The daily gazette., 1882-05-01
THE BowERY At NIGHT.
The Giided Iniquities OF New York's
Famous ThOrOughfare.


New York Letter.
Crowds are pushing slowly into the Thaiia
Theatre, famous for half a century as the
sold Bowery;" into the Windsor Theatre,
equally noted as the "Stadt THEATRE of
former times and as the biggest of all the
theatres; into Harry Miners Theatre, which
Pierre Lorillard built for his sporting friend:
into Mrs Paul Falks', where Tony Pastor
made his fortune; into the London Theatre
which Harry Miner found too small; into the
National Garden Theatre, which ia an old
beer garden transformed, and in numbers
greater than all the rest into the Atlantic
Garden, two acres Of seats In big barn-like
building, where lager beer flows like der
man Niagara, and Viennese women in bare
arms, but long dresses, play the music Of
the Fatherland. Here three proprietors have
cleared enormous fortunes and retired salts
| fed, while the present one has taken In the
Old Bowery Theatre next door, refitted 1t ex-
pensively, named II the Thalia, presented in
II the actors who are famed In Deutschland,
and brought TO 1t nightly the wealth and
| brains and fashion Of the German colony in
this the third German city of the world.
Close by are whole blocks where vice holds
sovereign sway as unblushingly aud boldly
as can be well deceived. The Easements and
cellars In these blocks are concert saloons
the ground floors are so-called free variety
|
of blaaklegs and the retiring places of the
women Of the street Brass bands, pianos
and stringed instruments, artfully played
close to the sidewalk, call attention to the
underground saloons, at whose entrances
one sees pictures Of ravishing women, play
ing fountains or warm-colored walls ablaze
with light. The words "Admission Free"
are never missing The names Bismarck, )"
"CasinO, "Belmonico," "Svenska House" ="
| tGAnnnnnohala - %
are names that are often in the newspapers
and the courts. With health officer went
into many Of these not long ago To order the
law prohibiting beds in Easements enforced.
] found In all of them u cleared and sandetl
space for dancing, and tables for drinking
occupied by girls In lOw-neeked, short
dresses, apparently all the victims of rum,
foul speech and pulmonary complaints.
Their visitors were foreigners and sailors.
took a stranger into one of the free
variety shows on the ground floor of a
Bowery building the other night. IL was
like the others / had seen. " Liverpool
Varieties was its name-painted by an
amateur over the door and on the bill boards
which In this case bore pictures Of negro
song and dance men, but which are quite as
apt to be covered with pictures of Fanny
Davenport, Modjeska or Joe Jefferson. The
entrance led 10 tiny har room. At the
| hopi hiuh WV AuIlEe vi hu
shouted the main features of the programme
interjectlng the words " free" and +" It costs
you nothing" astonishingly frequently
We entered the theatre through partition
beyond the bar and were In a long, low
narrow room, gaudily papered, crowded
I with tables and benches and terminating In
diminutive stage, fanked by private boxes
which serve at once as boxes, entrance u
the stage and "wine rooms," or places iI
, | xub aha r
diabolically bad beverages and the privilege
of separation from the audience and conver
satiau with one or more of the women. A
dozen or fifteen young men with coarse and
ytllainous faces and loud apparel the worse
for wear lounged on the benches and talked
T with the girls who stood in the passagewayl
or sat on the tables watching the door and
! the strangers, ready for an invitation tc
drink. The young men were pickpockets
sneak thieves and rowdies, some of whom
in addition belonged to that great army OF
Bowery folk called "lovers," which Is te
say youths who are fed, clothed, nursed and
provided with money by the women of the
, street. Such women They are only to bt
seen In this part of the town.. They are mere
girls, graduates Of tenements aud factories
Of foreign birth poorly clad, unattractive In
form or face, deprayed beyond anything in
wQmapkipd that Is known to the metropolis
damehDw they seem to look alike as the
products of one factory do. All appear to
be stunted In statute, neither stout nor thin,
and of one shade of uncleanness as to their
compilations. Their hair is banged they
wear boys hats the cheap material of their
cheaply made garments Is always cut and
fitted in the same way. Some have cloaks.
ear rings, bracelets, All wear bits of gay
} ribbon at the throat and on their heads.
Other women who live as they do attempt,
after rude and suggestive fashion, to make
themselves attractive to the other sex hy
women's wiles. These poor creatures appear
to strive to hide all traces Of w0manhood.
They swear and curse, drink like sailors
ashore, slap and hit each other and their
jail-bird courtiers aud are generally clumsy,
maseg gline and rough,