The Lincoln County leader. [volume] (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 1882-189?, 1884-05-17
OUR NEW YORK LETTER

profitable. rollicklna 2|onsclenceless
street. given over to vice AID plea
sure. 1t glitters and allures, but
it is bad to the core. Being cheap
and mixed, it is also loud and
coarse. Beer is the drink, ten
cents is the price Of a card chip,
shooting at a mark is a common
paStimc, a quarter buys R reserved
eeat in the theatre, many of the
dens are in cellars, and the police
are so familiar that they shove and
hit before they warn. AT night it
is all ablaze. There is a rivalry Of
gaslight and electric glare. The
neighboring bands compete with
one another as to which shall make
the least music and the lOudest
NOISE. Popular airs are hurled to
and fro across the street, and one
Jars against another, The side
walks swarm with men and Wo-
men, and showmen stand at one
side on the gratings and bawl at
the throngs. A man with the
lungs OF an elephant cries out such
attractions as a fat woman, a snake
handler and a giant. Ten to one
the countryman who steps into his
place will fall a prey to the envel-
Ope game. Two doors away a
trombone voiced cockney adyer-
tises a boxing match, which all
may Gee free. Inside is to be
found a smoke befogged ginmill,
with 4 platform at one end, and be-
fore the clumsy rowdics, who are
dubbed pugi lists. are let loose
ut one another a seedv man
with a cracked voice sings an Irish
ballad, and a young woman with
amazing stockings and the voice of
a news girl murders whatever tune
is just then being whistled most
at the Post Office, at which place
the fashion in street music is set.
Overhead, up a narrow flight of
stairs is a heavily barred pine door
Knock on it ard a little piece Of
wood slides back and exposes a
mans face on the other side of the
door. Say you wish to enter and
gamble, and there is a rattle of
bolts, and locks, and the door flies
open. You are in a small room.
y man is dealing faro at a table,
another man is calling Keno num-
bers from a platform. Go out and
look at the front Of the house.
Look at it next day in the day time.
Either the blinds are closed or the
shades are before the windows,
nailed on upside down. In the
summer these inverted awnings
are common objects. There can be
no mistake about them; each set
hides a gambling place. They are
used to prevent people in the ele-
waited r from seeing in the
rooms. Across the street a show
man calls out the wonders of Il bov
with elephantiasis Of the legs, a
COW with two heads, and a man
who deties two horses to pull his
limbSapart. In the next cellar, so
another man asserts, admission is
free, and the thirty prettiest women
in the city wait upon the custo-
mers. Some Scandinavian sailors,
half tipsy, + tumbling down the
steps. They mingle with the
crowd at the tables, and one of the
torlorn and overlooking attendants
sits opposite each one Soiled vel
vet basques and gay colored short
skirts call to mind the peasants on
the operate stage.
The growing partially in this
county for apartment life in prefer
ence to the four-story, brown-stonc,
hlgh-stoop mansions which have
been the dream and ambition of.
New Ork matrons for these many
years past, is s~trikingly exemplifed
m the rapidity with which the new
hnickerbocker flats on Fifth aven-
Ne and wont eirhtb .t,o.