The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-29
who could outwit Jew in commercl,l


 who could outwit Jew in commerclal transaction.
 The Russian government was prepar- ing to make a new railway exte-is.on and had need of large numpsr or rail- road timbers to be delivered to '-dessd. It adVeI tised for bids un the contract TOT supplying four hund.ed md ninety carloads of the timbers, and 1t was specified that the government would haul the material to Odessa from the timber country, which is far inland, providing for that purpose ten trains or forty nine trucks each.
 Some twenty speculative men in and around Odessa put in bids. On the day set for the letting of the contract the bids were opened. They ranged from ninety to one hundred and five kopecks, all except one bid, put in by Moses Raw inszk for fifty-five kopecks timber, or if that is not the correct figure, about one-half of the next lowest bid. The other bidders were disgusted and the government representative was per- plexed He said to Ravinszk, You are the lowest bidder and you are entitled to the contract, but it is nonsense to bid fifty-five kopecks. You cannot get the wood and put it on the cars for any such price,"
 If do not" said Ravinszk, "then l will be the loser. have deposited my money as a guarantee and I can give you good security. As an the lowest bidder I have right t3 the contract"
 It was awarded 10 him. The other bidders scoffed at him and told him he was fool, but he made a few patient and deprecating gestures and told them that his business was his own.
 He sent his son-in-lay up into the timber country, and in the course of a few weeks he notified the railway off, cials that the four hundred and ninety carloads of material were ready for shipment. The government dispatched the ten trains of forty-nine cars each, and the timbers were brought to Odes- sa, where the government inspector went to look at them.
 He found some of them short and some of them long. None of them had the stipulated width, and instead of be- ing neatly trimmed they were practi- cally in the rough. The inspector re- fused to accept any of them.
 Tn vain the contractor begged and pleaded He said he was ruined man. It would bankrupt him to 20 and get another four hundred and ninety car- loads.
 You have taken the contract, and you must carry out the terms of the agreement" was the governments re- ply.
 "Then I will send my son to the tim- Der country" said Ravinszk. "He is a careful young man and will see to it that the timbers are of the right length and the right width and trimmed neat ly.'
 So the son went up into the country and shipped down in good time four hundred and ninety carloads of the scrubbiest logs he could find, all too short.The ten train loads were con- demned instanter by the inspector and dumped out at Odessa.
 Then was the contractor broken hearted. He wanted, to be released from the contract. He offered to com promise, the government to keep the ncney which he had put up as a for fe;t His appeals were unheeded. He must either deliver four hundred and ninety carloads of tmbers of the kind described in the contract or else he and l his sureties would be brought into court
 T will lose all my money, but I will do as I promised said the Jew. This time I will go myself and measure eve- ry timber The government shall be satisfied"
 | He kept his word. Carefully direct i ing all the work, he had four hundred and ninety carloads of timber sawed and trimmed and shipped to Odessa, l where the inspector promptly inspected 1 the lot. In due time the Jew received the contract money, but of course it did not represent his outlay. 1 He lost money on the contract On
 the contract-yes. But how about the nine hundred and eighty carloads of ex- cellent firewood which the company had | brought all the way to Odessa free of l charge? Moses Ravinszk controlled the
 fuel market. He undersold his compe- 1 titors who had to pay freight chal ges 1 and he supplied the town until the 1 nine hundred and eighty carloads were eNheusted, and by that time he had
 made more than the profit which the
 other bidders had hoped to make out of 1 the timber contract. It is needless to i add tFat Moses knew what was going tc