The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-06
BOWERY IS TOLOSE
IKE AFTER 45 YEARS
Odd Character Who Knew Many
NOtables of Other Days
Will Quit Street.
YES. HE'S SELLING OUT
Began as Pedler Of Dicc-ROse
to Proprietorship Of Old
Curiosity Shop.

There's a man on the Bowery named
Ike. He's a aorid faced. smooth shaver,
smiling sort Of man who has relished his
three squares "a day for fifty-seven years.
Doesn't laugh. but chuckles. does Ike.
Everybody who knows anything on the
Bowery knows Ike. You ought to know
him too. That's what this story Is for
to Introduce Ike at your breakfast table.
Now there's many a man In town
whom many another man would like to
know. no doubt. but the pity of II Is that
these desirable introductions can't be
made, at least through the medium OF a
newspaper. until the man In question has
done something unusual. And there you
have the very reason that Ike may be
presented at this moment. He has done
something unusual He has hung up a
sign before his place Of business which
reads: Going to quilt after forty-five
years on the Bowery."
That's II. Any one can quit business
on the Bowery and not create talk thereby.
but there Is only one man on that thorough
fare OF bread lines. buns. poverty and
in!quity who can quit after forty-f!ve
years of business and that man Is Ike.
IT'S an Old Curiosity shop.
His place is an old curiosity shop. You
CdH Eet any IL iloiH bfcdSy NVNh
OF cards to a hairpin. His whole name
is Isaac Meyers. The number of his shop
is 205. There's little room back OF 1t
filed with revolvers. guns. cutlasses,
stovepipes. powder boxes. natirons and
other toys where Ike sleeps--sieeps very
well too. for Ike knew the Bowery in
days when there was real noise there.
Ike started as a newsboy. Many great
men have started that way. lie used to
Sell THE SUN when II was filed with
civil war news. Those were the days
when Park Row was Chatham street
the time when Five Points hadn't been
cleaned out and a boy had to look lively.
very lively indeed. to fight his way against
the crime OF that district. But Ike d'd,
and he did II so valiantly that before he
had passed far into his teens he had be-
come a prosperous pedler.
"Dlce. dice. all kinds OF playing cards.
faro bank outfits and no loaded dice"
Those were the words Ike used 10 sing
out as ne passed up and down the Bowery
and into the by lanes In the days OF open
gambling concert saloons and general
lldessness
There were no elevated trains then and
II took the horsecars long time to
travel from City Hall To Joness Wood.
the great picnic ground of that day. where
a wilderness Of tenemen;s now stands at
Sixty-fourth street and the East River.
Some Of Ike's Former CrOnies.
DO you remember Joe Coburn. John
Ryan, Joe Goss. the once famous prize
fighters" Ike does They used TO sit about
I stove in his little shop and talk. and
they used TO buy their boxing gloves of
Ike. Billy McGlory was Ike's close friend
too. and Big Tim sullivan sometimes
dropped In to join their circle. So did
Little Tim. and so too did such characte RS
as John J. OBrien, once leader of the
Bowery; Capt. Foley, Owney Geoghegan
and Bill Tweed.
When Ike first got thoroughly estab-
lished as a dealer in curos ana second
hand wares Catharine street was one OF
the busiest streets In town. Lord &
Taylor were doing business there and so
were Arnold, Constable & Co.
And these are the reasons that Ike 10
presented this morning. He is one OF the
last links between the Bowery OF yes
terday and to-day. II you chance to be a
New Yorker who regrets tn" passing OF
the old and picturesque institutions. GUS
toms and characters OF the city. go 20 the
Bowery and call on Ike He'll tell you
more stories about the Bowery IN thirty
minutes than you could learn out of books
in lifetime. That's Ike. Go around and
hear him chuckie.