Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-04
ODD OCCUPATIONS
y
A Woman Who Buys An
tiques and Curios.
rs tn
SEARCHING THE SHOPS
&c -b
FURNISHING STORES WITH POST
lAGEuSTAMPS.
Finding Desirable Things in the
Pawnshops to Sell
Again.
SEARCHING NC THE SHOPS
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star.
One often hears expert judges of antique
and curios long for sufficient money with
which to open a little shop dealing in treas
ures of the sort. This, or position as
judge or travelling buyer for some estap-
lished firm dealing in things Of the klno'
seemed to present to their minds the only
ways in which they might turn their knowl-
edge to practical account. Therefore II
was extremely interesting to learn, quite
recently, that woman in New York CITY
nad found a way-SomehoW 1t Is almost al
ways woman who finds Way-to reallZe
a comfortable income with just such tai
ent, and without either money or position
to aid her therein. When inquired further
the perfect simplicity of her plan impressed
me anew with the truth of the ancient
axiom that what we all need in this world
is not more opportunities, but the ability
to make use of those we have.
In every great city there are thousands
of people who collect antiques of some sort
or other-coins, prints, furniture, candle
sticks. china and on without end. Ana
In every large city, also, there are many
little secondhand shops into which, every
now and then. yeritable treasures of every
kind find their way. The most fruitful of
these shops are not known to the curlo
collector generally. They are hidden up
dark alleys and in the dark Easements be-
meath tenement buildings and scattered up
and down. all over the east and west sides,
wherever humble homes and poverty hold
sway. 1t takes quite a little courage to
venture into some of them. Their Stock-1n-
trade is not catalogued and neatly arranged
upon shelves as in the Well-known shops of
the kind but lies in dusty heaps upon the
floor, or piled against the walls in complete
q N OYon rob yon -SnC
of worthless stuff to find the chance treas
ure.
Yet treasures there often are. Into shops
such as these emigrants carry the heir
looms they have brought across the sea,
and families who have moved from the
country or from other states to make their
fortunes in the metropolis, when times are
hard here dispose of old prints and china,
clocks and ornaments of all descriptions,
which have benin their households for
generations. Furniture of solid mahogany
finds its way to these uninviting retreats
when families decide to furnish their flats
In modern fashion.
Found in New York
Shops such as these are the New York
woman's field of labor. Every morning,
dressed in a short-skiRed suit of gray
which will not show the dust, she starts
out on her constant rounds among them.
There Is scarcely one in the city which
she has not discovered by this time In her
continual wanderings. She seldom buys of
the shops At home she keeps list con-
tanning the names and addresses of thou
sands of people, mostly artists and So
ciety people, who collect objects of some
kind Whenever she discovers anything of
value on her rounds she selects a num-
Der of names on her list, whose owners she
thinks will be interested in the find, and
informs them of it. The person who Sc
cures the treasure gladly pays her for the
information, her charge being according to
the worth of the article. Often she is
asked to purchase the article for the col
lector, and then she charges a little more
Generally, however, curios bought in these
shops can be obtained for far less than
the ordinary dealer in such things would
ask. For the secondhand dealers are
mostly ignorant of their value as antiques
and rate them according to their unitarian