Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-02-09
FATHER or THE PUSH CART.
The Genius Who "Stoci<s Up the "FalSir'
md Stnrts Him On to Fortune.


Out of the maddiug crowd, through the
giant ninepins of rolled paper and groups
of blackcned machnists and crowding
trucks and past pie shops and screened
camblin; dens till your hurried pace drives
YOU to the street ccnter, where at last you
end no obstaclcto quick progress but mud,
and thcn-quict
You are in lower Ann street. with life
fast throbbing lcfC behind aud deathlike
quiet in the Swamp beyond.
Dolring a push cart loaded to the brim
with uusty novels, their musty titles max
ing known their morally cobwebbed con
fonts, You rush on with broadway haste,
! YOUR nostrils Gllcd with tetid rag odors
| from nearby junk shops, till your nervous
| eve reads. among ~ mass of follow creak-
ers. the sign "F. Brasher, Peddlers sup
piled"
Through Il grimy, dark entrance you feel
your way, aided by the faint burst OF light
a smoky sky pano gives 20 the space ahead,
when YOU suddenly find yourself IN n
square room, piled ceiling high with shelves
on which are small paper boxes ana pack
ages and twino and bundles innumeraDle'
all in hopeless chaos; yet all looklngcieahef
for their contrast with the nel2hborlng
labyrinths OF old bottles and tea lead--all
this at one glance, and then your eye lghts
on the other human occupant Of this queer
place and your start of surprise at sight OF
him is answered by his quiet glance OF
pride of proprietorship at his reekins
shelves, and you know you are confrontlhs
the "peddler's friend"
He's a pleasant surprise, this godfather
of street shouters Six feet tall, with {
gentle, quiet voice that comes through
nearly teeth, smooth shaven and spotlessl!
linenod, aud he tells you how he started IL
at s years of age to earn his bread and pie
and YOU are surprised again to find tha
he's been at it twenty y-eight years, and yol
are convinced that mushrooms and sol
crabs must be his present diet, when II
confdentially tells you that he can call o.
his bank now for $4,000
''Sore eyed" merchants, he says, are m
opportunity always-importers who brln
novelties here that won't sell till their ol
tics are disturbed ut constant sight
"dead" stock.
"Then they send for me. | make thel
nm offer. If it's accepted my stock con
many of fakirs will wheel their wagons u
in front of the merchants store next ia
and sell 10 the public odds and ends TIN
they would never have seen but for me.
"They're great public - they wal
quantity, not quality; sensational nan
takes them always; hOmgthp2 that $ goin
Those McG!nty ghosts were hoodooed fro
the start, though regular 'stitFs' for Sc
ing-,;uess they've joined their father dow
below. Fountain pens are mlghtier th'
sword canos-cant get 'em fast enoug
Sold 10000 'krazy Sonutars' as the bo
call 'em. Made myself solid with t
Grand Army in Boston; had forty DO
there to sell medals and metal top can,
NV boys are 'hustlinR' in Chicago,
Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans-in In
wherever there is public
"P,ices are five, ten, fiiteen and TWEEN
five cents-never twenty. What don't \
Mt "A Quarter sumps so fifteen, and u
ner' that fails TO fetch generally reacl
the popular pocket at liye What do
catch on we 'slum'-shelye II, you knc
but | know what's what, and we do P
cious little Summing
my boys are all steady, honest telio'
stock them up;' they sell; the rlsf
mine. It's steady living all year rou
for them. have sixty of them off and
and 'put or $4,000 worth of otherw
unsuitable merchandise and novelties eV
year.
80 acasionally the boys get the CONN
ailmcnt of big head A few days
weeks Of good 'sells' may line fello
purse with twenty-five bones lie u
u rests on his oars, eats ut Ilitchcock's y
dlssipates Mt Miners or the London
it's all gone. Then he's ready Tor p"
,Sgnin. New York Herald.