Mexico weekly ledger., 1886-03-18
NEW YORK GOSSIP.
Capital VS.. LabOr-The Street Car
Strike-Ludl0w Street jail and the
Famous ''Crooks'' it has held
Imprisonment for Debt. sc.
Correspondence OF the Ledger.

nsr the colossal proportions of that
5 socialistic organization known as the
knights of Labor. One by one the
different street car companies sub
mitted gracefully to the demands of
their employees and the strike ap-
pertaining to each was scarcely in
augurated before it had ended. But
when the Dry Dock road and its
branches was ''tied up" riot be-
came imminent and very nearly
transpired. The company was de-
termined to make test case of it.
Alas, for the struggle of capital
against labor. The Knights got an
iukling of the fact that other COM
panies were backing the Dry Dock
company and forthwith resolved up
on heroic measures. They ordered
every driver and conductor in the
city to stop work, and the order was
obeyed. The details of the strike.
how cars that the company attempt
ed to run were captured and capsiz-
ed how coal carts became myster-
iously stuck ON the tracks and were
only got off by dumping their loads
on the spot how women piled stones
on the rails, and how the police
reserves were invoked and turned
out, but only awed the crowd to the
extent of preventing actual blood
shed, is no doubt familiar to your
readers, as also the sequel, so humili.
ating capital.
This organization has acquired its
great strength by adopting heroic
measures throughout. No sooner
did it embody majority of artisans
of every class than it began system
of coercion to swell its ranks. 1t
has been a good while since any
mechanic who was not a member
could get employment in New York
City, and it influence now extends
to every class of labor. To join it
is not only protective measure but
necessity. 1t is already autocratic
and it only remains to be seen
whether or not its power will be
abused.
Grand street, the centre of the
late riotous scenes, is peculiarly fit
ted to be so distinguished. 1t is the
preeminently clash street of New
York. Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lud.
low. Pitt, and dozen other streets
all lead off from it in short lengths
and from pockets in which it keeps {
large and assorted collection of rough
types elsewhere known and elsewhere
unknown. It was in the vicinity o.
Goerck street at its junction will
Grand that the hardest and mos
desperate fighting took place in the
famous war riots. Grand street it
self is the Tom Tiddlers ground ot
shoppers with modest financial re
sources; only that instead of gold
the shoppers pick up only that which
glitters without guarantee of being
genuine. 1t is the province of Crane
street to glitter and it may be said te
fulfill its destiny completely. Wher
the stranger from afar enters oul
gates and finds the glamour gone
from the Broadway and Bowery o.
his dreams, he has but to enter Crane
street to find himself enveloped IL
the delicious sense of novelty ant
unreality that most outsiders antici
pate when they prepare to visi
Gotham. 1t is here that some types
are developed that have been render
ed so famous by the paragraphist
Where else is the shop-girl to b.
found in the completeness of ne
glory, or the obsequious counter
jumper in the pristine loveliness o
the blondest of bangs, or the gener
Gus jeweler who sell you eightsel
carat solid at prices literally with
in reach of all"-or the dealer, who's,
name, in golden letters, is strung
along two whole blocks and who's,
stock in trade begins at the Alphi
and runs the entire gamut to th'
Omega Of variety.
In Ludlow street at the rear O
Essex market and visible from Crane
street is that famous relic of bar
barism, the counterpart of whicl
exists nowhere else at the presen
day; Ludlow street Jail, the debtors
prison. The building is plain and it
exterior offers no assistance to th.
imagination, busy with thoughts o
the long list of its illustrious inmates
1t is not always for debt that mel
are incarcerated here, though it i,
such imprisonments that make j
most famous. Here Tweed livet
and died here Stokes lived for many
months before Sing Sing swallowed
him up to disgorge him ten years
later, hero with sllvery hair ant
beauty that is god-like still. Herr
Fish lived in luxury only equalled by
that enjoyed by Ward-for this pris
on has luxurious apartments for prs
oners Of wealth and anything is per
mitted to them that can be purchased
and here one poor fellow was buried
for fifteen years for debt of fifty dol
lars, and was only resurrected to the
world the other day by the World
and not them from prison, but only
to the knowledge of his fellow Great.
urac Tt "a rnlr pauy anI fhat, fha,