The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-01-02
SIDEWALK MERCHANTS
New York's Street Vendors and Gas
Light Stores and Shops.
New York Herald. !

New York HERALD
Everything marketable and known to the
stores and shops Of civilization, from needles
and hair-pins to horses and carriages, from
bananas and grapes to old hats and canes,
from hot corn and lemonade to newspapers
and medals, from books and note paper to
chamios skins and candy, from shoestrings
and buttons to suspenders and carriers, can
be bought in the streets of New York from
early dawn until nearly tho hour for the NOR
rows sun to peep above the horizon. Inc
most vociferous and possibly the most pros
perous of the street vendors are the boys
who sell newspapers, none OF whom need go
home with less than 50 for his days profit,
while many who combine concentration with
industry proudly avow their ability to earn
from IS to SO q day.
One would think that nothing but the
direst need co uld impel sturdy, well-de-
yeloped men to stand from ten to fifteen
hours day manipulating gutta-percha toy
or blowing up baby balloons, jerking wooden
figures, spinning tops, and exhibiting GIN
cracks In general Yet all the year through
these men can DO found doing precisely
these things, more especially now, as the
autumn winds begin to blow and thoughts Of
Christm aside fill many minds. The street
vendors can be divided into three classes
FIRST, those who have regular stands which,
though not fixtures, are nevertheless perma-
nent, such as the fruit, flower, newspaper,
and general periodical stands; second, those
having a sufficiently large stock of goods,
necessitating hand cart or other moving
vehicle and, third, those whose stock in trade
consists literally in a few boxes Of matches,
some apples or pears, half a dozen lead pen
ellis, a few envelopes, and a half score Of
cigars Some very wealthy people have
started in just this way.
Within the past ten years the flower trade
of New York has wonderfully increased. 1t
Is within the recollection of our adult resi-
dents when there were not more than half
dozen substantially based flower stores on
Manhattan island. To-day there are hun
dreds, whose sales, however, would not be
ons-half the amount they now reach were it
not for the system Of sending boys and girls
upon the streets and avenues and in all pub
lie marts and places with little punches and
with large bouquets. At the ferries near
the postofiice, at the stations Of the elevated
roads, especially along Fourteenth and
Twenty sscond streets, these little people,
pertinscious, persistent, pushing, and insin-
uating, offer their exquisite colorings to
hurrying home public, while Broadway g
absolutely lined from Fourteenth to Thu
tieth, not alone with stores filed with flow
ers, but with stands where men and women
sell hundreds of dollars worth every day,
keeping sharp lookout also upon their little
agents, who dart into cars and stages and
run along the side of pedestrians, urging
them to buy their pretty punches.
A few years ago there was an incursion Of
Cinnamon who peripatetically sold candies
figs, cigars, and cigarettes. These are al
most entirely gone out Of the street trala
Now and then q Chinaman Is found vito
stand where fruit and cigars Of an infersr
quality are exposed, but very rarely. Their
place, so far as cigars are concerned, seems
to have been taken entirely by q rough look
ing class Of mon, in sailors garb, who hood.
wink the oredulous by fairy tales of SNUG
Cling, and confidentialiy, and with great Sc.
crecy, sell cigars that would be dear at 5
cents a hundred, at cents apiece. The
quantity of cheap jewelry worn by the lower
classes In this community must be very
great In certain sections Of the city half
dozen peddlers with trays, held by straps
slung about the neck, can DO found offering
breast-pins, rings, collar studs, and like man.
ner Of gewgaws and ornaments for man,
woman, and child at fabulously low rates
IL would seem as IL an enormous trade must
subsistence, because II the whole stock were
sold ten times q day the transaction would
amount to very small figure.
The queerest dealers of all are those who
traffic in old clothes, old hats, and old boots.
In the first place, they are always ready to
trade and dicksr. It doesn't make any diff
ference what they have In their bags, they
are perfectly willing to trade them Off Tor
something else, and 1t has always been q
mystery to the ordinary man as to what was
done with these apparently useless articles Of
apparel As matter Of fact they sell every
kind Of low-priced article, from an old
to q half-smoked cigar; from a
pair OF broken leather shoes to a moth
eaten coat, and are evidently entirely salts
fled with the profit they secure In the
poorer parts Of the city, along the water
fronts, in what are generally termed tene-
ment-house districts, vendors Of this kind
have free range and license to 10 and coma
ut their own sweet will The 90 from attic
to basement without asking anybody's per-
mission. They know at glance what win
suit, and very quickly determine what price
TO ask. Bed clothing Is favorite article of
trade with these people, as Is every kind of
crockery, cups and saucers and plates, cheap
Knives and forks and spoons, and all the
minor but necessary paraphernalia of hum
BILE housekeeping.
Almost every day can be seen. not far
from st. Paufs church, one or two horses
and carriages marked "For saieo Crowds
gather about them, and the sale proceeds un-
ai by order OF policeman tho business Is
suspended, to b resumed few blocks below.
During the fruit season the vicinity of every
market is crowded with fruit and flowers,
rom the owner Of half-dozen doubtful
peaches up to the proprietor of large stand
'iaporateiy decked with tempting growths of
very kind. Every eligible corner on Broad
way, ana indeed every chief thoroughfare, Is
occupied by seller Of fruit of some kind or
'ther. Italians, Irish and Germans have the
argest proportion Of these little shops. Their
oroht is in the pennies. They live by what
he ordinary American would starve on.
They are most saving and economical. Thew
'ccupy garrets or cellars, saving and care
uiiy caring FOR their profits until able to
pom or u a state one on two degrees above
nat Ia watch they worked at first
ino NY = busy enough in the DAYTIME,
'ut a. pr all, the greatest amoaat Of street
'e.nn9 - uone after nightfali, and, indeed,
luring the later hours in the evening. Many
neat - do not ring down their curtains
.hti u o'clock at night, but when the audi
aces pour from them their first preetinps
IRE rom the lips of flower girls and news
'oper boys; II inclined to jollity, the out
corners seek the electric lighted tboroueh-
ares OF Broadway or the Bowery. where
hasy encounter, at almost every step, cries of
nd meet On every block dealers In n,iscaI.
Aneou> wares such as fruit. nuts. chean
eweiry and cigars. From that hour ON Naly
orks trade Ia all on tho street or i'm saloons
equitable tiadesmen are in bel. Well.
hown stores are under lock and kew. ia
~, wants neck-tis he must buy It en- the
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The Limit for C.oo., or.