The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-01

The Heather at the Door
! We take from the New York Day Book the
following picture, drawn by AN eyewitness
which carries its own moral with it,
! This sketch comes from the same pen that
drew " New York by Gas Light = aud gives an
insight into the various phases of the many
sided life Of large cities-ifom which the Souu,
is so happily exempt The closing paragraphs
preach penitence to the pretended phianthropists
who thus neglect the heather at their doors
! SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE CIrY-New York
| is sort of metropolitan aloe, weekly plant
that goes into full bloom but once in the seven
days. During the rest of the week, every body
is engaged at his or her several occupations
the mechanic al his bench, the laborer at his bod.
the rag-picker with his bag, the bcggar on his
corner. Even the children of New York are
steady workers, notwithstanding their apparent
riotous idIeness The little girl with her broom
watches the sky for rain ; and when every body
else feels gloomy and uncomfortable, with the
shower pattering about their ears, and their
patent feathers spelling in the mud, she is AS
merry as a clover field TO see the shower come
down, and flies TO her crossing as blithely as n
bee to the horse-chesnut trees The boys too,
trying to do so-for good share of the time
during the week. But Saturday night il the
poor mans holiday. The laborer receiving his
weekly pittance, trudges homewari with light
step. his honest heart swelling with happiness
at the pleasure he is now able 10 confer upon
the family. The news-boy relayes his cry, and
gives his overtaxed lungs repose--while he
dances into the street with insane glee. bound
to have iirstrate spree" The pale house wife,
the ragged pauper-the tidy, the wretched, the
handsome, the depraved--al welcome the APP
proach of Saturday night as n season to be hoped
and patiently waited for.
In short Saturday night presents the city in
an entirely new and more exciting aspect than
any other time of the week and he who has not
closely studied it then, knows in reality but half
his lesson
But among all the indications of Saturday
night, no place affords so many or such striking
ones as the markets. Here there is n regular
lcongestion; and, as in the single man the stom-
ach is the principal point Of commotion, so in the
grand man. or city, the market is the great TO-
Gus Of interest. He who lives at ease upon his
incomc-or his landlady-scolds if the steak be
a thought muscular, or the eggs shade too old
whose household experience consists in going
to bed, getting up breaktasting dining, supping
self any conception of the importance of Satur-
day night to the large class of our population
who go TO market but once n week To them,
the return Of that time is waited for with hope
full stomachs, half fed during all the week, on
what remains from the last supply, and what can
be picked up around. We know il is nelan-
choly thing to say, and still more melancholy to
to think of, that couple of hundred thousand
people in single city--all those too, who work
the hardest and longest and in labors the most
repulsive, and which ought, therefore, to be the
best rewarded-should be absolutely crampcd
for something to eat But it is sadly true
| Let us enter Washington marke' What n
squeeze-what crowd 1t is not here mere
elbows and knees, and brawney chests, and broad
stout backs YOU are to encounter. Now you
stumble against firkin, and now are overset by
a bag. And there is woman, who has some
how-it is impossible to tell how-squeezed
through between you and yonr next neighbor
but her basket, to which she clings with death
like tenacity, appears to be made of less elastic
material than herself 1t has assumed the posi-
ton of balloon, and forms a target for score
of noses pushed on from the rear There is no
chance Of its coming through that is certain
and the woman will lot let 90 of it--that seems
equally clear. There is nothing, therefore, to do
! bub ibl You W Sloop CRAWL uUucT III. AS
you are in the act of performing this difficult
and delicate passage, couple of salt mackarel
ut the bottom Of the basket, as if in sympathy
for your sutierings, bedew your Leary with
briny tears, while peace Of corned beef, with
a large slice of the fat, lovingly greases your
coat collar.
You at length get on your feet, and ascertain
that you have been kneeling in basket of stale
eggs, and that your new black pants are in, what
would be called in the Bowery, something of
a muss." The Irish huckster woman, too, seeing
! ills wholesale destruction Of her brood of in.
cipient chickens pours out a voey of abuse upon
your devoted head, and loudly demands compen-
sation for the loss You gladly pay whatever
she requires; and at length, by dint of pulling
and squeezing, and being pulled and squeezed
we make our way through the lower walk, past
the butter and cheese stands, the stalls for car
casses of dead hogs and sheep, now ankle deep
in mud and so on into the fish market. If you
are at all an amateur in smells, you surely will
be gratfed here TO your hearts content But
don't tread ION that pile of cells, for they are
slippery fellows, and would he very likely to
bring you 'down upon them" And see there
n fine green lobster has caught your foot in bis
pincers, and will be through tho leather directly
You will find him the closest friend you ever
had. He'll stick like burr
But all this is quite comfortable and genteel
to Catharine Market on the other side of the
city Here is New York life in one of its most
active and demonstrative phrases. So many at
tempts have been made to describe this class
all of them producing but the merest shadows
of the original-that we should despair of better
success were we to try the dangerous ground
Imagine all the ooarseness, all the shameless
fifth all the s1ualor and brutality from which
you have escaped, and then conceive STEPPED in
it to the lips population made reckless by ig
norance, want and vice, and utterly regardless Of
public opinion, or even unconscious of its ex
istence. Then you will have some faint idea Of
the many who frequent Catharine Market of .
Saturday night To be sure we do not mean to
say there are not many respectable, wcll-to-dc
people who come there, but we speak entirely
of the lower stratum of its customers,
The truth is, that he condition, both mora
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