The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-06-17
JAMRACH AND HIS STORE.
THE STORY OF ONEOF THE QUEER
. EST % BUSINESSES IN THE WORLD.


Gods-rhe Whims of Some of Jam
rach's Customers
The beginnings of Jamrach's business
belongs to Hamburg, where the grand
father of the present Jamrach wa
chief of the river police. In his of
fetal capacity he was in the habit OF
boarding arriving vessels, and so was
attracted by the curiosities the sailors
brought home. He took to buying sucf
of those as took his fancy. Then his
friends wanted him to procure similar
curiosities for them, and thereafter his
friends friends We're seized with the
same desire. The upshot of all this was
an easy and profitable business in
these rarities; for the more they We're
distributed the greater the number OF
people that wanted them, and the
more he bought from the sailors the
greater were the quantities they con-
tinued to bring him.,
Accordingly, he resigned his Office in
the police and announced to the public
that he was prepared to supply them
with rarities of any kind from any
shore, for the crew of every ship that
HeAifSA NCiC INV PieANNiSoAiJ 81 many
agents for him. Wonderful shells and
birds of gorgeous plumage were his
chief commodities for these there
were a constant market, and as long
as the sailors We're we'll remunerated
there was an ever-increasing supply.
1t was not easy to glut the market with
natural rarities in those days, for the
world was wider than it is now, and
the products of distant lands compare
lively unknown
Others soon entered the business,
and, as there was always a market for
rarity, competition between the rival
dealers centred round the sailors. The
great point in this competition was to
acquire early knowledge of the arrival
of rarities on the docks, and for this
purpose the dealer employed the loaf
ers round the quay-side to run" to
them with such news, the runner"
being rewarded in proportion to the
Importance of the information he
brought / have seen the late Charles
Jamrach pay a runner as much as G5,
and / have seen him pay as low as one
shilling. Besides employing runners,
one dealer took to going out to meet
expected ships, another dealer did the
same, and went further next time. This
was capped by other dealers going
further and furthers The next inno-
walton was to steal away unobserved
in the night--a trick that came out in
the course of time and then the rival
dealers used to have one another's
movements watched by night as we'll
as by day.
NI,n oslo twill hot Iy 1nd hi iy.Iy
some competition for the time being
was inflicted by Jamrach when he sent
his son Charles to oLndon, there to re-
side and buy up the rarlties and ami
mails, and send them to him on the con-
tinent This practically gave Jamrach
monopoly; for then, there being no
Suez canal, English ports were always
those first touched by homeward-
bound vessels. Enjoying this virtual
monopoly, Jamrach could now tell cap
tains of ships what to bring him with
out any fear of what they brought fall
ing into rival hands. Thus it came
about that if even European mon |
arch wanted rarity-as did once the |
Emperor oJseph OF Austria, who for |
years sought for what Jamrach got for
him in as many months, namely, lion
with particular kind of mane--his
best plan was to go to Jamrach.
Jamrach's accordingly became known
as place where anything could be
procured, from a needle to an ele-
plant" as I have often heard it put.
These were the old times of the ami
NAL and curiosity trade, with an ex-
pending world so to speak, to draw
supplies from, with people eager to
know more and more of new countries,
and with the institution and growth of
or geological gardens, and
There was then a boom
right along the whole line of the trade
and deals with long profits and small
Initial outlay We're of weekly occur
renee. Booms there are still, now and =
then; but they are confinde to particu-
lar objects or particular animals, and
arise in rather odd ways sometimes
At the time theosophy was attract
ng attention, for instance, a stranger
dropped into Jamrach's shop. He was
received courteosuly rather than cor
Italy. 'To tell the truth" said Jam
'ach to me about the time, 81 thought
Ne was some dock clerk out of a job
Ind, under the pretense of wanting
'Olilc IdilIy, iidu CulliC III " pass lIle |
line with look around" People that |
'onle in Just to look round usually be-
rim by asking for some fanciful rarity,
uch as a parrot that can say the
lords prayer backward or do sum
n addition. This particular stranger h
,egan quite differently. Had Mr.. aim c
ach any symbols connected with the {
eligion of Buddha? Mr.. Jamrach had, b
nd the stranger being taken into the t
museum, bought various images and il
eligious carvings. He then wrote out C
check, and the name he put to it f
bowed him to be the representative of a
ne of the oldest families in England. e
his gentleman came several times af- h
ar that, making similar purcha SEES, t.
nd told Jamrach that he was furnish s.
lg a theosophic temple and that he a
ras endeavoring by close study of the k
nages and idols to discover the h
noughts of the artists that produced g
1em. How far he succeeded is not our n
oncern, 1t is our concern simply to r,
oint out that articles that had lain W
Jamrachs museum for a quarter of p,
century, perhaps more and were con- m
dered unstable almost, had a market w
alue suddenly "precipitated' upon tr
lem by the far distant Mahatmas. ~
From thus selling deities or delicate h,