The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-04-10
PAWN SHOP STOCK.

|
PAWN SHOP STOCK.
Where the Riddles. Banjos. Comets and
| Family Bibles Come Fronl-Some Musi-
/ cal Relies of the War.
There are seEenty-one pawnbrokers
in Philadelphia and one hundred and
ten secondhand clothes-dealers. In
the window of every one of these stores
are displayed one or more ban;os, vio-
Inns and comets. Besides these must
cal instruments no pawnbroker's or
secondhand clothes-dealer's store
window appears to be complete without
an ACCORDION, large family-bible and
two or three boxes of mathematical in
struments. None of these art. cles are
ever of the best material or workman
ship, and they all appear to be new, or
nearly so. "WAere do they all come
from?" said a reporter to Winfield
Radcliff yesterday. He replied:
II can tell you something about the
comets and the banjos. The comets
are relics of the war. No; they were
not pick d up on the field of battle; in
deed, 1t is probable that they were ne7-
er favored with powder and never got
nearer to a call to arms or an order to
fix bayonets and charge than a hall
over some ga oon in TIE city, This is
how it was: Dur rg tie war every man
who could play an Instrument was m
buad with the idea of forming o1nd to
lead conque ing Northern regiment
tn ough tie South. One fifth of hese
| patriots went out, and others didn't.
Their corne and OF Ter W nd ms ru-
ments were let on their hands, and be-.
/ i'm only of a che p d ription origi-.
nally, they could oily find market in
the pawn shop. Not that the things
weress bou III by the broker;. We don't
buy Things of that sort. They were lett
and never redeemed, because the would
be trump tiers did not mem to redeem
them. The ban ,os come to us in SIM
/ liar way. At a certain period in the ] fe
4 of nearly every young man re desire
/ to be a varety actor or minstrel
comes on very strong. The banjo is
supposed to be the appropriate instru-
ment to start with. said safasae
''Twosor three months is sufficient
to drive all the neighbors mad and to
cure the variety stage struck youth of
his mania. The pawnbroker oilers the
only way of getting rid of the now OBJ
noxious banjo. Of course it is never
redeemed. There has been craze for
boxing-gloyes among the young men OF
this city for the past two or three years
that is, ever since John L. Sullivan
made such a reputation. These young
fellows have q bout or two, get severe
| ly punched in the face two or three
times, and grow tired of the mttens.
| Uncle comes in useful again, and
numerous pairs of the padded sparring
apparatus appear in the window Of
the pawnbrokers' stores.
with the violins it is different
These instruments are made wholesale.
They are turned out of factories by the
do en-, made on a regular pattern, all
alike. Sometimes there happens to be
fairly good one among them, and it is
! placed in the store of a music-dealer; /.
the others are left with pawnbrokers
and seco ld-hand dealers, who receive a
commission on their sale. There is
/ large factory of these violins on Edge
ware road, London, Eng. / don't know
the name of the firm, but they turn out
thousands annually and send large num-
, beers over to this country. Dyes, there
are such firms in this country. One
way by which these musical instruments
/ come into our hands is by our buying
up bankrupt stocks. / don't see much
use of doing so, howe er, for they only
represent capit,.l invested and interest
lost We very seldom G It rid of them
except at the auction les, w zen we sell
our unredeemed pledges. Then they
60 into the country, and if every pur-
CHASER Of banjo, cornet, or acc rdeon
learns 10 play the number If budding
musicians N the United States must be
unaccountable. Lots of them must be
like tie violin, born to blush unseen
and waste its sweetness on the desert
air. y
"How do the second hand stores get
hold OF the Instruments" az
ooh, they buy them at our sales of
unredeemed Pledges. They are dead
stock to them, but they serve to orna-
ment w ndow and attract passers-by.
i dare say they manage to sell some of
them, too. Sailors are great people for
buying musical instruments. When
JACK is starting ON a cru SO he will buy
q b MO or an ACCORDION to play in his
! leisure hours. N
II never heard a sa lor play any
thing, but bet they get some fun out
of tneir purchases. Farm laborers
have great notion of being musical
| geniuses, too. Markei days are go
days to get rid of tho snide banjos and
violins. But there is an instrument
which has become great favorite of
late years, which imagine has sounded
the death-note Of the cheap banjo and
ACCORDION. / mean the guinette.
Anybody can play that. 1t requires no
learning and is not very expensive. All
that you have to do is to slip in a per-
forated sheet of paper, something Ike a
weav RS pattern-card, tut handle
and there you are. The harlnonium
was a great enemy to the banjo, but it
cost too much money and required
lot of carting about.
'Well, how about the big family BIZ
bles9 What does a pawnbroker want
with tn mp
You'd be astonished at the number
sod. A wave of revival meetings is
all that is necessary to create a regular
boom in fam ~ Bibles. They are opened
half dozen times. the name and birth
days of the family inscribed in them,
and back they come to us. From us
they always go to the secondhand
dealer or the Junk shop. What becomes
of them afterward l can not say.
guess the small grocers and function
shops Got them for w apping paper.
Mathemat cal instruments are drug
in the market. We have more of them
than we know what to do wi h. They
are generally bought ftom bankrupt
stocks, and some ines are merely put
on sale in pawnbrokers' windows for a
commission. Then there is another
source from which all these articles
come in great abundance the mock
auctioneer or Cheap Jack. These gem
try get rid of Their wares in the same
ratio as their wit enables them to per-
suade eople to buy. It is not long be.
+b,, 6 j., -