Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-07-30

EdtOTtGt Correspondence " 1"c 49, ~ =
no. 81 New YORK, july % l9oS
The FORMULATION Of the news OF the peace Just |
concluded. upon the bulletin boards Of the differ
ent city newspapers kept crowds OF 1diers around |
them throughout to-day. Thousands who had |
doubtless read il In more than journal, stood
for many minutes gaping at the staring big letters
in which the story was there briefly told. The |
of the pedestrians New York tho
roughfare for wonder-mongering is illustrated
forcibly by their habits in gaping at everything,
from over-c olorcd print to a wonderful cheap
pair of pantaloons, according to the -placard
pinned to II before the door of friend Moses.
Young and old. men, women, and children rich
and poor, the apparently busy man as well as the
idler-all New York, rushing as it may be, up or
down the street as the tide Of the population re-
riodieally turns-all must have one good long
stare at everything three persons have stopped to
look at. Tradesmen here turn this propensity OF
the city 10 good advantage; making all possible
display of their wares in the show windows and
racking their brains thus TO show something new
under the sun. though 1t may be essentially trif-
ling and supremacy ridiculous. This popular
taste for gaping is strongest in the dog fight line.
shortly after shutdown to-day, while I coursed
through Washington street in search of points Of
interest TO the Stars readers, a canine combat oc
yelps took place, every window fronting the street
for half a dozen blocks was filed with Teutouic
snl Milesian female heads, remarkable for dirty
faces and unkempt hair Zach grown one seemed
10 have Juggling At the breast the inevitable baby,
so be.rrimed with dirt that not knowing
better might be puzzled to tell its true color The
street for half a dozen blocks as quickly had emp
tied into Ii. il seemed, hundred from each tene-
mcnt. Men, women and children-they rushed
wildly up TO the scene OF the combat: and the
noise made by the fierce dogs was quickly
drowned by that of the voices Of the highly-inter
ested we'll interesting spectators. Such a
babel of tongues one can hear nowhere else; for
the street. below Courtandt, Is now inhabited a.
most exclusively by ewly-arrived emigrants, in an
apparently NEST abject condition, and by the FAM
lies Of the laborers about the lower North-river
piers, all of whom are foreign born. Here are To-
Gated the emigrant boarding houses, for the most
part, that the police much trouble; three
fourths of them being regular dead-falls in which
every poor emigrant enticed into them is sure TO
be fceced If he or she he induced to taste the
poisonou, stuff sold in them all under the names
of wines and liquors.
The brief original fight over, II seemed 70 me
that there were speedily TO be hundred fights
between groups Of these Washington street peo-
pie concerning the relative merits and achieve
ments of the twa dogs" The women and the
children wrangled and swore over and about them
even more vociferously than the men. Cologne is
celebrated for its stenches the world over but il 1t
can beat Washington street, in New York city,
after i chunk of a dog fight transpiring when its
rag-pckers and other laboring population having
just returned from their several daily avocations,
turn out in hurry naSSe to zee the sport it may
- take my hat
From the DAYS of the Revolution until perhaps
twenty years ago twas about the most aristoeratc
quarter of New York, being then the water side
street in which those known old Kncker-
bOckcrs almost exclusively resided. The increase
Of the citys commerce, and the immense increase
of emigration into the port, which landing at
Castle Garden or in its vicinity, made it the
thoroughfare and lounging ground of dock labor
ers and pauper engrants to SO great an extent as
gradually TO drive the Livingstons. Styve'ants,
Schuylers, ct al, higher mp the island for habta-
lions; disposing of their Washington street
property at almost fabulous prices for it Is
well known that even real property in Wall
street hardly yields more profitable rents than
houses i'll which New Works paupcr and its next
akin to PauPer population are slowed well-lish
Is closely as apples in barrels, wherein one
sPecked one may easily rot the whole recol-
Iect it ere its former residents were driven away,
as explain above, and therefore 1t is that sight
OF it under such circumstances strikes me so
fOrcibly. Thank God. we have little indeed. if
any such population in Washington city, where
each laborins man, however poor he may be- has
for the time being castle Of his own: an indi-
yidual house. however humble. in which he may
keep his family uncontam mated by constant con-
tact with the meanest and viles: of the millions
Europe sends Us. felt proud of Washington as
nay mind noted the scene before me-of the char
actor Of its iaboring population and of their COM
parative comforts Obtllable for little money
That tic circumstances nv which children reared
amid such influences must affect them injurlously
for life, is Il self-evdent proposition. Where for
dozen blocks positively every house is low
crop shop where profanity is apparently even
more common with the gentle sex (heaven save
the mark :. than with the men, and filth is the
desPOt ruling over all with iron sway II IA moral
ly impossible that children can be reared al all TO
their own advantage. The records of the Grim
iaal courts of tEis-city however prove the fact 80
f,rcibly rs that ;inne Lere deny It.
Out Of Washington street, and a few half cutters
and half alleys abuting upon it. New York looks
far cleaner than ever before saw it, Its principal
business streets wear aspect Of neatne,s for
" hich / was unIreparcd, and throughout the
whole days ramble (until my legs are almost
ready to give way under mel did not observe a
dozen professional mendicants. While something
may be due to the police fofthat fact, much moro
is doubtless due to the rapid increase Of every
branch of the city's business. requiring so rapid
increase of its labor, (under such circumstance
naturally increased wages
The work Of demolition and reconstruction goes
on just now very brisky here. Wherever down
town. the expenditure Of money on real estate will
pay fair increase Of revenue from it, that expen-
diturc is being made. There is a pressing demand
on the part of business for every possible increase
of the facilities If trade Of all sorts So tenements
that cost twenty thirty, or fifty thousand dollars.
IRON ten to twenty years since, are being leveled
to the ground, and others costing one, two, and
three hundred thousand rapidly Ia king their
places in all directions. May this spirit of i'm.
Provement soon reach even apparently hopeless
Washington street. WD w
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