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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1903)
' ' tytn- "1 j - - J .,3 " y BOOK STORE ON OT In a store, but on the street corner." So reads the advertise ment of a book store in the heart of New Tork City. The owner of this store, who N finds it profitable to spend $100 a week ex ploiting a business that is conducted from shelves, built along a stone retaining wall, is one of a hundred thousand street cor ner merchants in tho ten largest cities in the United States whose combined prop erties represent an invested capital of something like $10,000,000. These figures do not include such petty traffickers as pushcart and wagon pedlers, fakirs of all kinds, and the army of men, women and children who do business on the streets for a part of tho day. Nor do they take note of professional men or brokers or othtrs whose offices are in their hats. They deal exclusively with those men who, year in and year out, can be found all day long behind their fixed stands, ready to serve all customers as regularly and systematically as tho more pretentious merchants under roofs. Under this head come fruit and flower men, boot blacks and news stand keepers, express and cart men, and even keepers of restaurants and lunch wagons. New York is the fertile field of these men. In that city 32.851 of them run 15,233 stands, which represent an investment of nearly $3,000,000. Chicago comes next with, in round numbers, 20,000 men engaged and a capital of $2,000,000. I'hiladelphia is third with 15,000 men and $1,400,000, while in the other cities the figures are as follows: Men Employed. Capital. St. Louis 5,01)0 $500,1100 Itoston 5.000 fioo.OoO Baltimore 5.000 600.000 Cleveland 4.500 400,010 Cincinnati 4.500 400.0W San Francisco 4.500 4o0.mo Huffalo 4,5u0 4oo,000 in Pittsburg and Allegheny, practically one town, the figures are 6,00) mi'n an 1 $000,000 capital, and in Minneapolis and St. Paul, also practically one town from a commercial standpoint, 4,5X1 Ftreet corner merchants direct a capital of $100,00). Thus, all told, in America's ten largest cities, and in these other two communities, this street industry gives work to 1C6.351 men and aggregates a capital of $10,000,(00. These statistics are based on the New York street business, as shown by the records in that city's license bureau, and on information from a majority of tha other cities named. In New York, for example, 1,449 licenses have been Issued for express stands. 13a foro a man can establish an express busi ness on a Btreet corner, or rent space for a sign in front of Borne store in a whole sale district, he must have wagon, horses and harness. Express wagons capable of doing heavy hauling are costly; therefore an average outlay of $300 is necessary in (Copyright, 1903, by William Thorp.) 1A V." V7 mnnlhfl n cvit T jpit Ru 1 iuViiir I swayed the destinies of the Brlt- Sk I li pmnlrA TmTn w tin to uruottA- ally forgotten even by the people of his own country. The long ac counts of his career which were published when he resigned the premiership read for air the world like obituary notices, and aro remembered as such. Ixrd Salisbury has always shunned notoriety, and now that he has retired from politics he is more than ever reticent about his private life. Few people know how he is spending the evening of a life devoted to the service of his monarch and his country. In politics the late premier was regarded as a bitter-tongued cynic "tho master of the art of jeers and flouts and sneers," Dis raeli called him. In society he was tho sutisocrat par exceUencet haughtily scorn Millions in Street TUB STREET. i M i! i IE! 1 t --..1 V-V. TYPICAL STREET CORNER order to transact business. The sum of $434,700 represents the money invested in expresses in New York City; and, as each express requires two men, 2,838 men are employed. The number of public carts, which do moving and odd jobs in the residential and retail portions of the city, is 10,U'6. A an average equipment costs $200, the capital Invested is $2,025,200, and as here again two men are required for each cart, 20,252 are employed. In fact, nearly every street corner business demands tho time of two persons, and all figures showing the num ber of men employed are on this basis, with one exception. News and periodical stands number 477. The cost of constructing a stand is $23. the average dally stock Is $.15, the capital in vested is $21,466 and the persons employei are 9j4. There are 1,271 fruit stands, representing $9.j,32-, for a stand costs $20 to build and 'displays $50 worth of Btock. Of the 500 flower stands In the metropolis the average stock amounts to $100 and the Ktand Itself to $50, for it must be better built than a news-stand in order to protect the flowers. Seventy-five thousand dollars is invested in these stanus and their wares, which are looked after by 1,000 men. The bootblack stands also represent a generous outlay. The customary stand has three chairs of the approved type, with ac If The Evening of a Great Stateman's ing the "new rich" and the "smart set." Many of his supporters in me House of Isolds and the House of Commons were bit terly incensed because he tailed to recog nize them in the street or the club, although they bad been introduced to him and had spoken to him frequently. Not only is Lord Salisbury ncur-cighted and absent minded, but he has a bad memory for fares a rare defect in a public Mian. It is said that he once asked Mr. I'alfour, when visit ing the House of Commons, "Who Is that man who spoke so intelligently just now?" That man was Mr. Walter Long, the minis ter of agriculture, a member of Lord Salis bury's own cabinet. Tills absence of mind Is partly assumed in order to ward of intrusive Intimacies. Similarly, Lord Salisbury's apparent