"What is the price of the painting?" I asked.
"Well, sir," said he, "to you, as a man of influence, I will fix the
price of this great painting, from a comparatively unknown work of
Gaspar Poussin, at four dollars and a half."
In spite of what I had seen of the facilities possessed by this
establishment for producing cheap work, I must confess that I was
surprised at the smallness of the sum asked for an oil-painting of that
size; I had expected to give forty or fifty dollars. But, although I am
not a judge of paintings, I am a business man, and accustomed to make
bargains. Therefore I said:
"I will give you two dollars and fifty cents for the picture."
"Done," said he. "Where shall I send it?"
I gave him my city address, and paid the money. As he accompanied me to
the door, he said: "If you would like more of these pictures, I will
sell you one dozen for eighteen dollars, or the whole lot of one
hundred, just finished--and there will be no more of them painted--for
one hundred dollars." I told him one was all I wanted, and departed. I
carried the picture home that afternoon, and in the evening exhibited it
at our club-room, and made known my scheme for raising the money we
needed by getting up a raffle with this painting as the prize; one
hundred tickets at the low price of two dollars each.
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