The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-01-06
z KNOW A GOOD THING WHEN YOU SEE IT? CT
CLARABELLE'SSUNDAYTALK
She DeyOtes Part of Her Space to the
BOwery and Its Feminine Habitues.
UnprOmising Appearance of Immigrants as
They Walk Up broadway Coming Gen.
test Between the Leaders of Fashion.
speeial to the Inaianapolis Journal.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
NEW YORK, Jan. 5.-Let us go to see the
BOwery girls for relief from the fashion,
able bellies of Fifth avenue. The Bowery!
What savory word that is! Suggestive of
shade trees, twittering birds and bub-
bling brooks. And the time was when
birds twittered and brooks bubbled in sure
enough fashion, when red and beefy Kniek-
erbOckers idled away the soft summereven-
ings with the green turf and foliage to set
off their silver buckles and effiorescent
noses. The erstwhile grassy lane shOuldnow
be called the Powwowery. 1t is the noisiest
place in the world to begin with, and
in the matter of dirt holds a royal flush.
You will find no astheticism there, no low
toned green's and dreamy music, but you
will find life-howling whirling, tawdry
life. 1t is, indeed, mess. The elevated
trains snort through the air exactly over
the sidewalks, by windows where glimpses
of dreadful life are caught. The bare
rooms of fve-cent lodging houses, swarm
ing with fiye-cent humanity; homes with
half-dressed families pushing food into
themselves, mostly on knives; women at
tubs, women on their knees scrubbing.
women spanking squalling babies, women
always at work. The street-cars, many of
them carrying out an active impression OF
Shantytown on wheels, use up nearly the
entire surface of the street, and the awful
dime-museums. with their hideOus canvas
pictures of freaks, and the diseased music
roaring from the tomb-like entrances, are
sufficient to drive stranger to drink.
On this Broadway Of the lower wards the
girls from Hester and Cherry streets do the
sidew alks on a bright afternoon, just as the
thoroughbreds uptown haunt in the efful-
gence of the other thOrOughfare. There are
no Paris bOnnets in the milliners' windows.
The feminine head-gear displayed there
scarcely e,shales any intimation more for
eign than what we could find in New Jer-
sey, but it is all studied as relgiously as
though the customs mark were on it. And
the female denizen in her war-paint is not
out to hirt with dudes, but principally with
sailors, 'lOngshOremen and countrymen.
One sad sight occasionally on the Bowery
is that of pretty and innocent young girls,
with perhaps nothing on warmer than
clinging calico wrapper and bit of shawl
drawn over the head, diving into smoky
bar-rOOms crowded with men to get great
wash pitchers filled with beer. The news
papers directed crusade not long ago
against the practice of permitting mere ba-
bies to buy beer, but, while it was carried
on with great force, the babies continued
to get their pitchers filled, and are doing SO
into doorway and take long pull at the
beer before carrying it home to the "Old
woman" The BOwery is really the main
artery into which some very unhealthy
veins pour their contents, and without its
electric lights, its swarming crowds and it's
plenty of police it would not be just the
incest place to select for quiet promenade.
But under the present condition of things
it is only vulgar and dirty. scarcely danger
Gus.
often see gang Of immigrants plodding
up Broadway, awkward, open-mOuthed,
looking SO miserable and poor that it seems
as if they and our country would have been
in luck had the wretches died on the pass
age over. Sometimes one carries trunk
on his shoulder, but oftener handker-
chief, red one on a stick, stuffed with tin
pans and bread baked in Europe. This is
the new blood of our Nation. Italians,
Irish, Swedes, Poles, Russians, dirty to
man, ignorant, poorer than an American
can get and exist, over here expecting to
pick gold pieces off the pavements, and
raise children for the presidency. Well, 1
suppose the latter performance is a posi-
bility. How can we know that some dusty
Swedish boy in canvas trousers. wearing
his hair banged across the back of his neck,
and walking with the rhythmic amble of a
kangaroo, won't get a situation as BARRIERS
assistant, stick to his trust get a chair,
earn some money, buy shop, marry a buxom
young woman, have an heir, healthy, am
bilious boy, who will grow up popular. get
| elected sheriff, then Mayor, then Governor.
| then President? presume he can do it as
well as anyone. But the women are the in
teresting ones. A foreign girl is always
picturesque, especially if she has a pretty
| face and figure, as she frequently has.
What, wonder always, is to be done by all
| these women. Well, l imagine they. will be
like most of their sex. They will look as
men, no matter what station they are in.
| AS they ascend the social scale their pride
| will grow. In the way OF populating their
| adopted country. the Irish and Italians will
| excel. While they remain poor, there will
be new boy OF girl each year. When they
| get millions, and require the opera and low
| cut bodices, children would be such bore
| that the dear little cherubs will stay out of
grey-eyed Irish girls smell more or less of
| the storage now, but If they get money they
can buy sweet lavender and win all
the losds that England can send over. They
| have come to quite the proper shop. They
| have invaded land where the possibili-
| tiles are well-nigh imitless, but, be it
remembered, where one may live just as
| mean and worthless a life as he can in any
4 L
see these immigrant gangs, / feel like tell
| ing them that Incidence, discomfort and
envy cannot bring prosperity here any more
| than such vices will in any other sections
but am afraid they may not understand
my language, so just keep quiet and study
| their gaits. do not think / ever saw a
| graceful immigrant. Some walk like ducks
others like camels, and all seem more or
less spawned. rheumatic and tired. When
they have cultivated pride, all these imper-
fections Will be knocked out of them.
AS to those who ride in chaises, while the
| poor walk, the handsome and fashionable
wife of the Vice-president-elect is noted
for the possession of the most remarkable
coachman. William White, who sits stiffly
ON the high drivers seat of Mrs. Morton's
carriage, was once in the employ of the
| Prince of Wales, and was brought to this
country by the Marquis of Lorne while that
aristocrat was Governor-general of Can
ada. He has been in the employ of Levi p.
| Morton four or five years, and is q sort of
example to the other family cOachmen Of
Fifth avenue in department.. The manner
| in which he tips his hat upon being ques-
| ora his stiff hac cd