The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-09-03
A WARTIME DEAL IN MUSLIN.
When A. T. Stewart Was Beaten by a
Jer.sev Farmer.


There is an old farmer living at Hill
ton, n. j., who holds it as one or inc
lows of his life that once upon a 'lhlS,
over forty years ago, he proved hllilsE =,
clever enough to get the better OF ~. ! :
Stewart. He is Henry Jeroloman, VINO
has since become little snort OF famous
himself as the grower of the hlltoii
strawberry.
But it was many years before ne ever
thought of strawberries that ne cfoSSeu
swords with a. 4. Stewart. He owns
a lumber mill and a number of houses
in q western town, which he purchased
from the proceeds of his deal with
Stewart There are in ali two Dozen
houses, and fer the possession or these
and the lumber mill Jeroloman has the
civil war to thank.
Just before the war began Jeroioman
reaIized that it was bound TO come. lie
realized also that muslin. which was
then selling for from Il to 10 cents
yard, would soon go UP.
He thought over this for some time,
and then he made up his mind TO put
all his available casa into muslin. He
logged thoughtfuliy over to New York
ana moved quietly around in the dry
goods neighborhood, until he learned
that a. 7. Stewart had nearly all the
muslin there was in the city at that
time.
He then went in and offered to buy
all the stock at the prevailing rate. The
bill came TO $4,000. Stewards business
associates readily agreed to sell.
JeroIoman did not have that amount
of money, but he scrdped around ana
raised as much as lie could and then
offered his note at thirty days for the
balance. The firm accepted the note.
Jeroloman then told the concern to keep
the goods until he called for them, and
went back home to do some more think
ing, and waiting.
In a short time Fort Sumpter was
freedom, and prices went up by bounds.
When \. Z. Stewart & Co. sought to re
place their stock OF muslin they found
the price almost prohibitiye, and Mr..
Stewart became very angry.
He sent for JerolOman and the farm
er went over to see him. On arriving
at the store Jeroloman found that Stew
art mad given his partner a raking over
and had berated his muslin buyers for
letting the stock go.
Once Mr.. Jeroioman was in Mr.. Stew
arts office and the door was shut, the
merchant tried his best to get the Jer
seyman to give. up the goods. He asked
Jeroloman what he wanted of so much
muslin anyway, since he was not q
dealer.
Jeroloman replied that although he
wasn't in the business he had sense
enough to see that muslin was bound to
increase in value.
Stewart grew angrier and finally be-
came abusive, but Jeroloman would not
sell. He said he had seen chance to
make a lot of money and he wasn't go
ing to lose it,
He told the merchant that he could
get 81 yard for muslin and that if the
firm wanted that which he had bought
from him it would have to pay that
art shouting to the farmer that he
the store Immediately.
Jeroloman at once went out and ar
ranged for removing the goods and the
next day line of wagons came toiling
in to Newark and drew up before his
door. Jeroloman had no place to store
the goods but in his own house, and
soon the parlor and some of the bed
rooms were piled high with the cases
Every available bityof space was soon
taken up with big boxes.
JerolOman then went back to New
York and paid the balance due. He be-
gan by selling muslin at 25 cents a yard
Soon it went up to 90 cents, then to 70
cents and finally to 81 a. yard
When the muslin was all gone Jerolo-
man found he had cleared about So, 900
on the investment, and besides he had
the satisfaction, which to him was no
doubt tremendous, oflknowing that he
had been shrewderothan one of the
greatest merchantsiiof the day-New
York Sun.