New-York tribune., 1922-08-12
By M. Jay Racusin

! "They bleed you enough, believe me"
sighed Sheeya, as I drew my little cart
OF plums up next to his. He shook
MS head in the manner of the old
Jewish patriarchs before the Wailinp
Wall of Jerusalem when l asked him
if the Stanton Street supervisor of the
Department of Markets caused him anv
| trouble.
Count the stars" he exclaimed pic
| turesquely with lift Of the hand "and
you'll know my troubles. They got
enough dollars from me for the last
ten years. Every once In while thew
come and tell me they reorgan1ze the
market and have to move my cart to
another block. and lose my trade, and
ruin my business--I, who have this
pushcart stand on Stanton Street be-
tore the CLASSY Clothes Shop for ten
years, have TO move, they tell me.
got my permit and l give my dollar to
tr1e collector every week regular. Of
course, don't move, but before the end
Ihey put some more money in their
! pockets"
But, Sheeya," I protested to the
little red bearded onion peddler, "your
permit entities you to remain perma-
nently at this curb spot. They can't
make you move"
Money Only Talks
"Ha!" he laughed, "some people
don't believe the earth moves Just
the same it moves. If the man with
the gold badge says you have to move,
%hat's the use of permits? The only
9hing that's use is money"
,Sheeyas place is near Allen Street,
y -. j
| makes a dingy labyrinth of the narrow
thoroughfare. He told me that in ad-
dition tot these burdens if he were i'll
Tor a week or two and couldn't attend
ms pushcart stand, he had to pay for
the space just the same, although a
newcomer would be permitted to oc-
cupy his spot, paying the supervisor
Or his assistant % cents a day.
Does the new peddler get any kind
25 cents over to the man?" / asked
him.
'"Say, don't talk foolish" Sheeya re-
piled. whats the use of papers? We
don't even know the collectors name"
1ffound that the name of supervisor
q the Stanton Street market was
Wallis. l counted about 100 carts in
ms domain. asked Sheeya if the
other peddlers here had the same ex-
perience. "They tell me, but what do
l know!" he shrugged his shoulders.
I, And do the other 10000 or 10000
hucksters all over the East Side have
the same trouble?" persisted.
Il don't know all the pushcart men
in New York" he protested, "but YOU
can believe lots of them have the same
trouble" ''0
How Customers Are Lured
policeman approached and ordered
me to move on. Sheeya ran after me
pleading with me not to repeat what
he said. Its a hot day." he tried to
explain, "and, you know, a man com
plains"
trundled on down toward Orchard
Street. The East Side pushcart peddler
has way of Turing housewives to his
wares with loud slogans, "see billig" and
"see geet feer dee kinder"--'it's chean"
and "it's good for the children" If it's
good for the children and the rotund
Jewish mothers can be convinced of
that fact, they can be induced to pur-
chase almost anything, from a carved
peach stone to monument
1t was with this idea in mind reaped
from my first days experience that |
started out last Friday morning with
my pushcart heaped high with purple
plums. This time, however, Avrom.
the stubble-bearded proprietor of the
cart stable at 1876 Suffolk Street.
charged me 20 cents for the hire of the
vehicle instead of Is cents, saying: "a
new man who can make 80 cents the
first day can make 81 the next and can
afford to pay five cents more"
Lots of Things for a Cent
had paid $3.50 for two boxes of
the fruit good forsthe children" and
as l passed out of the wholesale mart
began to cast about for signs of the
prevailing huckster prices.
And here I came upon one of the
most striking peculiarities of the East
Side curbstone trade. 1t is that every
thing is sold by the penny worth.
Butchers offer the legs or necks of
chickens for few cents; eggs are sold
not by the dozen but at the rate of so
much an egg or so much for two; slices
OF watermelon shaved as thin as your
fingernail are offered for penny; ears
of boiling hot corn are divided into
two and three pieces and sold to curb
munchers at cents chunk, and one
can purchase quarter of loaf of
bread for few coppers.
But plums being good for the chill
dren" are sold in variety of ways, by
Continued on mex. aage)