The Indianapolis journal., 1903-07-19
THE CURBSTONE TRADERS
SMALL INVESTMENTS WHICH SOME
TIMES LEAD TO FORTUNE.
Dealers Who Pay No Rent, Sell ynri-
oBS Kinds OF Merchandise and in
Some Cases Accumulate Money.
New York Press.


scissors grinder with an income of $500 a
week is certainly curiosity. Yet on the
West Side there is such a one Early in the
rnerning cerain West Siders are awakened
by the shrill sound of fifteen bugles They
have come to learn by this time that the
sound is not the herald OF an army, but
merely the announcement that the fifteen
employees OF the afIiuent scissors grinder
have started onNtheir several routes. Each
of these employees has a machine which he
pushes or carries on his back and clear
toned bugle which he blows faithfully and
Vigorously. He has his regular routes,
which he covers at regular intervals, his
regular customers and his regular salary.
AT the end Of each week he turns in to his
employer no less than $50 or $50, and is in
turn paid 81 in salary. The butchers
are his best customers, and so hourishing
has become his trade among them that the
proprietor no longer allows his assistant
grinders to collect the dues therefrom,
but himself goes about each week TO the
meat shops to collect his fat little revenues
To support a family, keep ones father
and mother in luxury and send ones sisters
TO college by merely opening cab doors is
the proud attainment Of Sam Donovan. a
young man who does a nonrent-paying
business in gilded Wall street. In this IA
NOUS little lane there are three or four
young fellows who follow this easy and
lucrative trade. As a broker, feeling prime
after a good breakfast and with the pros
pect OF a good deal before him, drives up
10 the curb. his cab door is flung smartIy
open, he Is assisted bodily from the vehicle:
whisk broom is fourished through the air
and In a trice he is brushed neatly and
scientifically as though he had not just
emerged from the hands of his valet and
as though a speck of dust upon his
shining coat were crime The cab opener
is feature of Wall street, without whom
business could hardly proceed, so used are
this nonrent-paying financier. And Wall
street IS the Mecca of the cab opener, be-
cause tips there are really tips, and mount
up within "A day to good solid income.
Some of the more successful brokers tip
their cab openers from 25 TO 80 cents each
morning, while after successful deal their
tips rise as high as their spirits The cab
opener is always genteelly dressed and car
ries his well-known whisk broom. He has
his regular clientele and his regular hours.
He Is one OF the unique figures OF that
unique spot OF New York, and his income
depends almost much upon the fiuctua-
tions of the market as that OF the wealth.
est patron.
WOMEN EARN MONEY.
As companion piece to the cab opener Is
the professional chair wheeler. who fire.
ais This type of nonrent payer. strange to
say, generally is a woman. The chair
wheeler receives no salary. and is not upon
the hospitals list. She depends for her in
come and the support of her family upon
the liberal tips of the wealthy convalescent
The man who has been for several weeks
lying upon a couch in darkened room and
IS at length allowed to sit outdoors in an
Invalid chalr VIII pay almost anything for
the delight OF being rolled about the city
streets once more, where he see his fel-
low-men and hear the old familiar hum Of
city life. The business of the chair wheeler
Is to hang about the hospital grounds until
she sees an invalid rolled out upon the
veranda in a chair. Then she tempts him
with the prospect OF ride into civilization.
She is usually strong and muscular, with
big biceps and a stolid face. and can roll
patients about all day long without feeling
tired. At home she has perhaps an invalid
husband of her own and family of grow
ing children. To these she returns each day
with her income of tips, with which she
buys their frugal dinner and the quilts for
their hard little beds. She has other
source OF income. yet she is more certain
OF her living and her weeks earnings than
the fellow in frock coat who is playing
with the market and depending on stocks
and bonds.
On Park row there are hundred evil
dences OF the domesticity. gullibility and
love of humor in mankind. There is the
thriving dealer in needles and pins. He has
been in the business long enough TO buy a
SOOu nome IOr nlInSeit ana FAMILY. lie VIII
sell you 100 needles for cents, and the
amount OF his trade alone is appalling
proof OF the number of bachelors in one
corner OF the city For il is not the women
who buy his wares. The occasional type
writer girl who hurries through the row
supplies herself uptown 1t is the sad and
lonely masculine dweller in d hall bedroom
who needs To buy needles with which to
sew on his buttons and sew up his socks.
The collar-button man with his card of
glittering wares is another familiar figure
in the newspaper district. The number of
collar buttons man must lose in year is
nishing-according to the sales of the
collar button man. Sometimes the collar
button man becomes the proprietor of a
sidewalk department store, and adds an in
stalment of shoestrings. needles and gaudy
watchcharms OF a fashionable pattern and
containing a gorgeous jewel in the center
10 his stock. Usually he finds a sheltered
1.,r nook Just s on 1.-THE the paving line on which TO
evitable move-on" problem which con-
fronts the nonrent-paying merchant HUI
practical for the jolly fellow with a scarlet
silk handkerchief about his neck who sells
You real china plate containing two fried
eggs and slice of bologna sausage (both
done in china) for cents. does a thriving
business. On St. Patrick's day he sells lit
tie silk shamrocks, and in war times he
varies his business with flags and buttons.
He must always keep UP with the run of
popular jokes. but he can return TO the
fried eggs and bologna sausage at any time
II new joke falls fat.
The fruit seller Is nearly always a Greek
or an Italian. When ne arrives in this
country he is without a sou and has for
capital merely his picturesque dark face
his brfght-colored handkerchief and his
membership In large Greek or Italian
society. This society vouches for him when
he Is landed. assures the authorities that he
Will be self-supportins. secures him q IL
cense to sell fruit. provides him with cart
ana piles Il high with hts first instalment
or goods. For these he pays out OF his
earnings. At the end OF ten years he is
ready 70 so back home again TO Italy's
sunny skies, richer and q wiser man
with enough 20 live on for the rest OF his
Hle. without lifting q finger. bless the
II: the uptown districts the fruit vender
Is suoplanted by the rag man and the or
gan grinder. Who that has dwelt in
New YORK nat house does not know them
cotaF Inc rag man has humble begin
hing he does not even require a license
IN order 10 start IN trade His indictments
consist or two-wheeled push cart
string or old bells and scale that never
weighs correctly His intellectual require
ments are merely that he must be able To
distinguish wollen from cotton cloth and
70 know when bottle Is not broken His
coming Is heralded by a sweet tinkIe all