The Van Buren press., 1904-09-17
WARTIME DEAL IN MUSLIN.
New Jersey Farmer Remembers with
Delight How He Got Ahead Of
A. + Stewart.

There is an old farmer living at Hilton.
n. j.. who holds II as one OF the Joys OF
his life that once upon a time. over ~
years ago. he proved himself clever
enough to get the better Of A. I. Stewart
lie is Henry Jerolomsn. who has since
become little short OF famous himself
as the grower OF the Hilton strawberry.
says the New York Sun.
But it was many years before he ever
thought OF strawberries that he crossed
swords with A T. Stewart lie owns a
lumber mill and number OF houses In a
western town, which he purchased from
,he proceeds Of his deal with Stewart.
There are ia all two dozen houses, and
for the possession Of these aud the lum-
ber mill JeroIoman has the civil war To
thank
Just before the war began Jeroio-
man realized that II was bound to come
lie realized also that muslin. which was
then selling for from II to Is cents "
yard, would soon go up.
He thought over this for some time,
and then he made up his mind 10 put all
his available capital into muslin. He
logged thoushtfuly over to New York
and moved quietly around In the dry
goods neighborhood until he learned
that A. T. Stewart had nearly all the mus
lin 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 10 s33 900 Stewarts business as
sociates readily agreed to sell
Jeroloman did not have Shat amount
OF money. but he scraped around and
raised as much as he could. and then Of
fered his note al 80 days for the balance
The firm accepted the note Jeroloman
then told the concern to keep the goods
until he called for them, aud went back
TO do some more thinking and waiting
In short time Fort Sumter was fired
on. aud prices went up by bounds. when
A r Stewart q Co sought TO replace
their stock Of muslin they found the pric',
almost prohibitiye and Mr.. Stewart be-
came very angry
He sent for Jernloman and the farmer
went over to see him On arriving at the
store Jerooman found that Stewart had
given his partner raking over and had
berated his muslin buyers for letting the
stock go
once Jeroloman was IN Mr. Stewards
office and the door was shut. the mer-
chant tried his best TO get The Jerseyman
to give up the goods He asked Jeroo-
man what he wanted OF SO much muslin
anyway. since he was not a dealer
Jerooman replied that although hs
wasn't In the business he had sense
enough to see that muslin was bound To
increase in value
Stewart grew angrer and finally be-
came abusive. but Jeroloman would not
sell He said he had seen a chance ~
make a lot OF money and he wasn't going
10 lose e.
lie told the merchant that he could
get 81 a yard for muslin and that II the
firm wanted that which he had bough,
from them Il would have to pay that
price. The interview ended with stew
art shouting to the farmer that he would
have to remove his muslin from tho
store Immediately
Jeroloman al once went out and ar.
ranged for removing the goods and the
next day a line OF wagons came toiling
In 10 Newark aud drow up before the
door. Jeroloman had no place to store
the goods but In bis own house. aud soon
the paror and some Of the bedrooms
were piled high with the cases Every
available bit OF space was soon taken up
with big boxes.
Jcroloman then went back 10 New
York and paid the balance due He be-
Ran by selling muslin at 20 cents n yard
Soon II went up TO 50 cents, then TO 75
and finally TO 81 yard
When the muslin was all gone Jerolo-
man found that he had cleared about sG5.-
900 on the Investment, and besides he bad
the satisfaction. which 10 him was no
doubt tremendous. OF knowing that he
had been shrcwder than one Of the great
est merchants Of the day