St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-28

| cation, but experience has also
taught him that, while the average
citizen is comparatively invulnerable
| and wary along the intermediary of
! the block, he parts with his prudence
and discretion on slight provocation
when he reaches the crossing. And
these itinerant merchants know an
other thing to their advantage, too:
| 1t is that this same citizen, circum-
spect and careful and economical in
! his purchases at the stores, no soon
er sees special articles exposed for
sale out of doors than he is seized
with an insane desire to buy, wheth-
| er he needs them or not A man
| at the corner of Sixth and Jackson
streets last week, who was selling
| emery paste for sharpening razors,
, had'a heavy patronage among full
bearded men. What did they want
With the paste? 1t was Warranted
to put an edge on a saw blade keen
enough to shave with in two minutes
and quarter; it was only TWENTY
TVe cents diminutive box which
contained perhaps a teaspoonful: the
vender helped things along by max
| ing the somewhat indefinite and am
b1guous statement that the virtues
OF the paste We're such that he could
and would ''shave every mothers
son in the crowd in less than no
time" So, of course, the full-beard-
ed men bought it, and, equally of
course, will never use it.
A field of such inviting promise
to the street fakir is not to be slight
ed, and, to do him justice, he doesn't
Slight 1.-THE will be found in extensive
occupancy of the street corners.
rake watches, fake jewelry, fake sill
VerWare; potato knives, bread knives.
carving knives, pocket knives: paste
diamonds, brass cuff buttons. ditto
collar buttons, shoddy neckties, non
elastic suspenders which country
lads buy as ''galluses;" miraculous
CLUES, always under demonstration
as to strength by the exhibit of three
fractured china plates and two i'm
mense paving stones pendant in a
frame; tooth powders, toothache
cures and cures for warts. corns car
buncles, moles, freckles and indi-
gestlon. That's the general view of
the fakir's stock in trade. What does
he sell principally? He sells YOU
principally; and his wares, varied
and assorted and conglomerate
prices nominal and values enough
less than nominal to reduce them to
negative quantities, are merely the
means to that end.
Generally classed among street
fak1rs, although they do not really
belong there, are the organ grinders
and street singers. For some occult
reason, the latter are not often seen
in st. Paul. Occasionally a strident
voice, usually that of woman
whose age and vagrant mode of life
have put real singing beyond her
power, is heard in accompaniment
with some squeaky violin or COM
planning harp; and the blind fiddler,
who sits under the street lamp saw
ing out sickly airs hour by hour,
now and then essays a Iamentable
ballad for which he has neither heart
iAOi VIM, Jul Tic street VOCALIST is
seldom heard nowadays, and nobody
gFieves. The organ grinder, on the
other hand, is a regular and con-
slant visitor in his season, and, aside
from his music box, is rather an in
teresting subject of study. The man
ner of his appearance and disappear
ance is wrapped in profound mys-
terry. Whether he walks into town,
or comes by train, or creeps out of
the bowels of the earth; whether he
is migratory like the sparrows, or
alternating like the bear; these are
subjects for deep speculation. He
is one of the earliest signs of spring
and one Of the latest sounds of sum-
mer.
The genuine organ grinder is, of
course, an Italian. His hair and
beard are a profuse growth of I'M
tanned and matted black; his eyes
are large, dark and melancholy, and
his complexion is dingy olive. He
wears abundant clothes, more faded
than fraYed. with abundant buttons;