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Show I H Bayard Street. Clothes I I By Frederic J. Haskiii. 4 4 KKW YORK, Nov. 19. The New Yorker has many sources of relief from the high cost of dressing. They are thickly scattered throughout the city, crowding Sixth avenue in places and completing com-pleting tfte odd picture of Third avenue In others, but the principal ones are on Bayard street. Bayard street is difficult to find, unless un-less you happen to be familiar with that section which borders on the Bowery, but it Is well worth finding, for it Is the greatest old-clothes market In the world. London's old-clothes district Is famous, but it cannot compare to this narrow, grlmv; densely populated street, with' its rows and rows of small stores and push carts, featuring all types and conditions of second-hand ' masculine wearing apparel. .Too- can buy anything vpu want in the men's wear line "in Bayard Bay-ard street, from a 50-cent pair of shoes to a 530 ovejreoat. "We buy everating der is to buy," declared de-clared a Bayard street dealer as he pointed point-ed to his ouriouslv assorted stock the other daw "Ye refuse noding noding is so old or .worn we don't take It. repair it and offer for the sale again.' - And ceAainly an investigation of the shops on Bavard street corroborate tt&B testimony. Nowhere else has such a 7terogenous collection of masculine apparel ap-parel been gathered together, nowhere such an erratic scale of values and nowhere no-where such contrasts between shops and shops. Many of them have heavy, bright-Iv bright-Iv polished glass windows, through which may be seen smartly clad, headless man nikins and a carelessly placed willowy cane or two by way of snappy effect. Nest to one of" these glorious establishments establish-ments is one of the old type, with its trousers, vests and coats exhibited on a stand or on giant hooks nailed to the front' of the store. The' latter are the type which n-.aite a trip through Bayard street an embarrassing em-barrassing experience for one who does not desir3 to buy. : k tiie first place, the East Side has an insatiable curi-ositv curi-ositv concerning sCrangefS,- so that if you " once j-eveal your unfamiliarity with the streets you are apt to have a crowd of children following, close at your heels with the hospitable purpose of seeing that vou don't get lost. With this battalion of young neighbors flocking to their support, sup-port, the storekeepers ;who sit outside, ostensibly to guard their open-air Etoek, will go to any lengths, .short of murder, to get, -you to buy. Their campaign usually etarts with a poiite, "Can I sell you something?" but rapidly grows more and more aggressive until ail of their American expletives are exhausted and thev have to resort to Yiddish, which causes the old, bewlgged Jewish ladies to rush to their tenement windows. "Believe me." said a reporter who had this experience recently, "if you are going go-ing to explore the shops m the vicinity of the Bowery do so with the idea of buying something. You don't really have to buy anything, you understand but carry the idea with you. When one Of those YlddUhers offers you a pair of trousers excuse me. they're always pants in that locality for a dollar, tell him you'll give- him SO-flve cents. Stick to it as if you real'.v meant it. and he'll get so insulted at the reflection cast upon his stock that he'll let you go with nothing noth-ing more awful than a few a wear words. The Bayard street merchants are not st;rbhorn, however, and are always quite willing to listen to reason, as long r.s they are do'ng the reasoning. Their first price Is always twice as much as they expect you to accept, even when there is a crowd' of customers to be waited upon, and thev are using valuable time tor Wtejr descent to the real price. The other afternoon a well-dressed man entered a Bayard street shop and began examining It stock of overcoats. Finally, he picked one out a s'ightly wore dark blue one of very good cut. "A-fina overcoat." said the owner, im-medlatrlv im-medlatrlv coming forward, and holdimj It for him to try on. "Only $72 " The customer quickly withdrew his arms an1 started for the door. "What's d' matter; what's d' matter?' bhoqted the dealer, indignantly, running run-ning tiror him. "FTow tnucb you