Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Dunstan Times, Issue 2677, 4 August 1913, Page 6

A ROTHSCHILD’S GENEROSITY In the year 1861, a German tenor singp. in Paris fell from'the top of a stage on tha pavement and injured himself internally On account of his sickness he became in debt and when he had recovered he called on Meyerbeer, his renowned countryman. The genial composer of the “ Huguenots” was pleased to give him assistance and wrote to his friend Rothschild, the following letter; Monsieur le T3aron : Permit meto introduce you to Mr. N , a talented German opera singer, whom 1 recommend to your high and powerful protection ; he intends to give a concert and your wellknown kindness will, I am sure, give him the necessary support, which is one of the noblest prerogatives of the rich. Meyerbeer.” Tho singer went with this letter to the commander of millions, whom he found at his breakfast. The latter invited the artist tc participate. He read the letter of the eminent composer, nodded, and handed him a live hundred francs bill to meet expenses, and wrote the following to Meyerbeer; * “lam a worldly baron only, you a prince of harmony; lam a possessor of several millions, but you are far richer than I am, •which I will prove to you ; " You will please advertise that you, personally, will lead at the concert of yon; protege, and play a new composition u yours. The undertaking of your protege will at least realise 10.000 francs—o,3oo francs more than I have given. Aon, there fore, are more than x? times richer than 1. Rothschild. •• o ! these financiers," exclaimed Meyerbeer, after he read the note. " Well, will see whether Monsieur Rothschild is right." A few days after this the concert took place. Meyerbeer did lead personally. The tenor sang from opera selections ot Meyerbeer, and realised g.ooo francs. •• M y dear Baron.” said Meyerbeer, alter the concert, to Rothschild, “ yon miscalculated ; the receipts were 1,000 francs less than yon expected." Rothschild took a note of 1.000 francs from his pocketbook and gave it to Meyerbeer. “You are mistaken," he caid, "• forgot to pay for my scat.” EDISON AS A NEWSBOY. ** At the beginning of the Civil War, 1 was slaving late and early at selling papers; but, to tell the truth, i was not making a fortune." says Mr. Edison, the greatest ol all our modern magicians, who has disclosed bo many of the secrets of nature, _ and found praciical uses for so many inventions which, without his aid, might have served only as subjects for curious experiments. ” I "worked on so small a margin that I had to be mighty careful not to overload myself with papers that I couldn't sell. On the other hand, I could not afford to carry so few that I should find myself sold out long before the end of the trip. To enable myself to hit the happy moan, I formed a plan which turned out admirably. I made a friend of one of the compositors in The y rcc j Virus office, and persuaded him to show me a ’galley proof’ of the most important news article. From a study of its headlines I soon learned to guage the value 0 f the day's news and its selling capacity, so that 1 could form a tolerably c.orrect estimate of the number of papers I should need. As a rule I could dispose of about 200; but If there was any special news from the seat of war the sale ran up to 300 or over. Well, one day my compositor brought me a proof slip of which nearly the whole was taken up with a gigantic display head. It was the first report of the battle of Pittsburg Landing—afterwards called Shiloh, you know—and it gave the number of killed and wounded as 60,000 men “ I grasped the situation at once. Hero was the chance for enormous sales, if only the people along the line could know what had happened; if only they could see the proof slip I was then reading ! Suddenly an idea occurred to me. 1 rushed oft to the telegraph operator and gravely made a proposition to him, which lie received just as bravely. He, on his part, was to wire to £ach of the principal stations on our route, asking the station-master to chalk up on the black bulletin board—used for announcing the times of arrival and departure of trains —the news of the great battle, with its accompanying slaughter. This he was to do at once : while I agreed, in return, to supply him wsi ' free, gratis, for nothing, a Harper’s Weekly, a Harper's Monthly, aud a daily evening paper during tjie next six months from that date. “ This bargain struck, I began to think me how I was to get enough papers to make the grand coup I intended. I had very little cash, and, 1 feared, still less credit. 1 went to the superintendent of the delivery department and proffered a modest request for 1,000 copies of The Free Press on trust. But I was not much surprised when my request was curtlv and gruffly refused, In those days, though, I was a pretty cheeky boy, and I saw a small fortune in prospect if my telegraph operator had kept his word —a point on which I was still a trifle doubtful. Nerving myself for a great stroke, I marched upstairs into the office of Wilbur y Storey himself, and asked to see him, A few minutes later I was shown in to him, I told him who 1 was and that I wanted fifteen hundred copies of the paper on credit, The tall, thin, dark-eyed, ascetic-looking fhao stared at me for a moment, and then scratched a few words on a slip of paper. ‘Take that down-stairs,’said he, ‘and you will get what you want; And so 1 did. Then I felt happier tha a 1 have ever felt since. “1 took my 1,500 papers, got three boys !o help me fold them, and mounted tho train all agog to find out whether the telegraph operator had kept his word. At the town where our first stop was made I usually sold two papers. As the train swung into that station I looked ahead and thought there must be a riot going on. A big crowd tilled the platform, and as the train drew up I began to realise that they wanted my papers. Before we left I had sold a hundred or two at five cents a-piece. At the next station the place was fainy black with people. 1 raised the price, and sold 300 papers at ten cents each, So it went 011 until Port Huron was reached. Then J transferred my remaining stock to the waggon which always waited for me there, hired a small boy to sit on tho pile ot papers in the back of the waggon, no as to discount ray pilfering, and sold out every paper I had at a quarter of a dollar or more per copy. I remember I passed a church full of worshippers, and stopped to yell out my news. In ten seconds there was not, a soul left in meeting Ail of them, including the parson, were'clustered around me, bidding against each other for topics of the precious You can understand why it struck me then that the telegraph must be about the best thing going, for it was the telegraphic notices on the bulletin boards that had done the trick I determined at once to become 1 telegraph operator. But if it hadn’t been ior Wilbur F. Storey I should never have fully appreciated the wonders of electrical science." ITR (at the club): •• There's a lady who says that her husband promised hope early to-night." All (rUtog)