Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-25
Of THE EVENING STAR.

~--'~N fkCIl@lAA LADIES.
Correspondence Of The EVENING STAR |
New YORK, May a.
Notwithstanding the mixture of races that |
distinguishes the population of New York city |
the residents of this town have distinct traits |
and characteristics that are peculiar to them !
selves, no matter whether their fathers came |
from Ireland, Germany, Maine or Louisiana |
And these traits not noticeable in any
other community that have any knowledge
Of The first and most characteristic trait of
the New Yorker is the faculty he has of sleep
ing at any time and under any circumstances.
Going down town in the elevated railroad train
IN the morning, whether at the hour when the
mechanics and day laborers ride. or later when
the bankers, brokers and magnates of business
generally set out for their offices, look about
you in the cars and will wager a new hat that
if there is a bona de New Yorker who ism read
ing newspaper he Will be fast asleep. Coming
home at night you can count more men Sleep
ing than reading, although these conditions
are reversed in the morning. Take cross
town or an uptown horse-car in the middle of
the day. and will wager two hats and a four
finland scarf that, if there are five people rid
ing. one will be asleep. l have seen women
sitting on stools IN great dry-goods stores at 4
o'clock in the afternoon fast asleep. have
seen the managing editor of a daily evening
have watched truck and car-drivers nodding
over the reins in crowded street. and in this
city at least the chestnut of the photographers
about policemen sleeping on their beats has
| the proof of actual fact. don't attempt to ac-
count for this chronic somnoence of New
Workers. 1t can't be the atmosphere, for /. an
adopted New Yorker of some ten years resi-
dence off and on, have never felt the drowsy
INCLINATION in the daytime unless | have been
kept awake the whole night before. Perhaps
| 1t Is the npXpr-lpt-ln strupplp for wealth and
| Tor living that makes men work more hours
and work harder than they should i'll this most
progressive OF the toiling cities of America.
| They tire themselves out with their daily occu-
| pations. and plenty of sleep is their only re-
| cuperatiOn.
CAUSE OF UNIVERSAL soMNoLENCE.
l believe this overwork is the cause Of the
| almost universal somnolence here Some men
have been putting up building opposite my
room during the last fortnight 1t is a large
| building. to be occupied by big retail firm,
| but to-day the plasterers are at work on the
walls inside, so rapid has been the labor of
construction. have watched the men at work
sometimes, and l have noticed the feverish
haste each individual workman displays. No
movement however difficult, is made with
| delberatiOn. The bricklayers did not set each
brick on the other-they threw them in their
| places. The laborers carrying mortar over the
loists to the engine that hosts things to the top
did not walk-thev ran. The plasterers to-day
| strained their necks constantly looking up at
their work above their heads, but they never
| stopped moment to rest, assistants handing
them fresh plaster from below as fast as they
ran short. No wonder that these poor fellows
fall asleep on the way home at night. And it
| Is the same in every calling. Rush, hurry.
overtake this fellow here, get ahead of that
chap there. catch this car by running at top
! speed because it is thirty seconds ahead of the
car behind it. Take the elevated road instead
of the horse-car to ride four squares because
you will gen a minute-that is New York. l
thank Heaven sometimes that was born lazy.
| may not make so much money, but take
| heap more comfort
| A third trait of New Workers is their eager
ness TO read the newspapers. There are one or
two good daily journals In this town and some
| twenty-odd poor ones. but the poor ones as
| well as the good are read with an avidity APP
| preaching downright hunger for print. /
| have seen men fight on a Sunday morning for
| the last copy of certain sheet left on a news
| stand, and the defeated fellow wouldn't buy
any of the far better journals left in plenty.
but walked dozen blocks to get the particular
| newspaper he admired. 1t is fortunate for a
good many newspapers that this is trait of
New Workers.
| NEW YORK CURIOSITY.
| New Yorker is the most curious of all the
\ earth's creatures. Certain newspapers, by
| delving into private scandals and skeletons in
| family and other closets. encourage and foster
| this trait. New York women, to all appear
| ances well-bred. will stare at any oddity in ap-
parel, any popularity of personality in another
| of their sex, with the most sublime rudeness.
In no other city have l seen well-bred women
| evince this vulgar curiosity. A man fallen in
a fit draws a crowd big enough to fill Iowa cir
| cle and a horse down on the pavement will
| block the street across from one side to an
other so as to prevent traffic. The clang of the
| gong of an ambulance dashing through a street
| Will fill every window on either side with in
| qulring faces and eagerly curious eyes,
| although hundred times before the same eyes
| have appeared for the same reason, and have
never seen anything but the black wagon and
| the galloping horse. If the black wagon were
full to the top with mangled limbs, crushed
heads and distorted features, they could still
see no more than the wagon and horse, per-
| haps the surgeon and driver. and they know it,
| too. But still they look, and they always will.
| LOVE OF PROFESSIONS.
New Workers just dote on professions A fu-
neral with one hearse and four carriages will
draw a crowd of half thousand, and when the
| diminutive cortege moves off at trot as New
| York funerals are in the habit of moving the
| half thousand pairs of eyes will glisten with
happy satisfaction. The parade of a company
of hundred uniformed men will be followed
| through half the streets of the city by crowd,
| and band of music at the head of it will make
| a genuine New Yorker wild with excitement
| The New Workers. craze for professions is
| proved by the yearly parade which Barnums
circus gives every spring on some Saturday
night. People will secure positions of vantage
on the curbstones long before the parade of
wagons and Gagged animals is due, and wait
| patiently three or four hours for the sake of
| seeing what the average country boy wouldn't
| stop his pillow team to look at.
RIDICULINa SERIOUS MATTERS.
| The New Yorker likes to have everything
ridiculed which he does not understand or
| take an interest in, and the newspapers as
rule cultivate this trait in their readers There
| are one or two journals which do not but these
are voted too dull and prosy to read. And,
| truth to tell, they are papers which are away
behind their contemporaries in money making.
When distinguished body Of scientists held a
convention here year ago there was only one
newspaper that gave fair report of the pro-
ceedings. All the rest regarded the assem-
blage of brainy investigators as a great Joke
and their reports were in the main attempts
to be funny over the long hair of Professor
This or the spectacles of Doctor That. or else
there were comical illusions to the long names
of certain species in entomology and a hint to
the society that it would be a blessing to hu-
mainly ii some scientific light were shed upon
the American bedbug And the august and
dignltied Presbyterian general assembly that
has just been held in New York has been treated
by some OF the newspapers in the same way. |
"Dye read that account of the Presbyterians'
excursion down the bay in the Ecening p" |
asked one well-dressed gentleman of another |