Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-28
CUSTOM SOLICITORS.

CUSTOM SOLICITORS.
 "PULLERS IN" OF THE METROPO-
 LIS APPRECIATIVELY DESCRIBED.
 Specimens of Their Persuasive Oratory.
 The Aristocratic "Pure Silk' Umbrella
 Man-Mininers on the Sidewalk.
 The "puller in" occupies an humble but important place in the economy of the retail business in New York At least it is pre- sumable that his place is important, or there would not be SO many of him. The hurrying crowd may not notice him. There may not be one in the hundreds of thousands who pass him daily who is aware of his existence. His eloquent appeals on the subject of new hats and fine coats may fall on needless ears He keeps on with patient persistence which is almost pathetic.
 There is middle aged man with melan- choly face, about the color of strawberry, and 8 voice of doleful pitch, who is ''pulling in" for mems furnishing store on Fulton street He walks up and down a short beat in front of the store and talks necessarily. J can judge He might as well be addressing the crowd in Greek. If you were to go close enough to him, however, you would hear him saying: "Pure silk, pure silk, only a dollar 'n' a half for pure silk umbrella" There is an indescribable touch of pathos about the way he says this, as though the sacrifice of ''pure silk" umbrella for S1. 50 were too much for human contemplation. He is the aristo- crat of the "pullers in." New York has many of bis profession, but none that equals him.
 The man who stands at the other end of the profession haunts Baxter street
 "Now, shents. deed yer want ter buy dice bair of bads odly dollar ad hallafs'
 There are no melancholy notes in his nasa; tone. There are no evidences of piquant anguish at the sacrifice he is making for the good of mankind. He sticks his face dowr to about the level of your scarf pin, and voci- ferates his appeal with an energy born of lifelong and bitter competition with the han hundred others of his profession on the same block. He walks not up and down with the lordly mien of him who has reached the high. est station in "puller in' life He stands ip front of his dingy shop, attacks every passer. by indiscriminately, and with startling vehe- ] mence. His characteristic gesture is made in one way, and has been made in one way S1nce the dayS or ADraham.
 Between these two extremes the "puller inr has many phases. There is the leather lunged young person, who stands on Fourteenth street and advises everybody within three blocks to "git yer writin' paper an enve'rps cheap up stairs," with tremendous empha- sis on the "git," dying away into curious little impotent squeak on the ''stairs." There is tho thin, stoop shouldered person, with two fingers on his right hand, who makes this re mark at regular intervals: "Don't have to use 8 knife to sharpen leadpencils." He is
 "pulling in" for stand where patent pen cil sharpener is sold, though it takes good deal of patient investigation and slzirmish
 ing around in the neighborhood to discover the fact. Then there is a consumptive look ing man, who stands on a horse block in l front of a Park row hat store and implores passersby in a husky whisper to "buy their hats and caps of the manufacturer" There is the fat man, who points you silently into l cigar store on Canal street. There is the youth, prolific of hair and dirty of face, who ] tries to lure the frugal housewives of Cherry hill into grocery store full of last weeks
 vegetables. There is the well dressed and in- sinuating young man who "pulls in" at the clubs and hotels for the tailor And there are "the ladies'"
 For the ''pulling in" profession has both sexes and all ages, conditions and voices for it's own. It is in the region of Division street that the woman 'spuller in" fourishes The sixteen millinery stores on that ancient thoroughfare know her we'll She lies in wait in front of each of them for unwary
 womankind She is as energetic as her broth
 CTS in the profession, and far more voluble Strife runs high, too, between her and her 1 neighbor A good "puller in" is worth S4 3 week in Division street It is one of the dear est objects of the designing ladies who minis l ter to the wants of their sex there to get 1 sidewalk operator who will bring her bus- 1 ness, more especially if she can get the coveted customer away from hated rival.
 Two of Division streets fair milliners came to blows the other day about the possession of the best ''puller in'' in the street. The modern Solomon, who presided over the police court in which the somewhat damaged l modistes figured after this interesting event,
 was equal to the emergency. He proposed l that since the claims of each belligerent seemed about equal, tho peerless manipulator | of business who was the source of all the 1 trouble should ''pull in'' one day for one o1 l tho milliners and the next day for the other This settlement was thankfully received by | the excited contestants and peace reigned l once moro in Division street
 l Space is lacking for the full description of the 1at Iady, apparently speeches., who sits l all day in an ample arm chair in front of a Park row clothing store. Her place in the l profession of ''pulling in" can never be as certained, for no one has ever seen her do 1 anything but sit still and look solemn. Neither can justice be done to the silent 1 and clean shaven man who operates the patent gate in front of a hardware store on Barclay street; to the determined race of "pullers in, who burden the life of women visitors to the markets; to the street car conductors whc
 turn to pulling in" in the vicinity of the biz dry goods stores; nor to the man who stands in front of the sub-cellar shoe store on Beck man street and tries to charm people into his place with smile as broad and vacant as a
 ten acre lot.-"C E. R." in New York Com
 mercial Advertiser.