them
again at a price so reasonable that any purchaser might be suited, yet
still at a profit of five hundred to a thousand per cent.

Once started as a regular dealer, he went steadily on: his activity was
incessant, and always productive. His energies seemed to have been
shaped by an unerring and divining instinct. He found old sideboards,
chests, wardrobes, brought from England two centuries ago, dropping to
pieces in barns and cellars. He found an "almost priceless Elizabethan
cabinet" serving as a hen-house in a farmer's barnyard, and another in a
little better condition used as a receptacle for pies in his cellar. He
bought them both for five dollars, had them "restored," and sold one for
eight hundred and the other for five hundred dollars. It is true that
this process of "restoration" was an expensive one, and in his next
venture of the sort he demanded higher prices without offering articles
so valuable or so unique. At present he is engaged in refurnishing a
North River mansion of colonial times with suitable furniture and
decorations, and will be handsomely rewarded for his pains. But he is
too well known now to find rare and curious articles as freely parted
with as they were a few years ago. Still, the hard times help him. Then,
too, in New England old families are constantly passing away, and
leaving what small possessions belonged to the last surviving maiden of
the race to far-away relations. These possessions, consisting of good
solid old furniture, are certain to become Knapp's if he finds anything
desirable among them. He has been known to go to a house within twelve
hours of the death of the last surviving member of the family, and offer
to negotiate with a servant or friend of the deceased for a chair,
table, clock or sideboard he coveted. I doubt if an auction of old
furniture has occurred for four years within one hundred miles of him
where he has not been the first and the most privileged buyer.

L.W.

SMALL-WAISTED WOMEN.

If the truth be fairly stated, women have many excuses for their
infatuation regarding small waists. It is Mrs. Haweis who says, "The
reason why a small waist is a beauty is because, when it is natural, it
goes together with the peculiar litheness and activity of a
slenderly-built figure. All the bones are small, the shoulders and arms
_petite_, and the general look is dainty and youthful." In other words,
a small waist is only a beauty when it is in proportion