Page:Negro Life in New York's Harlem (1928).djvu/54

 exodus from the room because all of the dancers present were arrayed in "hot stuff."

This, of course, is exaggerated. There are thousands, of well-dressed people in Harlem able to be well-dressed not because they patronize a "hot man," but because their incomes make it possible. But there are a mass of people, working for small wages, who make good use of the "hot man," for not only can they buy their much wanted finery cheaply, but, thanks to the obliging "hot man," can buy it on the installment plan. Under the circumstances, who cares about breaking the law?