Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-05-26
ARIZONA WEEKLY ENTERPRISE.
FLORENCE, MAYI26, 1888
NEW YoRK's POLISH JEWS.
People Whose Rules of Life Resemble
 Those of B bIe Times.

People Whose Rules of Life Resenbls
 Those of E bIe Times.
 On Sunday is the best time 10 see this colony, because then it offers the strangest and strongest contrast with the life that surrounds it. East Broad way is the main thoroughfare in this colony. The once grand avenue of the rich Qnakers of forty years ago the street that led to the houses of the progenitors of Henry Bargh and Berry Wall and the now aristocratic Roose- velts. The solid big houses are there yet, with thelr high stoops and broad fronts and mansion-like appearance, but how changed, how sadly changed. Pillows and carpets hang from their upper windows, what were once the dining rooms and parlors are packed thick with workmen and workwomen making clothing, and the windows and walls are lined with bales of the cheapest coats and trou- sers imaginable. Queer, blousy wom- en in greasy wigs and very odd-look- ing men in long boards are running hither and thither. The roadway and gutters are full of refuse and waste, the air is heavy with bad odors, the breath on all the window panes is the breath of squalor, neglect, and in" difference to appearance and comfort Very strange signs are over the doors. The characters are Hebrew. The only words we can read are the proper names, nearly all ending in the "let- ters ''sky" or "ski." Sunday to these folks, as to all but the liberal H l. brews, is as Monday is to us. There is only one way in which they observe our Sabbath. This is by closing their theaters They do ;Sls because our laws forbid their being opened.
 By mounting any one of a dozen flights of steps we can step from New York to modern Asia Minor almost to ancient Judea. It is in the synagogues that this change confronts us. They are bare, forlorn places-mere rooms full of benches-but they are highly inn l portant to this strange community. Here the rabbis preside, and the rabbi is, as he used to be, the chief source of authority and wisdom. He breaches here on Saturdays, teaches school all the week, holds court perpetually as a judge before whom all dissen. sons and disputes are brought, marries, christens, confirms, blesses, advises, exhorts, chastises, and in a word, guides and controls hi: flock. Like nearly all the men ht wears a velvet cap, and like all he re- frains from shaving his beard. Hi language is sometimes H 0 brew, but il most eases he uses the tongue of hi people, a singular mixture of HebreV v aud Polish, or Hebrew and the tongu of whatever other Slav race he be longs to. All about the neighborhoot are bookstores, and the books are al printed Tn one polyglot or anothe
 corresponding with the talk of tn
 people.
 The young girls are more or les fair and pleasing to the eye. Tn maj jority are swart, but some are yer! fair blondes with golden tresses. Al the married women look alike, how -av4,-,- for -s,ll-hava- shava@ thAi1'- hAasl
 and wear wigs-of black hair, pro ceeding in their looks from little stem
 of cord or horsehair. It is said tha this mechanism of the wig does no
 show when they are new, bu never saw one that did no show it's secrets any more than 1 eve
 saw a Chinaman's queue that was nc heightened with black thread or horse 5 hair These married women are mad
 10 look less attI active by tn cir fashio of wearing their waist bands almos
 under their armpits. The stronges
 predilection is of red dresses, an their next strongest is for wearin them for lengths of time exceedin
 human belief Their wigs serve in , stead of other head covering so tha f one is next to never seen in hat 0
 bonnet, no matter where or how ia
 she goes. Even on railroad journey : they go bare headed. They are nc
 allowed to cover while in chHrch
 where they sit apart from the mer
 and I have heard that among tn
 strictest of the orthodox the wome $ may not cover in the presence of the l. husbands. However. a perusal of Del
 teronomy and Leviticus (which I be e leave to state are books in the BiblC d will show exactly what the stricte |. rules of the race were, and, in il T. main. remain to-day.- Cor Pr0Uiden