The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-08
WAKEFUL NIGHT.
Hours of Darkness Made Hideous by
Anger and 0vercrowding.
''L. Cont. Furniture repaired"

sI4. Cont Furniture repaired"
Ordinarily that sign would not arouse
nv interest, but when read in the dingy
light of smoky street lamp at the head
of First street, just before midnight, it
fixed my attention.
''I'm within the Italian quarters nowp'
was the mental note made as glanced
up the dark street A row of irregular
teneme nts, fringing the sidewalks as close
as the law allows, and straight up and
down was all that / saw.
l had seen that street swarming with
women and children and men, stretched
out on the stone pavement, curled up on
the stoops, sitting, leaning, lying on coal
bins and ash boXes-all seeking relief
from the sweltering rest places within.
But it was cool last night.
The squalid tenements were not an un-
welcome refuge from the chill and damp
ness of the outside air.
would have walked up the street, but
l only stumbled, The contour of the
street had been destroyed by underground
disturbances that turned the paving
stones up on end and threw every build
ing out of plumb. If the Rome of the
ancients rested on seven hills, this more
modern and very much more local Rome
rests on Thousand humps-h1lls just tall
enough for one to stub his toes on, wales
Just deep enough to betray one into an
ugly misstep to the damage of his nose.
So, by force of circumstances, | Just
stumbled along through the darkened
street to see what of misery and squalor
the midnight hour concealed.
A saloon or two was open, and the noise
of italian disputes escaped through the
transom into the streets. A man stood in
confidential consultation with two women
on an arid lot. A little party of chatter
ing lazzaroni sat on one of the stoops
A woman emerged from.a door hidden
in an angle of the wall.
man Quinn, as she swept past him, her
tattered wrapper tapping in the breeze.
"I'ye got to find my child"
No other signs of life were visible any
where.
Little Italy was asleep.
Quinn inspected me carefully as | ap-
proached him Just in time to overhear his
dialogue with Kate. A collar, necktie,
a waXed mustache, a hat without a break,
a coat without q fringe, is q badge of sus-
picion in that district.
"Looking arounds" he questioned, as,
after an anxious peer into my face, he
...He had to go in there, for a noisy disturb
ance at the head of the rickety stairs that
had lust borne Kate" to the sidewalk
summoned him.
We stumbled over woman before we
struck the stair. quinn SAID the grumDle
of her sleep as she rolled out of our way
was an Italian oath. A man was kicked
| from slumber on the staircase. Into the
hall above half dozen doors opened from
as many rooms.
each rooms boarding house, the
| officer commented as he threaded his
way amongt he sleeping throng in the hall
| over to the room he sought.
! On pallet of straw there lay in one
| corner of the room an old woman; in the
| opposite corner q child held baby to her
breast. An olive-faced fellow, in the
stupor of rum, lay by her side, while at
her feet were two quarreling fellows with
| towsed hair falling over low brows.
"Boarders quarreling about the girl!'
| the officer remarked. THE same old
lstoryl Every night here it happensr'
was the comment with which he dis
missed it.
Then we picked our way through the
sleeping throng in the halls, down the
creaking stairway to the street again.
The first long breath we took was when
we passed from the fetid atmosphere of
the place into the fresh air.
A motherly old goat was in sole possess
sion Of the stoop. No crowd pressed her
No air foul with reeking filth and besot-
ted breaths offended her nostrils. The
canopy OF heaven was her ceiling, and