speaking. Liter he
started as push-cart peddler that
ne foresaw that his business was go. ag
TO extend, and the more friends he
Won' the firmer became his conviction
that he couldn't be in every place at
once and meet them all, and that II
would be. necessary to secure assist
ants. AT the time of his death, in New
YORK city alone he had more than 200
regularly employed assistants. He
was the head of a syndicate, the
operations of which. extend all over
the country, with main branches in
Philadelphia, Chicago and San Fran
CISCO. This organization, which is
something similar to that which ex-
ISIS IN London, supplies all the street
In L..