Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-05-04
A SECRET OF OUDEcOa.
Why Some of the Giided Youths Dress So
 Well on Small Salaries.


 There is a permanent interrogation point in great many peoples minds. ! and that is how young men earning any where from S10 to SIS week can dress as well as men earning five or six times as much. Yet they manage to do it. and have enough money left to make DO lite little ripple in the society in which they move.
 The early elevated trains and horse cars are crowded with well dressed young men, who gaze about as com placently and self satisfied as if they were part owners in railroad and lived only to cut coupons and draw dividends. They are dressed well, and their cloth ing, from the cape coat to the light cloth gaiters over their shoes, would compare favorably with the latest fashion plate. Yet if you follow them you will be pretty sure to learn that they are simply clerks in brokers offices, and do not receive more than $15 in a majority of cases. How do they dress so well, then? Do they 'borrow" from their employers, or do they speculate in bucket shops? They do not ''borrow," and, as for speculat- ing, they do that sometimes in small way. Their clothes are bought honestly enough with the money they earn every week, and the way they do 1t is very easy.
 Most New Workers have heard of that class of people known as fences" whose business is to buy stolen goods from the thieves direct at ridiculously low price, and sell the stuff to small dealers at a small profit. A tfence" will buy any thing that is stolen, from a silver spoon to q suit of clothes or an assortment of clothing, and thereby hangs part of the tale Every time there is big clothing robbery the stuff is fenced and immedi- ately passed to the sacred precincts of Baxter street. Sometimes the better portion of the thieves work find their way into clothing stores in better neigh borhoods, and because of the extremely reasonable price at which it is bought, the suits are sold very cheap Now, you would not suppose brokers clerk would go to Baxter street for clothes. Neither does he. He sends the clothing mans agent for what he wants. This agent calls on the clerk and is told what style of clothing is wanted Then the young man is measured, and when the clothes come home they need very little altering The cost is comparatively nothing A good Prince Albert coat and vest can be bought for from S8 to SEQ, while cuts. y $ and sack suits are to be had for prices ranging from S5 to S15. Of course a great deal of the stuff is second hand and great deal is stolen. The second hand clothes are easily fixed up," and the merchants of Baxter street have so deli cate facility for this fixing up pro cess that they will change the whole complexion of suit The stolen goods are sold just as they are bought with the exception of a slight change in the makers tag on the inside of the collar.
 Still there is another, more legitimate, way of obtaining clothing that is fash ionable, new and costly. There are 6 great many young men, rich and fash ionable, in New York, who spend most of their time buying and giving clothes away after wearing them once or twice. This may seem strange to men who have but two suits, and wear them until they are absolutely too threadbare to wear any longer, yet nevertheless it is the case Suits of clothes costing all the way from $50 to $100 each are made for these wealthy young men. and are worn prob ably three or four times and then give1 to valets. To follow the course of tht clothes from this point would be pretty heavy undertaking. Sometimes they art sold to second hand dealers on Sixth Fourth and Third avenues, who make { handsome profit on every suit bough and sold. Out of the clothes given t him the valet keeps the best for himself of course, and manages to make consid erable money out of what he sells. Thu it is that so many young men earning small salaries can dress so fashionabl, and live honestly.-The Clothier.