The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-04-17
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES OF
"SECOND HAND" IN SPOKANE
Little Smiles Cleaned
Dealers OF the ClyUncordd Incidents
the Unfortunate a
BY HOWARD SCOTT.

BY HOWARD SCOTT.
Tragedies and Comedies of the
Second Hand, or Lights and Shad-
ows in the Lives of Spokane's I'm
knowns" might well be the title of
volume of stories cleaned from
the second hand dealers and pawn
brokers of DO city. No business
perhaps, vi - fzA4nRtnsy Nkn.Et
ed with Il, ntHsat&Asa e hl1nG
ity. AMI 81 the same era !1lsE
strange and often humorous stor-
les can be sold by these dealers
along Front and Main avenues
when they will talk
Heart interest stories of the
poor might tell you many
said second hand dealer when l
called on him the other day. But
you will not use my name?'
Calloused by long association
with misfortune of others and
hardened by many sharply driven
bargains, it is seldom that your
second hand dealer or pawn
broker knows what is of heart in
terest, or will talk when he does.
But | saw | had found one here
tales | knew that all his kind
could tell. So i assured him l
would not use his name.
In this business one has ample
opportunity to study the various
traits of human character" he said.
"One that | have especially noticed
is the inordinate love on the part
of most every one for almost
worthless articles, dumb things to
which they are attached through
some association or other. Second
hand men are often called in to
make an offer for the entire fur
nishings of a house or tenement,
and it is seldom that the woman
for it is they, usually, who drive
the bargain with us-will not hold
out half dozen or more trinkets,
bits of bric-a-brac or ornaments
which are worth nothing in them
selves but which they jealousy
guard and anXiously conceal when
the inventory is taken.
ONLY A POOR. CHEAP FRAME.
1T was only last week that this
was illustrated in a different way.
A forlornly attired woman, small
and pinched of feature from work
and worry, and old beyond her
years, came here in search, she
said, OF picture frame-she de-
scribed it minutely-which her
drunken husband had sold for
beer money with some other furni-
ture and house fitting some time
previously during her absence. She
did not care for the rest, she said,
if the money he raised on it would
keep her man away for few
weeks. but she did want that
frame, an imitation silver one.
she had been everywhere for
ii without success, but as | had not
bought it | could do no more than
offer TO give her her choice from
the few frames | had. OF course
she would not take one. There
were tears in her eyes when she
left. She told me that my store
was the last chance-she had been
to every other second hand dealer
in the city, and while she had To-
Gated some OF the things her MS
band had sold at different places,
the frame was not to be found"
A pawn broker on Main avenue
showed me an old fashioned watch
of the huge type. in illustration of
the same trait in people to value
dearly things of apparently no in
trinsic worth.
CALLED WEEKLY TO SEE THE
WATCH.
Il loaned $40 on that a year
ago." he said. 1T is worth prob
OF security-its owner calls every
week to see if | am keeping it, and
he pays the interest promptly every
month"
l opened the back of the watch
tenderly, for it really seemed to
me to have some strange charm
which evidently made it dear to
this mysterious man who called to
see it weekly, though he could not
take it away for want of $40.
ITO Z. G. S. from A. X, S. Be
true and brave, my SON"
That was all it said. The
broker interrupted my reyerie.
Watches with such inscriptions
are better security than dia-
monds," he said. Only you must
be sure when taking them that you
are getting them from the original
owner Now the old man who
brought that one here was so evil
IDENTITY the original owner of it
that | didn't hesitate to give him
the ten"
The broker laughed ! saw in
my minds eye decrepit old man,
leaning on his cane, as with slow
fingers he unloosened the watch
from its fastenings and took it
hesitatingly from an inner pocket
for the brokers' inspection. Yes,
1t would be easy, thought, to tell
an original owner" The broker,
through long experience, had prob
ably got that sort of detection
down to a science, and traded on
it. / said nothing and the broker