Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-05-16
OUR NEW YORK ITALY.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE ITALIANS
AMONG US.
How the Forty Thousand italian Citi-
zsus of New York Live-Banksrs, Art
lists, Actors. Street Musicians and Rag


SPECIAL CorrespondenceI
| NEW York, May lO-Salvini and Rossi
may play Hamlet" in their native tongue
in New York city, and TO an exclusive audi
ence of their own countrymen, If so desired;
while the drama of spectacle is historically
woven in our minds as well with Sangali
Morlacchi and Venturoh, whose graceful
pirouettes belonged TO feet and figures,
grace and talent of Italian nationality
Centre street, Bleecker. Spring, Rose. Mul-
berry Eighth and Seventh avenues are
largely occupied by Italian tradeSmen, while
| Crosby street is almost entirely So From
Contsri & Co, bankers on Wall street. 70
the junk shops on Hudson street, nearly
every business and occupation known to gen
eral life is carried on by the Italians
among US. who number, according TO the
estimate Of the Italian consul about 10000
in this city and 400. 900 in the United States
This brings Italy pretty close to our gates
maccaroni. organ, monkey and all When
Consul Baffo was asked il there were any
real Simon pure Italian aristocracy in this
city of the American nobility, he answered,
with jolly laugh:
~Oh, dear, no! They are quite able to re-
main ut home"
So thought Hurrah for a country
where all creation who were too poor to stay
at home could come and ride Scot-free over
our heads If they have a mind, into wealth
office and honor. What a big bird, this
eagle of oursl What breadth of wing; what
sheltering power!
Three Italian newspapers make a good liy-
ing In New York city. and with wine Dealers
confection and maccaroni manufacturers,
live splendidly. There are several almost
exclusive localities where hardly any other
tongue Is spoken than the velvet-t toned
Italian The Hotel D'Italis on Green street
is large lodging house filed to the chimneys
with a laborlng class. where beds can be OBJ
tained for twenty-fiy cents per night, and
they are always full The Pellegrini house,
with restaurant on Irving place, opposite
the Academy OF Music. Is directly the op-
posite In caste as it 10 in location.
Down on notorious Thompson street is
the Hotel Ticino where the native
sons OF Italy congregate on first arriving
much as sailors hover around sailors board
ing house On odoriferous Rose street, under
the shadow of the largest publishing house
in the United States, is quite a
famous Italian center, known as "Moz-
zarellos," or Hotel Italiano" This
place does a large business 1t is a sort of
exchange. Tickets for all parts of the world
can be bought information given to all, and
about everything. and a kind of general in
telligence headquarters besides Some things
have happened in that vicinity with stilleto
and dirk that color up the dark side of life
in New York with a bright carmine There
are some quarters better known to the police
as holes" where the monkey owners and
the beggars hive together, and where expe-
,{a,, Nh.t l.
gray in a nighs- Chiliren, iil-fed and in
rags, listening to foul oaths and vulgarities;
women who long since parted with all that
was 'womanly;" men so steeped I'm low life
that the monkey is a gentleman beside them
These ''holes" are found in various parts of
the city; some between Pearl and East river
on various streets; again in the vicinity of
Five Points, in the woolly alleys off old
Thompson. and even in the alleys out of
Wooster street
Turning to the better classes, the CONNER
cial and educated element, and Italy is better
represented There are twelve Italian banks
in New York. Cantoni & Co. Bancs Gallo
and Banca Lombarda being the largest
The medical fraternity is ably represented
in seven native physicians. The legal fra
ternity fellowship> with two distinguished
Italian attorneys-"advocatesS as they are
properly termed in their 67Sh language.
Among the sculpto and artists is Giovanni
Terenzini, whose model of Garihaldi won him
fame all over the world
Terenzini is a student from the Academy
of Arts at Carrara; he occupies place in the
front rank of the worlds artists Nestore
Corradi is another eminent sculptor, whose
home is in New York There is not room In
& limited newspaper article to properly set
forth the works Of these great artists Alone
it would fill an interesting magazine sketch
Professors of music are numerous OF course.
Importers in various wares and manufactures
are important members of the commercial
circles of New York
The restaurant business Is line in which
our Italian brothers flourish and regularly |
throw the American in the shade. Twenty |
seven Italian restaurants of note are here |
some of them known all over the country |
and there are some nobody would admit |
knowing.
The Italian population are mainly Cath |
oiics, and havo no separate national homes |
or asylums, but there are several benevolent !
institutions and societies that do a general |
charity work wholly among their own |
people apart from all religious orders They |
help the poeT TO work and feed the hungry, |
and save tho already over-full refugees of the |
city from TN otherwise large increase of !
patients and inmates
These societies are not strictly charitable |
institutions, but to degree social and pleas
ure seeking but have a care over certain !
classes and portions Of their people, particu-
larly their membership In the eighteen so ,
cieties there is a membership of 9 l04, with
fund. net, of Sl34. l2a The Italian Rife
tall f,1itt
Zatiou-
The common Italian laborers are engaged
on nearly all public works, and form a large
part OF the muscle and sinew Of railroad |
work, sewer building, etc There are some
skilled workmen among the Italians, too. II
any one will take the trouble to study up
the different classes of this foreign citizen
ship they will find a portion Of the very
poor, whose na ural abilities are good, but
so 0bscured by ignorance that the little
space between human and brute is hard to
define These people are mostly ragpickers,
men and women, who ransack ash barrels
and actually subsist from the garbage they
rake over in the street; also, the organ
grinders and some few fruit and peanut
venders They are fathers and mothers sur
rounded by sad-eyed little children.
These poor peOp'e are not mentally vigor-
ous enough to be vicious or evil They live
as best they can, with no hope Of anything
beyond supplying the ply steal needs, mostly
food and covering, and Ike the animals do
not cavil at the quality or kind. Too many
Of them are driven to this life by those who
profit by their labor ami gatherings While
the police and humanitarians are doing all
in their power to stop this peculiar traffic,
It is carried on all the same and manages to
slude detection most Of the time.
Attendance at school is fair, but the aver
age Italian children are poor, and are not