Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-15
SUNDAY NIGHT IN NEW YORK.
A "Star" Correspondent Finds 1t ,
Lively Town Sabbath Evening.

Lively Town Sabbath Evening.
THE FAMILY OF KITTENS AND THE FUNNY
BILLIARDS, BEER, AND POKER UNDER THE
FEET OF cHURcH-eoERs-rHE ''wHIrEcHAPEL"
AND OTHER DIVES WIDE OPEN.
| Correspondence Of TIKI EVENING srAa.
NEW YORK. June IA.
There is sometimes much amusement and no
| little instruction to be got out Of an evenings
| walk about New York, but until last Sunday
evening did not know how completely the
| dullest day of the week for countryman can
be turned into the liveliest dav of the week for
a dweller in Gotham. like my Sundays to be
dull, and for that reason had spent last Sun
day in the most secluded nook in New jersey,
where there are woods, and waters and no hint
of paved streets or brick buildings. When
came back to town at o'clock at night was
hungry, and the nearest place for refreshment
was on an Sth avenue corner some
eleven squares away. Horse-cars went in
] all directions but that one, SO l
walked. AS I neared a church building
about half way to my destination l saw a large
crowd of men and boys (the neighborhood was
rather tough one) congregate on the sidewalk
| by the lecture room entrance to the church
! eulhce. am as curious any of my fellow
New Workers, so | eibowed my way through
| the crowd to see what the attraction was On
the lower step of the stone stairway that led
| from the street to the lecture room door in the
basement lay big black and white cat. 1t
| TOOK me minute or so to discover
| tnat there were also three tiny
] black and white kittens crawling over and
| around their nSther, sometimes making play
ful jumps at the old cats waving tail, and some
| times rolling over one another in kittenish
| wrestle that epded with nobody's being hurt.
And there stood crowd of over a hundred
men, women and children silent wondering
/ impressed. Men in their shirt sleeves smoking
| pipes; young bruisers with hats clapped on the
| sides or their heads and cigarettes between
| their lips; scrub-women with red bare arms;
barefooted girls mischievOus boys. all for the
| moment were absorbed in the contemplation
of the innocent and playful antics of these
| three kittens. Rough and mischievous as were
| the boys, rough and brutal looking as were
some of the men, there was not one among
them who would have harmed one of the in
| nocent creatures on the stone stairway
The church doors opened and the good
| Methodists filed out. Some of them stopped
| for an instant to swell the crowd that watched
| the kittens, and then hurried along. At length
a man OF apparent vast Importance stepped
| IRON the church doorway. He was evidently
leader of some sort, deacon or generalissimo
or something. His bristling white necktie be-
spoke Importance, and the swell of his bosom
underneath great expanse of home-laundered
! shirt-front, betohend the man who probably
wasn't born to command, but had had great
ness thrust where he could grab it and hang on
TO 1t, He saw the crowd of people and frowned.
Then he saw the cat and kittens and he scowled.
With gesture Of naughty arrogance he turned
on his heel and Immediately reappeared with a
| nunheylsh sort OF parsonage, evidently the sex
ton. He pointed to the cat and kittens. and
! the hunkeylsh parsonage ambled with an I'M
mistakable church-aisle tread toward the
happy family. The mother-cat's fine
instinct spotted an enemy, and she rose at bay
with every hair bristling and her tail swollen
! TO double Its normal size. The sexton stopped
IN hesitation at the hostile demonstration, and
the crowd laughed. Then the turnkey glanced
| at his naughty master for approval, took a
loose brick from the side Of the church and
! aimed it at the kitten
drop it, We hound"
| big griZZled laborer with short clay pipe
| IN his mouth pushed his way in at the main
entrance to the church-yard, and shook his
! INST at the turnkey he stood between the
| threatening missile and the family of feines.
drop 1t, he repeated, ''or I'll throttle yer'
He looked as if he would, too, and the turnkey
dropped the brick Then the laborer took off
his hat, and in it he put the three kittens The
Old cats anger subsidized. and her instinct told
her she had friend. The laborer carried the
kittens across the street and into an alley, and
the mother cat followed.
-.
Then went to my place Of refreshment.
| Week days it is a combination of beer and
whisky upstairs and billiards and sausages in
the basement. didn't know what it might be
Sunday nights, and had heard that Mayor
| Grant was a severe censor in the matter OF
excise. 1t was dark as Erebus, apparently, go
sought the side door. 1t was locked Then
at the risk OF poaching upon private preserves
| l turned the knob of the door of the nearest
fat-building ON the side street. and got in. A
door from the fats hallway let me into another
| room, and by degrees worked my way into
the barroom, which was darkened, and thence
down the stairs into the basement, where,
much 10 my wonder, there was a bar in full
blast so feet long, tables crowded with Gus
toners drinking beer, billiard and pool-tables
| In full operation, men playing cards and DOM
inoes-in fact, quite the liveliest evening had
ever seen in this particular cellar right under
people OF New York were at that time tramping
| their several ways homeward from
church., ignorant that the monster
of sin whom they had been
| helping to fight that night was lurking right
under their feet. had to take a remote table,
| things were so crowded and while was wait
| ing for my sausages and-yes, beer-I admired
| some handsome and odd vases that were on a
shelf right under the roof along the sides of
the place. One particularly grotesque mug,
carved in the shape Of bootleg, struck my
fancy. Some young men at an adjoining table
followed my glances, and they, too, ad-
mired the bootleg. After while,
when the walters were all in another
part OF the room, one of the young men who
was seated directly under the thick glass disc
that was imbedded in the sidewalk to give the
place daylight, reached up with his cane and
began poking diligently at a chain or piece of
iron on the bottom of the disc. As the waiter
brought my order he stopped, but renewed his
work after the waiter had gone, and noticed
that he had on red-striped cuffs. Finally he
ceased, the score for his party was settled and
they went out 1t must have been fully ten
| minutes after I had finished my meal. and
was half DOING over a cigar, when felt rather
than saw something moving on the roof above
my head. l looked up, but at first saw nothing
strange, and thought had been mistaken.
| Then l heard slight grating sound, some
plaster or dirt ratified down upon table, and,
looking up, saw the disc in the roof raised SO
that 1t rested on its circumference. Then an
arm reached in, red-striped cuff was visible,
and in a twinkling the carved boot leg was
whisked off its shelf and into the outer air, A
waiter saw 1t at the instant of disappearance and
not knowing what else to do, yelled. The disc
came down with bang, scattering dirt in nv
| eyes, and the waiter excitedly told the story in
| German to his fellows. or course there was a
| great commotion but it was ten minutes before
anybody thought of doing anything, and then
the "bouncer" went over to the police station
to make a complaint.
We were all lawbreakers down there in that
cellar, every mothers son of us, and began to