New-York tribune., 1901-08-11

The poorer pedlers not uncommOnly rise at
five o'clock on summer mornings Women
whose husbands go to work early are likely to
go shopping Immediately after breakfast. and
the bird must be ready for the worm. The
strain of standing in the street all day is great
so that if there is a wife who can be
spared the father goes home TO rest for a few
hours; but often he must stand on his feet all
day until far into the night The pedIer best
known to the uptown world is the fruit push
cart man. that unfortunate upon whom some
official hawk is forever pouncing for what crime
the public never understands. But the happy
hunting ground of pedlers is downtown. where
the population is great and the stores few
Here every article that may be desired is sold
from cart or basket. Thoroughfares like First
ave. just below F'ourteenth-st, Avenue A,
pecaly about Christmas time. Mulberry-st.
Hester and Bayard SITS, and formerly Orchard
ST., are lined for blocks together with pushcarts
selling vegetables drygoods. crockery, books
fish (until the recent trouble). toys-everything
that could possibly be wanted The character Of
the different sections In Hester-st. for in
stance. drygoods and the like are sold during
the earlier part of the week, while Thursday
afternoon and night and Friday until the Sab
bath sets in the odor of fish, the cIamOr of the
vendors and the shriI bargaining of the house.
wives fill the air. AT night this scene is lighted
by great torches attached TO the carts. II is not
an American city any longer. The idea OF its
being New-York is unbelievable TO an uptown
visitor who sees it for the first time. The as
tendency of fish these two days is accounted
for by the fact that fish is the regular Sabbath
dish of the Jews of the neighborhood. The
recent order forbidding the sale of fish from
carts will rob the city of one of It's most pct-
uresque sights although the Sabbath OdOr OF
Hester-st will be considerably more conducive
to spirituality.
Across the Bowery, where the Italians dwell,
Saturday is the time for picturesque peddIing.
1t is odd TO note that the very appearance of the
street carts passes from the Jewish
quarter to that of the Italians takes gayer
air. The quantity of salad used by Mulberry-st.
and the national love of peppers pile the carts
high with vivid green and brightest red If a
quaint old woman. decked in a gay shawl and
wearing long gold earrings. attends the cart
riot of color.
Some of the pedlers have most interesting
faces, but they are hardly typical of the best
of their races Once in a while one sees truly
noble face, marked deep with lines of suffering
the face of unfortunate old who is
not without learning and wisdom and who finds
that the wonderful new country to which he has
come, only to ind misfortune, has no use for
either the one or the other 1t is 10 the men who
carry baskets because they have not the
strength to push a that turns for the
most interesting types Sometimes a woman
peddles also-an aged woman, who in the slow
old country from which she came would hardly
have been allowed by kindly neighbors TO work
for her bread, no matter how destitute she
might have been When old and his
wife peddle together the extreme of pathOs has
been reached. Sometimes among the younger
men, too, one sees faces of those who chafa
hercely against the work that fate has thrust
upon them AT least one strapping, handsome
young fellow, late cavalryman in the cars
army, is peddng to-day with a volcano in his
heart; and there doubtless many like him.
one thing is sure, that the pushcarts have
place in the life of the East Side and that the
owners of them deserve some consideration, like
the honest tradesmen they usually are. It is
easy to get the better of "greenhOrn, even
If one is only stupid American. for he lives
in mist far the institutions of this
try concerned Those who have watched the
peGlers. and have what impOsitiOns they
have to endure, hope that the great heart of
the American people" to which reference is
often made by Fourth of July orators. but which
doesn't seem to beat for these immigrants. has