WHY THE MAGSMAN SMILED.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4833, 5 July 1884, Page 1

WHY THE MAGSMAN SMILED.

Seated at a table near the window of a Bleeker-street restaurant not far from Mulberry street, a dainty dressed mags- ' man was sipping a cup of coffee yesterday, morning. On the opposite' aide of the street was a young man witL « heavy - trunk. .The young man alternately tolled. , and dragged the trunk laboriously along '' towards the Bowery.. '■ Make hard work of it Said an acquaintance near by, who was also watching the young man and the trunk. The magsman's face grew grave at once." » ' "Yes," he said, " bat I wouldn't laugh at his misfortune. The trunk made me ' think of a game we often work with cheering success My father always taught me to cultivate a cheerful disposition.. He probably would not have advised me to take my present profession as a means ,to that end, but there is' nothing 1 like'it for real pleasant reminiscences. It has been , many years since'the trunk game ,was imported from Paris. To work it somemoney is needed for postage, some,primed letter paper a)id envelopes, and a list of t , rural addresses., The letter paper should - h,ave the cut of a'large hole), and a neat heading printed on it. Envelopes should be similarly printed. Then to each address ■"' a' letter is written'like this:— «, ' Office of the .Commercial Resort, 1 New York, 1884. 1 Mr John Smith, Smithville—-.DearSir: I Your, brother Henry, who has been stopp ing with us for a few days, died suddenly I in his room last night. The house surgeon ' says he died of heart disease. He wa»writing you a letter at the time, the writ* ing portion of which we" enclose 1. ' His " body is now with'lfopkinson & flbpkinsbn, ' undertakers, 1117 Seventh A Venue, await- ~ ing your orders. t His effects, consisting \ ' of a large trunk full of .wearing apptreli d , .^

heavy, repeating gold watch with a gold ' neck-chain,"aTdiamond pinTa new revolver, will be. forwarded to you by express on . receipt'of twenty 4 , dollars, the amount of his board bill,";dae; us. Permit us to express our regrets'that 70a should suffer this Josh. Respecting yours, 1 ' J. Plantagenet Bbowjst, Proprietor. "N.B.—You can send a twenty-dollar bill lose in a well-sealed envelope.' - • " The unfinished letter read thus :— % • New York, - —r-, 1884 „ . ' Henry Smith, Esq. .Smithville.—Dear Brother: Although not f ' , ; m " This is written in a different hand entirely, and the last two words are jumbled OP-V „ . " Yea; but any one who got that letter v ; would know that he had no. brother Henry in New York," said the mag's acquaint* . once.

he would that makes .me laugh/ r He, thinks he^will get a gold ' jrepealer, and a diamond pin, and a gold neck-chain, and a new revolver, for twenty idollars. Hp may wonder how it happened " that the deceased was writing to him, but in his desire to get portable property he does not reason much. Why we've even bad them to come on to see us, we've torajled them in one or two hotels where friends lire," and we'vetaken in the sequins i every time.' The last time I worked that racket I got in nearly seven hundred dollars in three weeks "