Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-01
PROFITS TN PU6HOARTS
STREET MEMBERS WHO MAKE
LOTS OF MONEY.
One Able 10 Open Cafe in Havana
With His Earn
! 'sEhlEh. inae 41ix.il

From the New York Sun. -
The profits of the pushcart peddler are
large. Twenty-Five or 90 per cent is so
| small a profit that pushcart men seldom
handle goods paying no more. Therefore.
though the amount Of each sale Is usually
small, some Of these men are we'll paid for
their days work. Suspenders they sell for
10 and Is cents a pair, sell wholesale for 60
cents a dozen, or s cents a pair, their profit
On each pair being 100 or 200 per cent Small
neckties that sell for 8 and 10 cents each,
may be bought for 81 gross. the profit be-
ing even larger than on suspenders
Stockings may be bought from pushcarts
for and 10 cents pair. These goods can
be bought at wholesale for as little as IS
cents a Dozen In almost every case the
peddler's profit is above 100 per cent
Fruit Vendors.
Some of the fruit vendors are in business
for themselves; others are hired for their
board and small wage. Down on Water
street are two brothers who employ about
twenty peddlers. They have a large house,
In the basement of which the pushcarts are
stored at night. The rooms upstairs are
used as bed rooms, where the peddlers sleep
on hunks. On the first floor rs a large table
where they are fed. They get only the
cheapest kind of food.
These peddlers receive about so or 50
cents day, and are required to account
for every cents worth of peanuts given
Them bag of peanuts costs the peddler
from $3.50 to S. and weighs 10 pounds.
Two pounds make quart. The nuts sell
for cents pint or 20 cents pound.
At that rate bag will sell for SD, and
If the nuts are of the best grade the profit
is SIT, or $40 per cent. bag will make
about two cart loads and sells in two or
three days. By paying peddler 80 cents
day and feeding him at a cost of not more
than 80 cents more a day, making 81 a day
In all, 1t will readily be seen that the profit
earned by one who can employ a number of
these men Is very large.
Peanuts and Bananas.
There is one pushcart man. a Spaniard,
who does a remarkably successful business
selling peanuts and bananas. He has made
and saved thousands of dollars by selling
peanuts. He buys only the best grade OF
nuts, and sells three bags every two weeks.
This brings him in 500 from an outlay of SIS.
His profit is SOL, or about $50 a week In
addition to his peanuts. he sells about 1000
bananas day. None of these sells for
less than cent each, and most of them sell
at cents for three. Bananas cost from
70 cents to 81 a bunch, according to quality
A punch contains from seventy-f1ve to one
hundred bananas
AS the bananas are only a medium grade
his whole 1000 do not cost him more than
$12, while he takes in at least $40 His mini
mum profit a day on bananas is IS, or about
$50 week. This, plussthe s25 a week from
the sale of peanuts, makes his earnings
about $75 week.
Adventure in Cuba.
This man has brother in Havana who
Is prosperous cigar dealer.f After the lib
Grafton Of Cuba, the pushcart man decided
to go to Havana and engage in business.
Accordingly. he set about saving enough
money. When he had between $4,000 and
$1,000 he forwarded the money to his
brother. who bought for him a restaurant
and cafe. Then he left his pushcart and be-
came saloonkeeper ine Havdra
He prospered at that likewise, but at the
end of three months he sold out his bust
ness, at loss, came back to this country
and once more took up old stand with
the same old cart. = al,
1t was the mosquitoes that drove him out
OF Cuba. In the three months he was there
he lost forty-five pounds, and his wife was
III most of the time. When he could stand
1t no longer he said goodbye to his brother
and left the land of eternal summer and
mosquitoes He says he prefers to face the
cold blasts Of New York rather than Cuban
mosquitoes.