Claude Lorraine was bred a pastry
cook, and Quentin Matsys was a black-
smith.
"Our Editor," Sixty Years Ago.
" OUB editor," as one may read in
Jordan's Autobigraphy, " was originally
intended for the kirk, and was a well-
informed person ; but to see him at or
after midnight in his official chair, a
writing his ' leader,' was a treat for a
philosopher. With the slips of paper
before him, a pot of porter close at
hand, and a piece of tobacco in his
mouth, or casually laid down, he pro-
ceeded secundem artem. The head hung
with the chin on his collar-bone, as in
deep thought, a whiff another a
tug at the beer and a line and a half
710
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
or two lines committed to the blotted
paper."
Rivalry in Business Beneficial.
WHEN I was a young man, says a
wealthy retired hatter, I set up in the
hat trade, and took a store where there
was not a ha$ store within a quarter
of a mile, thinking I should do more
where there were no others; but I
found that, at the end of a year, all
that I had made might have been put
into my naturally small eye, and not
injured its sight.
I sat down one day, and after think-
ing that my lot was a mighty hard one,
told my boy that I was going out
awhile, and that he must keep a sharp
look out for customers. I went down
town, and, looking around, found that
two or three hatters were driving a very
good trade quite near together, and,
passing into one of these stores, I found
its owner quite a talkative man. We
put our heads together, and in the
course of a week, the store directly op-
posite his received my stock in trade,
and a coat of blue paint on the outside,
while his received a coat of green.
The first day I did nothing but stand
at the door, and look pouty at the green
store, and my -friend Blake stood on his
steps looking ditto at me. As people
came in, I commenced running down
the green store, and Blake always run
the blue ; so between us both we built
up a trade that was quite lively. Peo-
ple having " taken sides," and new-
comers always purchasing of one or the
other, we gradually grew rich, and at
the end of some dozen years, we settled
up, and I found that opposition, or
what answered that name, had brought
custom, and had made my fortune.
Quaker Hatter and His Journeyman.
WHEN I was in the hatting business,
says Mr. Hanchett, I employed a man
by the name of Jonas Pike, from Mas-
sachusetts, who was a skilful workman
in the manufacture of hats. But he
was one of that kind of journeymen
who will have their " trains," as they
were familiarly called in former days.
Therefore, as a natural consequence, he
was without comfortable clothing the
most of the time. After he got a shop
he would work very industriously until
he had earned from twenty to thirty,
and sometimes forty dollars' worth of
clothing, for he was always in want
of clothing when he commenced work ;
and then he would get on one of his
trains, and dispose of every article of his
clothing that would fetch six cents, ex-
pending all for whiskey. When all
was gone, and he began to cool off a
little, he would be very ugly; some-
times he would fret and scold, and then
he would coax and plead, to get trust-
ed for a hat or something else, that he
might sell, and by that means get more
whiskey. When I refused him, he
would become very angry and threaten
to whip me, which I told him he might
do as soon as he pleased. " But, " said he,
" I will not do it in your own shop if
I had you out of doors, I would thrash
you like a sack." After hearing him
repeat these sayings several times, I
walked out at the door. I then spoke
to him, saying, " I am now out of the
shop, thou canst whip me if thou wish-
est to do so very much ; " at which he
stepped out of the shop, came furiously
toward me, squaring himself for a box,
and struck me a blow on my breast, at
which I put my hand upon my cheek,
and presenting it to his notice, said:
" Now strike here, Jonas." At this, he
looked at me with dumb astonishment,
saying, at the same time, with an oath,
" If you will not fight, I will let you
alone," and went into the shop, sat
down, and was quiet. He got sober,
and went to work ; and ever afterward,
during the long period I employed
him, his peaceable and obliging dispo-
sition was most marked.
OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY TO COMMERCE.
711
Juvenile Bookseller's Wit.
A GENTLEMAN crossing one of the
New York ferries was accosted by one
of those peripatetic venders of cheap
literature and weekly newspapers, who
are to be found in shoals about all our
public places, with " Buy Bulwer's last
work, sir ? only two shillin'." The gen-
tleman, disposed to have a laugh with
the urchin, said : " Why, I am Bulwer
myself ! " Off went the knowing little
lad, and whispering to another, at a
little distance, excited his wonderment
at the information he had to impart.
