Small Fortunes Made by Street Fakirs

SOUVENIRS OF PRESIDENT M’KINLEY’S ASSASSINATION
BROUGHT A HARVEST OF COIN.

     Street fakirs in Buffalo have amassed small fortunes from the sale of photographs, lithographs and buttons since the assassination of President McKinley.
     Almost immediately after the shooting, several local photographers were given orders for hundreds of copies of photographs of the Temple of Music, where the tragedy occurred. In each photograph was a medallion picture of the assassin’s victim. These were soon on the street and, immediately upon the announcement of the martyr’s death, sold like wildfire. The demand could hardly be satisfied, and the street venders, who sold the souvenirs for sums ranging from 5 to 25 cents, soon had their pockets bulging out with money.
     “As near as I can figure,” said a well-known street fakir last evening, “I have sold 14,000 panel pictures of President and Mrs. McKinley and the Milburn home. They sold for 25 cents each, or five for a dollar, and the proceeds have been upwards of $3,000. Of course, I have not handled all that have been sold, and from the information I received from the photographers, 25,000 pictures would seem a reasonable number.
     “I have myself sold more than 10,000 McKinley mourning buttons with black ribons [sic] attached. These sold readily at 10 cents each. Mourning badges with the inscription ‘We Mourn Our Loss[’] I have sold in such numbers that I have completely lost count. These, too, were sold for 10 cents each. The lithographs which I have handled exclusively have been selling for 25 cents, and I have disposed of at least 8,000 of them. Aside from these articles mentioned, I have sold in great numbers the small bows of crepe, the little silk flags with black border and the small bow-knot of black and white.”