Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1895-03-16
FOR BARGAINS OR FOR CHARITY.
How WHY Secondhand Dealers Appear TO
Both These Human Motives.

| How willy Secondhand Dealers Appear 10
Both These Human Motives.
/ The observapt pedestrian along any popu-
! lous east or west side street knows what IL
/ Is to see piled up in apparent confusion
| the household effects of some distressed
tenant. dispossessed for nonpayment OF
rent-furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils,
cheap pictures, crockery, "a clock, and
birdcage. Where landlord secures sum
mary possession through the act of mar
! shal of dwelling apartments the personal
/ property of the tenant is put upon the side
walk as the most convenient, accessible and
public place Uusually the tenant has
/ somewhere else to go. Seldom do his effects
remain long in the street, for there are al
ways, especially in the poorer parts OF the
town, helping hands TO give him or her Il
friendly lift or Il new start.
Then a truckman comes to take away
the articles left upon the sidewalk, and
the neignbors hear OF the matter no
more. This benevolent strain of human
nature in New York has, however, inspired
! the cupidity of some secondhand dealers,
! who now make Il regular business of dump
| ing their unstable stock in IA public place,
| pretending hat the articles thus displayed
! belong to some needy disposseSsed tenant
! The sympathetic wife or daughter of the
secondhand dealer stands in the vicinity of
the articles, and when the charitably dis
posed stranger makes his appearance this
is about what he hears:
Poor soul! A widow with seven chill
dren, her husband dead in the hospital aft
er being out of work for three months
| where would she get the money to pay the
| landlord and save her furniture from the
street? Well do | remember her paying
$40 for that bedstead there when she moved
into the top floor beyond-a bedstead which
| she would be glad enough to take $40 for
! now to buy her children something to eat.
| And those chairs there, which cost 81 each,
she'd be only too willing to sell for quar-
ter apiece; and that fine old fashioned clock
! lying there-lt's a splendid timekeeper,
and any dealer would pay IS for it gladly
and the poor woman is willing to take 50
for it if she could only find kind hearted
purchaser to buy it, while she is out looking
for help from those who were glad enough
to borrow money from her husband when
he was workng"
Such tale of commingled human sOr-
row and business opportunity told, for the
first time to sympathetic stranger is not
usually without its effect. My good
|
a couple of dollars for the widOw-my good
wishes 90 with her. The female passerby,
too, is touched by the recital, and the
chance of often gettinga bargain lOosens
the clutch which she has on the money
which she holds in her hand She buys
such of the articles as her means afford or
which seem cheapest and next seeks the
| good Offices of some neighboring truck
man or eXpressman to transport the arti-
Giles to her home. Then the secondhand
dealer replaces the articles sold by other
articles of IL similar kind from his shop,
and his wife waits the arrival of another
| favorably disposed purchaser
This dodge has been worked quite gener-
ally and quite effectively of late in various
parts of town, and it is always to be no.
tced that second hand furniture store is
at no great distance from the point where
| the articles are left, and well travelled
! thoroughfare, not a side street, is selected
for the purpose although it is well known
! that evictions for nonpayment of rent are
very rare on the big thoroughfares, where
| the rents are higher, and are almost eAclu-
| sively limited to the smaller side streets of
neighborhOods.--N York Sun.