Eying the pretended author of " Pel-
ham " with a kind of awe, he approach-
ed him timidly, and, holding out a
pamphlet, said, modestly : " Buy the
Women of England, sir? You're not
Mrs. Ellis, Ms you ? " Of course the
proposed sale was effected.
Almanac Making Fortunate Hit.
WHEN Mr. Thomas was preparing one
of his first almanacs, a man who was
employed upon the work with him,
asked what he should say about the
weather opposite a certain week in
July. Thomas humorously or peevishly
replied, " Thunder, hail, and snow." It
was so put down and printed ; and it
so happened that it did thunder, hail,
and even snow, at the very time. This
fortunate hit or prediction raised the
almanac maker in the estimation of
many, and made his almanac the most
popular in America.
Derivation of Names of Trades.
THE names that designate the va-
rious orders of tradesmen are in some
cases very curiously derived.
Tinkers, for instance, or tinklers, as
the Scotch call them, were originally so
called, because the itinerant members
of that profession used to give notice
of their approach to villages and farm-
houses by making a tinkling noise on
an old brass kettle.
Milliner is a word corrupted, or at
least altered from Milaner, which sig-
nified a person from Milan, in Italy.
Certain fashions of female dress, that
first prevailed in that city, were intro-
duced, by notices of it, into England,
and hence arose the word milliner.
The term cordwainer was one applied
to a numerous and flourishing frater-
nity, but is now falling into disuse. A
cordwainer was maker of a peculiar
kind of shoes, much worn formerly;
and the appellation is a corruption
from cordovaner, a worker of leather
brought from the city of Cordova, in
Spain. The same kind of leather is
now manufactured in abundance else-
where, from horsehides, and is still fa-
miliarly called Cordovan.
The word landlord was first applied
to the keeper of an inn. Formerly,
wayfaring guests were for the most
part entertained by the proprietors of
the land, the lords of the manor through
which they journeyed.
Iron Merchant and the Blacksmith.
THERE was in the city of Philadel-
phia a blacksmith who was in the
habit of complaining to his iron mer-
chant, that such was the scarcity of
money that he could not pay his rent.
The merchant then asked him how
much rum he used in his family, in the
course of the day. Upon his answering
this question, the merchant made a cal-
culation, and showed him that his rum
account amounted to more money in
the year than his house rent. The cal-
culation so astonished the mechanic,
that he determined from that day to
buy and drink no spirits of any kind.
In the course of the ensuing year, he
paid his rent and bought a new suit of
clothes out of the savings of his tem-
perance. He persisted in it through
the course of his life, and the result
was competence and respectability.
712
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
Hitting his Trade.
A FRIEND having been cited as a
witness at a quarter sessions, one of the
magistrates, who had been a black-
smith, desired to know of the Quaker
why he would not take off his hat.
" It is a privilege," said the Friend, " in
which the laws and liberties of my
country indulge people of our religious
mode of thinking." " If I had it in my
power," replied the justice, " I would
have your hat nailed to your head."
" I thought," rejoined the Quaker, dryly,
" that thou hadst given over the trade
of driving nails."
"Honor and Fame from no Condition
Rise."
AN American President, when asked
what was his coat-of-arms, remember-
ing that he had been a hewer of wood
in his youth, replied : " A pair of shirt
sleeves ! "
Lord Tenterden was proud to point
out to his son the shop in which his
father had shaved for a penny.
A French doctor once taunted Flei-
chier, Bishop of Nismes, who had been
a tallow chandler in Ms youth, with
the meanness of his origin, to which
Fleichier replied : " IS. you had been born
in the same condition that I was, you
would still have been but a dipper of
candles."
A distinguished man, once a fiddler,
being reproached because of his voca-
tion, replied : " Did I not fiddle well f "
Per contra: a wealthy but stupid
English dyer, having gained his money
by honest chimney sweeping, and on
this account feeling ashamed of chim-
neys, built his house without one, send-
ing all his smoke into the shaft of his
dye works.
Butcher's Blue Blouse or Frock.
THE custom is almost universal in
England and the same may be said to
apply in a good degree to America,
excepting that white is also extensively
worn for butchers to wear a blouse or
frock of a blue color ; a color or custom
so common as to form a distinctive
mark of the trade a sort of uniform.
The explanation of this custom is, that
a blue dress does not show stains of
blood, inasmuch as blood, when dry,
becomes of a somewhat bluish color.
Shoemaker Determined to Benefit the
World.
