The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-08-06
WHERE FAKIRS MEET.
THEY HAVE AN EXCHANGE QUEER
ENOUGH IN ITS ODD WAY.

It Is in Narrow and Crowded Ann Street,
Convenient to the Busy Part of the
MISUNDERSTANDING About Class
of Men Who Push Novelties.
When you visit the fakirs' exchange and
come to know it you will be able to under
,tand at least one circumstance that must
have struck you as being trine queer,
Now, many persons have ut some time
walked from the city hall through Park
row and down Broadway as far as Wall
street, and have noticed that the streets
were strangely clear OF peddlers Going
over that sRme ground couple OF hours
later they have encountered horde of
howling, hosrse voiced men and boys their
cries arising far above the noise of the
streets as they fairly assaulted the passers-
by to compel them TO buy the trinkets they
had for sale.
If you have noticed this you have per-
haps wondered whence all these fakirs have
so suddenly sprung The key to this mys-
terry is not hard to find and is not great
distance away. 1t is to be found at the
fakirs' exchange
Just strike down Ann street from Park
row and halt at Theater alley, short half
block away You will see nothing there
that will remind you of the Produce ex-
change or the Cotton exchange or the Real
Estate exchange or anything of that sort.
You will see on one side Of Theater alley
liquor store, on the other another. The
Fakirs' exchange is right about there.
In the windows OF one of these saloons is
a small crystal lake, in the center of that
smaller island, and on that bullfrog al
most rs large as the island. He is the
tutelary genius of the exchange. When he
was first put into that aquarium he was a
brash sort of bullfrog He started in to
make things hum at once In the same
place were several catfish. II you have
ever attempted to toy in a careless manner
with catfish you probably know that he
has very de- led way of making himself
felt. This bullfrog ought to have known
this and perhaps he did, but as has been
said, he was brash. So he fooled with the
catfish and they fooled with him.
THE EXCHANGE.
Then one day he climbed on the island
before mentioned and began to wonder why
It was that catfish were allowed in a civil
lied country to carry stilettos behind their
ears. That was two years ago, and the bull
frog mas spent about all his time ON that
island ever since. This biography Of him
may seem irrelevant, but it isn't The
members of the exchange treat him with
large consideration. They call him Robin
son Crusoe and they claim that his powers
OF hard and persistent thinking entitle
bin to respect So if you want to get along
with them you will cast no reflection on
Crusoe, the frog.
The exchange is unique. There will be
days and days when it will be to all in
tents and purposes closed, when you will
gee scarcely q member about On those
days they are scattered all over the city in
every place where men and women congre-
gate, selling with greater or less success
such wares as they have to offer. Then
you will see them drifting back to head
quarters, and on another day when you go
through Ann street you will find handcart
after handcart about Theater alley and
men lounging about looking at Crusoe and
talking in groups. 1t is an exchange day.
1t is not proper to class these men with
the small peddlers who sell shoestrings,
matches and the like. These are but work
ing on what is practically the system of
the Italian padrones, albeit in this case it
is worked by Hebrews These peddlers in
Ann street are usually either individual
merchants, so to speak, or members of a
combination, and in a general way with so
much unanimity of form that their head
quarters may really be termed an exchange,
or at the very least a market.
They have capital within certain limits,
and credit too. They will not deal in things
that to their mind will not strike the pub
lie as either bargains or novelties. The
class of peddlers who deal in bargains buy
unsold stocks of magazines, books or il
Illustrated papers, hats just gone out of sea
son, second hand articles that are easily
transferred by means of handcart or with
the assistance Of an ancient horse.
HOW FAKIRs WORK.
The dealers in novelties form the cream
of the exchange. They work on combina.
tions. They watch every toy and novelty
manufacturing house in the business
They have scheduled novelties that OF
course change from year to year for every
holiday, whether it be Christmas or Labor
Day. IL was mainly through the efforts OF
these men that the Fifteen Puzzle" be-
came popular. When they heard, and
they did speedily, that the "Boulanger
March" was a good thing, it was but day
or so when they were selling it by the tens
of thousands on the streets.
They watch every theatrical hit, every
success of public man, every great event
and in fact study the public taste much
more closely than much greater men do
They nre in touch with all the wholesale
houses in this city that deal with mecban.
ical toys and novelties, and the managers
OF these houses have no hesitation in say
ing that so far Us New York is concerned
and that means good deal, these street
fakirs are rare good judges of what will go
and what vii! not
If you could see all the members of this
exchange at their headquarters you would
see an interesting throng. But that is
hardly possible.
They do not congregate at any specified
time. But if any new thing comes out
that is likely TO sell on the streets of New
York the manufacturer has but to let it be
known at Ann street and Theater alley II
will be speedily tested, and if it is what il
is claimed to be by its inventor it will il
twenty-four hours be on sale in every i'm
portant point in New York, and Thousand
men and boys will be shouting in its praise
and selling it.
For this and other reasons the spot or
Ann street is unique, and for the same rea
sons it may justly enough be called an ex
change.-New York Recorder.
Spain's MnRch Toward Democracy.
When We compare what our Spain was
under the congress Of 1875 with what she
Ia to-day, the realization Of so much practi-
cal progress and the harvest of so many
democratic ideas seem like dream. Trials
Mera then held aAnretlY as In innnisitnrial