Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-11-26
AN OLD CLOTHES MART.
WHERE THE CAST OFF GARMENTS
OF A BIG CITY ARE SOLD.


the Metropolis-Queer Dealers.
All the exchanges close early on Satur
day with the exception of the Old Clothes
exchange. This does no business at all
from shutdown on Fridays to afternoon OF
Mondays, and, therefore, the closing hours
on Friday are generally unusually brisk |
and exciting.
A whole block on the south of Bayart
street, from the Bowery down, was crowded
with Spectators. In front of the exchange
No. 81 Bayard the crowd extended across
the street, and 1t was extremely difficult t.
push ones way through the shouting
| surging throng about its doors. Nearly
| every man of them had a suit or two 0
cast off clothing thrown over his left
shoulder which he had just purchased OF
was trying to sell. There didn't seem tt
be a word of English spoken and tn,
throng appeared to be made up entirely o
the foreigners who come to this country il
| the steerage of the European steamers.
| You had to be told that they represented
two distinct classes and even then it was
| hard to distinguish them. There were NJ
clean shirts, or even clean hands and faces
| All were dressed in dark clothes, and they
were undoubtedly of the kind which haC
known several owners since they passed
out of the hands of the one for whom TIL,
tailor intended them.
WHO THE DEALERS ARE.
The first class were the buyers, men will
long, unkempt hair and matted boards
and sly, ever shifting, twinkling eyes
They come every day from Baxter street
Sixth and Seventh avenues, Avenue b
Brooklyn, Jersey City and all the cheaper
II. etN p,..,tl IA,
dus of several miles. The next class art
the collectors of the goods vended, anG
they ranged from the man who pushes s
tingling cart to the merchant who roams
Long Island and the villages of this state
and New Jersey, Offering tinware and
whiskbrooms and pins and needles in ex
change for slightly soiled summer over
coat or an out of style silk hat.
| Amid this throng of dirty, vicious faced
humanity on the pavement there seems tc
be as much huckering going on as in the
exchange itself. The exchange is in real
ity a very dingy but large barroom. The
bottles and barrels are grimy with accu
INFLATED dirt, and the floor is but little
cleaner than the pavement outside. Along
the wall on the left are number of chairs
and the men sitting there are the principal
buyers. They have dirty bills folded be
! tween their dirty fingers on which one oc
casionally catches the CLEAN OF diamond
and have pockets filled with small change
, 1t takes an excellent suit to need paper
money in payment.
One typical character has two chairs
piled up with purchases. a man offer.
; him dark cloth suit, pretty well worn
!, He holds it to the light, rapidly looks il
over, and counts every button and offer!
forty cents.
, MAKING A BARGAIN.
The vender wants half a dollar, and, il
his turn, rapidly turns the suit about anC
= shows off its best points No, forty cents
Then the collector offers to throw in a pal
of woman's shoes, but the dealer won
! have them at any price. So they haggle
the broker bargaining with two or three a
a time and all talking at once. The fort
! cents are at length accepted, and the nal
tucks the shoes under his arm and lttl
time after sells them at the dark end of tn
, exchange for three cents
There is very little drinking going or
because every one is so hurried and at
sorbed in his business. The barkeepe
o wakes them up occasionally by poundin
on the counter and yelling, Beer! beel
IS beer! beer!' Then one of the dealer
ii clnches bargain by Offering to throw i
mug of thick, dark beer is gulped dow
The pickering and dickering never paus
u for a moment, however, and so smart al
these men after bargain of few cent
l. that some of the old clothes change hand
+ two or three times during an hour or so.
Several of the dealers have sacks mac
u of bed ticking in which they jam their pu
IL chases, and one of these had in it u nun
&c Der of pieces of women's underwear thu
u looked as if they might recently have bee
u bleaching on the lawn or green hedge of
country villa. But there were no wome
A. dealers, and no women among the GROVE
D. and the goods worn by the fair sex SCENE
t. to he confined to cloth coats and shoes.
The ruling prices seemed to be ridc
- lous, especially if you had no previous a
quaintance with the second hand shops
Baxter street Suits seemed TO run frol
~ thirty to eighty cents; coats from twent
10 to forty cents, trousers from ten cents
t. thirty cents; odd vests We're drug on Il
l market, and old hats were sometimes so
le for one and two cents. There We're deale
rs who made a speciality of hats and shoes.
OF WHEN THE DAY Is OVER.
C. Overcoats had the best call and alwa
III seemed to bring as much as they we
fairly worth. a missing button won
ne knock OF five cents, nayel pocket hol
es even more, and the more dilapidated we
5. carefully scrutinZed to see if the GOO
tu could be turned and thus made new. II
H. good cloths, even when much frayed, O
III tanned fair prices for this reason.
At 3 o'clock the market was over al
III the exchange, where daily meet the shaI
wv est and shrewdest dealers in the worl
er was at an end. Then the men walked
cz with their purchases thrown over the
shoulder, or jingling the little money tn
Ell had been able to make out of their sale
re Down in Bayard street and in It's neig
ue borhood there are Il number of little sho
ny where are found the cheap toys and she
strings and whiskbrooms, etc, which ma
w up the old clo' mans kit. Here he inves
N, his money, and by daylight the next NOR
ld ing is miles away i'll the country, bargai
W ing with mistress or maid for the ma
40 ter's summer suit or old hat. NothiI
oil comes amiss TO him, however old or woi
eI- Part of his collection goes to the pap
M mill perhaps Anyway it is only the pi
W. of it he carries to the exchange.
ie' Down the same street you will