Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-13
DIAMOND PAL M|STS
Women Thieves in New York
Jewelry Shops.
GOWNED IN FASHION
TRADE WITH IMMUNITY.
Peripatetic Trousers Presser, Race
Track Pawnbroker and Semi-Ready
Clothing Novelties.
GOWNED IN FASHION
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK. June r. 1903.
1t is perhaps fitting to start off a New
York letter with description of the new
est thing. The newest thing, then, is the
peripatetfc pants presser. He made his
first appearance down in the Office building
district only a month ago. but already he
has hundred imitators. The peripatetic
pants presser is just what his name
implies-he walks around and nails the
job Of pressing trousers while you wait"
No. he does not press them while they are
still screening the persons wearing them
of course not-but he is a mighty hustling
sort of an individual, and he doesn't keep
the owners of trousers waiting very long.
His outfit consist of a tailor's iron, a
small storage battery electric heater and
an ironing board, and he packs this kit
around with him in a handy sort of way.
He drops into the smaller offices in big Of
flee buildings.
Have 'em creased?" he politely asks the
man holding down the office chair.
The scheme is only practicable, of course,
when the office is occupied by one or two
men. The itinerant creaser of trousers
gets his heater to going, spreads out his
ironing board on the office fioor-and in
somethink like five minutes he has got the
trousers pressed He charges Is cents for
do-all of them, the imtators of the origi-
nal man, too, that is to say. having plenty
OF work down in the financial district, where
they mostly operate. They are particu-
larly busy on Saturday mornings, when
tens of thousands Of the office men are
preparing to hike out of town soon after
noon.
Strolling Clothes Pressers.
To such as these the strolling clothes
pressers have already appealed nightly,
enabling the men of tidy instincts to appear
at their out-of- town places of visitation
looking neat and fresh as to their outer
garments. The door-to door clothes press
ers have made hit with the young chaps
employed in the New York banks. They
get their game going in a little rear space
in the bank set aside for them by the
clerks on Saturday forenoons, and the bank
clerks take turns dropping off their stools
for the five minutes space during which
their trousers are being pressed while
they wait.
Strolling BARRIERS are also getting In their
fine work and making plenty of money
down in the financial district Of late. They
take profitable advantage Of the fact that
perhaps every barber shop south of Fulton
street. say is busy-that is to say, every
one of it's chairs is working" every min
ute that the shop is open The chairs are
perpetually occupied by regular customers.
and it is virtually impossible for an out
sider'-that is, man whose name is not
on the shops list of "clients"-to get a
shave or a haircut down in that district
during business hours. Outsiders are get
ting into the district by the thousands
every day, however, and thus the rise of
the trolling barber. Even the regular Gus
toner of the financial district barber shops
are generally compelled to wait for the
next word for valuable periods Of time,
and the barber with the portable kit has at
length grown wise to this fact. He walks
tn Wal
street way, shaving the faces and trimming
the locks Of men whose minutes are often
more precious than diamonds. He does the
work while his customers are seated in
their office chairs, tranSacting business,
and he rarely gets less than a half dollar
for shave and a dollar for haircut.
Several Of these BARRIERS are said to be
making high as $50 day after having
worked up liberal clienteles. The strolling
BARRIERS who have worked up this fine bust
ness in the financial district have, of course,
formed an association for the purpose of
keeping new men out of the game, but al
ready the pomaded and bears-greased
Italian BARRIERS are breaking into the field
and pulling down the scale of fees, as a
matter of course.
New Clothing idea.
Another comparatively new thing that
has already taken a considerable hold on
this hurried population is the "semi-ready"
clothing stores are now selling nothing but
"semi-ready clothing. The Scheme is a
good one. There are slews and slathers of
men of somewhat eccentric physical con-
formation who find it absolutely impossi-
BILE to secure decent fits in ready-made
clothing. but who like to walk into cloth
ing stores and buy their clothing and put it
on without going drought the sundry and
divers motions necessary in patronizing the
regular tailor. These find the ''Semi-ready''
clothing plan first rate one. The semi
ready" clothes are really half-made suits
They are just basted together, that is to
say. after being carefully cut out and put
through the other various processes
through which the regular ready-made
clothing is put The man who is hard to
fit in ready-made clothing goes into the
clothing store now and picks out his fab
rio in 'semi-readieS." The filter then goes
over him with the chalk and fits the semi
readies'' to his frame just as the regular
tailor does it. Then the ''semi-readies'' are
hiked to the finishing department upstairs,
while the customer sits in waiting room
reading the papers and magazines for half
an hour or so. at the end of which time
suit Of clothes of virtually as good fit
as can be supplied by any tailor is handed
to him to put on.
As to Talking.
They are saying along the Rialto over
here that Miss Ethel Barrymore, the young
actress who has been taken up by New
York and Philadelphia society in such an
extraordinary and unprecedented fashion
during the past three years, is more than
likely to damage her social prestige If she
does not quickly restrain her conversation
al inclinations over in England, where she
has been for some time. The young wo-
man has been brought out in a number of
swagger London houses on the strength
OF the social success which she won on
this side of the water, and, consequently,
the pictorial papers have been printing
interviews with her. 1t may be that she
has been incorrectly quoted, but all of
these interviews portray young Miss Bar
rymore in a somewhat peculiar frame of
mind as to her countrymen and country
women She has been quoted as saying for
example, that Englishmen. as a rule, are far
better looking and infinitely better dressed
than American men. One doesn't have
to be an habitual eagle-screamer nor an
pendage to express the conviction that
Miss Barrymore was talking nonsense when
she made these statements. 1t is probably
fair to compare the looks of the young ath-
letic collegians of the two countries, and I'M
biased critics cannot fail to be impressed
with the vast superiority of young Ameri-
can University athletes in general looks
to the gaunt, not to say bony, over-red,
vealy- looking chaps who have from time
to time come to the United States to COM
pete as the representatives of British uni
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