Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-08
A COLOSSAL NERVE

IA AoSS saturdays STAR, SAID waning
tonian who used to live in Brooklyn.
Around New York and Brooklyn he was
known as the man with the chilled steel
cheek He was an all-around hustler and
CRATER. and was successfully a Maiden
Lane diamond salesman, the holder of
good civil billet at the Brooklyn navy yard.
mayor and boss Of a little town outside
brooklyn, exploiter of walking matches and
prize nights, publisher and half proprietor
OF weekly newspaper down at the far
emo OF Long Island, and about a hundred
ana forty-two other things that 1 can't
think of just now.
Turing Mr.. Cleveland's first campaign
Ior ehe presidency he organized the Maiden
Lane jewelers. and jewelers. clerks into a
Sieveiano marching club, and he seized out
pretty good clerical berth in the Brook
tyn navy yard after Mr.. Cleveland's cleo
tion as reward for this work While he
held that job he came so near being the
poss OF the whole works, through his con-
centrated gall, that there wasn't any fun
"a NJ. II, Inc cheeky things that he did while
attached to the Brooklyn yard came mighty
near giving number of the old-time Off
GERS, sea dogs Of rank attacks of apoplexy
ana a; other r. dire things. The famous, bluff
auaIral hed Eli Kirkland was then the
commandment Of the yard. and naturally
enough, ne sort of had 1t figured out that
ne mad leetle something to say about the
way things should be run in the yard. But
..Aio SoiiJ iuStieT see the aQm1ral 8
ldea In this respect from any point Of view
He started right in to be Tt from the jump
ana MS assumption so stupefied Red Bill
hirkland tnat he won out for quite long
wnle. Fact is, the admiral at first found
entertainment and diversion in studying
the monumental nerve of the civilian at
tached to the yard.
'One day Buffalo Bits Wild West Show
got along to New York; think 1t was the
first of the visits Of the Wild West outfit
over there The show was given on Staten
Island The man with the chilled-steel
face had in previous years met Bill Cody
somewhere or other, and he admired the
man with the long hair so much that he
concluded to entertain him and his layout
some on this visit. So, one morning, by
manipulating some edge or other in connec-
tion with his job In the yard, the man of
gall had steam got UP in the boiler Of every
tug and launch at the yard, and when
everything was ready he set sail with his
fleet for Staten Island. When his fotilla
got down there he piled Buffalo Bill and all
OF the broncho busters and Injuns attached
to the Wild West Show into his assortment
steered them up to the Brooklyn navy yard
Cody, naturally enough, thought that 1t
was all right
"1n the meantime Admiral Kirkland had
wanted to use his own admiral's launch,
but 1t wasn't, of course, available, being
Just then about midway between Staten
Island and the yard and loaded down with
t mma west W.. people e., When the admiral
near dying standing up. They tell me that
the old mans conversation came mighty
near melting the copper sheathing off the
OLD Plugs OF men-o'-war that Were lying
around their yard anchorages al tne time.
He was standing on the cob dock waiting
for the cheeky mans flotilla to tie up and
the parcel of heavy-weather language that
he proceeded to unbuckle on the nervy
civilian when he had the Wild West outfit
ashore was never equaed I'm told, for pic
turesqueness or forcefulness on the Allan
tic seaboard But the gally mar merely
waited the admiral. He wasn't bothered
and he took Cody and his crowd of plains
men and red men all over the yard and
showed them the works. and then he spread
them out neat collation. in one of the I'M
used storehouses. OF course. after the Wild
West outfit got away from the yard the
admiral and the undesirable civilian had It,
The split was yawning one from then on,
and after while the cheeky Individual
had to notify the Secretary of the Navy
that he, the Secretary would have 10 hunt
around for another boy
THE man with the Bessemer nerve had
run of poor luck after he got out of the
navy yard. He wasn't very regular ir his
habits, and one day he went a-roystering
with Brooklyn friend of his own sort
After few days the pair pulled up in a
town over at the distant end of Long
Island. Their finances were nil. ...s 40
80 think remarked the man of gall
that we had better start a weekly news
paper in this place, hey?
not very confidently. But what on?
THE cheeky hustler went With his pal
to butchers shop. The man with the
nerve took big sheet of butchers brown
wrapping paper and blocked it out into
columns with his lead pencil. Then he
calmly told the butcher that he Intended
to start weekly newspaper in that town
in a couple of weeks from date, and he
desired the meat seller for his first advar-
tiser. He indicated a column on the first
page of his prospective newspaper N which
he said the butchers ad. would look neat.
The butcher took the space and paid part
of the money down. The gally and his
companion went all over the place taking
advertisement orders. Then the sally hust-
Ter returned to Brooklyn, famed q firm into
letting him have printing ou-G. by show
ing his advertising contracts, Installed 1t in
the town where he and his companion had
landed broke engaged a typesticIler or
two, made terms with a patent insdes'
concern in New York and the TWO actually
started the paper and conducted It tor
more than year, and they made a living
and something beside out of it a. that
Later on this chap with the colossal
cheek became the agent in New York and
adjoining states for big firm Of southern
oleomargarine manufacturers. He made
money hand over fist at the business. He
could sell tons of the oleo where other
fellows who tried 1t couldn't sell ounces.
He'd swing into tidy restaurant, take his
seat at the table, and order top notch
feed. When the butter was brought to his
place by the waiter he would set I'D a
roar about it, and then send for the pro-
prietor of the restaurant. He'd make an
awful moan to the proprietor about the
quality of the butter.
Haven't you got any good oieomarga-
rine on tap here| he would ask the res
taurateur, and, when the latter would reply
in the negative. he would say:
&c We'll. I'm going to eat here right along
for a while, and I'm going to send you a
firkin of So-and-So's oleomargarine, and I
want you to keep 1t here for me, see?'
THAT was his method of getting the res
taurateurs interested in the cleo question,
and, as I say, he sold train loads of 1t while
he was in the business
His cheek was so hard that he OCCASION
ally took some desperate chances with it,
too. For example, he arranged a prize fight
between a couple of New York heavy
weights. the battle to take place on a barge
out in the middle of the Hudson river. One
of the pugilists turned up, but the other
didn't and the crowd of three or four hun
bred sports who had assembled on the
barge began to howl for their money back
The man of gall couldn't see that end of it.
and so he announced that in the absence of
the other fighter he would fight the one on
board himself. This satisfied the crowd
and the barge was lowed out into the middle
of the stream. The gally man wasn't in
training, but he was bruiser, and he put
up surprising fight of it for seven rounds
with the trained pug. He was knocked out
In the seventh round, but he saved the
hot loa, taly i,,f n 4t,o