Henry Smith, The Razor Strop Man.

• Price: $450.00
  

  SKU: 101161

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• PUBLISHER: Published by E.B. & E.C. Kellogg, 136 Main St. Hartford, CT.

• MEDIUM: Lithograph, hand colored.

  DATE: Undated. c.1860

• EDITION SIZE: Small folio - Image size 12 x 8 1/2" (30.4 x 21.5 cm)

• DESCRIPTION: And there's few more left of the same sort"<br><br> Caption reads: My strop has a rough side, so has a man; But both of them work on a different plan; The rough side of man only deadens and brightens, but my roughest side always sharpens and brightens. Some men have a smooth side, and this they will use to impose on their friends and their trust to abuse; Not so smooth side of my strop I would say sir, that always makes smooth the edge of your razor.<br><br> A good description of Henry Smith appeared in the November 22 1870 issue of the Boston Journal.<br><br> "A FEW MORE LEFT," The whereabouts of Henry Smith, the "Razor Strop Man," who formerly made Boston his temporary abiding place, has been unknown to many. A recent article in Scribner's Monthly gives us some idea of his wanderings since he left Modern Athens:<br> "The most renowned street vender in New York, or in the world, is Henry Smith, the 'Razor Strop Man' of Nassau street. Born in England, six months after Waterloo, his youth was roving and dissipated, and his devotion to drink gained him the sobriquet of 'Old Soaker,' before he was twenty-one. Signing the abstinence pledge for a month, and then for life, he became a good husband, an industrious man, and an ardent temperance advocate. In 1842 he sailed in the Ontario for America. Landing in New York, he soon began to sell razor strops, and his street speeches were such droll, witty and sensible mixtures of prose and poetry, that in three months he made himself the prince of peddlers. His sayings were chronicled in the papers, his portrait was published in the Sunday Atlas, and he appeared for seven nights at the Olympic Theatre in Mitchell's play of the Razor Strop Man.' His fame rapidly spread, and he made the tour of the Union, teaching temperance and selling his strops, until his characteristic saying, 'A few more left of the same sort,' became a 'household word.'<br><br> He achieved a fortune in a few years; but the spirit of speculation seized him, and the crisis of 1857 swept away his last dollar. With unshaken courage and a fresh basket of strops he began life anew, visited his ative England, and won much reputation as a 'genuine Yankee peddler.' Returning to America, the war found him at Rochester, where he enlisted in a volunteer regiment. In his left leg he still carries a Gettysburg mus. ket-ball. When told that it might be necessary to amputate the limb, he replied, Well, I suppose I can afford to lose it, as I shall still have one more left of the same sort!' The leg was saved, but the wound disabled him and compeled his return to Rochester, where he served till after the close of the war as recruting sergeant and in the soldiers' hospital. With a purse from the city, a letter of thanks from the Mayor, and a Zouave uniform from his regiment, the veteran vender returned again to New York and became once more the 'Razor-Strop Man' of Nassau street.<br><br> He seems to have been a very talented orator, entertaining crows where ever he set up shop and traveled the country showing up in such cities as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Sandusky, Louisville etc.<br><br> A very scarce print.

• ADDITIONAL INFO:

• CONDITION: Very good condition and color.

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• CATEGORIES: 18th-19th Century Subjects , Portraits