The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-04-02
LoNDON'S OLD CLo' MART
Fortunes Made in One of the Dingiest
Parts of the City.
Pail Mall Gazettl


Walk down Houndsditch, leaving Bish-
opsgate street behind, and on the left you
come to Pills buildings. Go up the steps
and the Old Clothes Mart is in front of you
There is a barrier In front of the mart, how
ever, and behind the barrier is prosperous
looking young Jew, who says PAY here"
When the situation has been explained you
find that the young Jew is Mr.. Ii. L. Hart.
whose mother is the owner of the mart, and
that the price of admission is Id.
The first Impression one gets Of the mar
ket is one of squalor and rags 1t was a
wet day when L called, and doubtless that
accentuated the depressing appearance of
the scene. The rain ran off the corrugated
iron covers-there is no entire roof-and
dripped into puddles which had formed at
every step. The wet pavement was the
only floor, and the islands of dry pave
ments upon which the clothes stood were
momen tarily threatened by the overlooking
puddles. Yet on more closely inspecting
the goods on sale, 1t became clear that they
were not all rags and tatters. Thers were
some good, sound, clean garments among
the rubbish, and the heaps of WORKOUT
shoes, as green as ripe Stilton In many in
stances, were leavened with serycca ole
boots and stylish slippers.
There are no stalls, in the usual accept
ance of the term. Down the length of the
market run a number of wooden rails.
These are marked out into lengths and
Rll0cated as stalls. The goods are placed
on the flags in large sacks, and samples in
the form. perhaps, of a nice pair of striped
trousers and moleskin waistcoat, are dis
played on the sack aud hung over the rail.
One sack had exhibited upon it the muslin
skirt of ballet dancer. 1t was not q large
sack, and L hazardrd the suggestion that it
was sackful of nallet-skirts. The Hebrew
dealer TO whom | spoke overwhelmed me
with ridlcule. IVY, the wearing apparel of
all the ballets in the world wouldn't fill a
sack that size, would they?' he said.
The market is supplied with its heteroge-
neous assortment of goods in an interesting
manner. The hawkers scour the suburbs
to buy up left-otf garments, but they do II OF
go with money in their packets when they
60 buying. Purchase for cash would be
too direct method. Just as the money
lender peTsuades the borrower to take part
OF the loan in wines, cigars or pictures so
the hawker offers his price for old clothes
in crOckery ware. couple of vases, worth
siXpence apiece, look so much more gener-
Gus an offer than would n shilling for the
shiny coat or the ragged trousers. So, be-
fore setting out on his expedition, the
hawker goes to shop in HOundsditch and
loads his barrow with the flashy ornaments
which he knows by experience will cap
tivate the taste of the pert lady 's-maid or
the suburban housewife; and by that simple
| eXpedient he gets his sttc ok so per cent
| cheaper.
Then he wheels his barrow full of old
cIot!es 10 1hll buildings and outside the
market he generally finds knot of COM
mission-buy ready to bid one against the
other for the whole consignment. The
commission buyer who gets the goods dis
tributes them among his various STALL
holders. and then the public are invited to
enter at a penny time, 10 buy. The best
customers are the Irish dealers, who buy
wholesale quantities for Belfast, Dublin,
Cork and elsewhere. Frequently $50 or
$40 deal Is heard Of, and the cash passes
hands before the clothes are parted with.
There is no credit trade here