The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-09-04
Our BrOadbrilll Letters.

Heterogeneous Humanity Glasses that
form the Component Parts Of the Great
Oity's Population-A Warm Week
Politics and Business.
NEW YORK, Aug. g, 1880.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Where do they all come from is
the question that forces itself upon
you as you walk up and down Broad
way. Night or day the great human
tide flows on, but never seems to ebb
and yet there are hours when the tide
| seems to swell till the worn sidewalks
almost tremble and groan beneath the
tread of weary, hurrying feet. The
character of our population differs on
the great avenues that lead down
town, at different hours of the day.
Above Grand street, the First and
Second Avenues, and all the streets
that cross them, constitute a great
German hive, from which all other
foreigners are driven out. German
signs greet you on every hand.
Schweitzer 'kase, pretzels, lager ami
bologna are articles of general con-
sumption, while the grocery store
that would be rash enough to start
business without a good supply of
sauer kraut might soon be expected
to sink into utter bankruptcy. 1t is
aregion ofstrange sounds, and strange
and unholy perfumes, and when, as
in last Jnue, the thermometer touches
the pineties, it almost seems like a
miracle how all these people live; yet
live they do and grow fat. On either
side of these great Avenues, and on
all the by streets are immense rows
of tenement houses, six, seven and
eight stories high; perhaps the house
has from 100 to 200 occupants, bat all
of them find sumething to do. The
Germans are thrifty and a busy peo-
pie, and idleness has no place in their
vocabulary. Whoever eats is expected
to work, and they have about them
that sturdy independence, which
makes beggary their last resource,
and when misfortune overtakes them
< they have among them 50 many char
table associations, that comparatively
a small proportion of them ever seek
charity from the city. Between the
hours of & and a mighty and resist
s less tide rolls out from all these tene-
ments-old and young, women aud
girls, and even little children-eacfl
carrying small roll of paper, basket
OF tin can, in which is the little lunch,
which is to sustain them till they
II reach home, weary and worn in the
evening. On they troop, thousands
and thousands of them, till they reach
the great factories down town, where
paper boxes are made, and wholesale
clothing is manufactured, and different
kinds of nick hacks are put up, whicl
find their markets, not only in the
United States, but in all parts of tht
world. Almost us silently as the grea
ocean, these huge factories swallow
up these living streams, and then, fol
an hour or so, there is perceptibl.
lull in the flow. Then comes a diff
ferent class altogether, but not from
the Ayenues-they pour into the cit.
on the railroad trains and ferry boats
and are comfortable, we'll fed class
wearing fine clothes and rich jewelr,
u there are bank clerks and book
e keepers in insurance companies ant
% large me1santile houses. The pulse
!, of life are again quickened, and one
;, more the streets are filled with
f seething, human tide.
1t Almost in the middle OF the city
t. the Chinese aud Italians have the
- ~ abiding places-I can not call tlien
l. homes, yet homes suppose they are
VI At the first glance it seems that thes'
4 people led the most miserable of lives
h the tenelnehts in which they live ar
Y, old .and rninous, the walls and cell
p1 ings being broken aud dirty; filth in
conceivable is every where; the Gel
le lars are full of rags, waste pape,
n broken scraps of iron, and all til
:" debris of a great city. During til
AT day it is comparatively quiet, but a
in night activity is every where. This
D. also, is the headquarters of many {
~ the low thieves and ruttiuEs who prov
le around the city under cover of dark
OF ness, to knock down q belated tray
7h eler, or break into some defenceles
= 2 house. Long before daylight IL vas
Ell army pours out of the noisome der
n of this horrible quarter, armed wit
w. iron-hooks and immense sacks-tl
], numbers are nearly equal of men an
women-tl,e men usually present
, wretched appearance, their clotht
bv hang in tatters about them, their ha
IS, is tangled and uhkempt, their ey'
pg are blood shot, and their faces pa
~ u' and haggard, as if the preceding nigl