THE WAYS OF DIAMOND JIM BRADY

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 27

THE WAYS OF DIAMOND JIM BRADY

Diamond Jim Brady, the Haroun Al Raschid of Broadway, died during the World War, and his passing robbed the Great White Way of one of its most incredible phenomena, writes Dale Carnegie in the "San Francisco Chronicle." While he lived, Brady threw the wildest parties this-weary old-world had seen since the days when the old Roman emperors dined on the nightingales' tongues, Sometimes he had as many as five parties at once in five different parts of the town. Sometimes these,, parties lasted for seventeen riotous hours, and cost as high as £20,000. He was fond of presenting his guests with souvenirs to take home with them—little knickknacks and mementoes, such as diamond brooches or diamond watches worth £200 apiece. <

Diamond Jim was born in a cheap flat above a saloon which' his father kept on the waterfront in New York; he learned to pop the cork out of a bottle before he learned his Mother Goose. Yet he himself never drank a drop of liquor in his life. During the years when he reigned .-upreme on Broadway, he squandered large sums on liquor, buying more champagne and Rhine wine than any other man in the Western Hemisphere, but he gave is all to his friends. While they drank themselves under the table, Diamond Jim sat by and quenched his inconsequential thirst on 14 or 15 steins of root.beer. ' '

. -He. weighed.2solb, and loved.to eat. He devoured a 15-course dinner every night with usually two .or three helpings of all the main, courses. .Then he would eat a pound, of chocolates and take a . box.. of: peppermints' along to the . theatre; .He sent, hundreds of boxes of. candy to his friends each week.? His, candy bill alone averaged between two "and three thousand dollars (£.400 to £600) a month. ' He:detested.tea and coffee, but he had a passion for orange juice, He drank a

\vhole gallon, of orange juice before, he cv.en tucked a napkin undei his bottom-most chin, and he often guzzled another, whole gallon with his meal. Once he ate six chickens at one sitting. '. .' ■■. .;, .. ,

How did - Diamond Jim -Brady make his millions? He was one of the. most expert, salesmen that this high-pressure country, ever, 'produced,. Besides, he

was lucky. He started selling steel cars in the early days. when the railroads were equipped with, wooden coaches. -The country was expanding. Railroads were being flung like lariats from ocean to ocean and from Canada to the Gulf. ' . .. : .

When he : first started 'selling steel cars, they were still an experiment. No one wanted them. So.he was given what turned out to be. a phenomena] contract. This contract .gave 'him 33 1-3 per cent, commission on every, car sold. Presently every railroad in. the nation was clamouring for steel cars, And they had to come, hat in hand, to Diamond Jim Brady to get. them, for at that time he had no competitors. So he made 12,000,000 dollars selling steel cars. He was a., product, of his age. If he "had been born 50 years laterand tried selling-steel cars today, he might not have been able to pay- his grocery bill. . . , :' ■~ .

Diamond Jim made himself famous from Skowhegan to Santa Fe by one of the weirdest publicity stunts ever heard of since the days of Barnum. He, literally bedecked- himself with',. diamonds. He owned .a different set of jewellery for every day-in. the month, and he frequently changed his jewellery as often as six or seven times a day.'- He used to ramble 'down Broadway bespangled with no,less than 2548 scintillating diamonds —and 19 rubies. He wore priceless shirt studs—studs made to represent bicycles and automobiles and cuff links; made like locomotives and freightl cars., -

He went to preposterous lengths to spend his money. He had a farm in 'New Jersey where, on gala occasions, the cows were milked into pails heavily plated' with' gold. ~ His billiard tables were inlaid with carnelians and lapis lazuli. His poker chips were made of onyx and mother'of pearl. He paid' an interior decorator a third, of a million dollars.to furnish his hoiise, and every year he gave away all his furniture, to his friends and.bought himself new furnishings

When he knew that he was going to die, he discovered'that he. held notes and 1.0.U.s for a fifth of a million dollars (£40,000), and one ;6/ tlie~ last things he ever did was to destroy every note in his possession; just "to .make sure that his;.executors wouldn't^ try to collect them. . . .". "" ' .