Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-11-27
AN OLD CLOTHES MART.
WHERE THE CAST OFF GARMENTS
OF A BIG CITY ARE SOLD.


Exciting IA Place as Any of the Repu-
table stock and Produce Exchanges Of
the Metropolis-Queer Dealers.
All the exchanges close early on Satur-
lay 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 a 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 eXchanl.r.
| No. 81 Bayard, the crowd extended across
the street, and it was extremely difficult tn
push ones way through the shouting,
surging thrUng about it's doors. MARI
every man of them had a suit or two OF
cast off clothing thrown over his ef;
shoulder, which he had just purchased or
was trying to sell. There didn't seem -
be word of English spoken, and tnc
throng appeared to be nude up eutirrii
the foreigners who come to this country ia
the steerage of the European steamers.
You had to be told that they represented
two distinct classes, and even then il ~
hard to distinguish them. There wee a..
clean shirts, or even clean hands and face.
All We're dressed in dark clothes, and they
were undoubtedly of the kind which had
/ known several owners since they PASSED
out of the hands of the one for whom tie
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 II ra-
dus of several miles. The next class are
the collectors of the goods vended, and
they ranged from the man who pushes "A
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 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 the pavement outside. Along
the wall on the left are number of chairs,
aud 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 II diamond,
and have pockets filed 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 offers
him a dark cloth suit, pretty well worn.
He holds it to the light, rapidly looks it
over, and counts every button and offers
forty cents.
MAKING A BARGAIN.
The vender wants half Il dollar, and, in
his turn, rapidly turns the suit about and
shows off its best points No, forty cents.
Then the collector offers to throw in u pair
of woman's shoes, but the dealer won't
have them at any price. So they Maggie,
the broker bargaining with two or three at
a time and all talking at once. The forty
cents are at length accepted, and the man
tucks the shoes under his arm and little
time after sells them at the dark end of the
exchange for three cents.
There is very little drinking going on,
because every one is so hurried and alb
sorbed in his business. The barkeeper
wakes them up occasionally by pounding
on the counter and yelling, Beer! beer
, beer beer!" Then one of the dealers
clinches bargain by Offering to throw in
drink, and thmbeful of spirits or a
mug of thick, dark beer is gulped down
The pickering and dickeriug never pause
t for moment, however, and so smart are
these men after bargain of few cents
that some of the old clothes change hands
t two or three times during an hour or so.
Several of the dealers have sacks made
t of bed ticking in winch they jam their pur
chases, and one of these had in it mum
Der of pieces of women's underwear that
| looked as if they might recently have beer
bleaching on the lawn or green hedge of q
3 country villa. But there were no womeI
t dealers, and no women among the crowd
2 and the goods worn by the fair seemed
to he confined to cloth coats and shoes.
The ruling prices seemed to be ridcu
t lous, especiailyif you had no previous &C
t quaintance with the second hand shops Of
t Baxter street Suits seemed to run from
: thirty to eighty cents; coats from twenty
to forty cents, trousers from ten cents tC
/ thirty cents; odd vests were a drug on tn,
g market, and old hats were sometimes solo
e for one and two cents. There were dealer!
who made IA speciality of hats and shoes
WHEN THE DAY IS OVER.
Overcoats had the best call and always
e seemed to bring as much as they wer
Q fairly worth. A missing button would
knock off five cents, frayed pocket hole
u even more, and the more dilapidated wer
, carefully scrutinzed to see if the good
g could DE turned and thus made new. Thu
+ good cloths, even when much frayed, oh
4 tanned fair prices for this reason.
o At 5 O'Clock the market was over, an,
: the exchange, where daily meet the sharp
Q est and shrewdest dealers in the world
d was at an end. Then the men walked of
}, with their purchases thrown over thei
Il shoulder. or jingling the little money the.
Q had been able to make out of their sales
r Down in Bayard street and in its neigh
Q borhood there are a number of little shop
where are found the cheap toys and shoe
r strings and whiskbrooms, etc, which max
r up the old clo' mans kit. Here he invest
;, his money, and by daylight the next morn
g ing is miles away in the country, bargain
d ing with mistress or maid for the mas
|, ter's summer suit or old hat. Nothing
|, comes amiss to him. however old or worn
If Part of his collection goes to the pape
y mill perhaps Anyway it is only the picl