INNOVATIONS

AND

NEW MODES OF CONDUCTING BUSINESS, &c.

IT is very natural that the youth at any given time, should, without inquiry, infer that all the familiar customs and things which they behold were always so before their time, when, often, many of them may have been just introduced. This fact I often realize in my observation even now among the rising generation. This reflection leads us to think that hereafter many customs may be introduced, after the practices of older cities, to which we are now strangers, but which, without some passing notice here, might not be known to be new after they had been familiarized among us a few years. I mention, therefore, customs which do not exist now, but which will doubtless come to our use from the example of Europe-such as shoe-blacks soliciting to clean shoes and boots on the wearer, in the streets-dealers in old clothes bearing them on their shoulders and selling them in the public walks-men drawing light trucks with goods in lieu of horses-men carrying a telescope by night to show through to street passengers-women wheeling wheelbarrows to vend oranges and such like articles -coblers' stalls and book stalls, &c. placed on the sides of the footpaths- men and women ballad singers stopping at corners to sing for pennies-porters carrying sedan chairs-women having meat and coffee stalls in the street for hungry passengers, &c.

From thoughts like these we are disposed to notice several of the changes already effected within a few years past, as so many innovations or alleged improvements on the days by-gone.

Candidates for Office.

Those who now occasionally set forth their claims to public favour, by detailed statements in their proper names, would have met with little or no countenance in the public suffrages in the olden time. Sheriffs have usually taken the precedence in these things, and it is known that the first person who ever had the boldness to publish himself as a candidate for sheriff and to laud his own merits occurred in the person of Mordecai Lloyd in the year 1744, begging the good people for their votes by his publications in English

and German. At same time Nicholas Scull, an opposing candidate, resorted to the same measure, and apologized for "the new mode" as imposed upon him by the practice of others.

Rum Distilleries.

Rum distilled from molasses was once an article largely manufactured and sold in Philadelphia. It bore as good a price as the Boston or New England rum, and both of them nearly as much as that imported from the West Indies. About the year 1762, there used to be frequent mention of Wharton's "great still-house," on the wharf near the Swedes' church; also, Sims' and Cadwallader's still-house below the Drawbridge; one in Front above Arch street; two large ones in Cable lane; one at Masters', above Point Pleasant, in Kensington; one out High street, between Eighth and Ninth streets.

Pot and Pearl Ashes.

A manufactory of these was first established in Philadelphia in the year 1772, in the stores on Goodman's wharf, (since Smith's) a little above Race street.

Millinery Stores.

It is still within the memory of the aged when and where the first store of this kind was introduced into the city. It was begun by the Misses Sparks in a small frame house in south Second street, a little below Chesnut street, and long they enjoyed the sole business without a rival.

Hucksters,

A genus now so prevalent in our market—an irresponsible, unknown, but taxing race, odious as "the publicans" of old, were without their present motives or rewards in the former days.

Pawnbrokers

Are altogether of modern establishment among us, rising in obscurity and with little notice, till they have spread like a mal-area over the morals of the community. Their alarming progress is a real blur upon our character, as it evidences so powerfully the fact of bad living among so many of our population. Only twenty years ago a pawnbroker would have starved among us! Since those in the city have been put under some legal surveillance and control, we are enabled to arrive at some estimate of the contributors taxed to their onerous support. In making some researches among the records of the city police it has been ascertained, as the result of one years waste in these founts of wretchedness and misery, that there have been 180,000 pledges, and that the exhibit for one week

in winter, has shown an array of articles to the following effect, to wit:

There were indeed poor among us in former years, but then they were in general a virtuous poor, who had the compassion of their neighbours, and, for that reason, could have found temporary relief from articles such as above stated, without the resort to usurious imposts. In short, they did well enough without pawnbrokers, and the change to the present system is appalling!

Lottery Brokers.

These also are a new race, luxuriating on the imaginative schemings of some, and the aversion to honest labour in others. They are a race who hold "the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hopes"-of thousands! Their flaring and intrusive signs and advertisements, which meet the eye at every turn, are so many painful proofs of the lavish patronage they receive from the credulity of their fortune-seeking votaries. I never see their glaring signs without a secret wish to add a scroll, both as a satire on them, and as a sentence conveying in much point the pith of all they promise, to wit:

"Batter'd and bankrupt fortunes mended here!"

Our forefathers, 'tis true, much resorted to lotteries for raising monies wanted for public purposes before the Revolution, (as will be noticed in another place) but then, as "the public good was the aim" the citizens cordially lent their aid to sell the tickets without fee or reward, and in effect gave the price of their tickets as so much willing gift to the object intended by the lottery.

Second-hand Clothes and Shoe-blacks.

Shoe blacking and the sale of cast off clothes, as now opened in cellars by the blacks, is quite a modern affair. Old clothes were never sold formerly; when it was rather a common practice to turn them, or to cut them down for children; and all boots and shoes were blacked at home, by children, apprentices, or domestics. Even the houses now so common for selling ready-made garments for gentlemen's wear is quite a new thing, and was first began at the Shakespeare buildings by Burk, who made enough thereby to allure others to his imitation.

Oyster Cellars.

These, as we now see them, are the introduction of but a few years. When first introduced, they were of much inferior appearance to the present; were entirely managed by blacks, and did not at first include gentlemen among their visiters. Before that time, oysters were vended along the streets in wheelbarrows only; even carts were not used for their conveyance, and gentlemen who loved raw oysters were sufficiently in character to stop the barrow and swallow his half dozen without the appendage of crackers, &c.

Intelligence Offices.

These offices for finding places for servants, began within a very few years and upon a very small scale, were very little resorted to except by strangers, and were generally conducted at first by blacks. There was, indeed, an "Intelligence Office" advertised in the Pennsylvania Journal before the Revolution, but it combined other objects, gained no imitations, and died unnoticed. A better scheme than any of these has been recently got up by the citizens themselves, to help servants to places and to guard and improve their morals, which promises to be a general benefit.

General Remarks on various Items of Change.

I notice as among the remarkable changes of Philadelphia, within the period of my own short observation, that there is an utter change of the manner and quantity of business done by tradesmen. When I was a boy, there was no such thing as conducting their business in the present wholesale manner and by efforts at monopoly. No masters were seen exempted from personal labour in any branch of business, living on the profits derived from many hired journeymen; and no places were sought out at much expense and display of signs and decorated windows to allure custom. Then almost every apprentice, when of age, run his equal chance for his share of business in his neighbourhood, by setting up for himself, and, with an apprentice or two,* getting into a cheap location, and by dint of application and good work, recommending himself to his neighbourhood. Thus every shoemaker or taylor was a man for himself; thus was every tinman, blacksmith, hatter, wheelwright, weaver, barber, bookbinder, umbrella-maker, coppersmith, and brassfounder, painter and glazier, cedar-cooper, plasterer, cabinet and chair-maker, chaise-maker, &c. It was only trades indispensably requiring many hands, among whom we saw many journeymen: such as shipwrights, brickmakers, masons, carpenters, tanners, printers, stonecutters, and such like. In those days, if they did not aspire to much, they were more sure of the end-a decent competency in old age, and a tranquil and certain livelihood

Apprentices then were found in every thing;-now they often give a premium or find their own clothes, &c.