Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-17
EXPERT IN EMBLEMS.
WISE IN THE MATTER OF FRATER-
 NITY PINS AND BADGES.

A Bowery Man Who Makes These Things aFeature of Ills Pawnbroker's Sale Shop and Finds Them the Most Fascinating Incident of His Business.
 On the Bowery not far from Broome street is a pawnbroker's sale shop, the proprietor of which makes specially of dealing in college fraternity pins and badges. You may examine every other pawnshop and sale store on the Bowery and find not more than five or six such emblems in all of them, but in this shop, occupying conspicuous position in the show window, there is always velvet covered tray on which dozen or moro pins of different secret societies are displayed. The place is getting to be known among college men, and peo- pie who have lost fraternity badges go there as the first step to finding them.
 Every few weeks the proprietor of the place goes on tour of the pawnshops looking for badges, and in his long ex- perience he has picked up Il fund of in- formation about college fIaternities that would put the average graduate to the blush. There is not much money in that particular branch, he says, but he has become interested in it and made 1t a sort of study. Not only does he know the emblems of every fraternity in this part of the country, but he is perfect encyclopedia of information regarding their relative size, importance and the peculiar characteristics of each society and of the colleges in which each has its chapters. One would be certain that he himself is a college man but for certain peculiarities of speech that proclaim the east slider and his positive assertion that he has never been inside the doors of a college and has never even seen any but the local colleges from the outside.
 A reporter in search of 8 lost badge which he thought might have found its way, as many lost articles do, into a Bowery pawnshop went into this store to look over the stock of fraternity pins. He didn't find his badge, but he found many others. The proprietor had some interesting things to tell about some of his pins.
 There ain't many things in this line that's fun" said he. "A man wouldn't go into it for his health. But this secret society pin business is mighty interest in. Of course you understand it's only a side lay-not my regular trade. How did I get into it2 Why, the funny let ters on the pins used to catch me when 1 was on the lookout for stuff in the hockshops, and began pickin lem up. Then I got interested more by an old gent from the University club that was up on that line and used to tell me things about the badges and their differ ent organizations. He came into my shop one day to look at badge. That's how got to know him. He used to send me books and magazine articles on fra ternities till I got to know as much about it as he did, and now I guess they ain't many college societies in this part of the country that don t know enough about to surprise the members if want ed to tell it.
 ''They ain't a college fraternity in the east but what I've handled one or more of its pins. I'm keepin tab on the hockshops all the while, and whenever I find badge I nail it. Usually get 'em cheap, for they ain't any demand for lem to speak of. Occasionally man brings in pin to me, or see one on bum s coat and buy it, but it's mostly the pawnshops. How do s'pose they get there? Well, most of 'em are lost, know that the last thing 8 college man'll hook is his society pin. When they do hook 'em, though, it's down here, and not up town, where they think other college fellows may go in and see 'em. They get mighty little on 'em. for the hocksnop men are dead leary of things they don understand. Of course the pin itself has a good deal to do with it. If it's heavily jeweled, man may get half its value on it. Then pins that are a marked design hook well, because they sell we'll. The T pin of the Delta Psis, and the star and crescent of the AL pha Delta, and the crosses like the Alpha Tau Omega or Delta Phi will find market easier than the plain monogram pins or the diamond shaped.
 Now, here's pin," continued this erudite student of fraternities, taking a small, plain Psi Upsilon pin from the case, that I've had here for IS months, and not an offer for it. got it in a queer way. I was in hockshop down by Canal street chewin the rag over a couple of badges that the proprietor had. when in came a young woman about 26 or 28 maybe and pretty, too, only she looked kind of half starved. She unpinned the pin from her dress and asked:
 How much will you loan me on this2'
 Her voice trembled, but she was game and kept steady face. The man offered her $1, and she turned to go out, when said I'd give her $3 for it.
 '' I don't want to sell it, she said. I want to get it back some time.'
 Well, I'll keep it six months for you,' told her and gave her my busi- ness card. She took the money, and she kissed the pin before she handed it to me. 1 never saw her again. There's nothin on the pin but her name."
 The speaker handed the pin to the re- porter, who looked on the back and saw engraved the one word "Lizzie.'' He returned the pin to its place, and 1t is probably there now If any Psi U wants to go Bowery hunting for it.-New York Sun.