V. chapter 5, part I questions

[Prokopis Prokopidis]

Hi, 
 
Sorry for interrupting the MDMD series of postings, but I could really
use some help on some extracts from chapter 5 of V. Thanks in advance
for any comments, and apologies if any of the following are obvious to
native english speakers.
 
Prokopis
----------------

1)  Hanging around in Bowery [p. 113]

> wanderers uptown from the classic bums' keep of them all -- 
> the Bowery, lower Third Avenue, used shirt bins, barber 
> schools, a curious loss of time.

Used shirt bins: What exactly are these? Baskets to leave used clothes
for homeless people to wear?

Barber schools: Were these "schools" places where you could also get a
cheap haircut by non-experienced barbers? Do they still exist in Bowery?
According to http://www.mcny.org/abbott/a024.htm (TRI-BORO BARBER
SCHOOL)

> The Bowery was filled with barber schools, as many as two per block. 
> Upon completion of a ten-week course, a student was "a full-fledged
> professional barber, and [could] obtain employment as such 
> anywhere" at a union wage of $22.50 a week.

Finally, what's so curious about losing your time in Bowery?

2) Sewer hands and their jokes [p. 114] 

> And: "You ought to be over here on the East Side. There is 
> stuff all over the place."
>
> "It all has a zipper on it, over on the East Side."
>
> "That is how come yours is so short?"
>
> "It is not how much you got, it's how you use it "

Stuff with zipper on it: Women unwilling to talk to sewer workers? And
how exactly may this explain the other guy's penis size?

3) Sewer hands favourite rejoinder [p. 121]

> What had interested him [Profane] most were the accounts of 
> Veronica,  the only female besides the luckless Teresa who 
> is mentioned in the journal. Sewer hands being what they 
> are (favorite rejoinder: "Your mind is in the sewer"), one 
> of the apocrypha dealt with an unnatural relationship between 
> the priest and this female rat, who was described as a kind 
> of voluptuous Magdalen.

Your mind is in the sewer: Who do sewer workers address when using this
sentence? And why does it explain their fascination in the
Fairing-Veronica "unnatural relationship"?