The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-02-24

Tne Curious banking Ways Of the italian
Colony Of New York
If financial centers were judged
by the number of banks. a man
might be pardoned for supposing
that Mulberry street was bigger
than Wall street. In six blocks in
Mulberry street there are 80 banks.
That is an average of five banks TO
the block, and these six blocks are
in the humblest part of the street
too.
There are more banks in Mulber-
ry street than there are saloons In
these same six blocks where there
are 80 banks there are only IA sa-
looms. or an average of little more
than two to block, and il il pretty
safe to say that in Mulberry street
the banks get more of the money of
the laboring man than the saloons
Mulberry street is probably the only
place in the country where the bank
ing business and the saloon business
60 hand in hand too. OF the IA sa-
looms in these six blocks no fewer
than seven are also banking houses.
The saloon occupies one half of the
stores and the bank the other half.
On the saloon side the window il
filed up with bottles with gaudy
labels and with whisky and beer
signs. On the bank side the wide
window sill is covered, and in some
instances is piled high, with bank
notes and money The proprietor
occupies a place inside the bank
window, and attends To the banking
business, and the bartender ON the
other side attends to the saloon bust
ness.
All the Italian banks seek TO draw
customers by an ostentatious show
Of wealth. A pile of money in the
window is the first requisite of a
successful banking business in Mul-
berry street, and in the window of
every one of the 80 banks in the six
blocks referred to there is a pile Of
money. The bankers resort to all
manner of devices to make piles
look bigger. Some of them crumple
the bank notes up SO that they oc-
cupy more room. Others build up
mound of papers and then cover il
with % and $40 bills so that the
whole pile looks like money In
this way couple of hundred dollars
can be made to look like a couple of
hundred thousand. Another device
is to cut strips of paper of the size
of bank notes, daub the edges green,
and then use the strips as filings
for packages of notes. Half dozen
real bills are then put on top and
half dozen ON the bottom of each
package. The edges of these are
turned up SO that the casual OBJ
server surely thinks the whole pack
age is made up of genuine notes.
Still another device is to have a box
in the window full of sawdust or
something else and covered over
with genuine bills.
In one of the windows, one day,
there was a box 2 feet square. 1t
was made of yellow pine and was
bound about with iron On the side
exposed to the street were the
words, From the United States
Mint. The cover of the box was
raised, as if. the box had just been
opened, and the box itself appeared
to be filed with crisp new bank
notes. There were ones, twos, fives
and tens. To make the effect more
striking. one bill was sticking to
the uplifted cover as if il was so
new when it was packed that the
ink had stuck it there. This exhibit
was popular one. There were a
lot of people around the window
staring at it. Not one of them seem
ed to know that the United States
mint was not the place where bank
notes are made, hence the words
From the United States Mint" i'm
pressed them.
These Mulberry street bankers
want no custom except that of the
Italians. An American who goes
into any of the places on any pre-
text gets scant courtesy. For some
reason or other be is looked upon
with suspicion. York Sun.