Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-02-26
IN THE JEWISH QUARTER.
Children Everywhere and Very Noisy, Ex
cept ON Friday Nights.

Shlidrcn Everywhere ana Very Noisy, Ex'
cept ON Friday Nights.
Nowhere on the great east side are
SO many children to be seen in the
streets, doorways and windows as in
the narrow streets running from Grand
to East Broadway, and parts of Hester
and Canal streets as far as Forsyth
street, known as the Jewish quarter.
Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk streets are
especially the Fairgrounds for the sons
and daughters of the Russian and
Polish Hebrews They are all extreme
ly dirty and noisy, but apparently
very happy, although they are reared
amid the most unhealthful surround
ings. Their pale faces indicate the
effects of sleeping in unventilated
rooms. The streets and yards are
rarely clean, because the tenants of
the neighborhood throw refuse into
the streets when the police are not
looking.
II is impossible to pass through any
OF the crowded streets there during the
day without being jostled by children,
some OF whom may throw decayed vege-
tables from wagons in the cutters. At
night they run unrestrained, and only
when truck approaches and half a
dozen irate mothers snatch as many
children from under the horses hoofs,
does the stranger see any indication of
parental watchfulness. The most pecu-
liar and interesting feature noticeable
Is the variety of languages in which the
children express their thoughts. The
very young ones, and they are frequent
ly so small that they are like midgets,
go through the streets whooping in a
mixture of tongues, the jargon of their
parents. With each advancing year
more English words and phases are in
terpolated until after they have reached
school age and are instructed in Amer.
lean ways and ideas the English pre-
dominates, and the jargon phrases are
the interpretations, but very few of the
children conquer the principles of gram
matical construction completely.
While the foreign-born parents never
loose the timidity due TO the oppression
they suffered in their youth, their
children are distinguished for extreme
boldness. They are thoroughly dis
obedient to their parents and impudent
10 strangers. If stranger stops to
ask one of them a question, he will be
surrounded by dozen or more chill
dren, each of whom will furnish some
information, and incidentally ask the
stranger what he wants, where he is
going, and similar questions. A little
sternness usually checks their curios-
ity, however. The games in which
they indulge are interesting being fire.
quently a mixture of those known by
all city children, and some that are pc.
culiar 10 the foreign countries whence
their parents came.
After the stars come out on Friday
nights a stiffness settles on the un-
usually noisy streets The tenements
are bright with lights, and whenever il
is possible TO make rooms neat, energy
and industry are not lacking. The
fathers and brothers who travel through
the country with packs come home
then, and those who sell notions in the
streets are at home unusually early.
The children are thoroughly scrubbed
for once and are kept in the houses.
They don't object, either, because the
Friday night meals are unusually good
and the returning peddlers rarely fail
TO bring home some little gifts and a
stock of fresh stories. Nothing will
quiet the children so quickly as story,
whatever the subject. Until the close
of their Sabbath they are fairly well
behaved and the streets are pretty
quiet; then pandemonium reigns again.
N. Y. Sun.