Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-02-03
FAkiRS ON THE BOWERY.



natural home of the fakir, and the holi-
day season is his harvest time. People
go there to be deceived and they come
away satisfied with the deception. TIL
knowing ones among the frequenters of
the street laugh at the greeny whose
dimes and dollars they have gathered in,
and in an hour or two afterward skin
faro, policy or a neighboring bucket shop
has cleaned these very knowing ones out
of their last cent
The bitter cold wind of night sent its
sharp gusts sweeping up along the street.
and it was not pleasant night on which
to lounge along from Chatham square to
Cooper institute. But the boys and girls
were out in force and the east side had
on part of its holiday clothes. On nearly
every corner was the irrepressible fakir,
and in front of him the always seen open
mouthed crowd of gadding women and
wonder chained men. How the glib
told stories rolled out from the quick
lips of the sharp eyed operator, as he
rung in here and there the well timed
praises of the articles they were to be
| gulled into buying.
AT the intersection of Canal street and
the Bowery, few yards from Pythagoras
hall, big frowsy, red eyed fellow, with
a face like shark, was the attraction.
Stuffing his capacious mouth full of cot
ton he chewed it with gusto that
seemed to bespeak long fasting, and
touching a light to it breathed out flames
until his head seemed like a veritable
Vesuvius in eruption. And then he sold
a tooth paste that he solemnly assured
the crowd would make the blacklist teeth
pearly white. He pulled up an open
mouthed street arab with teeth upon
which the grass could grow, and in the
light of an old torch wiped them into a
whiteness that shone through the night.
How could the crowd know that the
enamel on those teeth had been destroyed
and most of them would hardly have
cared, for they poured their stock of dimes
into the dirty hand that was stretched
out for them and grabbed for the acid
powder that was to destroy their molars.
Across the street from him was the
backing fakir, and his forte lay in his
lightning winged tongue and his political
speeches to the men who crowded about
him. The headquarters of the Knights
of Labor in Pythagoras hall were not
gathered in the horny handed toilers and
their money. He acclaimed against the
tyranny of capital. and, holding an old
shoe in his hand, showed how his black
ing could make it shine He spoke #
the oppressed workingman, and rung
in the declaration that the laborer who
went with unshinng shoes when union
made backing was being peddled on a
freezing night at five cents box was an
enemy to his kind.
Did he sell many boxes? Well, rather
And what difference did it make to the
honest toiler who wanted to help the
poor fellow, to find that the bottom of
the big looking box was hollow and the
alleged backing only SCOT and water?
Just off the corner of Broome and
Bowery, near enough to catch the crowd
of thrifty housewives with their loaded
baskets, the fruit fakirs had their stands
Loud mouthed. hoarse throated. dirty
faced and reckless, they are the most law
less of the peddler gang on the Bowery.
Rosy apples-yer you are, ten cents
a pail-Only few more left-take 'em
right along and the cheapness tempts
the economical matron, though every
woman on the east side will tell you that
a peddler is a thief. She approaches
with the air of a woman who knows she
is dealing with a dangerous character.
She handles the apples, the top ones in
the pail look nice enough and she con-
cludes to purchase. Then comes in the
nice work of the adept fruit fakir He
seizes the pail and into the open basket
of the watching woman he pours the
-.
hand throws the pail into the farthest
part Of the wagon. She has seen nc
taking and yet she is hardly half satisfied
that she has not been cheated But she
knows it when she gets home and counts
her apples.
Was the pail full? Certainly, but the
two last layers of apples in the bottom OF
the pail had been pressed in so tightly
, that they would not drop out, and all she
: received for her ten cents was the loose
fruit above these two layers.
: Along above Spring street, in front OF
; a big dime museum, with flaming pict
) ures that caught the gaping strollers. a
, flinty eyed fellow with a scraggy beard,
stood out in the mud and told stories that
made even some of the Bowery FOUNDERS
raise their eyes. But the boys liked them
, and the wide eyed girls, with cropped
hair and short skirts. laughed as loud as
the fellows, and the fun was fast and flu.
riOus.
+ OF course he had something to ring in
f upon them, and they all knew it; SC
when he pulled out his patent wash that
: would turn brass into a color so golden
e that an expert could not detect the diff.
e ference, he made some sales, though the
T purchasers laughed half sheepishly a:
l they turned over their dimes. But wher
he took the brass watch of fellow with
checker board pants and, rubbing the
wash over it, held it up to view glisten
, ing like gold in the glare Of the electric
: light his sales increased, and the girl,
, were the biggest purchasers. They didn Z
= know, and they would hardly have caret
q if they did, that the bottle the fakil
t handed them was not at all like the opeI
: one he held in his hand, and that even il
it were the tinsel color would fade away
e in fifteen minutes.