St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-12
ARISTocRAcY In THEM
DIFFERENT GRADES CoRRE-
SPENDING TO THE MANY CLASS
ES WHO SEEK THEM.
UNDER POLICE SURVEILLANCE.
NOT Half the Articles Payyned Are
Ever Redeemed-A Reporters
Investigations.


huddle III unkempt disarray. All sorts
OF people go there for all sorts of rea-
sons, bringing all sorts of wares; their
visits, however, prompted by the COM
mon desire or necessity of obtaining
very little money at a very heavy
cost
Ii they are new or infrequent callers
IN the domain of Messrs. Isaacs & ia
cob, they will move along the side
walk with an uncertain, nervous air,
superlatively conscious of the pack
age in their pocket or the bundle in
their arms, and
WRETCHEDLY APPRENTICESHIP
that every one they meet knows what
they carry and wherefore they carry
1t. They will glance furtively at the
doors and windows of the shops as
they pass, undetermined as to which
or them shall receive their patronage
their ideas aWry and resolution drawn
aStray IN the maze of an irregular
constellation of three-ball signs. They
reach the end of the quarter on this
side Of the street, turn about and come
back on the other side with minds
still unfiXed of purpose; they continue
for hours in this orbital beat, like the
ancient patrol, until desperation deter
mines them and they dive into the
first shop at hand, which is probably
the worst they could happen into A
brief whispered conversation with the
sphinx-like broker. hurried production
Of the goods to be pawned, careful yet
contemptuouS examination of them by
the proprietor of the shop, an offer
of a sum about one-fourth of what was
hoped for by the applicant and one
eighth Of what was asked, but which
is of necessity accepted; then the tick
ct, which gives the holder the right
to buy his own property back within
specified time by paying the sum
loaned plus any per cent the brokers'
want of conscience suggests, with for
feiture Of all claims in case of de-
fault. 1t is a trying ordeal for the
novice to go through, but that wears
off with time and experience until the
callous Indifference of the regular GUS
toner takes it's place. The latter in
dividual has no hesitancy in prosecut-
ing his errand to old cent-per-cent.
He walks directly to the shop, enters
at once, hands the pledge over with an
expressive nod, takes his ticket and
money and departs without wasting
any time in talk
1t has been suggested above that the
tendency of pawnbrokers' shops is to
huddle together in a particular quar-
ter OF the town, chosen for some hid
den reason unknown TO the uninitiat-
ed. A few lays ago lower Jackson
street was the favorite in this city;
NOW IT IS EAST SEVENTH,
around the jackson street corners
From the surroundings one might
make a shrewd guess that the proxim-
ity of saloons and gambling places has
something to do with the selection.
There is unquestionably an affinity.
more or less intimate, between them.
The unsuccessful gambler, stripped of
ready money by his ill-luck at the green
cloth, ruShes out and denpGeS him
self Of his watch and chain, his dia-
mond ring, scarfpin, and such like
valuables, in the pawnbroker's shop,
clutches his loan, jams the pawn tick
ct, crumpled and torn, into his pock-
ct, and hurries back to tempt fortune
again with his last resources. His
newly found funds go the way of the
rest, and then he bethinks him of the
hitherto despised pawntickets, and Of
fers them for sale. Some one besides
the depositor of them will redeem
property.
No infrequent patron Of the pawn
shop is the victim of drink and disSi-
patton. and his hours of visitation are
mostly early in the morning. His last
nights debauch has left him penni-
less; but while it has stripped his
pockets. it has augmented his appe-
tite for drink, and inflicted IN him j
raging thirst, which must be Quenched.
He has no such valuables to pawn as
his neighbor of the faro and poker
table, but he has his clothes and scant
enough though they be, with the Their
mometer below zero, he will spare
some of them for the emergency. He
passes under the shadow of the three
balls and shortly after energies
MINUS HIS OVERCOAT,
but with few coins in his trembling
hand. He goes shivering UP the street
a few doors, darts into the first sa-
loon, and is presently. oblivious of the
need of wrap or overcoat as he stands
backing himself UP at the barroom
stove, dreamily conscious of the stimu-
liant he has taken. If any idea of his
want of winter wear presses upon him
he shrugs it away with a quotation
from an old tippler's chorus:
Though l go bare. take we no care
l nothing acold;
fill my skin so full within
OF jolly good ale and DID,.
"a rather questionable substitute for an
overcoat in the realms of Borealis
Rex.
The pawnshops of ST. Paul, any more
than those of other cities, are not in all
respects alike, though they wear the
same coat of arms and have some
what striking similarity in the general
ly uniform Hebraic nomenclature OF
their proprietors, with some other points
OF resemblance. They have social grades
corresponding to certain peculiar dis
tinctionS in their patrons, which may be
said to have a social caste about them.
For instance, the well dressed man who
puts his gold watch 'in hook" and the
lady in silks who pledges her diamonds
are not to be clasSed with the bum who
''soaks'' his clothes or the slattern who
pawns her petticoat. Neither are the
pawnshops they patronize respectively
to be thus confused. The better or
richer class deal almost entirely in jew
eIry, timepieces, musical instruments
and such wares; the other class in any,
thing in the nature of personal prop
erty having nameable value. About
the first there is little of general inter-
est to be told; about the latter how
ever, volumes might be written.
YOUR HIGH-GRADE PAWNSHOP
ItdS pretty uluCu Tic appearance OF an
ordinary store or mercantile establish
ment, clearly kept and exclusive. It
deals cautiously, as general rule, with
it's customers, and looks carefully to the
ownership Of the articles offered in
pawn and the quasi responsibility of
those who offer them. Its methods
amount to thoroughly regulated sys-
tenn and police surveillance is compare
lively easy.
Not sc, however. with most of those