The WPA Dallas Guide and History Page: 295
xxi, 450 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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tious but oft-crowded stores. The passerby who gives more than a casual glance to
the wares promiscuously displayed is urged to come in and make a bargain, usually
at a loss to the proprietor if the latter is to be believed.
There are secondhand clothing stores, job-lot sales emporiums, gun and lock-
smith shops, pawnshops, tattoo studios, barber shops, drugstores. Sales here are
not the matter-of-fact transactions of other retail districts, but negotiations involv-
ing critical examination, head shaking, and loud argument by both seller and
buyer. It is a game they play in Deep Ellum and lagniappe (the small gift to make
the bargain more attractive for which this New Orleans word is used in the same
manner as is pelon in the Spanish-founded Texas cities) is often inducement of last
resort. Pitchmen hawk their wares. Street evangelists exhort, their frenzied appeals
often but little noticed.
An Indian herb store flourishes on the sale of a vermifuge made on the premises.
This is not a place for the squeamish; the emporium's decorative motif is somewhat
startling. A mangy bull-moose head towers amid stuffed coiled rattlesnakes, arma-
dillos, a boa constrictor hide, and snarling bobcats. On a wall among Indian relics
are some beautiful prints of tribal life. But the main attraction here is a collection
of ex-stomach worms, neatly preserved to posterity in jars of alcohol. "Before and
after" photographs, reinforced by a small pickled octopus, are potent factors in
breaking down sales resistance. The alert proprietor declaims that a purchaser
bringing him the worms will have the price of the palliative returned.
Clothing, like liquor and fighting equipment, is cheap in Deep Ellum. New
clothing and foodstuffs, bought in job lots from unclaimed freight sales and bank-
rupt stocks, find their way to consumers at amazingly low prices. But the second-
hand store is the backbone of the clothing business. Suits may be bought for $3.
Battered hats and caps start at 15 cents; good overcoats sell from $4 up; the badly
worn for much less. Shoes are to be had for 25 cents and 50 cents; new footwear
from $1.25. Three pairs of men's socks are offered for 10 cents. Women's dresses
start at 50 cents and $1; hats for the feminine head at 15 cents.
Convenient chattel loan offices, identified by the sign of the three balls, make it
possible to exchange a day's luck for what it takes to get action in the cafe a door or
two away. The transactions with the "Broker" are matter of fact, with wistfulness of
present possession overcome by faith in the adventitious redemption of the mor-
row. Nickel-plated revolvers in a grimy window always draw admiring inspection.
Under the sign of hotel accommodations, walk-ups advertise rooms at 25 cents
the night; clean beds at 15 cents. Most imposing edifice in the district is the Negro
Knights of Pythias building on the north side of Elm. Also on this side of the street
are found the automobile graveyards and parts stores. At Central Avenue is the
Harlem movie house, flanked by beer joints, cafes, domino halls, and the Gypsy Tea
Room. This is the gay white way of the Negro in Dallas.
Con men-"pigeon droppers"-the reefer man, the card sharp, the too-lucky
craps shooter, and the dusky lilies of the field, faces powdered to a cadaverous blue
dinginess, tight-fitting gowns supplemented by five-and-dime costume jewelry,
hair groomed by the hot-iron straightening process, rub shoulders in the evenings
with those innocently bent on spending their wages for a touch of night life.
Rumor holds that sweet dreams and cheap courage can be bought from the
reefer man. Marijuana, the loco weed, lends itself to cultivation in Texas back yards
and when smoked in cigarettes makes a cheap and powerful stimulant. Addicts are
called muggle-smokers.
295
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Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the City of Dallas. The WPA Dallas Guide and History, book, 1992; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28336/m1/319/?q=%22gypsy+tea+room%22: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.