CHAPTER XXXII.

STREET VENDERS AND SIDEWALK MERCHANTS —HOW SKIN
GAMES AND PETTY SWINDLES ARE PLAYED—" BE ATIN'
THE ANGELS FOR   LYIN'."

Dirty Jake — A Silent Appeal — A Melancholy Face — Three Dollars a Day
for Lungs and Tongue — Stickfast's Glue — A Windy Trade — A Couple
of Rogues—Spreading Dismay and Consternation — Partners-in Sin —
Sly Confederates in the Crowd — How to Sell Kindling-Wood — A Mean
Trick and How it is Played — A Skin Game in Soap — Frail Human
Nature — Petty Swindles — Drawing a Crowd—"The Great Cliain-
Lightnin' Double-Reflned, Centennial, Night-Bloomin' Serious Soap" —
Spoiling Thirteen Thousand Coats — The Patent Grease-Eradicator —
Inspiring Confidence—"Beatin' the Angels for Lyin'" — A Sleight of
Hand Performance — " They Looks Well, an' They're Cheap —How City
Jays are Swindled and Hayseeds from the Country Fleeced.

AN interesting feature of metropoUtau Ufe is the army of
street venders of many names and kinds to be met on
every hand. A stroll along Broadway or the Bowery or in the
vicinity of City Hall brings to view many of these itinerant
merchants, who literaUy SY'arm in some portions of the city
and manage to make a living out of the public. And some of
them make a very good living too.

I remember a peddler of pocket-cutlery who every evening
used to haunt the corridors of hotels, and stroll through beer-
saloons, barrooms, and other places open to the public. He
was knoY'n as " Jake " and was of German origin; sometimes
he was called " Dutch Jake " and sometimes " Dirty Jake," —
the former appellation having reference to his nationality and
the latter to his jaersonal appearance. He was very melancholy
of visage; he never asked j'on to purchase his wares; but the
silent appeal of his beseeching look, his unwashed face and un¬
combed hair, his sad physiognomy, and his threadbare cloth¬
ing, as he stood speechless in front of a possible patron, and

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