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Show Pocket Is Store in 'Mite Market' NEW Y O R K. A merchant whose stock consisted of one pair of used shoes made a 100 turnover turn-over on the Bowery in front of one of a half dozen diamond exchanges ex-changes where, on six days of every seven, a maharaja's ransom ran-som in gems changes hands The fitting bench was the curbstone. curb-stone. The buyer, a clean shaven elderly man. left his feet in the well polished and soled black shoes he had iust tried on He handed the merchant the scuffed brown pair he had removed and $2 in coins. Before the merchant could resell re-sell the brown pair, a policeman from the Elizabeth St. station rounded a corner of Canal st and a sergeant leaned from the window. win-dow. Two hundred men about half of whom had been offering wares to the other half "broke it up" and moved briskly down or across the street. A few of the biVeer merchants hurriedly snapped shut suitcases that served as showcases Some rolled into bundles the brown pa per on which they had spread out kitchen knives, socks, whisk brooms and varied lines of new and secondhand goods. Most of them carried their wares in their hands, in pockets, or strung from their necks. There was nothing so large as a pushcart in the two block "mite's market." which extends from Bay ard to Hester st. and is a far smaller business operation than the Flea Market of Paris. These dealings on the Bowery, unfamiliar un-familiar to most New Yorkers, are known in many of the world's' ports through tales of seamen. A merchant sailor whose cash has been drained on Saturday knows he can exchange iacket, watch, sweater or almost anything else for money on the Bowery on Sunday. Sun-day. Other seamen go bargain hunting hunt-ing in the "mite's market" and in the used clothing stores on nearby near-by streets for apparel to take or send home The Soviet press recently re-cently made much of the tale by two Russian seamen that people on the streets of New York took clothes off their backs and offered them for sale. The East Side chamber of commerce com-merce and reputable merchants in the neighborhood make common com-mon cause with the police in trying try-ing to eliminate the sidewalk barter. The police make about 20 arrests a day, usually for dealing in secondhand goods without a license, sometimes for disorderly conduct on a complaint of obstructing ob-structing sidewalks. Magistrates sometimes give suspended sentences, sen-tences, sometimes impose jail terms up to 30 days or fines from $5 to $25. Occasionally an inspection of wares offered gives the police a clue to thefts from stores and delivery de-livery trucks. But most of the sales are of personal belongings a worn jacket, a watch that sometimes some-times runs, a string of rosary beads, a pocket knife. Most of the dealings are on such a small scale and the "market" itself so fluid that things regroup themselves after each police foray. |