SHOEMAKERS have in all ages been a
somewhat remarkable class of men.
Meditative and energetic, as it would
appear, from the nature of their profes-
sion, they have at various times distin-
guished themselves as patriots, men of
letters, and other high callings. Nu-
merous examples are related of indi-
viduals who have thus imparted a gloss
to the " gentle craft " as shoemaking
has been called, since the days of the
illustrious Crispin.
Timothy Bennett, a shoemaker, re-
sided in the village of Hampton-Wick,
near Richmond, in Surrey. The first
passage from this village to Kingston-
upon-Thames, through Bushy Park (a
royal demesne), had been for many
years shut up from the public. This
honest shoemaker, " unwilling " as he
said "to leave the world any worse
than he found it," consulted a lawyer
upon the practicability of recovering
this road, and the probable expense of
a legal process : u I have seven hun-
dred pounds," said he, " which I should
be willing to bestow upon this attempt.
It is all I have, and has been saved
through a long course of honest in-
dustry."
The lawyer informed him that no
such sum would be necessary to pro-
duce this result; and Timothy deter-
mined accordingly to proceed with
vigor in the prosecution of this public
claim. In the meantime, Lord Halifax,
ranger of Bushy Park, was made ac-
OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY TO COMMERCE.
713
quainted with his intentions, and sent
for him : " Who are you, sir," inquired
his lordship, " that has the assurance
to meddle in this affair ? "
"My name, my lord, is Timothy
Bennett, shoemaker, of Hampton- Wick.
I remember, an't please your lordship,
when I was a young man, of seeing,
while sitting at iny work, the people
cheerfully pass by to Kingston market ;
but now, my lord, they are forced to go
round about, through a hot sandy road,
ready to faint beneath their burdens,
and I am unwilling (it was his favor-
ite expression) to leave the world any
worse than I found it. This, my lord,
I humbly represent, is the reason of my
conduct."
" Begone ; you are an impertinent
fellow ! you are an impertinent fel-
low ! " However, upon more mature
reflection, being convinced of the equi-
ty of the claim, and anticipating the
ignominy of defeat " Lord Halifax,
the nobleman, non-suited by Timothy
Bennett, the shoemaker " he desisted
from his opposition, and opened the
road, which is enjoyed, without mo-
lestation, to this day.
Payment for News.
PERHAPS the origin of newspaper
publishers paying for reliable news
from distant places may be found in
the advertisement announcing the first
number of the London Evening Post,
Sep. 6, 1707, as follows : " There
must be three or four pound per
ann. paid by those gentlemen who
are out of town, for written news,
which is so far, generally, from having
any probability of matter-of-fact in it,
that it is frequently stuffed up with a
We hear, &c. ; or, An eminent Jew mer-
chant has received a letter, &c. ; being
nothing more than downright fiction."
The same advertisement, speaking of
the published papers, says : " We read
more of our own affairs in the Dutch
papers than in any of our own."
* ' Letting-out ' ' Clothes.
AN Irish tailor making a gentleman's
coat and vest too small, was requested
to take them back and let them out.
Some days after, the gentleman, on
calling at the tailor's establishment,
was told that his garments happened
to fit a countryman of his, and he had
" let them out " at a shilling a week.
Peculiar Custom of a Tailor.
A TAILOR of Samarcand, living near
the gate leading to the burying place,
had by his shop board an earthen pot
hanging on a nail, into which he threw
a little stone when any corpse was car-
ried by, and at the end of every day
he counted the contents of his pot, in
order to ascertain the number of the
dead. At length the tailor died him-
self; and some time after, one that was
unacquainted with the fact of his death,
observing his shop to be deserted, in-
quired what had become of him, when
one of the deceased's neighbors replied,
" The fellow has gone to pot, as well as
the rest."
Archaeological Tailor's Ileasures.
ONE day, Sir Robert Cotton, being
at his tailor's, discovered that the man
was holding in his hand, ready to cut
up for " measures," an original Magna
Charta, with all its appendages of seals
and signatures. He bought the singu-
lar curiosity for a trifle, and recovered
in this manner what had been given
over for lost. This anecdote is told by
Colomies, who long resided and died
in Great Britain. The original Magna
Charta is preserved in the Cottonian
library. It exhibits marks of dilapida-
tion ; but whether from the invisible
scythe of time, or the humble scissors
of a tailor, archaeologists must be left
to decide.
