National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-11-24
visiting u Pawnbrokcr's shop.

Let those who dwell in palaces on our
aristocratic avenues, and clothe them
selves in purple and fine linen, tear
themselves some Saturday evening from
their easy-chairs and warm fre-sides and
pass IN hour or two in making tour OF
the pawnbrokers stores in New York
City, II correspondent writes, and study
the terrible, the sorrow-stricAing, the
fearfully real scenes of human misery,
sorrow and depravity which may he wit
messed in them any and every night
They need not go far from the Bowery
Any street leading from that crowded
thoroughfare will furnish them all the
information they could desire, though
almost any street in this great City could
duplicate it, There they will see some
brawny, honest-faccd 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 whorewlth
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
cacy Of her nurture, trying to borrow II
dollar on pair of plain gold ear rings
or some other little trinkct, perhaps the
last connecting link with better times.
in order that the sick father she so dear
ly loves may he sure of the necessarics
of life at least till Monday. How plain
lively she asks the dried-up-looking,
hard featured little jew, who is proprie-
tor of the store, if he cannot possibly
lend her more than fifty cents on them,
Won tn1yo '.,,, ~ bn
plies in rough, oh-hand manner, rs he
losses the much-prized trinket on the
counter; "money is scarce, and don't
care much about lending tonight" Poor
thing she fakes her fifty cents and
hurIies away only too glad to escape
from the presence of Rapacity. The
next conner Is II poor ovcrworked wash
erwoman, compelled to borrow money
on her stove-irons in order to buy the
Sunday dinner for her children, because
some heartless 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 men will
lie For the chances of selling this poor
womans stove-irons unredeemed pied
ges, at five or six times the price for
which they were pawned, he tells her
that he has already taken in Tonight
so many articles of the same description
that he can only lend her triting 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 next victim without demur. All !.
here is one after the pawnbroker's own
heart At a glance he sees bargain.
He knows that there's money to be made
out Of the miserable creature who stands
regarding him with half-detiant eye :;
whose bloated face and ill-clad half
starved babe tell plainly the horrible
story of her fall, her misery and her de-
graduation, as she recklessly offers to
pawn the very shawl off her back in
order to procure one more indulgence III
the awful vice which has been her de
struction, And then little child, whose
head scarce reaches to the counter, out
she has been there many time before J
hands in some paltry articles of clothing,
in order that she may buy bread or med
icine for the mother who is diving around
the corner And so the nightly round of
the pawnbroker's business goes on--a
study for the painter, n scene for the
labors of the philanthropist, an act in
the drama of real life terrible to contem-
plate