The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-15
IN A LITTLE STREET.
A Phase of New York Life Not Seen
Through the Windows.
Especial Correspondence.

Through the Windows.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, April 5.-My passion has al
ways been to study all the phases of the So
ciety of a great city. Isay phases, not strata,
for society, think, is one, and each of us is,
in degree, responsible for the vices of our
neighbors, and more agreeable thought has
a share in their virtues l have spent many
years in this study and my success has been
as great as that of the minnov that tried to
devour whale.
Yet have mixed more or less with every
large set in New York except that most ex-
elusive Of all; the professional criminals. 1t
is hard for anyone not criminal or a Grim
inal lawyer to force his way into this set,
which, Judged by the test which is usually
applied in such cases. must be composed Of
our very best society.
The study of the society of large city has
a much keener interest when united with the
study of the development Of mankind from
savagery to such civilization as they have
thus far reached. The most useful handbooks
of the latter study are the tables prepared at
SO great expense under the direction of Her.
bert Spencer Strangely enough our own
native races span large arc in this growth,
and give America what, until recently, she
never dreamed of possessing, an important
place in the real history of mankind.
In these parallel studies | began with a
theory that | have never seen any strong
reasons for changing or adhering to, that in
every large city you find survivals from
every stage of growth through which man.
kind has passed.
Perhaps as agreeable way as any other of
studying a city is to take each street and re-
gard it as an individual, though this method
is subject to the objection that death will
overtake you before you have got half way
through one street, or indeed one house.
Thorough people, therefore, had best begin
with short street, and of short streets
know of none where the moralist sociologfst
and artist will find more food for thought
and fancy than in Ann street, the little street
that runs east from The Herald building.
This street is one of the centers of the fakirs
the small street peddlers-and the rag
dealers trade; and is the Wall street of the
down town gamblers.
This last class, who form a sort of natural
aristocracy in the region dominated by tht
Rocky Mountains, are looked upon with les:
favor IN J1e edSU. lHOuBu IuelI SUduudTu Ol
morals is somewhat higher than that Of
stock brokers, they have never been held SO
cially much above them They cannot, how
ever. fail to be of interest to the student, fol
they are clearly survivals of the period wher
men first began to worship changeless mum
hers. Most of them are martyrs to the creed
of Pythagoras.
Press through the crowd of bunco steerers
bootblacks, mudlarks, gllttersnipes and news
boys that block up your way and enter one Of
the narrow passageways on either side of AM
street What pleasant change as soon a
you have passed the iron-barred gatel Yot
see club room with roulette table and {
faro bank in opposite corners. If it is about
2 or in the afternoon you are asked to par
take of an excellent dinner.
What is the strange fascination OF tn
green CLOTH 1t is hard for mathematician