Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-08
WOMEN STREET PEDDLERS
Five Thousand Of Them Do Ourbstone Bush
ns1s in New York City,
COMPETING WITH THE MASCULINE FAKE
Possessing n Keen Business scent
They Make MOre Money Than
stenographers or Depart
ment store Clerks.

From the heart Of New York's kaleido-
scopic life comes a practical contradiction
: Of the common belief that women form the
weaker sex. Fully 5000 women work on
the streets OF the American metropolis in
fair weather and foul.
The sidewalk is their shop, the curbstone
their counter. They know nothing Of the
barest comforts afforded by a poorly APP
pointed store. They stand or walk about
the whole day long, while carrying on their
petty businesses.
Yet they are strong, they enjoy life after
their own fashion and they lay up treasure
in banks Of whose stability they have the
best assurance.
This steadily increasing army Of street
saleswomen does not include agents Of any
sort who make a house-to-house canvass,
nor beggars who wear the guise of peddlers.
II represents only those who have placed
themselves in open competition with the
male peddlers who cry their wares and the
fakirs who offer anything salable on the
street corner, from half frozen fruit TO
near-gold watches.
Among them are numbered the push
cart women of the East Side. the news
girls, the proprietors OF vegetable and fruit
stands, from the Battery to Harlem, the
| tANlho NOUltNNtu ~ Nht uIg kOOuo u
on the upper East Side, the body snatch
ers" on Division street, the women who
work cafe and theater entrances with
smokers supplies and the Romany women
who infest the fashionable shopping dis
trict with so-called hand made laces.'
AS the majority-perhaps 70 per cent-of
these women live on the East Side, It is
worth while to hear the opinion OF a
Ghetto physician who has q large private
practice and who is also connected with
one of the leading dispensaries:
Never waste your pity on these women
who cry their wares on the street. They
are more healthy than you ever dreamed of
being ana infinitely bette of than the
women who 81 ut themselves UP IN study
fats. Their diet is simple. and this. with
their open air life, seems to harden them
to all changes Of weather. In summer 1t is
a rare thing for one Of them to be over
come by the heat, while a woman who
spends her days indoors will easily fall a
victim to the heat Of the bllstering streets.
In winter they rarely apply for cold or
grip remedies and rarer still is It to find
a case Of pneumonia among them. AS a
rule, they enter upon the life because they
like It.. The mercantile instinct is strong
within them and IL they cannot share the
business Of father, husband or brother, they
coolly enter into competition with the men
of other families.'
Take Care of Their Families.
The most interesting phase OF the life
of these streets saleswomen, mostly OF
Jewish extraction, is their dual mercantile
and domestic ability. "A bachelor maid
is unknown among them. In truth, the
mother of the family is most often in bust
ness, and II 1t be a daugher or unmarried
sister, she continues to do her share of
the household duties, and boarding away
from ones relatives Is unknown. Wives
and mothers run both business and home
with remarkable success.
II the saleswoman looks after a fish cart
or a bread wagon she must be in the
wholesale markets at an early hour. but
before departing for the scene Of her labor
she starts the simple breakfast OF coffee,
rolls and perhaps eggs, leaving the family
to complete the preparations. In her alb
sence the husband leaves for his work,
: which may be in a tailor shop or on tho
sidewalk gathering up old clothes or junk.
/, The children make ready for school, and
the morning work which they cannot dc
awaits the mother's return during a lull
in the mornings trade. Toward noon she
trundles her cart homeward. picking VI
what she needs for lunch as she goes. The
amount of homework she dispatches in
that brief noon-time respite is amazing
and after 1t is done she reappears at her
stand for the early afternoon trade. The
preparation OF the evening meal is fire.
quently left to the children, who early
learn the lesson of responsibility.
II the older boys work, their earnings
with those OF father and mother. go into :
common fund, but the children are usually
, kept in school until the grammar grades
at least have been reached. The mother
may not have so much as a charcoal brazieI
to warm her hands while at her cart, but