er of enterprises in the various lines of business that
were found by the canvass of 1909. We may safely infer that the period
was one of considerable growth in both the number and variety of
business establishments. We shall, therefore, turn our attention to
the result of the canvass of the last-named year.

3. THE NATURE OF THE ESTABLISHMENTS IN 1909

The first question which naturally arises is how many Negro business
enterprises were in Manhattan in 1909. At the meeting of the National
Negro Business League in New York City in 1908, a paper was read on
"The Negro Business Interests of Greater New York and Vicinity." This
paper gave a total of 565 enterprises. But as this included 100
dressmaking and 14 stenography and typewriting, this estimate
doubtless included some cases that upon closer analysis could not have
been designated as business establishments.

A Negro business directory of New York City in 1909 gave names and
addresses of 567 establishments. Upon investigation some of these
could not be found at addresses given. From his own canvass, the
writer estimates the number of bona-fide business enterprises in
Manhattan to have been about 475. Of this number, records of 332 were
secured and the remainder were either visited or certified by reliable
testimony. Of the 332 records, 15 have been excluded either because
the firm has ceased to do business or the records were too incomplete
for use in this monograph; eight of the remainder were corporations
and will be treated below separately. This left 309 establishments
upon which to base conclusions. These establishments were so
distributed as to be fully representative of the whole. According to
the kind of service or goods offered to the public, these 309
establishments were as follows:

Barber shops 50
Groceries 36
Restaurants and lunch rooms 26
Tailoring, pressing, etc. 24
Coal, wood and ice 19
Hotel and lodging houses 17
Employment agencies 14
Express and moving vans 12
Undertakers and embalmers 11
Pool and billiard Rooms 10
Dressmaking and millinery 8
Hairdressers 8
Printers 5
Saloons a