The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1920-01-20
New York City
By o. o. Mcintyre

New York, JAN: 1a-On Broadway
the pawnshops are exciusive-you go
In side doors into private compart-
ments-but the Bowery hockshop -
an institution and Uncle Ike Is q pa
tron saint. Customers even--l loaf In
Bowery hockshops and bells toll
over the doors at night to guide un-
steady feet to a port in the storm.
Just now more loans than ever are
being made by pawnbrokers and the
percentage of unredeemed articles is
far smaller than in previous years,
but, In spite of this era Of apparent
prosperity the money lender is not
making the enormous profits he Is
supposed to make. Government rules
and regulations restricting fees and
J percentages have curbed the big
profits.
| Bleary eyed wastrels who "fopped"
in the back room of the Alligator
used to stink out into the dim-iit
Bowery Just before dawn to place
known as Old Marks to exchange tat
tered shoes for worse fitting pairs
and get dime to boot for the morn
| ing eye opener Old Mark had to
close on account of prohibition.
Then there was the Elite near
| Houston street where the broke could
pawn false teeth and one old patron
pawned his wooden stump every Sat
urday night for 50 cents. He paid 81
/ for 1t again on Monday morning.
Some of the pawnshops do not open
until 4 o'clock in the afternoon and
close at the coming of daylight
Today. however, the pawnshops
of the Bowery reflect the new spirit
OF responsibility that has come to
the old thoroughfare. They have
! electric signs and electric lights
instead of dim oil lamps. the floors
are of mosaic and the chairs are
/ leather covered.
1t would appear that the services
of the pawnbroker should not be
needed in this age of prosperity
But there are always an irreducible
minimum of improvident individ-
uals. They come from all classes,
rich and poor. men and women.
Some are habitual frequenters and
others victims of emergency de-
mands, misfortune or because of an
! inherent lack of judgment.
Uncle Ike of the Bowery as well
as his more polished counterpart
on Broadway is a student OF human
nature. He is not the heartless
grasping and INSCRIPTIONS Shylock
that some people picture. He rem
ders a service that is necessary to
humanity as long as certain classes
of improvident individuals continue
to live by taking chances.
A certain newspaper writer re-
Gently purchased a camefs hair cap
that had a Piccadilly fair. He ap-
peared wearing it at a weekly ses-
sion of poker. And he Dragged
about it all evening, The next week
when he appeared he found every
man at the poker table in evening
Iclothes-just for revenge.
Fifth avenue is to be invaded by
home of william C. whitney. 1t
will be a thirty-story business
building with a theater and concert
hall on the ground floor. Directly
across Fifty-Seventh street is the
Cornelius Vanderbilt residence. oc-
cupying the block north of Fifty
Eighth street. Across the way "a
the old Coils p. Huntington estate.
Not far away are the Hotels Plaza
Savoy and the Netherland.
! Crooks are now using wood alco-
hol drinks to poison their victims
In the East Side and Tenderloin
dives wood alcohol is being substi-
tuted for knockout drops" which
were comparatively harmless. One
man, who had salary roll with
him, was stopped by three men and
! invited to take a drink after each
had apparently taken a drink. The
victim is now in a hospital blinded
and paralyzed. Experts say that
so clever is the deception few real
ize they are drinking poisoned
drinks until the first stages of the
/ illness come over them. Still there
is a bright side to it, according to
the prohibitionists, who declare
that deaths from properly made
whisky during the same time
would have been greater than they
have been from wood alcohol. and
one Brooklyn prohibitionist writes
to the World that the city should
park of a space where the young
men could see the wood alcohol
victims writhe and die as a lesson
of the folly of disobeying the law.
!