The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-01
WAR FURNISHED OPPORTUNITY
IN WHICH FOUNDATIONS EOR 5ANv
LARGE FORTUNES WE'RE
LAID.
LOBBYISTS ARE VERY NUMEROUS
But Less Obtrusive Than in Former
fears-Fake Ideas That Have
Paid.
Special TO the GlnhA

the world there is at least one man Of
whom his neighbors say: He lives by
his wits"
AS matter of fact, all of us whose
Fathers or grandfathers did not &C.
cumulate wealth live by our wits. But
the majority Of the men in every coun-
try live by the legal and customary APP
plication of their wits.
The greatest Of photographers saws
that wit is mind, intellect, understand
ing or sense. The five wits or five
senses are very commonly spoken Of
as representing predominant mental
characteristics, as. common wit, i'm
agination, fantasy, estimation and
memory. Shakespeare makes this allu-
sion:
But my five wits nor my five senses can
Dlssuade one foolish heart from loving thee.
In the earlier days, when our
language was developing, wit meant
genius, and now somewhat de-
notes the power of Selling some
thought or occurrence and presenting
1t with originality, keenness, ana
force HumOr is regarded as a great
special modern manifestation Of wit,
but the word originally meant common
sense.
In the common acceptation of the
term, however, there is no community
in this country which develops so MANY
people who Tive by their Wits as the
national capital; not barring even New
York or Chicago, burt excepting the
criminal classes in the large cities
To Washington drift the queer gen.
fuses from all parts of the country.
The cranks seem to find the climate
OF this federal capital particularly con-
genial. Here may be found characters
to be found nowhere else in all this
broad land. The respondent, the SAN
guine, the visionary, the hopeful, the
aspiring inventor the hopeful office
seeker, the decayed politician-aIl and
many other types are to be seen OH
every ha-nd-and the ways in which
men make a livelihood are as various
and as numerous. Soldiers Of fortune
as they are termed, are almost as
plentiful as those wearing Uncle Sans
livery Of blue and gold.
There was a man here for many years
who not only made a living, but ac-
cumulated a fortune by his wits. Dur
ing the civil war he conceived the idea
of cOrnering the market on hand-carts
He bought, hired and begged all that
he could. He secured broken-down
carts whose owners had discarded them.
These he renovated and induced to
condition of stability that they would
not come apart. His carts he rented out
to colored men and others who would
take them at the moderate rent Of fifty
cents week. When it Is recollected
what prices were paid during those
times for moderate services, it can be
seen that every cart-man with any
kind Of a business could rent a cart
and, after paying his weekly stipend
make g good thing for himself. The sys-
tenn became very popular. The old man
coined money hand over fist He was
IN Ia IA
he kept a vigilant eye. Glanced he to
spy one who had not paid him for the
previous week he would rush out into
the street and seize the cart and COM
pei the human motive power to disgorge
before he allowed him to proceed. He
had a knack for investing his profits
and consequently soon became the own
er Of quite a number Of houses and
kept a balance in bank
Time takes from us some Of our pc
culiar characters and our war vet
Grams are gradually passing away
Until within year there was one we'll
known old soldier whose fortune was
in his tireless and inexhaustible mem
DRY. It was his good luck to have par
ticipated in several capacities in the
civil war, and he turned his ex,
periences into many hard pieces Of sill
YER He was Well-known about news
paper offices. With a talent for ap-
plication and regular work he would
have made a mark; but he lived only
in the present. A skirmish written up
in his characteristic, breezy, ghaphic
style would mean a good dinner or
two drinks; a seige would bring three
hearty meals; a battle would produce
a night with the boys, and a campaign
was good for a weeks board But he
is now under the sod at Arlington GEM
etery with his old comrades, in flames
eternal camping ground; the bivouac
Of the dead"
You have seen or heard or read about
that histrionic character, Jim the
Penman?" Many critics have said that
the story Of Jim's experiences with the
pen was improbable and fit only for
the basis of a thrilling drama But
there has been a young man about the
capitol who rivals even the expert
Jim in his deftness. He can take any
signature and reproduce it so exactly
that the owner Of the autograph can
not distinguish 1t from his own He
has won many a bet ON his ability to
do it. In one of the hotels the other
night his experiences was being dis
cuSsed when one Of those present Of
fered to bet a dollar bill that his
autograph could not be successfully
duplicated "Doner' cried the pen
man. The autograph was written. The
penman studied and dashed off a copy
an a similar piece Of paper. Taking the
two he put them in a hat, shook them
up, spread them on his desk and told
the better to select the one he had
written. The latter couldn't do it and
paid the bet. The penman related a
number Of incidents in his history
showing the power he possessed in his
well-trained fingers. He had had MANY
an opportunity to coin wealth by forg-
cry and dishonesty and many an offer
4 IL
fingers itched for unlawful gains He
makes a living honestly, however, by
writhing cards, which he disposes Of in
large numbers.
Another clever young man is the one
who was recently in the city and made
a large amount of money by cutting
silhouettes from paper. Putting two
pieces Of black paper together he would
take pair Of scissors and cut out a
perfect silhouette likeness of any one
in any attitude. Three Of these he
sold for a quarter, pasting them on
white cards. He always had an in
teresting crowd about him and was
always business. He came to the city
looking like a tramp. He left look
ing as spruce as a bank clerk. He OBJ
tained many a quarter simply by his
wonderful cleverness in a very novel
performance. Mankind is always ready
to pay for seeing anything done we'll
and when that something is a novelty
the money flows all the more freely.
One man here lived by his wits from hand
to mouth until he happened to have an op-
portunity to make a barrel Of money as
lobbyist. Few mon would have realized the
opportunity, or have had the disposition and
ability to make such use of the opportunity.
OF course, 1t is generally understood that
Washington is the theater of operations for
the lobbyist We hear less Of this gentle
manor lady, too. for that mate--than
formerly, for he works less obtrusively than
he. 81 - L. dno mt haI hitr Huhtte