The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-24
BARGAINS In BINOCULARS.
you FIND 'EM ON THE BOWERY,
BUT SEE THEY DON'T GET WET.

The Glue Doesn't Stand Salt Water and IT'S
Dreadful Thing TO Have Your Yacht
Lecture Spoiled by the Glasses Coming
Apart-Selllns Them Is Easy Now.
Just about this time, as the old almanac
would say, look for amateur yachtsmen
on the Bowery. They arc there in all the
alternate days between races trying to
find hook shop bargains in marine glasses,
and every Bowery pawnbroker between
Chatham Square and Cooper Union gets
his share Of the rake-off as a sort of by
product Of Sir Thomas Lipton's persist
ence.
Tho Bowery dealer is at his best in
selling glasses to the would-be yachtsman
who knows that he doesn't know anything
about the subject and is afraid of exposing
his ignorance. You see the old veteran
ferryboat crosser or Harlem River rowboat
tar must have glasses slung by a strap
over his shoulder in that picturesque way
when he goes down to Sandy Hook on the
yacht race sidewheeler. Everybody has
them. They are just as important as
yachting caps and the main thing is to
have them to wear even II they do obscure
the vision OF the owner
The Bowery test isn't 80 severe, but that
almost any arrangement Of window glass
disks will stand it and fool the purchaser.
The amateur may be seen standing on the
sidewalk in front of all the pawn shops along
the Bowery, squirting up and down that
thoroughfare through the glasses. OF course
the range OF vision isn't more than three
or four blocks, but that's the only test avail
able for the glass which the prospective
purchaser hopes to use in following yacht
race ever a fifteen-nlile course at sea. The
dealer stands alongside to tell the history
of the glasses, enumerate their good points
and incidentally to see that they aren't
stolen.
North Of Grand street Uncle will call the
sea-pup's attention to the clearness with
which ne can see the clock on Cooper Union
South of Grand he is asked to notice how
remarkably we'll the glass shows the gilt
dome Of the Pulitzer Building. Then to
allay suspicion the Harlem river rover is
told that it requires days practice for the
to the glass. That settles Il. The sucker
bites and has the satisfaction of wearing
the black papier mache case over his
shoulder.
There may be real bargains in marine
glasses on the Bowery, but the greenhorn
doesn't get them. For his benefit there is
a stock Of limitations. made for the trade,
with lenses little better than useless put
in imitation leather cylinders more or less
securely glued together. They mustn't be
left where they'll get wet by a sudden
squat at sea, for if they are damp they
are likely to fall apart at most embar-
RAISING moment, when the sea-goipg piker,
with legs braced in true nautical fashion,
Ia peering about where he thinks the Yachts
are and telling a circle of admiring by
ISLANDERS that Barr is pinching her like
the mischief and that Wringe is tryipgto
slip through her lee" Just think of hav-
ing your seventy dollar binoculars fall to
pieces like sevsnteen-cent Noah's ark at
such a supreme moment at that
Most of the stock glasses Of the Bowery
are labelled in gilt, Signal glass. Day
or night" and the dealer will swear that
they are as good at night as by daylight
That's the most truthful thing he saws
about them. They are-iust as good,
Every glass also has a history with a
tinge Of romance and the heroic about
10, manufactured for the occasion. The
can be buncoed for. He can't get cid of his
theory that he Is going to get bargain.
Now what will you give me for that
prime pair?" asks the dealer. ITS a
second hand, OF course belonged to an
army officer in the signal corps, but ii
looks as good az new"
Five dollars" falters the duly impressed
customer. naming figure about Ave times
the value OF the things
'What9 Five dollsrs!' exclalns the