, 1879-03-06
q 3DRLEY'S" LETTERS FROM NEW
.""' YURK,
,,.,n our own regular correspondent
NEw YORK, Feb. 10, 1879.
THAT JANUARY THAW.

Ware YOU ever in New York dur
;oy January thaw ? If So, Bob
,nrersolI could never convince you
,h.t there is no such place as hell
Three weeks ago snow lay a foot
dozen on street and sidewalk. The
sidewalk owners and horse car com.
r,njes piled it three to five feet high
.Iong the eurbs. For three weeks
M street cleaning was done, and the
cunolomerated nastiness of great
city was swept from store, hallway
and cellar, straight into those snow
hanks. "Snowbanks ~ In color and
appearance they were muck heaps,
containing mud, garbage, ashes,
sweepings, street refuse-but |
spare you. Well, for a week the
sun poured warmly on those heaps
of soldi6ed pestilenoe; the heaps
,hoked the cutters, the cutters
choked the sewers, and a million
fee, carried each its quota of filth
from street to side walk, till venture
little in saying that if any modern
pigsty had floor as filthy as our
sidewalks were, Henry Bsrgh would
be after its proprietor for cruelty to
animals.
What wouder that Diphtheria and
the Scarlet Fiend should float on
such flth.laden air, and brood over
thousand anxious homes till minis
tiers offer special prayers in the
churches for the little victims
THE UNDERsIDE OF A BIG CITY.
TaImage took detective and went
10 the dance houses Il didn't. ]
took a man having the "entree" Of
the gambling dens, and saw that
strange passion at white heat in the
early morning. ! had seen the gam
bling hells in Mexico, where the hor-
ribls spell sat like nightmare on its
victims, and as one gazed on the
rigid lips and glaring eyes he ceased
to wonder at bloody deeds in gamb
ling. houses. We went from the ell.
egant, Wilton. carpeted Broadway
parlor, with free supper tables and
wine hampers, down to the low dive,
where black and white, of all tongues,
play poker all night. Nothing was
so surprising as the number of nice
looking old gentlemen, venerable
enough for Sunday School supsrin'
tendents, that frequented the "high'
er" houses. They play coolly, win
hing or losing-usually losing. One
party, apparently young clerks, came
in, sat down with some spruce whip
pers In" and in twenty minutes
walked out, every man of them
dead broke" Pity the poor fools
half knaves, half fools; hungry for
money they had not earned, and too
ldotc to see that those hot suppers
and costly suppe,s must finally come
out OF their own pockets!
Faro is not game; it is contri
button. The player contributes
eventully to the bankers wealth,
just as certainly as the bull dies at IA
Spanish bull-fght--both are forsor-
dained. The shortest possible cut
TO poverty lies straight across the
green cloth, and any young man
choosing to travel that way had bet
Ter understand that at the outset.
COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION.
"A few years ago the grocery store
was awfully suggestive of that peck
oil dit which it undeniably sold to
our longsuffering grandGathars in
neavy instalments. To day, every
grocer worthy of the name has neat
attractive store, whose cheerful show
windows are often positive gems Of
decorative art. What contrast be.
tween the old brown paper cornu
copa and the neat pasteboard pack