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Show , , ... . , -.- J until now It reaches to the T&clZc. ' i branch J-.av!r,? teen t.tablished In f 1 J Francisco cn.y a t r or eo agov -J : f because he baa fcone,.bout It so thi - oughly,' he has never had to meet wU i J any competition worth speaking of. ....J THE TIKST STKEST FAKIR. " Kansas City Star. ; It has been thirty-five years ago. this winter since a New York newsboy originated origi-nated the fake business. This . boy walked into the street store of one of his dally " customers one morning and Baid: ; , "Mr. Hughes, Fye been thinking over what . you said to me the other day about not always being a newsboy. Tou know you told me to come to see you when I'd an Idea what I wanted to do." "Yea," replied the hardware merchant, mer-chant, "I remember. Tell me what you think you'd like to be.' "Well," said the fourteen-year-old lad, "I've been noticing lately that nobody no-body sells anything to the crowds In the streets except a . few foreigners who don't half try to peddle their feather dusters. I'd like to sell things on the street." "But they don't make a living, and how could you do any better?" asked the man. The boy's answer was earnest. ' "You give me a chance with something, some-thing, and I'll show you right here, two blocks from your store. I've thought it all out and all I've got to do is to yell." "To what?" the merchant queried. "To yell." said the boy. "Let em know I'm selUng things and get a crowd around me." . . "By. Jove!" the man ejaculated, half to himself after a moment's thought over the boy's original idea, "we'll try It." - Then he went to a show case in which he kept pocketknives. He took out two dozen and handed them to the boy. "These haven't been selUng well," he remarked, "but maybe . you can do something with them." . - "Tell me about 'em," requested the boy. "Well."' said the merchant, "they're the same name as the famous Blank knife made In England, but they are made in this country by a man by the same name, and are supposed to sell for 60 cents, while the English knife sells for $1.60." Five minutes later the boy had taken up his stand in front of the old post-office post-office building in Nassau street, and was yelling with all his power: "Blank pocketknives, only 60 centa! Step up lively, gents: get 'em while they last! Blank pocketknives, only 60 cents 50 cents 60 cents!" The Knires Sold in a Short Time. It was something unheard of for a person . to yell merchandise on the streets, and the passersby were attracted at-tracted at once. Then, too, the price at which the boy was offering the then famous and universally used pocket-knife pocket-knife was phenomenal. . The result, of the yelling and the deception was that those who stopped through, curiosity tell over one another In their eargerness to secure the knives, and in less than twenty , minutes the boy had sold hia stock. He ' returned Immediately to ' Mr. Hughes's store. "I've sold all the knives." ho said aim-ply, aim-ply, as he laid the money on the counter, coun-ter, "and I've come for two. dozen more." ... ... : ' "Mercy on us!" was the exclamation with which the merchant expressed his astonishment. 'How'd you do It?" j "Just yelled, as I said I would," replied re-plied the boy. - "What did you yelir asked the man. The boy told him. "And I didn't lit. either." he added, "fos I didn't aay that they were the EngHsh Blank knives." The answer quickly secured the boy two dosen more knives. He pocketed them, went to his stand and. as with the first lot. sold them In a short time. For the second time he returned to the store and asked for another two doten, but Mr. Hughes would not accommodate accommo-date him. He was a cautious soul. "No more today, George," he said. "Let's wait and see whether anybody makes a complaint. Tou come In tomorrow to-morrow and if everything is all right I'll supply you with more knives. But before be-fore you go I want to give you your share of the sales 10 per cent. That's $2.40." The next day the boy was at the store when Mr. Hughes arrived. As the latter lat-ter had received no remonstrance over yesterday's proceedings he 'again sent the boy out with a lot of knives, and before the day was over the youngster bad disposed of a gross. And in a wek he had sold every . American Blank knife in the store, something that the merchant had vainly tried to do for over a year. In such manner the fakir trade was originated, which today gives steady employment to hundreds of -men and represent an Invested capital of several hundred thousand dollars. And the boy who conceived the Initial idea Is at the head of the business which he has spent a lifetime in sytematically organizing, with the result that his fortune is conservatively con-servatively estimated at half a million dollars, "despite the fact." as he says, "that I've had to raise and educate a family of eleven children." Indeed, this on man has a practical monopoly of the fakir business.. Wherever Wher-ever a street fakir or street man. as he prefers to be called is found, it is pretty safe to assume that he is barking bark-ing his wares on a commission for the original street man. often dubbed, to hia disgust, "the king of fakirs." For the king not only has an office and two big warehouses in New York, but branch, offices, with storerooms. In Boston, Philadelphia. Chicago. 8t Louis, and a half dosen other cities, from which the fakirs of the different sections of the country are supplied and sent out to sell the novelties. , From the day he began sellinr pocketknives. "the boss," as his men call him, has extended his business |