cynic ism and hauteur are only a mask covering Li real nature. Go to Hat Held, la Hert Corner Business ALL THE FRUITS FLOWER STAND. companying bases, at $50 each. Conse quently, $192,750 is invested in 1,230 stands. As a bootblack is necessary for every chair, 3.S55 find work. The outdoor restaurants, usually in 1111 pullan booths built along store walls, num ber fifty. Each booth costs $100 and Is storked with $100 worth of eatables, giving a total capital of $10,000 directed by 100 men. Miscellaneous stands soft drinks, candles, etc. number seventy-five, with an average stand cost of $25 and an average stock to the same amount. The Investment is $3,750, and 150 men are employed. All told, the approximate investment In New York's street corner business Is $2, 858,190 The enormous outlay of $10,400,000 In the cities named of which New York's share is about one-fourth the entire amount Is justified by the returns. It Is no uncom mon thing for many a stand to do a dally business running into several hundreds of dollars. The customers of a bookstand in New York City, on one of the Buburlfn ferry streets, keep five inr-n busy the greater part of tho day. A good fruitstand not Infrequently clears JIO a day to lis owner; a flower stand Is reckoned on not to show Ii ss than $5 prolit nt the close of business, and the proprietor of a bnntb'ack stand. hugKlng the walls of a well located saloon, cannot help making dally profits averaging all the way from $5 to $25, ac fordshire, where his favorite ancestral home is situated, and iisk the people there about him. They will tell you of a new Lord Salisbury of the real Lord Salisbury of whom the world never dreams. The gieat state-man might forget one of his own ministers, but ho never falls to recognize the country people who live round his stately home at Hatfield. Ho knows them oil. from the o'dost grand father tn the youngest child, and h; takes the keenest Interest in their humble lives, lie may be cold and distant to a foreign prince of doubtful character cr a new peer of the realm, who has made his money out of beer and bought a coronet with his spare cash, but he never lipids aloof from the poo. -est of bis neighbors at Hat field. When the writer was staying at that place as a boy la July, litfl, he saw Lordi OF THE EARTH. cording to the number of chairs. In fact, the street corner businesses ar ro remunerative, despite the high rentals lor stand space property owners often Charging aa much as $75 a month that tho ayiullcats idea has crept in. This is es pecially true as regards the expresse.4 and public carts. A New York Irishman, who Started in carting with a second-class outfit ten years ago, now controls 5o0 stands, and la gradually absorbing bis Immediate com petitors. Ho has over $100,000 Invested in carts, horses and harness. lie early saw the advantages of combina tion, and whenever he could get the money tio bought up a cart here and a cart there. Ills policy has been to employ tho men ho buys out at good wages, and thus keep them from starting row stands In opposi tion. Ho will not Bay what Income he elraws from the business, but It is enough to provide him with an expensive suburban bomo for his family, with horses and car riages, and to keep his sons and daughter at college. Vhilo the cartage business Is drifting Into the hands of a fw Irishmen, the fruit islands of New York are being consoli dated by a company of Greeks, who ore credited with controlling nearly half of tho 1,271 stands. The head of the syndicate has been In America less than a decade. He began his new world career by peddling bananas from a pushcart. After that he secured employ ment with a fellow countryman as helper around a fruit stand. He saved his money, and, when he had enough, started In busi ness at a little stand on a side street. Ho prospered and bought a stand on a busier thoroughfare. After he had been running the two places for a year or more It oc curred to him that it wouldn't be n bad Idea to own many stores, provided he could get the money. He got It by forming a partnership with a banker of the Greek colony, and today these men and a third, who was taken In later on, are rapidly acqulrink comfortable fortunes. They con trol the majority of the stands along the ferry streets, and these are splendid pay ing propositions. What Is true In New York Is true, In large measure, of other cities, so that the Bootblack trust. In the hands of Italians, Is no longer without company among tho street corner businesses. It Is a peculiar fact that, barring tho express, cartage and news stands, all other stands are pretty generally controlled by the better class of Greeks and Italians. The Greeks have It all their own way with fruit; they divide the honors with the Ital ians with the flowerH, while the latter have r opposition at the bootblack stands, ex cept from an occasional negro. Express men, as well as carters, are Btill largely of Irish extraction, and the news stand peoplo are usually of the same persuasion. Life Salisbury then prime minister of Enxl.ind sltttlng down on a box in a blacksmith's shop in the village, and helping tho black smith's little girl to mend a broken toy. Next week he entertained the German ein peror at Hatfield house. Ten years afterwards, on revisiting Hat field, the writer asked an old villager what ho thought of Iord Salisbury. "Think of him, sir?" was the reply. "Why, he's the finest gentleman God ever made. I don't know what wo should d without him. I do believe he knows every soul In the place by name, and ho has never been too busy to help any of us when we have r tided help. "And Lady Salisbury was a rare gooii woman. Her death was a terrible blow t the poor old man. lture lovfs they wera all their lives. I grumbled to his lordalilp (Continued on Tage Thirteen.) I