CHATHAM STREET.
Chatham street begins at City Hall Place and ends at Chatham square. It
is not over a fourth of a mile in length, and is narrow and dirty. It
is taken up, principally, with Jews and low class foreigners. There are
also some cheap hotels and lodging houses, several pawnbroker's shops,
and half a dozen concert saloons in the street. The lowest class Jews
abound in this quarter, and vile, filthy wretches they are. They deal
in imitation jewelry, old clothes, and cheap clothing. There is little,
if any, honesty in the street, and any one buying an article within its
limits must expect to be cheated. The streets running off to the right
and left, lead to the Five Points and kindred districts, and it is this
wretched part of the city which furnishes the greatest number of
customers to Chatham street. The buildings are generally constructed in
the old style, a new house being a rarity in this locality, and are
foul and dingy. The shops are low and dark, and smell horribly. The men
and women who frequent them look like convicts, and as they sit in
their doorways watching for custom, they seem more like wild beasts
waiting for their prey, than like human beings. They have no
respectable customers, except the poor, who come into the neighborhood
hoping to save money in their purchases. They fall victims to the
sharpers who line the street, and the articles they buy are dear at
whatever price they may pay for them. It is said that stolen goods
frequently find their way to Chatham street, and that a very large part
of the traffic of that locality is carried on in violation of the law.
However this may be, we have but one simple warning for all persons
visiting the great city. _Buy nothing in Chatham street, and keep out
of it after dark_.
FORCED SALES.
When business is dull in this locality, the "merchants" resort to many
artifices to fill their coffers. One of their manoeuvres is called a
"forced sale." A man walking along the street, will be seized and
dragged into a clothing shop. He may protest that he does not wish to
buy anything, but the "merchant" and his clerks will insist that he
does, and before he can well help himself, they will haul off his coat,
clap one of the store coats on his back, and declare it a "perfect
fit." The new coat will then be removed and replaced by the old one,
and the victim will be allowed to leave the shop. As he passes out of
the door, the new coat is thrust under his arm, and he is seized by the
proprietor and his assistants, who shout "stop thief!" and charge him
with stealing the coat. Their noise, and the dread of being arrested
upon a charge of theft, will frequently so confuse and frighten the
victim that he will comply with their demand, which is that he shall
buy the coat. This done, he is suffered to depart. A refusal to yield
would not injure him, for the scoundrels would seldom dare to call in
the police, for fear of getting themselves into trouble, as their
tricks are well known to the officers of the law.