SNUFF SHOP
113 Division Street at Orchard Street
JANUARY 26, 1938. ABBOTT FILE 277

According to family lore, Simon Scharlin and his wife bought leaf tobacco from stands along the Bowery, ground it, peddled it, and opened their store in 1876 with $10 in gold. A 1906 newspaper account claimed that Mrs. Scharlin refused an offer of $500,000 for the business, which at that time had branches throughout the nation. In 1938, however, with the depression and the end of the vogue for snuff, the business was worth "less than a tenth of its former value," according to the shop's secretary. The Yiddish signs in the window advance classic hard-sell slogans: "Do you want real strong smelling tobacco? Come in and see for yourself--free trial." The storefront still stands, occupied by a hair salon in New York's growing Chinatown.

"Sandy," a seven-foot wooden statue of a kilted, tam-o'-shantered Scotsman holding an open snuffbox, advertised Scharlin's snuff from the 1870s to 1938. A variation on the traditional cigar store Indian, it was known as the Scotch Indian and became a neighborhood landmark. In earlier years, Abbott had photographed several cigar store Indians and probably was drawn to the statue as an unusual example of American folk art.

Three months after Abbott photographed him, "Sandy" became embroiled in a political skirmish. After 65 years in residence, the statue was removed by the city as an illegal encroachment on the sidewalk. The story made the newspapers, primarily because of the enraged reaction of Sidney Scharlin, a son of the original owner and a former Democratic assemblyman for the district, who called the seizure "a cheap political trick" on the part of Manhattan Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs. After spending the night in a city dump, the statue was returned in exchange for a one-dollar fee. The Scotch Indian's adventures ended more peaceably. He was purchased by Americana collector Mrs. J. Watson Webb, who subsequently founded the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

Abbott struggled with this composition, exposing seven negatives: horizontal and vertical, far and near, from the ground and elevated to the statue's height. She ultimately managed to capture the storefront without the interference of reflections from across the street.

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