New-York tribune., 1901-07-07
THE STREET MERCHANTS.
SOME OF THEM ARE WE'LL TO DO,
THOUGH THEY DRESS SHAH
Billy FOR EFFECT.

A day with the street merchants of New-York
sometimes inappropriately designated as fakirs is
interesting Some Of these merchants Of the high
ways rich, some are clever few are honest
and many are neither conscientious cleanly
Among the thousands there are few odd char
acters who are well known a result of having
long frequenteG the same public places that they
are pointed out interesting figures in the daily
grind Of business A few proud of the sue
cess they have achieved but the great majority
pear be just sufficiently ashamed of their CALI
ing TO shrink from unnecessary publicity. Some
OF the wealtier appear TO lead double lives. Their
families are comfortably housed, and they affiliate
socially with people who would hesitate to address
them on the corners where they push their busi-
ness enterprises. Others simply exc out misera-
BILE existence by their vocations, and have few
friends in the sections of the city where
they live. But few, if any, are American born.
and Greexs Polish Jews and Italians constitute
the majority. There some Irishmen, but the
proportion Of that nationality is small.
AT HIS FATHERS STAND.
Maurice Kaufman sells mems garters sleeve
elastics cuff retaners necktie fasteners from
the areaway OF the Park National Bank, near
FuIton-st. His father had been there over twenty
five years when he died last February, and had
arnassed a comfortable fortune during that time
Maurice who is twenty-five years old, dresses well,
IS at the old stand by the bank entrance early and
late and has a thriving trade. His father was
the owner of the patents for the garter he always
the invention.
A dealer in periodicals. whose trade is extensive
and who has been at his present stand many years.
ard seller of badges conduct their business be-
tween the Kaufman stand and the entrance to the
ST Paul Building. The badge seller prepared for
q big DAYS business last October, during the
Sound Money parade. When II began to rain,
about s O'Clock in the morning. he hoisted an UNI
brella and called attention the fact that his
Mckinley and Roosevelt buttons were waterproof
co15 aJ4t hafo Tha Ia
One door below the garter man is a man OF per-
haps sixty, neatly dressed and apparently pros
porous. who sells nothing but small metal chicks
with a bulb and hose attachment. by which the
dirninutive creature, intended lapel. ornament
IS nnade 10 chirp Justify. His cheerful smile Is
rowerfuI magnet 10 attract attention TO his wares
and he sells them the rate Of hundred or so
day.
MOTHER" is BLIND.
The blind pencil merchant Of the Equitable Build
ing is an interesting woman She is neatly but
plainly clad and sits in her place against the wall
day after day waiting for customers. She never
speaks TO anybody unless addressed, and greatly
dislikes to have crowd collect about her She is
known other street merchants near by merely
as Mother and likes to be SO addresses. @ who fire..
quents lower Broadway who is something more more
ana han be may be waag e Is yea Older may
My wife and children said he he'll In II fair Ehghsn
and looked up TO- am 100 when R In I'm at hone
When NV friends happen along where I'm selling
toys don't know them, and they don't know me.
made enough in thirty years to live like an Ameri-
can. but in business I'm still Jew.
of beauty is Grecan if not classic He well.
and his stand at No 81 East Fourteenth-st is a
model OF neatness. His name Is christos Keama,
and he is a diplomat He drives thriving trade
with the women who throng the thoroughfare. ana
rarely fails of sale to anybody who stops TO ad-
nire his flowers.
DIRTY sHoEsTRINGs."
There is in sxth-ave a swarthy, not too clean
fellow who sells shoelaces and who is known to the
frequenters of the locality only Dirty Shoe
strings" An angry the other day accosted him
with: Those shoestrings are rotten! They're not
worth taking home. You ought 10 be arrested for
BUY my shoestring-no rot,'' said the pedler,
Il bought yours That's what I'm talking about"
cried the irate man.
me no sell rot shoestring," said Dirty" calmly
tinued about three minutes, but Dirtys position
rushed of escape apoplectic Mt
What induces Karl, the pretzel pedler TO frequent
ly an unfathomable mystery Nobody has ever seen
him sell anything, far be learned. and of
ali the people in New-York none seems less likely
TO buy pretZels than the shoppers in that street.
The Park Row newsboys have great fondness for
FransfortsG bGt Fourteenth-st is different; Yet
Karl, who is Greek, is TO be found there always
Both he and his outfit are I'll adapted to make one
The rwo-foot rule man and the needle threading
Western Union Telegraph Building there no
more The rule man is further down @ the street ana
day He simply held up q handful of rules invite
of rule he sold to contain twelve good and law
full inches and offered large reward for every inch
and that people didn't seem to care how long any
thing was any more. They've quit measuring, ap-
Ior 9 he sen one ot SsR eope dsee
for rules any more-not even the Golden Rule!"