NEW YORK CITY.
I have heard it stated that "a great city is a great solitude" and so it
is if you are a stranger. New York seemed a big solitude to me, for I
didn't know anyone and no one knew me. I landed in the Grand Central
Depot in a swell quarter of the city one day, and felt utterly lost, for
I didn't know which way to turn. As I was poor, that swell neighborhood
was no place for me, but where was I to find a poorer locality? I
concluded to walk and find one. I kept a walking and a walking and a
walking, but the more I walked the more high-toned did the streets seem.
Nothing but fine houses and well-paved streets met my view and they made
me tired.
I did not like to address any of the people walking along these streets
for they seemed hurried, cold and distant.
Says I to myself: "Windy, you've struck a cold place. Chicago was bad,
but this place is worse. If you are going to Europe, this will have to
be your headquarters for awhile, though."
Bye-and-bye I struck a street called Eighth Avenue, which was a long and
wide one. It was full of people and stores. The sidewalks were so
crowded that locomotion was difficult, and I saw more coons there than I
had ever seen in my life before. They were dressed up to kill and
considered they owned the town. From their manner one would suppose they
had no use for white trash.
I had walked so much that I was pretty well tired out, and I also was
hungry and thirsty. I concluded I would seek some saloon where I could
obtain a rest, a drink and a free lunch, all for a nickel. There are
such places everywhere in the cities, plenty of them, and all you have
to do is to find them. I walked along and kept my eyes peeled for one. I
saw lots of stylishly fitted-up stores along the avenue, and as there
was so much style I thought there ought to be lots of money. Everyone I
met was dressed to kill, and it seemed to me that no one was poor.
Finally I came to a saloon which was bejeweled and be-cut-glassed
outside, and swell inside, having marble floors and fancy fixtures. Into
this saloon I stepped and strode up to the bar, where I ordered a
schooner of beer. I laid down a nickel on the bar and then leisurely
strolled over to the lunch counter, which contained a pretty good spread
of free lunch. I tackled a fistful of bread and cheese, and then wound
up with bologna, pickles, crackers and pickled tripe. I ordered another
schooner and hit the free lunch again real hard. No one said anything to
me. After a good long rest I hit the "Avenue" again to see the sights.
There was plenty to be seen for the avenue was jammed with people,
trolley cars and trucks. The buildings were of brick, as a rule, and
old-fashioned in appearance. On the ground floor were stores and over
head dwellings.
Everyone was a hustling and a bustling and didn't seem to have much time
for anything except to sell you something. No one knew me or seemed to
care a cuss for me. I felt lonely. The din was so great and the crowd so
dense that I couldn't hear myself think. I was swept along with the
crowd and kept my eyes and ears open. The stores were very fine, and the
signs upon them handsome. Though Eighth Avenue is by no means in a rich
section of the city, it seemed to me that there was a whole lot of
wealth and style there. I felt quite out of place for I wasn't well
dressed.
Some of the free lunch I had eaten--I believe it was the bologna--had
given me a thirst, so I stepped into an ice cream saloon and had a
"schooner" of ice cream soda, which quenched my thirst admirably. Things
were cheap and good in New York, I quickly learned, and if one only had
the price, one could live well there. One could have all kinds of fun,
too, for there are so many people. The city is like an overgrown
bee-hive--it more than swarms with people. I believe that New York City
today has over four millions of people, with more a coming every
year--thousands of them.
I had heard a great deal about the Bowery in New York, so I concluded
to see it. I knew the song about it, the chorus of which was:
The Bowery, the Bowery,
They say such things, and they do such things,
On the Bowery, the Bowery--
Oh! I'll never go there any more.
And I was wondering what kind of things they said there and what they
did.
Well, they didn't say much when I struck it and there was nothing doing
to speak of, except people rushing along minding their own business. It
may have been wicked, but it isn't now. It is a business street and that
is all. There is an "Elevated" over the street, which makes noise enough
to raise the dead, and a lot of cheap-looking stores and restaurants.
There is any number of "hat-blocking" establishments run by Hebrews, and
the whole street in fact, seems like a section of Jerusalem. Jews till
you can't rest. There may be some knock-down-and-drag-out places, but
these are not confined to the Bowery. There are other streets far worse.
No, the Bowery today is a peaceful, quiet street, and there isn't
"anything doing" worth speaking about.
New York has some fine streets, such as Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Madison
Square, Twenty-third Street, Fourteenth Street, etc. Broadway is the
main business street and begins at Bowling Green and runs up to Central
Park and thence beyond. It is several miles long, its lower portion from
Bowling Green to Fourteenth Street being lined on either side by many
sky-scrapers and massive wholesale business establishments, and from
Fourteenth Street up, by retail stores. Rents are high on this street
and the buildings fine. Fifth Avenue is not so long as Broadway and
contains the residences of many millionaires and less rich people. There
is lots of style and wealth on that street.
The Central Park is a beautiful spot. It runs from Fifty-ninth Street to
One Hundred and Tenth Street, and from Fifth to Eighth Avenue. It is two
and a half miles long by about two miles wide, and isn't big enough
sometimes to contain the crowds of people that flock into it. It
contains shady walks and trees, lawns, baseball grounds, lakes, casinos,
stately malls (avenues), a large zoological collection, a great art
gallery, an immense natural history building, extensive drives, secluded
nooks for love-making, and lots of other nice things. Around its grand
entrance at Fifth Avenue are some of the largest and swellest hotels in
New York.
As everyone knows, of course, New York is the largest city in the
country and the most cosmopolitan. It is the center of art, trade and
finance, and its population is composed of all sorts. There are as many
Irish as in the largest city in Ireland, as many Germans, almost, as in
Hamburg, as many Jews as in Jerusalem, and a big crowd of almost every
nationality under the sun. The main part of the city is situated on
Manhattan Island, and it is overcrowded, compelling the overplus to seek
the suburbs and other near-by localities. Even these are becoming too
well populated. Jersey City, Newark, Brooklyn, Paterson, Kearney,
Harrison, Staten Island, Coney Island, etc., are increasing in
population all too rapidly. New York is one of the "step lively" towns,
and you are expected to hustle there, whether you want to or not. It is
all your life is worth sometimes to cross a street, and a car won't stop
long enough to enable you to get on or off. The tenement sections are
studies in human life, and malodorous ones at that. The throngs are
wonderful to behold.
If you have plenty of money New York is an interesting place to live in.
You will never feel dull there. You can live in some pretty suburb and
go back and forth every morning and evening, as thousands do; or you can
live in the city and ride out into the country every day by carriage,
train or boat. In the good old summer time, if you live in the city, you
can go to Manhattan or Brighton Beach, Coney Island, North Beach, South
Beach, Rockaway, Fire Island, Long Branch, the Highlands, Shrewsbury
River and a thousand and one other resorts in the vicinity. There is no
lack of amusement or pleasure places.
Even the very poor can find lots of pleasant places to go, around New
York, for the fares are low. For ten cents one can ride from New York to
Coney Island, a distance of over twenty miles; to Fort George for five
cents, fifteen miles or more; to Manhattan Beach, South Beach, Staten
Island, Newark, up the Hudson, and lots of other places. In the city
itself, and free for all, are the Aquarium, Art Galleries, Public
Squares, Parks, Roof Gardens along the two rivers (the Hudson and East
Rivers), the animals in Bronx and Central Parks, the museums and other
things. There is always something to hear and see in New York City at
all hours of the day and night.
New York surely is quite a sizeable village, and to judge from the way
it has been growing, ten years from now it will extend a hundred miles
or more up the Hudson, to Albany, maybe.