want to pay for a overcoat?" "Not a cent o er $30," replies the customer firmly. "Well, wait till T look at my hocks." ja'.d the dealer, and going behind the counter he made a great -show of finding the coat price of tfcul particular overcoat on his ledger. "All right." he agreed cheerfully. "I let you have H;" Almost 5 manv different types of People Peo-ple eofue to buy in Ba"ard street as there are different types of apparel in its shops. Some of the men are already well-dressed and do hot appear to be in need of anything any-thing this old-clothes mart has to offer. Many, on the other hand, come dressed Itr overalls and shirt -Meevea, aa they leave their Jobs in the ner-hy warehouses, and manv others are ohvlouly hoboes. The foretam element at the hareain sales would be hard to assort and classify, but to all ppe ranees everv nation in the world la represented. Chinamen jostle Rumanian a, and Rumanians crowd Italians, Ital-ians, and Italians shove and push Greeks and Syrians, in an effort, to get to the most attractive tables and finger the bargain offerings! Occasionally, a push-cart dealer draws a large -crowd hy. his. !-ud -voiced wall of bnrgaU goods, some pieces of which often change hands for as little as a dime or a quarter. There us.vl to be several saloons sa-loons in this neighborhood, where the old-clothes old-clothes men held eoovtvtaj and often dramatic sales, while they bought cheap drinkt. ate free lunches and bartered for thousand second-hanJ c'.othing stores in New York, ar.d just t'.-.e other day a second-hand department store opened on S:x:".i avenue. But Eayard street, with its new plate-c'.ass plate-c'.ass windows and its multifarious wares, is still the great old-clothes market of the wor'.d. noor apace in wnicn to display tneir good", but If these saloon sales still go on they are kept a dark secret from the casual explorer. Instead, th only refreshment, apparently, offered to the hsrd-worked throat of the old-clothes man is a roasted sweet potato, sold froni an Esat Side push cart. This contrivance, containing a uod fire and an oven, and resemhltng a small looometle. usually appears ap-pears about 4 o'clock In the afternoon and feeds Hazard street roasted sweet potatoes pota-toes until dark. While Bayard street's merchandise Is confined almost entlrelv to men's apparel, ap-parel, there are apparently hundreds of second-hand stores In the near-by district dis-trict surrounding Chatham Square whiOQ specialise -tn various pro, in, -is . in cutlery, women's wear. Jewelry, furs and linens. There Is a linen store on Clinton street, for Instance, which looks like a Junk heap, but which has in wealthy patrons on Its books. According to a well-known actress here, some marvelous hargalns In fins linens can be picked up at this shop. Not far from here, alao. there Is a little leWelry store which conducts a perpetual per-petual auction of Jeweled trinkets all day long. very day In the week. Women are not admitted to Its grlmv. he.leweled St. tnosphere. but a crowd of male customers la never wanting, who seem to take u great interest In various feminine trinkets auctioned A reporter who entered this shop during the height of lis ponularity at noon found the auctioneer holding up a ladv's watch. "A beautiful watch, gentlemen." he was saving. "Solid "gold. Imported movement, worth 20 snywhsre. What'U you give for It"" "Flftv cents? The gentleman must think I got a couple ham sandwiches hers. Well. SO cents II la Anvthlne'a a starter. Fifty cents. Who'll Rive $l" One dollar. Anybody got It" Remember, gentlemen, this watch Is worth JSo anywhere any-where vou try to buv It." As 110 motion was made to buy the watch al $1. the auctioneer held iip an additional trinket which he called "a beautiful roid chain, set with twenty-five Small pearls''' "Now I'm going In attach this beau llful chain to ihls lad?' watch, and I'll give 'em both to the eontlenian thai buys tho natch. Ilow'a that "" The eale or the watch continued for half an hour, at the end of which tints n young l.ot'iaiao In overalls bought the watch, the chain and a raaor for ST. The high coal or clothing has Increaaed I'm popularity of ihi areat district of the Bcoud.hnd clothing merchant o that It II now grs.dua.il) elVading uptown. up-town. Today, ihcrn are aiSfi o than s |
