The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-30
WONDERFUL STORY OF 'DIAMOND JIM" Jim Brady'S Career From Pov-
 erty To Wealth SMALL, FAT IRISH BOY Had no More Money Than a Hen Has Teeth-carried Messages for
 New York CentraPs Tele-
 graph Department.
SMALL, FAT, IRISH BOY

From the New York Globe
 Once upon a time-oh, that's the right way to begin one of the self-help stories-James Buchanan Brady didn't have any moro money than hen has teeth. He was just a small, fat Irish, boy, who had secured a common school education, and given a lawyer a fair trial while he worked as an office boy. and eventually devoted himself to the leg talent department of the New York eentrals telegraph service. All that young MT. Brady had to do was to hike from department chief to department chief carrying messages.
 Now he is Diamond Jim" Brady, who considers himself in multi when he has less than 14 pounds of diamonds, taste- fully picked out with a double handful of rubies and quart or so of emeralds here and there. When he is in full dress 1 he carries couple of huskies as a body guard and street sweeper under heavy bond to catch the gems as they fall from | his garments. The old style of exam 1 pie to a rising generation used to hurry nome from school to wash the dishes for mamma. The new style-to wit. James Buchanan Brady-stopped after 1 school to confer a few hints from Dub- lin upon his little friends fin the form of black eyes. The old style used to die in the odor of sanctity about the time he got old enough to enjoy life The new style, if he ever heard of sanctity. would likely order it set in a ring, being under the impression that it was a new form l of gaud.
 When Diamond Jim goes to the races. 1 and he goes every afternoon during the l season, the track detectives approach him apologetically.
 Stick unda tn bettin' shed tuh-day. MT MT. Brady they beg Don't go out on tn lawn. Be good fella"
 And MT. Brady asks why
 An, you know they reply twisting 1 bashfully 'Yuh get kinda enthusiastic l yuh know, and wave yuh mitt, and it looks like yuh wig-waggin' tn results acrost thuh fence. Them signal lights on yuh fingers act jest like a heliograph. l yuh know"
 If the grand jury to which MT. Bardy has just been made the foreman wants I to retire from business. all it's members have to do is to peel MT. Brady down to l his pearl-studded lingerie. On an ordi- nary sunny day he shines like the Kaiser l Wilhelm coming into port on a clear night with band playing on the saloon l deck. They say that one of his friends l called on him at his home one morning. to find MT. Bardy in a state of frightfui indeeision. He couldn't make up his mind whether to wear a four-carat r1lbv or nine%carat diamond in his tie
 T like the diamond" he confessed. but the ruby seems so quiet and modest like that it ought to harmonize with this foggy day"
 Once MT. Brady walked into an up- town brokerage office all peeved up. He i pointed out an infintesimaI spot on a l wondrous salmon-li1e vest, which was 1 decked with two double rows of diamond i buttons.
 Got that spot at lunch" he said. Now I've got to go home and change" | Not at all," said the broker. Stay right here. I'll give you 5000 for the cleaning privileges"
 But he wouldn't have made anything at that. MT. Brady is eminently able to take care of himself More than six feet tall, with a heavy flushed face, and a neck which has but one dimension that of thickness-wide shouldered and deep paunched, he is tremendously mus cular He stays up all night, but he never more than touches the wine glass to his lips. He is a notable bon vivant, f1rst-nighter who gets Europe's peers all wrinkled up because he wears more jewels than the entire stage company; Corinthian, who on occasion keeps a stable of prize fighters, as he does a stable of race horses When he starts down line of bookmakers with yellow bills oozing out between his short, fat fingers. they begin to rub the odds for Brady bets em higher than a cats back There Is hardly a pretty actress on the stage who would refuse to MT Brady the right to chuck her companionably under the chin. That's his upper Broad way side.
 His lower Broadway side finds him at his office desk shortly after o'clock every morning, whether he has been to bed the night before or not. He began life without a nickel and he's a mil lionaire several times over AS the vice president of great railway supply house. he Is always clear r-headed and cool and always a hustler. He has made his fortune for himself, and made in cidental fortunes for other people at the same time. He will look after the work of that grand Jury as he does after that of his own business. The only time, they say that he ever brought outside matters into his office was during Gov ernor Hughes campaign for reelection. Then he called his clerks one day.
 q would never discharge man be- cause he votes the wrong way said he. "But-if any of you vote for old Jungle Face, you're going to lose my liking"