The democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-11-27
Visiting Il pnMnhrOker,s ShOn.

Let those who dwell in palaces on our
aristocHtic avenues, and clothe them
selves in purple and fine Linen, tear
themselves some Saturday evening from
their easy-chairs and warm iire-sidcs and
pass nm hour or two in making tour Of
the pawnbrokers stores in New York
City, correspondent writes, and study
the terrible, the sOrrOw.stricSing, the
fearfully real scenes of human misery,
sorrow and dcpravity which may he wit
messed in them any and every night,
They need not 90 fur from the Bowery,
Any street leading from that crowded
thoroughiarc will furnish them all the
information they could desire, though
almost any street in this great City conld
duplicate it. There they will see some
brawny, honCst.iRced laborer Pawning
his spade or his tools because his Union
has ordered him ont ON strike, and this
is the only means left to him whcrcwith
to supply another loaf Of bread to the
children. There they will see some
trembling young girl, whose white and
dainty fingers proclaim ut once the deli
c0cy of her nurture, trying to borrow n
dollar on pair of plain gold earrings
or some other little trinket, perhaps the
last connecting link with better times,
in order that the sick father she so dear
~ loves may he sure of the nGccSsarics
Of life ut least till Monday. Eow plain
lively she asks the dried.up-loolliug,
hard-fcatwCd little jew, who is proprie-
tor of the store, if he cannot possibly
lend her more than fifty cents on them.
"You can take EN- away" he re-
plies in n rough, off.hand manner, rs he
losses the much.prized trinket on the
counter; "monCy is scarce, and don't
care much about lending tonight" Poor
thing she takes her fifty cents and
hurries away only too glad to escape
from the presence of Rapacity, The
next conner is poor OvcrwOrkcd wash
crwoman, compelled to borrow money
on her stOvc-irons in order to buy the
Sunday dinner for her children, because
some heartlcss woman has taken her
daughters to the theatre and left orders
with the servants to tell the washer
woman, when she comes, to call for
her money next week." How mon will
lie For the chances of selling this poor
woman's stovc.irons unrcdccmcd pied
ges, Mt five or six times the price for
which they were pNwncd, he tells her
that he has already taken in tonight
so many articles Of the same description
that he can only lend her triiling sum
on them. Poor soul She knows his
class too well She takes the poor pit.
lance that he offers her, and makes room
for the neXtvictim without dcmur. All !
here is one after thcpawnbrokcr's own
heart. At n glance he secs II bargain.
He knows that thcrcis money to he made
out of the miserable creature who stands
regarding him with half-dcfant eye
whose bloated face and ill.clad, half
starved babe tell plainly the horrible
story Of her fall, her misery and her de.
grndnton, us she reclilcssly offers to
pawn the very shawl Off her back in
order to procure one more indulgence in
the awful vice which has been her de.
struction, And then little child, whose
head scarce reaches to the counter, but
she has been there many time before ,
hands in some paltry articles Of clothing,
in order that she may buy bread or med
icine for the motherwho is diving around
the corner. And so the nightly round Of
the pnwnbroker's business goes on-n
study for the painter, scene for the
labors of the philanthropist, IN act in
the drama of real life terrible to contom-
nlntp