"The swindler was young and had a sandy mustache. He admired the vendor's pears and ordered him to put up two dozen."
If you wanted to witness mayhem during the 1890s in New York, all you had to do was stand near a street vendor and a crime wave was sure to develop. Five brief articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle illustrate this point.
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“A Weight as a Weapon” (September 21, 1896): “Judel Cohen, the proprietor of a fruit store at 449 Rockaway avenue, was found guilty of an assault on Herman Masyr this morning. Masyr is the driver of a baker’s cart for George Geisler at 451 Rockaway avenue, next door to Cohen’s place. On August 31, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon Masyr drove his cart up to the front of the bakery. Cohen is also the possessor of a vendor’s stand and it was standing in front of his place loaded with fruit. The horse which Masyr drove selected the choicest of the fruit and began to feed. An argument followed and Cohen retreated to his store, where he picked up a pound weight. Returning to the front of the place he threw this at Masyr with such good aim that it stretched him unconscious on the sidewalk. Cohen fled and Masyr was put in the hands of an ambulance surgeon who sewed up the wound. Cohen stayed out of New York until yesterday, when he thought the affair had time to blow over. He was arrested at his store last night. Judge Harriman decided that he was guilty but suspended sentence.”
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“An Italian Brained with a Shovel” (May 24, 1894): “Felice Pienzi, an Italian fruit vendor, had his skull fractured by the blow of a shovel wielded by Frank Lense, also an Italian, living in the same house with Pienzi at 155 Twenty-fifth street, this morning. The two men quarreled over a trifling money matter. The injured man was taken to the Seney hospital. His assailant followed him to the hospital in charge of an officer for identification. Pienze cannot recover.”
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“He Lost His Temper” (November 1, 1891): “An Italian chestnut vendor named John Gamma, living at 45 New Bowery, New York, was held for trial in Essex Market police court by Police Justice Ryan, on a charge of stabbing. Gamma keeps his chestnut stall at the corner of Avenue C and Fifth street. Of late he has been greatly annoyed by a number of small boys assembled round his stand. On this day they began teasing him. The young Italian became infuriated and drawing an ugly looking pocket knife, stabbed one of the tormentors named Jacob Morris, 12 years of age, of 58 Avenue C, in the left arm, inflicting a slight injury.”
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“Assaulted a Greek” (March 15, 1898): “Petro Paizalos, a Greek peanut vendor of 923 Atlantic avenue, charged John Dolan of 92 Bergen street, and John F. Fitzgerald of 68 Bergen street, with assault in the Flatbush court this morning. Both prisoners were held by Magistrate Steers for the Court of Special Sessions. A week ago the complainant, in company with another vendor, were walking on Clinton avenue when the two defendants, riding in an express wagon, are said to have attempted to run down Paizalos. A fight followed, in which Dolan is alleged to have struck the Greek with an iron bar, while Fitzgerald struck him with a brick.”
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“The Fruit Man Was Swindled” (July 29, 1893): “An Italian fruit vendor who was stopped, to his loss, for a minute or two last night in front of the municipal building, was a victim of a clever but petty confidence man. The swindler was young and had a sandy mustache. He admired the vendor’s pears and ordered him to put up two dozen.
Then he asked the peddler to give him change for a two dollar bill minus the price of the pears, and disappeared with the cash and the fruit, saying that he would return in a minute with the two dollar bill. He left he vendor at the Joralemon street entrance and disappeared through the rear door leading to Livingston street, taking the pears and the change with him. Several headquarters detectives, who unconsciously witnessed the transaction, failed to find any trace of the swindler when wanted by the peddler.
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Fruit vendors, Lower East Side, 1903: