Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-02
HUNDRED : DOLLAR PHI

one OF the best known newspaper men
In Washington is Jim Waters. He was
mere long before the war, and has GER
fanny been here a long while since His
venerable horse and antique green wagon
nave been contemporaneous with much of
the history of the capital and have like
wise formed no small part of the same.
Jim and the horse. and probably the wag-
on nave known every newspaper CORE
spondent and reporter in the city for the
past forty years. All his life Jim has been
gathering information-tons of it at q cent
pound To be brief. he deals in old news
papers And he deals also in good story
row and then.
Dunn Loring." said Jim this morning to
star reporter, "and l went over to sec
~; y tnere was an opening for any business
IN my line. l did good deal of business
curing the warm several lines l sold
thousands OF your Star extras for twenty
hVe cents apiece. That was in the Union
camps. l sold hundreds of them in the
southern lines for several times that And
sold good many things beside news
papers, too, 1 can tell you. For year
l did rushing business with an old wag-
t on ,nat nad false bottom in 1t. More
sifau once was chased by the cavalry on
DOM Sides but 1 knew the lay of the land
anu always got away to bob I'D sereneIy
somewhere else. -"-
~~Se StAohc VI business / Old was
IN selling pies in the camps, I got rid of
tons OF them and they paid we'll Soldiers
seem to like pie better than any other
n nts o. human beings. 1 suppose It re-
OF the pies l used to sell them must have
reminded them of their grandmothers
Now and then the baker couldn't make
p p,e i tSs, enough to keep up with my trade
anu tnen 1 nad to make them myself Thai
was the kind that probably made the boys
think Of the old folks at home.
1 IhlnR the best customers I had were
Inc me pennsylvania bucktails. Great Scott!
But they were pie destroyers! Every one
OF them stood six feet in his stocking feet
| and the way those 1ong-bodied citizens
could put away my goods was caution
Ieit sad today when I saw the boys
over at Dunn Loring. They were all mere
| cnildren compared with the Pennsylvania
giants L couldn't make a cent selling pie
| In that camp.
| "One of the pleasantest recollections I
| nave OF my army experiences was of a
niue transaction on pretty June day
When sold plain old custard pie for
the gentle sum of one hundred dollars.
! hdo disposed OF all my stock except this
one old pie that had been around with me
an DAY. AS l was coming across the Long
bridge met a Jersey artilleryman. He
stopped me and asked me if l had any pies
At first was tempted to tell him 7 hadn't
But he lifted the lid of my big basket and
saw the one pie. Then he rammed his
hand deep into his trousers pocket and
puied out bill. Grabbing the pie with
| one hand he showed the bill at me and
went on. l called out that there was some
change coming to him.
On, go to - with your change was
all the politeness I got for my honesty,
and l took up my basket and went on.
IL hadn't gone far before looked at the
h1ll, which up to that time l had supposed
TO be dollar note. To my surprise it was
one-hundred-dollar bill of the Allegheny
Bank of Cumberland. That was in the
last days of the wildcat system of bank
Ing l thought 1 had been fooled with
some worthless paper, but reconciled my
self with the thought that the pie WASH t
any better than the bill. In fact, 1 was
sure the pie was bad and there was yet
some doubt about the bill The next day
l took 1T to the bank and to my everlast-
Ing surprise they cashed it for $3.50. The
Jerseyman had evidently won it at poker
and did not know it's value. He probably
thought he was playing a good joke on
me.
Those were good old times. We shall
never see their like again. Think how i'm
possible it would be for anything like that
to hapDen now"