714
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
"Shall I Cut?"
AT the first representation of the
Tom Jones of Poinsinet, two persons
were observed in the pit, one of whom
was overheard saying to the other, from
time to time, " Shall I cut? Shall I
cut ? " This suspicious phrase attracted
attention, and the pair were just on the
point of being arrested as pickpockets.
"What have we done?" said one of
them ; " we are only tailors, and have
the honor of making clothes for M.
Poinsinet, the author of the new play.
As I have to furnish him with a new
dress to appear before the public, which
will be sure to demand his appearance
at the second representation, and as I
know very little of dramatic works, I
have brought with me my principal
journeyman, a very clever man, for he
makes out all my accounts ; and I was
only asking him, from time to time, if
he would advise me to cut the cloth in
question, which must be paid for out
of the profits of the play."
Answering: a Tailor's Dun.
SHERIDAN, scholar, wit, and spend-
thrift being dunned by a tailor to pay
at least the interest on his bill, an-
swered, that it was not his interest to
pay the principal, nor his principle to
pay the interest. The tailor thought-
fully retired.
Byron's Genoese Tailor.
IT is said that Byron would never
have gone to Greece but for a tailor
in Genoa. The noble bard was very
economical, as was well known, in
small matters. He had hired a villa
at Genoa, and furnished it with the
intention of making it a permanent
residence. Lord and Lady Blessington,
and a large society of English people,
of good style, were residing there at
the time. In the fullest enjoyment of
his house and his mode of life, Byron
wanted a new coat ; and, having some
English cloth, he left it, with his meas-
ure, in the hands of a Genoese tailor,
with no particular instructions as to
the making.
The tailor, overcome with the honor
of making a coat for an Eccelensa Inglese,
embroidered it from collar to tail, and
sent it home with a bill as thickly em-
broidered as the coat. Byron kept the
coat, for fear of its being sold as Ms to
an actor of English parts on the stage,
but resolutely refused to pay for more
than the making of a plain and plebeian
garment. The tailor threatened an at-
tachment, and Byron assigned over his
furniture to his banker, and finally
quitted Genoa in disgust, ready, of
course, as he would not otherwise have
been, for a new project.
From indignation at an embroidered
coat tail, the transition to " Liberty or
death ! " " Woe to the Moslem ! " or any
other vent for his accumulated bile, was
easy and natural. He embarked in the
Greek cause soon after, and the em-
broidered coat was not (as it should
have been) " flung to the breeze at
Salamis " the banner of inspired
heroism.
"A Koland for an Oliver."
" WILL you pay me this bill, sir ? "
said a tailor in Charles street, New
Orleans, to a waggish debtor.
"Do you owe anybody anything?"
asked the wag.
" No, sir," replied the tailor.
" Then you can afford to wait ! " and
off he walked.
A day or two afterward the tailor
called again. Our wag was not " at
his wit's end ; " so, turning to his cred-
itor, he said
" Are you in debt to anybody ? "
* Yes, sir, I am sorry to say I am."
" Well, why don't you pay f "
"I haven't got the money,' 1 ' 1 replied
the tailor, with a woe-begone counte-
nance.
OCCUPATIONS AUXILIARY TO COMMERCE.
715
" That's just my case, my dear sir !
I am glad to see that you can appre-
ciate my position. I always respected
your judgment, sir give me your
hand, sir!"
Canine News Dealer.
ONE of the carriers of a New York
paper having become indisposed, his
son took his place ; but not knowing
the subscribers he was to supply he
took for his guide a dog which had
usually attended his father. The
animal trotted on, ahead of the boy,
and stopped at every door where the
paper used to be left, without making
a single omission or mistake.
Newspaper Publisher Described.
NONE but such as have been regular-
ly initiated into the mysteries of the
newspaper world know the activity,
the intense mental labor, or the fore-
sight and unceasing energy that are
required to insure the commercial pros-
perity of a first-rate journal. A person
involved in the conducting of a high-
class daily newspaper lives in a perpetual
whirl of excitement, his existence being
little else, from the first day of Janu-
ary to the last clay of December, than
one continued worry. From morning
to night he is obliged to be in harness,
and at every person's command, never
having one moment of the day that he
can call his own ; his eye must be on
all, and his active body everywhere.
