The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-11
AN OLD CLOTHES MART.
WHERE THE CAST OFF GARMENTS
OF A BIG CITY ARE SOLD,

It Is a Real Exchange and Is Fully as
Exciting Place as Any of the Repu-
table Stock and Produce Exchanges OF
the DIetropolIs-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 on
Mondays, and, therefore, the closing hours
on Friday are generally unusually brisk
and exciting.
! A whole block on the south of Bayard
street, from the Bowery down, was crowded
with spectators. In front of the exchange.
| No. 81 Bayard, the crowd extended across
the street, and it was extremely difficult TO
push ones way through the shouting,
surging throng about its doors. Nearly
every man of them had a suit or two of
cast off clothing thrown over his left
shoulder, which he had just purchased or
was trying to sell. There didn't seem to
be word of English spoken, and the
throng appeared to be made up entirely Of
the foreigners who come to this country in
the steerage of the European steamers.
You had to be told that they represented
two distinct classes, and even then it was
hard 10 distinguish shem. There were no
clean shirts, or even clean hands and faces.
All were dressed in dark clothes, and they
were undou btedIy of the kind which had
known several owners since they passed
out of the hands of the one for whom the
tailor intended them.
WHO THE DEALERS ARE.
The first class were the buyers, men with
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
second hand clothing stores within "a
dius of several miles. The next class are
the collectors of the goods yended, and
they ranged from the man who pushes a
tingEng cart TO the merchant who roams
Long Island and the villages of this state
and New Jersey, offering tinwaTe and
whiskbroonls and pins and needles in ex-
change for slightly sciled summer over
coat or an out of style silk hat.
Amid this throng of dirty, vicious faced
humanity on the pavement there seems to
be as much huckering going on as in the
exchange itself. The exchange is in real
ity very dingy but large barroom. The
bottles and barrels are grimy with accu-
INFLATED dirt, and the floor is but little
cleaner than She pavement outside. Along
the wall on the left are a number of chairs,
and the men sitting there are the principal
buyers. They have dirty bills folded De
tween their dirty fingers on which one oc-
casionally catches the CLEAN OF q diamond,
and have pockets filed with small change.
II takes an excellent suit 70 need paper
money in payment
One typical character has two chairs
piled up with purchase A man offers
him dark cloth suit, pretty well worn
he holds IL 70 the light, rapidly looks il
over, and counts every button aud os5erS
forty cents.
MAEIsG a BARGAIN
The vender wants half dollar. and, in
his turn, rapidly turns the suit about and
shows OF its best points No, forty cents
Then the collector offers To tArow in pair
of womars shoes, bEt the dealer ~on's
have them az any price. so they hzzgle.
the broker bargaining with two o. ghrse a.
a tine and ell talking az once The forty
cents are az length accepted, and the man
tUcks the Shoes under his arm and hsEse
time after sells them 81 the dark epd u the
exchange for three csEes-
There Is very little drinking going OF,
because every one is 30 barried and zo-
sosbed ia his business TIE barkeepzx
wakes them up occasionally b. pounding