Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-12-08
MONEY IN BAYONETS.
How 1t Was Made by a Wash
ington Blacksmith.
He Worked the Weapons of War
Into the Implements of Peace,
and Received Good Pay
for His Labor.

anu htCShNeu
for Hi. Labor.
81 wish I could pick up the bayonets
that have been thrown away around
Santiago" said a blacksmith in one
Of Washington's down town shops.
What earthly good would they do
you?" asked a bystander.
az could make small fortune out
of them" replied the blacksmith, lust
Al did once before with the bayonets
that were picked up at Antietam and
Harper's Ferry"
"How's that?'
"Well, l dontknow rs ii did me any
good-leastway it doesn't now that
/ have lost it all. Perhaps thatis the
reason that l think l would like 10
try 1t again. I was young man when
the war was over and was living up
at a little out-of-the-way place in the
mountains of Maryland. Ihad learned
my trade of my father, who fell at
Gettysburg, and the world was before
me. l settled down to shoeing farm
horses and mules, repairing reapers
and mowers, and doing odd jobs OF
all kinds. Prices were better then
than they are now, and the country
had some cash in it. l did well and
laid by little capital.
"One day an old fellow living way
I'D on the mountain came into my shop
with a bayonet in his hand. On the
other arm was little basket of nice
white eggs.
"Cap,' he said, as he laid the bayo-
net on the anvil, my unyin patch is
all gormed up with weeds and filth,
an eff yo' could on'y jest make me a
leetle narrer hoe outen this baynet
fer this yere mess O. eggs, l reckon
I'd hev a right good chance of un-
yins.'"
''I took the bayonet and hit 1t tap
against the anvil and it rang like a
bell. There was the best of steel in
it and l knew I could make a first
class hoe out of it. I had seen any
number of bayonets, army muskets
and swords kicking around in that
country, but l had never thought of
using them for anything before. 1
stuck the bayonet into the fire and
in a few minutes I made very pref
ty little onion hoe for the old man.
I cut off about two-thirds of the steel,
then bent the rest around nearly
square with the ferrule and hattened
it out into a nice sharp blade an inch
wide. The ferrule left untouched so
that the hoe handle could be put into
it. There happened to be an old ham
die standing in the corner of the shop,
and I put it in for the old man. 1t
hung just right and made the prettiest
garden weapon you.ever saw. The old
fellow was delighted. A few hours
later he came in again and told me
how the hoe worked. He said 1t was
so light, so thin and so sharp and
strong that it was play to hoe onions,
something that I had always heard be-
fore this was the hardest kind of
work.
What he said set me to thinking.
If bayonet made such a good onion
hoe why was there not field for max
ing them on a large scale? The bayo-
nets were to be had in quantity and
there were people enough raising on
ions. In a few days neighbor of the
old man came into the shop with
bayonet and said he wanted a. hoe
made out of it. Several others fol-
lowed his example in the next month
or so and bayonet hoes came to be
known and generally used in that re-
gion. put up a notice in several post
Offices around there that I would pay
five cents apiece for bayonets. They
came In by hundreds. In spare time
L. tnh Y
finished off as nicely as I knew how.
Then put little advertisement in the
country paper and finally another in
an agricultural paper, and the orders
began to pour In on me. l charged
35 cents apiece for the hoes, and as it
did not take over five minutes to make
one, when I was making them in
quantity, I estimated that there was
at least 25 cents profit on each hoe.
! had no discount to make to the trade.
I sold every hoe myself and got all
the profit myself. The trade increased
until bayonets began to get scarce and
I had to offer seven, eight and finally
ten cents for bayonets and they were
slow to come in at that figure. But
for a year or two l sold the hoes by
hundreds and I got very we'll fixed
financially. In my advertisement of
course I alluded to the Biblical notion
of beating swords into plowshares and
shears into pruning hooks. This was
very fetching with all sorts of good
people, and a good many, l suppose,
bought my hoes not only because they
were a frst-class article, but as relics
of the war Some of those bayonets
had no doubt pierced some poor fell
lows vitals, and let his life blood out.
upon the greensward on the battle
fields of the south. 1t is good to think
that the use put them to was more
peaceful and useful to mankind."-
Washington Star