The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-13
Everything From Safety Razor
Blades to Wedding Rings.
Behind Three Ball Sign Lies
Story Of Broken Homes.
men ARE BEST CUSTOMERS
Many RevOlvers Displayed in
Windows of Stores.
To Every Article Sold Is At
tached a Sad Story.
BY LOIS RoBINETTE.

| Two to one you don't get it backH
that's the warning the three little
/ balls give to the pawn shop seeker.
And you generally don't, for hook
shop is always filled to overlooking
Anything from blades for your Gill
lette and galloping dominoes to
: watches, wedding rings and ukeleles
may be found in the conglomeration
! of articles in the show cases.
Men Are Best Customers.
Men make up the majority of the
reasons.-first. because women are in
fear and trembling to even be seen in
the vicinity of these "Opski' and
'Itsky'' shops, for what might Mrs.
Smith or Mrs. Jones say? Secondly,
in these bone-dry days the purchasing
of one quart of firewater means the
amassing of a small fortune, and what
could be a better means to an end
than a pawn shop for when you get
more flush you can redeem your suit
or watch or tie-pin.
But generally behind the sign of the
three balls lie the stories OF broken
homes, hungry children, wandering,
shiftless or job1ess men and women
who have seen better days.
On one of the shelves IN a local
shop lay a rare violin. A feeble old
man had tottered in with it,-so the
pawn broker SaIQ."dHu Will ICdTS III
his eyes laid his last and most treas
ured possession on the counter. He
never came back. Perhaps today he's
an inmate of some poor farm or lies
in a paupers grave. Who knows?,
Had to Have Fortune Told
On a hanger in a corner hung a
rose-colored silk kimono. This story
was pried out of the pawnbroker. A
sweet young thing with a very non
hrn1Jphf in ND
as she pocketed her pawn ticket and
newly acquired cash had confidentially
whispered to the pawnbroker that she
just had to have he'd fortune told and
she was dead-broke.
There's never Z pawnshop window
that doesn't boast half a dozen or
more revoIvers, anything from the
tiny, jewelled one that milady keeps
under her pillow at night to the cow
boys Colt A.
It's in the jewelry that one finds
the most sob stuff. Watches are in
from an 1ngersoll to a Swiss. They
are the articles of jewelry most fire.
quently pawned.
Small Wrist Watch.
In local shop a watch that caught
the eye Immediately was tiny, frail
thing of platinum. 1t was a wrist
watch on a black ribbon band. The
ribbon band would fit only the slen-
derest of girls wrists. Whoever she
was she had to part with the small
trinket before its new brilliance had
even been dimmed, and evidently
never had the money to redeem it.
In another case lay a quaint old
locket, the heirloom kind. that some
body's grandmother had once treas
ured. 1t took no stretch of imagina-
ton to see the picture of the old
fashioned beau and the lock of hair
that once lay inside.
In the ring case a wedding ring lay
and at once you begin to dream again.
There isn't woman in the world who
will part with her wedding ring unless
she must. No matter what her mar
ried life has been, no matter what un-
happiness she has felt, the ring is still
the symbol of all that was hers be-
fore the sadness came. But here is
ring at pawn shop. Maybe little
children were hungry, maybe the rent
wasn't paid. Whatever it was, the we'd
ding ring had to be sacrificed.
Engagement Rings for Sale.
There were engagement rings for
sale. too. Sparkling diamonds in plati-
mum settings which must have been
used to seal a promise of marriage.
These are parted with only in cases
of need, surely. No one pawns an
engagement ring unless she is hungry
or homeless or both.
If you can close your ears to the
tales that the hundreds of pawned
articles insist upon whispering, you
can find many interesting bargains at
a pawn shop.
To nearly everything sold is at
tached a story and one may be sure
it's not a humorous one. So long as
there is misfortune in the world, just
so long will the pawn shop live.