Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-02-28
A SECRET OF DUDEooM.
Why Some Of the GEIded Youths Dress So
Wen on Small Salaries.


There is q permanent interrogation
point in great many peoples minds,
| and that Is how young men earning any
where from SO to $18 week can dress
as well as men earning Eve or six times
as much. Yet they manage to doit, and
have enough money left to make po-
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 IL they
were part owners in a 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
CATERS over their shoes, would compare
favorably with the latest fashion plate.
Yet if you follow them you will be pretty
Eure to learn that they are simply clerks
in brokers' offices, and do not receive
more than $15 in 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 war they do it 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 aridiculously low price,
and sell the stuff to small dealers at a
small profit. A "fence" will buy any
thing that is stolen, from a silver spoon
to a 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 $S to $50, while cutaways
oY,1 30 Hn &C.,
ranging from S. to $15. 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 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 a
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 given
to Wallets. To follow the course of the
clothes from this point would be pretty
heavy undertaking. Sometimes they are
sold to second hand dealers on Sixth,
Fourth and Third avenues, who make a
handsome profit on every suit bought
and sold. Out of the clothes given to
him the valet keeps the best for himself,
of course, and manages to make consid-
cradle money out of what he sells. Thus
it is that so many young men earning
small salaries can dress so fashionably
and live honestly.-The Clothier.