, 1888-01-24
FAKlRs ON THE BoWERY.
The Many Ways Whereby They Trick
tho Credulous Multitude.

ny nv hlllblb NiS lltlu'ibSio VI
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 n neighboring bucket shop
has cleaned these very knowing mes out
of their last cent.
The bitter cold wind of night sent its
sharp gusts sweeping up along the street,
and it was not n 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 h 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, n few yards from Pythagoras
hall, a big frowsy, red eyed fellow, with
a face like n shark, was the attraction.
Stuffing his capacious mouth full of cot
ton he chewed it with n gusto that
seemed to bespeak long fasting, and
touching n 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 row 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 shonc 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 WA to destroy their molars.
Across tho 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
fifty feet away from him, and the fakir
gathered in the horny handed toilers and
their money. He detained against the
tyranny of capital, and, holding an old
shoe in his hand, showed how his black
ing could make it shine. He spoke of
the oppressed workingman, and rung
in the declaration that the laborer who
went with unshining shoes when union
made backing was being peddled on n
freezing night at five cents a box was m
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 Broomo 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 tho peddler gang on the Bowery.
Rosy apples-yer you are, ten cents
n pail-only o few moro left-take 'em
right along" and tho c%heapness tempts
tho economical matron, though every
woman on the cast sido win tell you that
n peddler is a thief. She approaches
with the air of o woman who knows she
is dealing with o dangerous character.
She handles tho apples, tho top ones in
the pail lOoS nice enough and che con-
Cludcs to purchase. Then comes in the
nice work of tho adopt fruit fakir. lie
scizcs tho pail and into tho open basket
of tho watching woman ho pour8 tho
apples, and with q sudden twi55 of his
hand throws tho pail into the farthcst
part of tho wagon. Shc has seen no
taking and yet sho il hardly half satisfied
that she has not been cheated. But she
knows it when she gets homo and counts
her apples.
Was the pail full? Certainly, bu5 tho
two last layers of apples in the bottom of
the pail had been pressed in co tightly
that they would not drop ont, and all she
received for her ten cents was tho loose
fruit above these two layers.
Along above Spring street, in front of
n big dime museum, with flaming pict-
ures that caught tho gaping strollers, a
tlinty 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 rs loud as
the fellows, and the fun was fast and flu
rious.
OF course he had something to ring in
upon them, and they all knew it; so
when he pulled out his patent wash that
would turn brass into a color so golden
that an expert could not detect the diff
ference, he made some sales, though the
purchasers laughed half shccpishly rs
they turned over their dimes. But when
he took the brass watch of n fellow with
checker board pants and, rubbing the
wash over it, held it up TO view glistcn-
ing like gold in the glare of the electric
light, his sales increased, and the girls
were the biggest purchasers. They didn't
know, and they would hardly have cared
if they did, that the bottle the fakir