The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-28
THE PUSH CART AS
A ROAD TO WEALTH
APeculiar New York Business Institution Which
NetS'Its Followers Big Money.
BY GAETANO D'AMATO.
Deputy Chief, Bureau Licenses, New York City.

Despised of men, harried by the po-
lice, the push-cart peddlers are yet an
important factor in the commercial and
economic life of the American metropo-
lis, and their long lines of carts, stretch
ing away interminably on the shady
sides of the tenement streets just as
certainly constitute one of the citys
peculiarly characteristic sights. No
other American city has the push cart
to so great an extent, and some-Chi-
cago, for example-know 1t scarcely at
ALL wagons taking it's place. But go
where you will in New York, you can
not escape the ubiquitous push cart.
And no wonder. Six thousand five
hundred carts are licensed for business
in the streets of Manhattan Island
alone Placed end on end they would
make continuous line seven and a
half miles in length; placed far enough
apart for a peddler to stand at one end
Of each cart, the line would increase in
length a mile and half. The East
Side sightseer is truly within bounds
when he frequently exclaims, on see
ing streets crowded with carts. why,
there must be miles of themn'
BY means of these carts, which offer
for sale everything under the sun that
man can eat, wear or otherwise make
use of, some fifty thousand people, in
round numbers, gain their support. The
average peddler's family, it must be re-
membered, contains nearer seven than
five members. Forty-five thousand
persons are thus accounted for, leaving
five thousand to be divided among the
families of the cart owners, who rent
the carts at 10 cents a day; the auc-
tioneers and small iobbers in dry goods
and notions who deal exclusively with
the peddlers, and the fruit commission
men who do the same thing. Hence, a
number dependent upon the push cart
business equivalent to the population
of Wilkesbarre. Pa. or Portland, Me,
and nearly twice that accredited to At
lantic City four years ago.
Training for Citizenship.
Besides furnishing a livelihood for
considerable body, these six and a half
thousand carts are, in large part, so
many training schools for prospective
American citizens in American bust
ness methods. No one can secure
license who has not taken out his dec
laration papers at least. The peddlers
are mostly made up of men of this
class, the full-fiedged American citi-
zens being scarce among them. In the
years intervening between the first
and final papers his eye teeth were
cut. He learned to buy his fruit at
some big wholesale market instead of
from the jobber around the corner,
and so increased his profits. He dis
covered that it is necessary to get up
at and 4 in the morning to catch
the pennies of the laboring class as
they go to their work. Early in the
struggle he located the best corners;
and so by the time he is ready to become
citizen of the country he has been a
self-respecting storekeeper for at last
a year. and perhaps two, having risen
TO his commercial eminence by reason
of the money made out of selling his
wares from a push cart during the
moments when he was not driven from
pillar to post by the police. In the
meantime, his place has been filled by
a newcomer as green as he was when
he faced America and American ways
from the tail of a cart laden with a
nondescript collection Of purchasable
things. Thus, the push-cart peddlers
are constantly changing, for in the
first instance they are by no means
an ambitionless lot, and the money
they make after they have learned
the ropes is additional incentive to
them to rise to higher business levels,
where they Will not have to keep one
eye constantly on the lookout for a
glimpse of an oncoming blue coat and
helmet. This is particularly true of
the Italians Indeed, there are fewer
and fewer Italians in the business,
which is rapidly falling into the hands
of the Greeks.
Certain of Good Profit.
Every push-cart man in New York
who looks sharp after his buying is
sure of good profit daily. 1t is no
uncommon thing for a fruit peddler
to dispose, in season, Of two barrels
OF pears to workers between the hours
of four and seven in the morning. He
sells the pears at two or three for a
cent, and before the day has fairly
begun finds himself some three dollars
ahead of the game. Three peddlers
not long ago bought one hundred and
twenty crates of peaches, started SELL
ing them with dawn, and by eleven
o'clock each had cleared $1S. Joe
Rothberg piles his cart high with
nothing hut sour pickles, which
ne sells to the Jews of the East Side
at a cent each. He usually takes In
as much as 50 day, over half
OF that amount being clear profit;
and he is said to have savings bank
account of $4,000. A widow who
sells stockings on Hester street
clears on an average 3 cents on
every pair, and as she sells between
twenty and thirty dozen a day, she
is not likely to starve soon. In
deed, she has not only taken care
of herself in this way for nearly fif-
teen years, but she has sent her two
boys through college. and one of them
Is now practicing law. Another wom-
resplendent with diamonds, which
represent her investment OF her saw
ings since she began selling dry goods
remnants.