The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-07-05
IN A pawn SHOP
Dress Suits Are Always Cheap
-Jewelry Always High.
Suit Cases and Bags Bring
Little in Hook.
TOPEKAN EXPLAINS IT ALL
Hash SINGERS Cannot Wear
Clothes of Dude.
Lapels of Walters Must Be of
Plain Cloth.
TOPEKAN EXPLAINS IT ALL
WEDNESDAY.

The pawn brokerage business brings
to light many of the interesting things
Of life which are common, but yet
hardly known to the great busy world
which swerves madly around the three
golden balls, symbolic of the trade.
Why is it that a dress suit, costing
upwards of $40. will bring only dol
lar or two at a pawn shop?
Many a man, in need of the neces-
sary simoleons in order to keep the
wolf from the door. or to pay for
half and half" until the ghost walks,
has found it convenient to take his
silk lined dress suit to a pawn broker,
expecting loan of $40 or more in re-
turn for the garment. Much to his
surprise, he finds that the broker can
only give him 81, SO or SIS. After he
tries several of the shops. he finds
that it is not limited to just one.
No Demand for Them.
The proposition, as explained by a
well known Topeka pawnshop propri-
etor, is simple. The dress suit is more
or less a dead proposition as a money
maker with him. The average man
who wears evening clothes frequently
possesses a pocketbook of such d.
mansions that he can afford a well
tailored suit. The second hand outfit
excellent condition
The waiter. on the other hand, who
wears a sort of a dinner jacket, or
even full dress garb. cannot have the
silk lapel. That is an unwritten rule
in the profession of hash singers. The
lapel must be plain cloth, and not silk.
Therefore he cannot buy the second
hand dress suit, because it would cost
almost as much to have the silk re-
moved as It would to buy a new Jacket
He therefore searches around and
generally finds an ex-waiter who has
retired from business in order to enjoy
the fortune he has accumulated and
buys his old buds for shilling or two.
Suit Cases a Drug.
It Is the same with suit cases ana
leather or imitation leather hand bags.
Every pawn shop has scores Of these,
en- the shelves, in the basement, Or
on a window display The demand
for these falls far short of the supply.
Naturally. a leather bag, costing the
owner $25 or more, does not bring 4
large sum of money from the three
bail shopkeeper. The reason is that
he has such a stock on hand that he
cannot afford to pay real iron men
for them, because his sales on suit
cases are not large, and he cannot
obtain even a fair price when dis
rensing with this article of merchan-
disc.
Jewelry is placed on a better basis
by the pawn broker. The value of
gold watches, and flawless rocks"
does not change. 1t would be sur
prising to know the number of valu-
able Topeka family heirlooms that
find their way into the Golfers Of the
pawn broker with more or less regu-
larity- The man in hard straits will
soak" his mothers solid gold and
| diamond studded watch, and at the
last moment redeem it by pawning his
wife's engagement ring. his is an
endless chain. and it is believed that
the average Topeka pawn broker
knows more about the financial and
| inner secrets of local front families"
than anyone else. Because part of
the trade comes from men and women
who ride down to the shops in their
motor cars
The pawn brokerage business is an
interesting one and many are the pa
thetic scenes which occur daily within
the shop which il distinguished by
those three golden balls