PAUL MARTIN'S DEAL.

How He Unconsciously Made a Poor Widow Wealthy.

"How's traffic?" said Paul Martin, the West side boomer, yesterday, in answer to the query of a GLOBE reporter. "Why, it's away up. We have to shut up shop once in awhile, of course, to go over to a ball game, for to indulge in an old chestnut, a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men."

Paul gave himself away a few mintues later in a pretty little story that illustrates how it has been possible for men to make fortunes in West side property during the past two years. He said that several years ago he purchased a lot on the corner of Ducas street and Fairfield avenue for a few dollars and held it. The Robert street bridge scheme hadn't then come to the surface, and property in that neighborhood wasn't increasing in value very rapidly. One day Paul sat in his office with his feet piled up on the desk, when an old Irish lady came in and told him she had about $2,000 that she would like to invest in good real estate. He said he thought he could make no more profitable investment for the old lady than to sell her his lot on the corner of Ducas street and Fairfield avenue, so he drew up a deed and gave the old lady a title to the lot for $2,000. He had made a few hundred dollars off the deal, and the old lady's money was safely invested.

"Has she got the property now?" inquired the reporter.

"Yes," replied Paul, "she's got half of it: the other half she sold a few months ago for $18,000, and she has been offered 30,000 great big round dollars for the half she still holds."