The Washington herald., 1912-02-04
BY JAMES FRANK Lyman.

Capt. Kidd, if history reads Alright,
was quite a bit of a ney-grubber.
The captain had at his fingers ends a
varied and effective series of recipes by
which money could be amputated from
huuanity-or humanity could be in
dividually amputated with the ultimate
idea of getting the money. But is it
eight to six with no takers that Capt
Kidd in the kiddiest days of his kidding
life never seized rural colored man,
damned him, amazed and abashed, into
a pair of trousers and coat, admired
him, and presented him with a, bill, be-
fore the aforementioned R. c. NJ. had
fully awakened to the fact that he had
purchased anything.
Not that the merchants Of D street
do that; oh, no. Jamming is too strong
a word, They don't jam persons into
pants. By a proce. of hypnotism as
subtle as that used by snake on
robin, they decoy the rural person into
their stores. Subconsciously he pur-
chases clothes. Subconsciously he
watts up the street with only vague
recollection of what has passed. They
are ingenious, those merchants of D
street and they always keep within the
law.
GO to Study Them.
Manz and had heard much Of the my
opic morals of those secondhand dealers
or some Of them, at least-who live their
lives in the little two-story frame build
ings between Fifth and Seventh streets,
in D northwest We had beep- told that
the Police Court, only a block away,
possessed no terrors for this cosmopolitan
street.
1t is painfully so.
That subtle process OF hypnotism,
backed by the cajoling pat and the gentle
grip above the elbow, can only be equaled
by the ability of a ward leader named
Maginnis to swing an East Side New
York electorate.
Two seconds before he approaches the
spiders web the individual passing doesn't
want to buy anything in this wide world.
II he thinks of anything at all, he realizes
that he has change Of garments home
and his trousers are serviceable. Usually
he doesn't even think OF anything like
this.
Ulysses Not in It
Then. like the siren singing to Ulysses,
a bewhiskcred. unctuous siren, with
pleading voice and a melting eye-the par
ticular myopic moralist who has seen
him first, lays claws upon him. The IN
dividual, startled from his reverie, grasps
his purse and prepares to sell his life
dearly. Then the cooing voice overcones
him and he goes in-"just to look around"
II he gets out without buying II Is only
because the merchant has lost his lead
pipe and dares not try physical conclu-
sions barehanded.
They are wonderful types these ,myopIc
moralists OF d street. II you linger they
will try to buy what you're wearing and
send you home wearing an ash barrel
All day long they sit in front OF their
little stores. from the unwashed win
dOws of which you get glimpses
OF old pistols. guitars, banios, cheap
jewelry, and the like. They sit on an
cIent wooden contrivances that in hap
pier times were called chairs, eternally
smoking their corncob pipes, stroking
their boards (most Of them have beards),
and watching the passers-by with that
same listlessness that Ernest Thompson
Seton has noticed in the eye Of spider
when a fly comes browsing about its
net
Watch from Safe Nook.
We reached their haunts early in the
afternoon, and, not wishing to be mis-
taken for possible buyers, we hunted a
quiet sheltered nook. Across the street
we could catch bits Of conversation from
the gentlemen OF the decimated deca-
losue C1.ou shalt not steal, being the
missing brother. as they stood about in
their overcoats, and watched for visitors.
Apparently ID street, between Fifth and
Seventh northwest Is the home Of the
cosmopolitan. There was a ruddy, cheer
full GermGn-or a man who looked like
German-pufing a long clay pipe.
There was a swarthy son of soapless
sunny Sicily standing idly by rolling
cigarettes with the deftness and regu-
larity that comes from habit. Next to
him was a Greek. and next TO him a
nondescript, who might have claimed
half dozen countries as his native land.
We had not been there long when a
lean-looking man, carrying a bulging
travelling bag, strolled uncertainty along
the street That is the mark that these
professional physiological students seek
II a man hurries, he knows where he is
going; II he Ioiters, he is undetermined,