The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-07

principal purchasers of his wares-the
Christmas fakir. five times out of six,
will have the stamp of New York upon
him. He will be from the East Side
and of the East Side still, no matter
how far away he may be from the
tenement home that his mind will
bark back to occasionally while his
stentorian voice sings the undying
praises of some novelty, because his
/ king has sent him out; and his king is
an East Side man.
The Original FnIkir's Career.
It has been thirty-four years since
the boss fakir, then a newsboy of
thirteen, originated the street man oc-
cupatiOn. Until he began barking PEN
knives one morning in front of the Old
New York postoffice, in Nassau street,
no one except a few Jews were try
ing to sell things on the thoroughfares.
and they offered only dust brooms, and
other minor household necessities. A
month later the boy had the peddling
Jews working for him. A year later
he had a big bank account for one of
his age. By the time he was old
enough to vote he was postmaster of
the art he had originated and sole in
strutOr in a school for fakirs; and from
that day to this he has recruited his
students from the section of the town
where he was born and sent them
broadcast over the country selling his
wares.
So it happens that the typical
! Christmas fakir is, in large measure,
! chip of the king of them all.
Run across him wherever you may,
you will find his as sturdy of body as
of voice: with a wit as incisive as his
business acumen; possessor of a soul
utterly incapable of being cast down,
the ingenuity of imagination of clever
novelist, and the power to make word
paintings that rival the illiterate work
of circus press agents. And lastly, as
he hands you your purchase, jerks the
piece of money out of your hand, losses
it into a pocket, and turns to the next
customer, all before you begin to real
lie what has happened, you can readi-
ly see why the hustling Western bust
ness man. famed in song and story,
takes back seat when the fakir comes
around. And like the first of his race,
nearly all the East Siders who will be
selling Christmas novelties tomorrow
morning first served their apprentice
days as newsboys along Park Row.
The Fnixirs Will Clear Up 81, 200, 900.
1t is conservatively estimated that
between now and Christmas the 10000
fakirs will take in $4,000, 900 over and
above the percentage that goes to the
man back of them. The average New
York, Chicago or Philadelphia street
man clears anywhere from $500 to $500
for his work on the ten days prior to
Christmas. The novelties are never
put on the street any earlier, for the
fakir glories in catching shoppers at
full tide. In Pittsburg, San Francisco,
st. Paul, st. Louis and Louisville his
net income varies from 5000 to $500;
while in the larger Southern cities and
in such Northern and Western towns
as Albany, Omaha, Columbus, Los An
geles and Spokane, it doesn't take more
than ordinary ability to clear as much
as SIS, frequently 500 and not infre-
quently $125 and $3.50.
Once in a while there is a man in
the cities of millions who, when he
reckons up his profits before arraying
himself in his best buds on Christmas
Day, preparatory to calling on his
steady company" or taking wife and
children to a vaudeville entertainment,
finds that he is 1000 or 1880 Ito the
good" This is especially true when
some novelty, simple as two and two
in construction and small in construc-
tive price, catches the public fancy and
has a phenomenal sale at five or ten
cents the specimen.
But whether he makes $1,000 or $50,
the typical fakir takes a long rest after
the Christmas harvest is ended. Bar
ring few of his brethren who bark
year in and year out, he is liable to
spend nearly all his time until the next
Christmas recuperating. He is a hap
py-go-lucky fellow is the fakir, and in
this trait he is in sharp contrast with
the universally acknowledged head of
his calling.
A Good Year for the Fakirs.
This holiday season the street men
confidently expect to make so much
money that the odd Jobs sometimes
necessary to be undertaken between
Christmases for the good of the body
will be obviated for once They base
their expectations on the general pros
perity of the country. Even a fakir
new to the business knows that ii
takes a full pocketbook to make a man
give heed to, laugh over, and purchase
the insignificant trinkets displayed on
trays and small stands in the door
ways of vacant stores: in push carts
and in huckster wagons
The prosperous matured and ma
turing public will be tempted with not
few brand new playthings Some OF
which, the inventors and the fakirs
hope, Will prove as elusively puzzlng
as "pigs-in clover" and thereby make
~ Net'NAAi5 oeilSos lIuSGQs lulS
hope has given away largely to a feel
ing of certainty, based on the unusual
rapidity with which the few hundreds
of samples of these various novelties
sent out through the country to test
their selling powers were gobbled up.
On the strength of this "feelar."
which is made with extreme care every
year, half million copies of the teas
er called Columbus tand-up- the
egg will be placed on the market
Outwardly it is a small duplicate of
the glass case once so popular for COW
ering artificial flowers. 1t can be held
in the hollow of the hand. Inclosed by
the glass covering Is a small wooden
egg. and the object is to turn and
twist the whole affair about until the
egg is made to stand on its smaller end
in shallow hole in the center of the
wooden bottom of the case 1t seems
easy, but few minutes trial dispels
the delusion.
The "FOur Blind Mice" Trick
Another novelty somewhat on the
same order is -Four Blind Mice" The
mice" are gunshot enclosed in a glass
tube half an inch in diameter and two
inches long. This is divided in half bv
piece of wood pierced by four holes
just large enough to pass the shot. The
hole in the middle of the wood leads
into a tube whose circumference is
that of the opening, and which runs
half the length of the large tube in
closing ii. You catch the mice" if YOU