The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-27
The Worlds Busiest Street Fluently
Described by a Writer in
Scribners.
Everybody Seems in O Hurry to
Catch Somebody Else
Ahead.
The Business Mans Section, tho shopping
Woman's Section, and the Place
Where Actors Meet.

The business man knows Broadway as q
street blocked with moving d avs and
wagons, with pavements which move with
unbroken lines of men, and that are shut
in OH either side by the tallest of tall build
ings, writes II. H. Davis in Scribners. 1t is
a place where no one strolls, II where n
man can as easily swing his cane as a
woman could wear a train. Pedestrians do
not walk steadily forward here, or in u
straight line, but dodge in and out like
runners on Il football field. They all seem
to be trying to reach the bank to have u
check cashed before three O'Clock. The
man who stops to speak to a friend, or to
gaze into n shop window, is jostled and
pushed and shouldered to one side; every
one seems to be- trying to catch up to the
man Just in front of him; and everyone
has something to do aul something on his
mind to think of, too, if his face tells any
thing.
So intent are they on their pyramids that
they would not recognize their own wives if
they passed them by. This is the spot on
Broadway where the thermometer marks
fever heat. 1t is the great fighting ground
of the city, where the battle of business
goes on from eight o'clock in the morning
until three in the afternoon, at which time
the work flags a little and grows less and
less hurried until five, when the armies de-
Glare an armistice for the day and march
of uptown to plan a fresh campaign for
the morrow. The armies begin to arrive
before eight and gather from every point
OF the compass. The ferry boats land
them by thousands and hurry back across
the river for thousands more, the elevated
roads marshal them from far uptown,
gathering them by companies at each sta
ton. whore they are unloaded and scattered
over the business districts in regiments.
They como over the Brooklyn bridge by
tens of thousands, in one long endless pro-
c%ession, and cross the city hall pack at a
quick step. 1t is one of tho most impress
slve sights the city has to offer.
The shopping district begins about Tenth
street, and is bounded on the north by the
latitude of Twenty-third. where the prone
made begins and continues on up iLdeti-
nitely to Forty-second street. One is as
likely to see a man here as at an afternoon
tea, and if one should dare to venture in, it
is only for one of two reasons: either he is
the husband or brother of some wife or SIS
ter in the suburbs, who has asked him to
run up town at lunchon-time and match
something for her, or he is there because
the women are there, ana he has come to
look at them. In the first place he is en-
titled to your pity, and in the second place
as we'll, for his occupation, though individu-
ally satisfactory. is not profitable. The
business district is very grim and very real,
the shopping district is all color, and move
ment. and variety. 1t is not the individual
woman IL sees here, but woman
glance at a beautiful face, or of a BRILL
ant or an .o~utraGeously in appropriate
gown, but it is only a glimpse, and tho face
10 lost in a composite photograph of faces,
the expression OF which seems to be one of
decided anxiety. For it 10 apparently a
very serious business, this. shopping. The
shoppers do not seem to be altogether happy,
for they have heard, perhaps, of a place
whore you can get the same lace Aonnce
for two cents q yard less than al the other
place, where you got the last lot, inc they
are pressing Oh before it is all gone. They
are as keen over their bargains in trim
mings and gloves AZ their husbands down
town are over the rise and fall in oil, and
they certainly do not look as if they were on
pleasure bent. On the contrary, they seem
to have much upon their minds. On a
sunny, bright morning. when it is possible
for them to wear their best bravery without
fear of rain, Broadway holds, apparently,
every woman of means in the city. Who
stays at home to take care of the baby, and
who looks after the fiat? is a question. |
use the word fat ad~visedly, because all
women who show below Union square and
along fourteenth street, live in flats. Above
Union square they occupy apartments. 1t
il n very fine distinction.
Union Square il bounded on the south by
that famous ST ! p of pavement known to
New Workers who read the papers as the
Rialto. This is The promenade of actors,
but a very different class indeed from the
polished gentlemen who brighton nppe
Broadway. They are just as aggressiyelv
conspicuous, but less beautiful, and they
are engeged in waiting for something to
turn up. They have just returned from a
tour which opened and closed at Yonkers,
and they cannot tell why. they have como
back ito r~e-organize'' as they express it,
and to start afresh next week with another
manager and greater hopes. They live
chiefly on hope. 1t is said it is possible to
cast IN one morning any II of Shake
speare's plays, to equip any number of
farce companies and to "o~rganize'' three
Uncle Toms Cabin combinations, with
even more than the usual number of
Marks the lawyer, from this melancholy
market of talent, that ranger about ths
theatrical agencies and costumers' shops