Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1904-11-14

Transcript.-My friend the fakir made
his "pitch" on Saturday night on
Blackstone street. In one view OF
the case it was fitting that so pictur-
esoue a performer should figure IN the
most interesting street scene in Bos-
ton-for that is what Blackstone
street of a Saturday night is. In an
other view II derogated from his
dignity. When [ last encountered
the fakir, which was in Buffalo last
October, he had a medical spieP'
and was selling electric belts-cost,
$12 a. gross, price fifty cents each with
an electric insole, for rheumatism,
thrown in. And here he was. in his
native town at that, peddling cam
paign buttons at ten cents apiece,
the profit being only six cents!
Not that there was objection to the
button, in and of itself, for it was a
work of art 1t represented a hand
holding all the aces, with a picture Of
the President TO" joker; the aces
labeled respectively, Sound Money"
Expansion" Protection, and Pros
perity," and the whole design reen-
forced with the legend, "Stand Pat! ("
The button was about the size of a
f1fty-cent piece, was Autographed in
four colors, and proclaimed it's wear
er's convictions full forty rods. I
bought one to encourage the others,
but put it in my pocket. There are
localities in Ward Six where on a
Saturday night every prudent man is
willing to be considered Democrat,
or at the least a Mugwump.
did not linger to admire my
friends pyrotechnic eloquence. AS a
matter of fact it was not on exhibition.
He kept up a flow of ''patter' that
seemed to serve his purpose; but for
flights of fancy one must find him in a
country town, between his gasolene
torches, dispensing soap, Jewelry,
perfumery, and "guff,'' and making as
much money in an evening ais you or
l can earn in half week. I thought
the present situation unworthy of him,
in that he was selling a low-priced
article and working under restraint,
like any of the aliens who haWked
suspenders; and [ put it to him strong
", when | returned to his stand an
hour later, and he, sweeping the
last few buttons into his bag, had
started to walk with me towards his
hotel.
'Well, say" my friend made answer,
eff you think it's so easy to do bust
ness in this Yiddish carnival, you've
got another think coming. When 1
want to gain wealth without eXerting
myself it's me to Merchants Row or
Change Alley, where everything goes.
7 never come down here to Blackstone
street unless have a new proposition
and line of talk to- back it up; and
even then, when / work off ten cents
worth of ornament, something that
you can't eat or wear-well, say it's
proof of genius, that's what it is!
You want to remember that these peo-
pie are born financiers; they'd take a
tray of collar-buttons and seventy-five
cents cash and undertake to buy your
house, and they'd get the warranty
deed, every time; and when little
bIue-eyed Yankee like me can sell 'em
something they can't use and don't
want, it signifies that I'm in pretty
good shape to tackle the county fair.
See? Blackstone street is the grind
stone l sharpen my wits on.
''There's another error you're max
ing. that streetman ought to stick
to his speciality in this
case electric belts, the graft I was
working when you saw me in Buffalo.
Well, if you try to do that you get
sort of-sort of hide-bound. Being
in rut, you lose your snap and your
adaptability; and that's deadly. Every
crowd a man faces is different from
every other crowd and he's got to be
wide awake all over, all the time, and
plan his campaign to slrit the situation.
Understand? And another reason
why you can't stick to speciality is
that the speciality won't stick to you.
Why. say, 1 hadn't been in Buffalo a
week before another fellow jumped in
with the same line of electric belts
and the same flow of language, to a
word. I learned my talk from book
of medical spells that paid five dol
lars for-and it was worth the money
but Johnny conference.-the had
bought the same book and he was
handing out the same Grafton. Well
that was all right The world is
wide, and what do we have feet for?
Johnny and I got together and tipped
cent. 1t turned Up tails for me
and I started out across New York
and Pennsylvania and Ohio, working
toward the South.
'Now, you being anxious about my
professional dignity, you might have
seen me do things in the six months
following that would "a broken your
heart; but, me being after coin,
made oUt pretty well, thank you. The
electric belt was@a good seller, in the
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