The morning news., 1892-02-21
NEW YORK GOSSIP.
CIVIL MAFRIAGES-CITY HALL AS
HYMEN'S BOWER.
Tramp's Paradise-Beer and Bummers.

NCOpHTtght, lcsS, on the OnfteQ freSs.)
NEW YORK. Feb. 20-There is small
theater in this city where a performance
goes on every day except Sundays and legal
holidays. All the plays are comedies and
every actor a star.
This wonderful theater is the marriage
room in the city hall. The marriages there
average ten a day, and as many as twenty
have taken place in one day. A clerk acts
as stage manager and the policeman on
special duty at the hall is prompter, CALI
boy and doorxeeper.
Admission is free, and a crowded house
at every performance is the rule. Flowers
are always accepted, but the law of custom
prohibits applause. All the villains in the
plays are carefully disguised, and their
cruelties are reserved for the drama Of mar
ried life which is played later. On this
stage all the players are heroes and heroines,
and all the climaxes are happy ones.
A big room on the. south side of the city
ball on the first floor is set aside for wed-
dings Around the four sides of the room
are rows OF benches where the happy
couples sit and wait their turn. In the CEN
ter Of the room is big square table, where
the clerk fills out the blank applications
and the alderman stands while he reads the
ceremony.
Couples often arrive as early as s o'clock
in the morning and then they are forced to
endure wait of two hours for an alderman
rarely puts in an appearance before 10
o'clock. Itdoes not cost anything to marry
at the city hall unless the groom feels dis
posed to give the alderman fee.
A member Of the board of aldermen and
the mayor can perform the ceremony, but
Mayor Grant, being a bachelor, usually
declines to offioiate and the duty falls on
ON, af1ff fhn s.fN faN -
rather enjoy the fun and the first thing
they do when they come down to the hall
in the morning is to look into the wedding
room and see if any couples are waiting to
be married.
All classes and conditions of people come
there to get married, but the foreigners are
in the majority. Many happy brides, whose
sweethearts sent them money to come to
America, are driven direct from the barge
office to the city hall aud married before
they have been in America an hour.
There is less sentiment and romance about
the Italians when they come to get married
than any other race.
rhSbride is usually accompanied by her
mother or an elder sister, and a new red
handkerchief is always tied over her head.
That is the only bridal vail she wears. If
the groom is street peddler, as many of
them are, he loses as little time as possible
from his business. He meets his bride IN
the park at the appointed hour. wheels his
cart up to the steps of the big marble build
ing and leaves 1t there until the ceremony
is over. Then be kisses his bride and goes
back to work, while she goes home with her
mother.
Italians are rarely accompanied by rela-
tives or friends. They are here to make
money. and have no time to devote to such
frivolities as weddings.
There is an interpreter at the hall, and
couples can be married in any language
they prefer.
A Chinese couple were married there not
long ago. 1t was the first Chinese wedding
in the city, and the frightened looking little
bride, who could scarcely walk on her tiny
feet, drew a crowded house.
When couple of any loca1 fame OF no
toriety are to be married the news spreads
the big building very rapidly, and the at
tendance is sure to be large.
One of the biggest weddings in point of
attendance that ever took place in the CITY
hall was that of Swipes. the newsboy, a
prize-fghrer, who was married there few
months ago.
Many amusing incidents occur at these
city hall weddings. especially when for
eigners are getting married. Ali the brides
seem to expect a kiss from the alderman
officiating, and if they are pretty, they are
rarely disappointed.
A TRAMP's PARADISE.
The slums Of New York develop strange
industries. In a damp dark cellar down in
Mulberry street there is a little room known
as ''the tramps paradise"
Stale beer is sold there at a penny a cup.
The beer is gathered from kegs placed on
the sidewalk in front of saloons. A small
quantity of beer is nearly always left in the
kegs, and the owners of the tramps paradise
go around during the day aud collect the
vile stuff in tin pals. 1t costs them moth
ing but the Dor of draining the kegs. and
it is all poured in large tub In the room
where tramps coDgregate.
At night one of the owners of the place
sits by this tub and measures out the horri-
bic stuff in a dirty tin cup holding less than
half pint. Every customer drinks out OF
the same cup which is never washed,
1t is a rule Of the place that every Gus.
toner who spends as much as cents dur
ing the evening is privileged to sleep on the
bare floor until morning. This is ii neces-
sary and merciful rule. as the average
tramp after drinking five cups of the stale
beer is unable to get out of the place.
The lowest order of tramps and beggars
of all natioualities gather there, and by
Inidnighs the place is crowded to its utmost
capacity. The air of the place reeks with
foul odors, and as many as thirty of worst
specimens of the army of tramps frequently
sleep on the bare floor of the little room at
night.
READING NEWSPAPERS BY PROXY.
Certain men and women who are men,
bers OF aristocratic society in this city, some
time ago, resolved that they would never
again read daily newspapers.
The local papers had published so many
uacomplimentary things about swell society
that society resolved to be revengei by not
reading the paper any more. This resoiu-
tion was kept for short time, and then
the members of society discovered that
they were unable to converse intelligently
with intelligent people on current topics Of
interest.
When there was a prospect Of war with
Chile recently. some very wealthy and fash
ionable people heard the war talk with To o
greatest surprise. They had not read the
newspapers, and knew nothing except the
light gossip of the social circles in which
they moved. Then they hit upon the plan
of having the newspapers read to them.
They would not touch the vulgar sheets
themselves, but would hire some one to read
for them.
A score of "reading clubs" as they are
called, have since been organized. A num-
ber of fashionable ladies meet every day at
the home of one Of their number, and youug
woman employed for the purpose reads
aloud to them the principal items OF for
eign, domestic and local news from the
morning papers.
ARE coRsETs CLoTHEsl
Judge Wheeler, of the United States cir
cult court in this city, was recently called
upon to decide a case In which the main
or1l~