At one moment he is deep in a confabu-
lation with the party who is fitting up
his new machine; at another he is
arranging terms of agreement with a
special correspondent who is required
in some foreign country ; now he has
to complain of the non-arrival of his
new types, or the unpunctuality of the
person who supplies him with ink ;
now he gets into a passion at an im-
pudent liner who has " done " the
paper with an invented, murder, or a
" heart-rending suicide ; " anon, a con-
ference with the principal editor as to
the line of writing to be taken up con-
sequent on some great political move-
ment, demands his presence. Or the
paper maker has a woeful tale to harass
him : His machinery has become de-
ranged, and he has unfortunately run
out of rags in consequence of difficulties
attending their importation and so,
with melancholy visage, he announces
that there is only sufficient paper on
hand to last three days, and that it will
take four days to get his machinery
put right, even if the rags should arrive
in the mean time. Ancf so the day
speeds its length along, till wearied,
worried, and headached, the poor
manager hurries away home, to dinner.
On the morrow, a similar routine of
cares and anxieties is repeated, with
similar expenditure of bodily and
mental labor. These little annoyances,
it may be stated, are only a little of
what the proprietor has to endure ;
indeed, the efforts required to com-
pete with other journals are alone
sufficient to wear out his life in a very
short time.
Commercial Value of Dramatic
Literature.
THE value of dramatic literature
varies with different managers, different
authors, different theatres, in England.
Mr. Webster is very liberal, and will,
perhaps, pay from fifteen hundred to
twenty-five hundred dollars for a good
and successful play ; two hundred and
fifty dollars, two hundred dollars, and
one hundred dollars, for a farce. Some-
times, when the continued prosperity
of a piece is rather doubtful, the quid
pro quo takes the form of a nightly
payment up to a certain sum. The
Keeleys used to pay seven hundred and
fifty dollars for a good burlesque ; or
fifteen dollars per night up to seven
hundred and fifty, which the author?
consider very generous. But the r
716
COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS ANECDOTES.
numeration does not stop with the
London pay. A good metropolitan
reputation will insure a frequent pro-
vincial performance and subsequent
revivals, and if the author preserves
his interest in the copyright, he may
derive a perpetual income from the
frequency of performance. Sir E. Bul-
wer Lytton is said to receive fifty dol-
lars for every performance of the " Lady
of Lyons." This, however, is a rare
exception to the average rate of remu-
neration. From ten dollars to two
dollars and a half is the price ordinarily
paid.
Report of a Lord's Speech.
MR. WEDDERBURN, afterward Lord
Loughborough, was once asked whether
he really delivered in the House of Com-
mons a speech which was reported in
the newspaper as having been made by
him. " Why, to be sure," said he,
" there are many things in that speech
which I did say, and there are more
which I wish I had said." A fair
average of reported speeches of public
men, not only of that period, but of
the present also
Proby, the Reporter.
JOHN PEOBY, according to his biog-
rapher, had never been out of Lon-
don, never in a boat, never on the back
of a horse. To the end of bagwigs he
wore a bag ; he was the last man that
walked with a cane as long as himself,
ultimately exchanged for an umbrella,
which he was never seen without in
wet weather or dry; yet he usually
reported the whole debates in the Peers
from memory, without a note, for the
daily paper, and wrote two or three
novels, depicting the social manners
of the times. He was a strange feeder,
and ruined himself in eating pastry at
the confectioners' shops (for one of
whose scores his friends had to bail
him) ; he was always in a perspiration,
whence he acquired the sobriquet of
" King Porus ; " and he was always so
punctual to a minute that when he
arrived in sight of the office window,
the hurry used to be " There's Proby,
it is half-past two," and yet he never
set his watch. If ever it came to right
time, no one can tell; but if asked
what o'clock it was, he would look at
it and calculate something in this sort
" I am twenty-six minutes past seven
four, twenty- one from twelve forty
it is just three minutes past three ! "
Poor, strange, and simple, yet curious-
ly informed Proby ! his last domicile
was the parish workhouse, out of which
he would come in his coarse gray garb,
and call upon his friends as freely and
unceremoniously as before, to the sur-
prise of servants, who always entertain
" an 'orrid " jealousy of paupers, and
who could not comprehend why a
person so clad was allowed to be
shown in.
Rising in the World.
SIMON EYRE, a name familiarly
known in British annals, was origi-
nally a humble shoemaker in Leaden-
hall street, in the city of London, and
worked his way up a " peg " or two, in
a manner bordering somewhat on the