OCR Text |
Show A SLUMMING EXPERIENCE. The Minister Who Ead Gone Through It Determined to Change uis Plans. With a view to finding out what slumming slum-ming in the toughest regions is like the reporter went to headquarters and asked one of Byrnes' oldest and most trusted detectives to tell him soma of his experiences expe-riences in taking slumming parties atiout in the region east of the Bowery. "It's a good while now since I've done any of that business, " said the detective, de-tective, "and there's very few that we take around Cherry hill and its alleys. It's too tough for ladies and for most men. One of the last parties that I took through there was three young men who were going to do missionary work. They were ministers, and they wanted to see what life was like where it's least worth living, so I took them down to Double alley. That's a 12 foot wide street about 200 feet long and hedged in by eight story tenements. It runs off Cherry street, and it furnishes more crime and violence to the square inch than any other place in New York, with the possible pos-sible exception of Single alley, which is near by. "Of coursa we attracted attention there. The urchins yelled at us, the loafers loaf-ers scowled at us, and unkempt hags stuck their heads out of windows overhead over-head and made unpleasant comments. We paid no attention. One can't afford to be squeamish in Double alley. The young ministers, however, began to look rather uncomfortable, and I reckoned they were getting scared and wished they'd staid at home. That wasn't their kind, though, as I found out pretty quickly. When we got pretty near to the end of the place, we heard a terrific howling and yelling in one of the houses. There were cries of 'Murder !' and 'Help I mingled with curses and groans. It was u uuiiriwierisiiu vnerry niii mixea aie row from all indications. In a minute out staggered a drunken woman, her forehead blooding profusely from a gash made by some sharp instrument Close after her came a big, burly longshoreman longshore-man brandishing a bottle. He reached the woman and brought the bottle down on her head with terrific force, stretching stretch-ing her to the mvenitnjp kicking lior. I etartci-1- ioi, UUt One of the young men was before me. He hit the longshoreman just once, and that was enough. The man went down like a log. "Then there was the devil to pay. Half a dozen big ruffians poured out of the doorway and made for the minister. He knocked the first one off his feet, but the second ran in and grappled with him. By this time I and the other two were taking a hand in it. There was nothing scared about those fellows then. I afterward found out that they had all been football players in college. They fought like devils, and with the odda against us we cleaned out th9 gang in about half a minute. A couple of police po-lice came running in, and three of the roughs were arrested. The woman went to the hospital, where it was found that she was only slightly injured. Skulls are thick in Double alley. Our party was a little the worse for wear, ily hat was lost in the scuffle. One of the ministers min-isters had his coat torn half off, another lost his spectacles and the temporary use of one eye, while the chap that had waded in first was wiping the blood from his face and nursing a sprained thumb. When he said good night to me, he remarked: ' 1 'This experience has been a lesson to me. I was going to China as a missionary, mission-ary, but if I can judge by what I've seen tonight there is plenty of room for mission mis-sion work right here in this citv and I think I'll stay here.' That man has been dQina eood w:ork among the poor of this city since men, ana China nas tost a good missionary and a man of nerva " j New York World. The Provincialism of New York. In spite of the commercial character of the people of New York city, in spite of the small army of commercial travelers travel-ers whose address is New York, it is still true that the great body of the peo ple know next to nothing of the rest of the country. The west knows the east; the cast does not know the west. This is true because the west came from the east in the first place and because thousands thou-sands of westerners visit the east, while only hundreds or tens of easterners visit the west. The struggle for existence in New York city is so severe that the body of the people have not the time, if they had the inclination, to acquire general information. Life with them is intense and swift, but it runs in a very narrow channel after all. In a very real sense the people are provincial. They ask the visitor from Kansas City if he knows their friends in St. Paul. They ask the visitor from Denver whether he enjoys J ""'j'" nv- jjo in Liiau viiy vji churches. Many of them not only know nothing of all America beyond a few streets of the metropolis, but they actually actual-ly take pride in not wanting to know any thing. J. W. Gleed in Forum. At the last meeting of the school committee com-mittee it was solemnly voted "that permission per-mission be given to Mrs. Annie Fields to employ women to wash the floors of the Bowdoin schoolhouse and the windows of the Chardon Court schoolhouse." This vote was necessary, because it is contrary to the school committee's rules to wash the floors and windows of a Boston Bos-ton schoolroom of tener than once a year. This sounds strange, but it is true. Bos-ton Bos-ton Herald. |