1892 Exchange on the role of Jewish peddlers
between the Le Messager, a French language newspaper in Lewiston, and
Solomon Robitschek, a Jewish Lewiston resident

English translation by James Myall,
Original French version is here

Le Messager, Lewiston, Maine, April 15, 1892

You will be interested to read, later in this issue, the article entitled The Wandering Jew, in which you will find a portrait of those Jewish peddlers hanging around our homes selling all kinds of merchandise, to the detriment of our own merchants who, themselves, employ store clerks and who spread their money around liberally.

It would be best if all Canadiens show these piles of rags the door, these wandering salesmen with their stores on their backs who live like animals. Undoubtedly sometimes the Jewish peddler will sell his goods at a good price, but it will only be to catch you again later, and when it’s convenient for him, he will act without scruple. Anything that forces someone to buy something is fine by these misers, and all of a sudden, you let yourself be taken in by his sob story, and his pleading, and once he has left, he won’t fail to thumb his nose at you, while pocketing your money.

Other times, he will resort to violence if the housewife is alone, and if she shows a little fear. In this case, it is best to take the poker and hit these penny-pinchers as you would hit a dog which has soiled the carpet. And don’t worry that the pedler will avenge himself; he will be content to get out as fast as he can, with his bag, and you’ll be free of him for a long while.

The peddlers receive the most encouragement among our compatriots. It’s sad to say, but the fact remains. Is it fair to encourage these pedlers who have neither store rent, nor clerks, nor a tax to pay, and who don’t give a dam about you, while our storekeepers employ our countrymen, pay taxes, and who are feeling a considerable drop in their sales? Who’s at fault? It’s we who buy from these Jews. Certainly, they themselves would be very foolish not to take advantage of the naivite which people give them to exploit to their own advantage.

We hope that after reading The Wandering Jew, many of the peddlers will find the houses of Canadiens closed to them, to the great benefit of our Canadien and American storekeepers.

Le Messager, Lewiston, Maine, April 15, 1892

The Peddlers

It seems that our article has hit a nerve with the Jewish street vendors that operate among our countrymen in the United States. We expected protests from them, but that will not stop us from standing by our words.

Take the following letter. You shall see that the "peddlers" on whose behalf Mr. Solomon Robitscheck writes, want nothing more and nothing less than to make a few claims to rebut the damage which might been done to them by our article of two weeks prior:

Lewiston, Me, 1892

To the editor of Le Messenger,

Dear Sir,

You had, in your April 15 issue, an article against the Jewish "peddlers" which was hardly fair and not worth of a Franco-American newspaper.

In this city, there are about 15 or 20 Jewish peddlers who are forced to follow this way of making a living because their unlucky religion forbids them from working Saturdays. They wear their store on their backs – an extremely hard undertaking – because they do not have the thousands of dollars of merchandise needed to fill a store. They are almost all paupers, earning only a living for themselves and their families, often not even enough for that, because there are some who are indebted for their merchandise; others have families in Europe and are not able bring them over. They pay a big tax, $ 20 to Lewiston or $50 to the state of Maine, a very unfair tax. Many have already been forced out because they did not have the twenty dollars necessary to purchase their license. There may be two or three who, through hard work, managed to save a few dollars; the others are poor and it is not right to attack them. The sum of all their sales do not equal those of a single Main Street merchant and no one has a reason to envy them.

Canadiens buy a little from them because, with their large families, they do not always have time to go to the Main Street for every trifle; because they are charitable and sometimes prefer to buy from a poor man that from a rich merchant. Canadiens are quite "smart" to take care of their own little shops; let them do. This country is big enough and rich enough for everyone. We can live in peace, even with the poor Wandering Jew. Jews love Canadiens and speak well of them. They find that there are some who do not pay for the goods they take on credit – a practice under which Jews suffer greatly – but most of them are honest.

The Jews have their flaws, no doubt, but you who know better, teach them; tell them about Jesus Christ, the Jew who died for them and for you. All for peace and Christian charity!

Solomon Robitschek.

Phew!

Twenty dollars in taxes per year! They find it exorbitant. In our opinion this is excessively little; if they find that so high they can leave their bags there or rather their "catalognes" and go to work like we all do, instead of bothering us at all hours, especially on Thursdays, pay day in our mills.

They call themselves poor! Well, they have the look of it, that's all. And note that this miserable air is artificial and that it is just what they need to soften the hearts of our "charitable" Canadiens.

About that "enormous" tax, one of our wholesalers told us the other day "it should be $500 instead of $20, because the harm that these hawkers are causing to our merchants in general is immense."

True, they sell on credit, we admit. But it is exceedingly rare that a "peddler" loses out, given their vigilance in monitoring their creditors, vigilance which is quite proper.

This country is big enough and rich enough for everyone! Without a doubt; but when abuses are committed among our compatriots, it is our duty to draw attention to it. Otherwise, we do not see the usefulness of the press. It could be that we will find some redeeming quality for the “peddlers”; but we do not recall having seen these people giving to our charitable causes.

They want us to talk about Jesus Christ, a Jew who died for us. Another good word worthy of the finest diplomats. If you do that, they listen to us, but they only answer us by saying: "You, good Catholic, will you buy?" This means: we only know Christ if it earns us some money.

If religion is so "unfortunate" they should give it up.

It is true that Canadiens are "smart" but sometimes "peddlers" are more so.

This letter brings to mind a few jokes:

One day, a "pedler" entered a house, sat down and began to unroll his catalognes. The young woman was alone and did not want to buy anything at all. After exhausting his usual kyrielle, the poor peddler did not know not what to say to induce his client to buy. He took the sensitive route, telling her about his terrible consumption, his having a large family that he would soon leave in misery, etc. And the young woman bought. Immediately the "peddler" laughed into his beard. Could a consumptive really carry a virtual store on his back? I don’t think so! Well, that's how he softens them up, every day.

Once one of these "pedlers" spread a beautiful shawl in before the eyes of a young girl and as she seemed to be strongly taken with the piece, the price Israel asked was $28 !! The girl turned on her heel; it was too much, twenty-eight dollars for a shawl. Finally the shawl was bought for $ 12!!! A good discount, it would seem.

Another time, a "peddler" came to the house of a Canadien to around dinner time and offered a prayer book made from sheepskin; "It’s a beautiful book, that; you’ll want to buy it for three bucks ($ 3)" The woman offers him 75 cents." Take-that my good boy, and go!" Apparently the book was not worth any more.

Our compatriots can buy from them, that’s their business; but all the same, it is not right to do so at the expense of our merchants, who employ clerks of our nationality, and who patronize our good works every time the occasion presents itself.