Show AN ITALIAN CHURCH A HOUSE OF WORSHIP CALLED CHURCH OF THE RAG PICKERS it ilabe nc of the kind la new york and probably la the country abr san and of italy combine religion and budnej not many new yorkers have evet heard of the church of the ers in the neighborhood of roosevelt street whore it is located this is the familiar name of the roman catholic church of st joachim of which father is the pastor the members are italians exclusively inhabitant sot the bentely populated district roundabout and as of them are rag pickers and have rented the lower half of the church for the of their goods the nickname which designates the church a the peculiar place of worship of thia class came into use years ago when roosevelt street waa not so squalid and as overflowing with human beings as it is today this church belonged to a methodist episcopal congregation gre gation there were merchants solid men of down town new york living there and the neighborhood was eminently respectable now the church with a cheap lodging house on one ride and a typical slum grocery store on the other A nest of tough saloons are near by ap and down the street organized in 1888 the italian population thereabouts grew so rapidly within a radius of mile amile a that the church baa now one of the largest congregations in the city the building is of brick and is dingy and dirty it is only by standing across the street that you can see a small cross on the roof the only thing about the edifice that suggests its religious character looking in on the first floor you will witness a curious spectacle the whole depth and breadth of the floor ia filled with rags bags loose rags in piles and rags in bales ready for shipping are all about big cranes and chains for boica ing purposes run here and there half buried in these piles of rags are men women and children the men and women busy assorting rage and the fat brown youngsters tumbling about in play or sleeping as the case may be it is the biggest in this city it is wholesale and retail in the sense that here the individual rag pickers of the town dispose of their wares which are assorted and baled and sold for manufacturing purposes the pastor of st joachims rents this lower floor to the company that conducts this rag businda at a good rental and indeed were it not for that the mission would italians are very practical about their religion when they care for it at all and they are very slow at contributing to the support of the church and expect a good deal of religion for a very little money the church proper is on too floor over the rag shop and this in itself gives an odd character to the at times on weekdays the men are at work in the basement when Bervi coa are going on up stairs and one can plainly hear them joining in the responses and chants during the celebration of the mass while a reporter was there tho other day one of the rag pickers in the basement sang a hymn to the virgin while the cervices were going on and his voice hiis of rare sweetness ewe etness and purity at certain hours of the day laborera will come in set their picks and in a corner and then join in the devotions the peanut venders and fruit stand beepers in the neighborhood always attend the services for at least a few minutes each day bootblacks wander in with boies on their backs and eay a few brief prayers and the italian population generally comes and goes six masses are said in st joachims church every sunday and from 1200 to 1500 persons attend every mass so that some or more people worship in the little church every week father mariul who established this mission and who conducted it for years has been to new england to organize italian churches thera his place has been taken by a younger priest father the position of parish priest of st joachims is that of a patriarch not only does he marry parishioners baptize their children and bury their dead but ie their constant advisor in other matters he settles their disputes of all sorts from business differences to lovers quarrels one trouble the priest has to contend with is the manner in which his charges get married coming from italy where civil marriages are the proper thing the italians believe that the laws obtain here As a result tho italian quarter is filled with professional marriage brokers and matchmakers they bring couples together for a fee then steer them to the city hall where two men have for year done a steady business securing aldermen to marry couples in getting certificates tor them and arranging all the details of city hall weddings father tries to impress his people that he will marry them for nothing at all but they detill flock to the city hall some of them buy pictures of the building and send them to italy that their friends may see the palace in which they were married new york world |