OCR Text |
Show No Race Suicide in New York's Old Ninth Ward Ntw York Baturdav II PAT blork Id Fifth avenue may ; leem 16 iudicatc 'bnt race suicide - threatens the estin tion of New I Vori-ers, but let the pessimistic take heart A stroll through the streets of the old Ninth ward will reassure him that bis ap-preh"r.io. ap-preh"r.io. ar groundless Greeowlcs Village still has priv ate houses, inhabited j by their ownfi-v. which shelter Inrse families fam-ilies From one will issue a troupe of children startinc out for school grammar 1 Sradc hoy at rhe hend and kinderynnen 1 lot m the rear, with a half dozen between., n th-- stijs of another hour VOUngStsrs I a re do.ng sums on the walls and tumbling over one another A mrry "hurdj pnirdy " Isllnres a eompany, and a smilinc foreign-1 er with briirbt colored psper BoweiS and 1 windmills sol ni Competition to the itin-. leran-t candy nar.n. You may see a fight or two in rbe Mreet, for tber" an' red blooded! DOTS in the old Ninth ward bn? they are.i; I on the whole, a promiaine lot of hoys and Jgiris with thoroughly American idi-as. In a p.aant, old fashioned but well ;k"pt up brick houxe at No 4 .lane srr.et ivs Mr. Ohsriss W. Culkin. Uep-I Uep-I uty Commissioner of Records and leader jof the district, who Is the proud father of nine Children. The neighbors at No. 46 ,iiid No SO have only seven i hildren eaeh. but as the latent arrivals in each faoaily iwi" twins there is some hope of theirj lovereomins the t'lilkina' lead. Mr Culkia Is thoroughly representative of the distriet in which he lives. He was! not only born in the "Tillage,' but his family has lived there for eighty years.. H knows ii. streets nnd its people and lotew theru. D.-spile the encroachments of piers nnd loft Houses he continues tol make bis home in the familiar quarter. keeps .us hand on the political pulse and is in intimate ro,. h vrith all th" affairs of il '- Dcighborbeod. "When I sr.- one of tur old ivoasee to.-.i i.J iii . cuikm, 1 Uti aj it I bad. lost a (rif-a.) Of course, the old village is not what it om-e was I remember when there were rows of ireis on almoM every street; now you have hard work to find a single tree P-ft in the diMtrict People used to sit out on their ntoops in the evrr, ing. too in.) eat ice cream In the summer time ' ailing bock and for h from liou,i tn bouse, f..r they were all friends "fud von know," continued Mr Culkin ! "that fhis was once the great "Know Noth-: it.g district of the city?" "You're changed all that," it was ang gevted "h. yes. th.- Iri.rh and the Germans came in and the 'Know Nothings' went! out. Yes, 1 suppose mv people helped. They arrived from Ireland abont that time. They have not left yet. as you see, i and are not likely to very soon. "1 suppose there are aWut thirty rhon ' jsnno ITiah in the Ninth ward now out of a ipop.ilntioo of a little more than forty thou- I sand Ye, they gave a prrty goo,i ac- ! count of themselves at tho recent election." elec-tion." assented Mr Cnlitin Mmplacentlv. t "Sulssir's plnmhry ran over 4,HiO and Wll- t ison-!, was above 3.800 Oars was the ban- v ler ditrtrict in New York. L "Of eourse, we believe in large families, la v ' - f the district will .sbrrw von r that. In our (ttle street it is sornetimea t nine UtcIs when all the yoontfsters get to I j playing outdoors. Ve don t mind It, but I now and th-n thr is a family that has .... n 1 luldren to speak of and they call it a little d noisy. We have one iihbor wb-w, onr m son la about thirty, and she wn.s heard to a remark one day. wher all our chll iren and t all the neighbors' children and theirjm frionda were ujoyiDg themiielvos on the 'Is street and the ueps of th houiw.a. thi 0 lie would he glad when auuimer rame an.l a the people wlrh children w-cut off to fhi'st ouniry But that kind of aenrimenr a rare in Greenwich Village. You will find Y, some families much iarjer than ours, ad- ;i niittnd Mr Culkin magnanimously, "hi' j it may be a trifle imirsual to find twentf-on twentf-on youngster in three private house! hwI e by side. "Mj neighbor on the riyht, Mr. McMasn. 1 belongs, like myself, to aw of the old Ini fam le f tbr distriet, and Mr Kicks, 00 the other side, ib a rvpresentative ot oo i of the old ".ermin families, once so prons-inenl prons-inenl in rrtis n"ighborlood Most of then have moved away now, to Ixng Wand r j to New Jersey I have only one ritiof against the .neighborhood as a place for J el lldrso 111" s -bo.)l Ls iot very near ad they have t, rross street .-ailway tract' and seier.il s're.s. mil now that there i so much autonjobilinr od! heavy teaanm it is far more dangerous for the little on to get bar k and forth to school than it in iny iay por that reason I hav" 5r'"' f 107 .-hi dr.-n at fch-xii m Morristowo. N .1 My two oldest boys go to St. 1 Joseph's, in WaTerley place Yes, thst u still in tb" old ward." Greenwich illag.f is one of the most if eresHnir spots in .New York one that re-aina re-aina color and flavor In tiaie past i' J as the nbrxk- of tvu-slrb and fasbk.n. ani oany old ikorways and other architectur-I architectur-I feat urea still bear evidence to cb s larted (lories of its houses Hre anil fceri Bn isolated bouac or a r-jv SI hew. Which haw been weJI kept op rhi h 1 ivt ivsf-n restored. Those serve to reserve ilie character of the 'vlllafSj r--. 1 i t growing commercial and iodviatri' nrroarhments Iraliam aw rcP10 .. long the southern boundary. Artist ao ittlement workers have made little t,lf" cuts bore and there, but the background still of that sturdy type of Irish ntl trroonN wbx. euiiruted to rluM country ooi.pl,. gene ratlona ago, a type tnat 1 ' .. ndenoe ay.ri .tnvTaer " , Ifjp omises xv) for the cltlsensliii' ' Sf f I , - ..ndanti of thciC tin- 111(1 inta aic- ko nuivtcious t'-dtt. fjfjp. J'fesssw fsar- ' .BSSte |