New-York tribune., 1921-11-13

kE@NoATS, suits, dresses, ladyg Good
bargainsl"
~ Dresses, lady? just step isA
side and let Us show you some
thing"
'sSomething swell In furs lady9"
From hundred open doorwavs come the
beguiling voices Of the cloak and suit market.
In window after window waxen ladies smile
from sea Of wool Jersey and gray squirrel.
Overhead the Second Avenue elevated squats
above the street like an ungainly centpcdc
settling down to rest. and everywhere is the
~clanior Of the East Side
Such is Division Street, the Fifth Avenue OF
the East Side, the cloak and suit market of Il
large portion of New York and unique thor
curhfare ever in this city OF amazing streets
In Division Street $50 cloak, suit and fur
stores are located in the half dozen blocks be-
tween the Bowery and Orchard Street, and it
is estimated that an annual business of ap-
proximasely 00,00O,00o is done. The esti-
mate, it may be mentioned, is Division Streets
own, and, like the prices may be fixed on
sliding scale.
Be that as it may, Division Street undoubt-
edly holds the greatest aggregation of wonl-
ems clothing shops to be found in any similar
area, One next to another, the lineup
stretches for blocks without so much as
orangeade stand or telephone booth to in
terrupt the stern business of capturing the
Nra{I, <ba aF {j1o
er-by but coats, suits, dresses and furs. and
people looking at coats, suits, dresses and
furs. The shops and the quality vary and
so, presumably, do the prices, though prices
on Division Street are things about which no
one can speak with any certainty. However,
the goods on display range from fur coats
which would do credit to any Fifth Avenue
window to beaded and braid-trimmed dresses
which are obviously designed to catch the eye
Of the less well-to-do shoppers.
The locality itself is a center of barter and
trade. 1t is fanked on the north by Bayard
and on the south by Baxter Street, both
famous for their old clothes shops, where one
may purchase anything in the line of raiment,
from blue denim overals to the next-to-the-
latest cut in full evening dress for prices that
would cause an uptown clothier to collapse
Along the Bowery not many blocks to the
northward is the jewelry exchange, where
hundreds of trinket sellers crowd one another
daily on the sidewalk outside their auction
rooms to swap their wares. A curb" where
diamond merchants congregate for a similar
purpose is located at another comparatively
nearby point-Forsyth and Grand streets.
But Division Street has distinction all it's
own. Heralded by the guides of many sight
seeing that pass along it's length filled
with tourists from all parts of the United
States, the fame of Division Street has spread
from coast to coast. Buyers may be found
there daily from out of the way places in
Indiana, Michigan, Kansas and-yes--even
California, say the Division Street merchants,
who are very proud Of their prestige. And
we'll they may be, since it is not a product of
decade or even generation Or two Its
mercantile history dates back to the days
when it was the great millinery center, in the
old days when merchant prince enterprises oc-
cuped places around the corner on Catherine
Street or adjacent to that thoroughfare
1t is easy enough to reach Division Street
The Chatham Square station on either the
Second or Third Avenue elevated is onlv a
stones throw from the beginning of Division
Street at the Bowery. From here our thor
oughfare northeast ast-by-north-one-haIf
north or some such direction until it merges
with Canal Street at Seward Park. But the
cloak and suit market is all in the first half
dozen blocks east of the Bowery, and these