The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-06-07
LoNooN's Old clo' MART.
Fortunes Made in One of the. Dingiest
Parts of the City.

Parts of the City.
Walk down Houndsiitch. leaving
Bishopsgate street behind. and on the
left ron come to Pills buildings Go
M the steps. and the Old Clothes mart
is in front of rou. There is barrier
in front of the mart. however. and be-
hind the barrier is d prosperous-lookin
Young Jew. who SAYS: Paw here
When the situation has been explained
rou find that the Young Jew IS Mr.. II.
Hart. whose mother IS the owner of the
mart. and that the price of admission
Is one penny.
The first impression one gets OF the
market is one of seualor and rags II
was wet day when | called. and
doubtless that accentuated the depress-
ing appearance Of the scene. The rain
ran off the corrugated iron covers
there is no entire roof-and drippeti in
10 puddles which had formed al everv
step. The wet pavement was the only
floor, and the islands OF dry pavements
upon which the clothes stood we're
momentarily threatened By the over
flowing puddles. Yet on more closely
inspecting the goods on sale, ii became
clear that they We're not all rags and
tatters. There were some good. sound,
clear garments among the rubbish. and
the heaps of WORKOUT shoes. as green
as ripe Stilton in many instances, were
leavened with serviceable boots and
stylish slippers
There are no stalls. in the usual ae-
ceptance of the term. Down the length
OF the market run number OF wooden
rails These are marked out into
lengths and allocated as stalls. The
goods are placed on the flags in large
sacks. and samples in the form, perhaps
of nice pair of striped. trousers and
moleskin waistcoat. are displayed on
the sack and hung over the rail. One
sack had exhibited upon it the muslin
skirt Of ballet dancer. II was not a
large sack, and hazarded the sugges-
ton that it was sackful of ballet
skirts. The Hebrew dealer to whom I
spoke overwhelmed me with ridicule.
Wy, the wearing apparel of all the bal
lets in the world vouldn't fill sack
that size, would they?' he said
THE market is supplied with its
heterogeneous assortment of goods in
an interesting manner. The hawkers
scour the suburbs to buy up left-off
garments, but they do not go with
money in their pockets when they go
buying. Purchase for cash would be
too direct method Just as the money
lender persuades the borrower to take
part of the loans in wines, cigars or
pictures, so the hawker offers his price
for old clothes in CROKER ware. A
couple of vases, worth sixpence apiece,
look so much more generous an offer
than would shilling Tor the shiny
coat or the ragged trousers. So, before
setting out on his expedition, the
hawker goes 70 shop in
Houndsditch and loads his bar
row with the hashy ornaments
which he knows by experience will cap
tivate the taste of the pert lady's maid
or the suburban housewife; AID by that
simple expedient he gets his stock fifty
per cent cheaper.
Then he wheels his barrow fun of
old clothes to Pills buildings, and out
side the market he generally finds
knot of buyers ready to bid
one against the other for the whole con-
signment. The buyer who
gets the goods distributes them among
his various stall-hofders. and then the
public are invited to enter at penny
time to buy. The best customers are
the Irish dealers. who buy wholesale
quantities for Belfast, Dublin, Cork,
and elsewhere. Frequently thirty or
forty pound deal is heard Of. and the
cash passes hands before the clothes
are parted with. There is no credit
trade here.
My informant upon these practices
was a well-known character in the
mart, one Johnny Martin. AS he was
speaking a sackful of silk hats was
down upon the pavement by a
Spectator who had just purchased
them. They We're a sorry lot They
were as much denied as an alligator's
hide. They looked as if they had done
duty in dozen Drury Lane harlequin
AIDES. and even trader TO the canni
bal islands would hardly have been able
TO pass them off on the confding saw
age. Yet this astute dealer was proud /
of his bargain.
What on earth viii he do with those
hats?' / asked. Oh. the silk on them
is valua BILE. replied Martin 1T viii be |
sent over 70 Paris 10 be redone up for {
fresh hats
What do the prices Of coats average /
here?' You can get them from pen 4
nv apiece, or twopence and threepence. /
up to almost any figure. l have seen I
coats fetch a flyer and even tepner /
apiece-ten pounds apiece. We have /
had all sorts of peoples clothes to sell /
here from Tichborne's TO the prince Of /
Wales
You'll tell ne you've had the .
queens dresses next?' No. don't re- i
member anything Of her maiesty's that
we've ever had
Nor vet of the prince of Wales9"
Indeed we have. sir. and Of most of /
the nobility, too Yos see they give /
their left-of garments 20 their Wallets,
and their Wallets sell en- 20 Is. More
over the princes things don't command
the highest figure, either"
I've sold the clothes OF the greatest
man that ever lived chimed in another
dealer
And who might that be- sir
Montefore
After watching these people bag
Cling among each other about odd six
oences. amid surroundings which must
be naaseating after their novelty
mas ivorn of. was undoubtedly
surprised. II the information Mr. ,Hart