THE GREAT CITY
Helen Morrell never forgot her initial impressions of the great city.
These impressions were at first rather startling--then intensely
interesting. And they all culminated in a single opinion which time only
could prove either true or erroneous.
That belief or opinion Helen expressed in an almost audible exclamation:
"Why! there are so many people here one could _never_ feel lonely!"
This impression came to her after the train had rolled past miles of
streets--all perfectly straight, bearing off on either hand to the two
rivers that wash Manhattan's shores; all illuminated exactly alike; all
bordered by cliffs of dwellings seemingly cut on the same pattern and from
the same material.
With clasped hands and parted lips the girl from Sunset Ranch watched
eagerly the glowing streets, parted by the rushing train. As it slowed
down at 125th Street she could see far along that broad thoroughfare--an
uptown Broadway. There were thousands and thousands of people in
sight--with the glare of shoplights--the clanging electric cars--the
taxicabs and autos shooting across the main stem of Harlem into the
avenues running north and south.
It was as marvelous to the Montana girl as the views of a foreign land
upon the screen of a moving picture theatre. She sank back in her seat
with a sigh as the train moved on.
"What a wonderful, wonderful place!" she thought. "It looks like
fairyland. It is an enchanted place----"
The train, now under electric power, shot suddenly into the ground. The
tunnel was odorous and ill-lighted.
"Well," the girl thought, "I suppose there _is_ another side to the big
city, too!"
The passengers began to put on their wraps and gather together their
hand-luggage. There was much talking and confusion. Some of the tourists
had been met at 125th Street by friends who came that far to greet them.
But there was nobody to greet Helen. There was nobody waiting on the
platform, to come and clasp her hand and bid her welcome, when the train
stopped.
She got down, with her bag, and looked about her. She saw that the old
gentleman with the wig kept step with her. But he did not seem to be
noticing her, and presently he disappeared.
The girl from Sunset Ranch walked slowly up into the main building of the
Grand Central Terminal with the crowd. There was chattering all about
her--young voices, old voices, laughter, squeals of delight and
surprise--all the hubbub of a homing crowd meeting a crowd of friends.
And through it all Helen walked, a stranger in a strange land.
She lingered, hoping that Uncle Starkweather's people might be late. But
nobody spoke to her. She did not know that there were matrons and police
officers in the building to whom she could apply for advice or
assistance.
Naturally independent, this girl of the ranges was not likely to ask a
stranger for help. She could find her own way.
She smiled--yet it was a rather wry smile--when she thought of how Dud
Stone had told her she would be as much of a tenderfoot in New York as he
had been on the plains.
"It's a fact," she thought. "But, if they didn't get my message, I reckon
I can find the house, just the same."
Having been so much in Denver she knew a good deal about city ways. She
did not linger about the station long.
Outside there was a row of taxicabs and cabmen. There was an officer, too;
but he was engaged at the moment in helping a fussy old lady get seven
parcels, a hat box, and a dog basket into a cab.
So Helen walked down the row of waiting taxicabs. At the end cab the
chauffeur on the seat turned around and beckoned.
"Cab, Miss? Take you anywhere you say."
"You know where this number on Madison Street is, of course?" she said,
showing a card with the address on it.
"Sure, Miss. Jump right in."
"How much will it be?"
"Trunk, Miss?"
"Yes. Here is the check."
The chauffeur got out of his seat quickly and took the check.
"It's so much a mile. The little clock tells you the fare," he said,
pleasantly.
"All right," replied Helen. "You get the trunk," and she stepped into the
vehicle.
In a few moments he was back with the trunk and secured it on the roof of
his cab. Then he reached in and tucked a cloth around his passenger,
although the evening was not cold, and got in under the wheel. In another
moment the taxicab rolled out from under the roofed concourse.
Helen had never ridden in any vehicle that went so smoothly and so fast.
It shot right downtown, mile after mile; but Helen was so interested in
the sights she saw from the window of the cab that she did not worry about
the time that elapsed.
By and by they went under an elevated railroad structure; the street grew
more narrow and--to tell the truth--Helen thought the place appeared
rather dirty and unkempt.
Then the cab was turned suddenly across the way, under another elevated
structure, and into a narrow, noisy, ill-kept street.
"Can it be that Uncle Starkweather lives in this part of the town?"
thought Helen, in amazement.
She had always understood that the Starkweather mansion was in one of the
oldest and most respectable parts of New York. But although _this_ might
be one of the older parts of the city, to Helen's eyes it did _not_ look
respectable.
The street was full of children and grown people in odd costumes. And
there was a babel of voices that certainly were not English.
They shot across another narrow street--then another. And then the cab
stopped beside the curb near a corner gaslight.
"Surely this is not Madison?" demanded Helen, of the driver, as her door
was opened.
"There's the name, Miss," said the man, pointing to the street light.
Helen looked. She really _did_ see "MADISON" in blue letters on the sign.
"And is this the number?" she asked again, looking at the three-story,
shabby house before which the cab had stopped.
"Yes, Miss. Don't you see it on the fanlight?"
The dull light in the hall of the house was sufficient to reveal to her
the number painted on the glass above the door. It was an old, old house,
with grimy panes in the windows, and more dull lights behind the shades
drawn down over them. But there really could be no mistake, Helen thought.
The number over the door and the name on the lamp-post reassured her.
She stepped out of the cab, her bag in her hand.
"See if your folks are here, Miss," said the driver, "before I take off
the trunk."
Helen crossed the walk, clinging to her precious bag. She was not a little
disturbed by this strange situation. These streets about here were the
commonest of the common! And she was carrying a large sum of money, quite
unprotected.
When she mounted the steps and touched the door, it opened. A bustle of
sound came from the house; yet it was not the kind of bustle that she had
expected to hear in her uncle's home.
There were the crying of children, the shrieking of a woman's angry
voice--another singing--language in guttural tones which she could not
understand--heavy boots tramping upon the bare boards overhead.
This lower hall was unfurnished. Indeed, it was a most unlovely place as
far as Helen could see by the light of a single flaring gas jet.
"What kind of a place have I got into?" murmured the Western girl, staring
about in disgust and horror, and clinging tightly to the locked bag.