The Washington bee., 1893-07-22
NEW YORK CROWDS.
They Tell of the City's Immense Size
New Workers Fond of Pleasure

New Workers Fond of Pleasure.
However you measure New York it
seems a big town. Perhaps its big
ness is brought home to the stranger
by nothing more strongly than by its
crowds Nearly every other consid-
erable American city has some con-
yested business centre where crowds
are continuous during business hours.
Three or four other American cities
have besides some fashionable parade
where shoppers and idlers make gay
half dozen crowded blocks. No other
city on this side Of the Atlantic has a
dozen or more regions, each of which
might be taken for the business centre
of the place. Long before New York
had 100000 inhabitants it was city
distinguished for its crowds. With the
enormous growth of the city the
crowds have become larger and the
number of crowded thoroughfares has
Increased.
But if New York seems large When
measured by it's crowds of busy men
and women, it seems perhaps even
larger still when measured by its
idlers This is not because the unem
ployed classes, rich and poor, are so
large in New York, though they are
larger than in any other American
city, but rather because of the city's
ceaseless and sleeplessly active buSi-
uess life Every day is holiday to
many thousands of New Workers, be-
cause many Thousands work at night
and take their sleep and recreation by
day Furthermore, although New York
Is the hardest worked of all commune
ties, it is also the most pleasure loving
of American cities. In no other city
of America does the skilled man OF
his craft earn so much as in New
York: i'm no other American city does
the same man indulge so freely him.
self and his family in recreation. The
two thrOngS work together to produce
crowds at all hours of the day and
night and in all parts of the city. The
New Yorker, whatever his business, Is
a social being. If he have home he
likes to open it to his friends. If he
have no home he likes to seek amuSe-
ment elsewhere, still in company with
his friends. New York maintains ten
times as many clubs as any other
American city, because New Workers
are more gregariouS and hoSpitable
than men in other cities. The stranger
or prince, resident of Philadelphia or
Baltimore or almost any other Amer-
can city, on returning to any of those
towns. finds men sunk in dull routine
and too busy to stop and enjoy life.
New York is the only American cit.r
where crowds throng the parks every
day i'm the year and almost every hour
in the day Baltimore's beautiful;
Druid Hill Park is almost deserted at
ordinary times. Even the noble Fair
mount is sparsely peopled save on
Sundays and other holidays. New
York's activity defies even the letliar,
gic influence of the dog days, and
thousands of Southerners find the city
charming at the season when the fash
ionable world has fled. Summer, H.
deed, is the season when New York
presents itself in the most wonderful
aspect No other American city has
so many nearby resorts to be reached
in a few minutes at cheap rates. No
other city needs so many or could
maintain half SO many. There is moth
ing dearer to New York than a subur-
ban summer resort; in almost any
other American city such places are
deserted two-thirds of the time, and
never interesting with the varied hu-
man life that characterizes the New
York resorts. Nothing would so con-
vince Philadelphian or Baltimorean
or Chicagoan of New York's great
size as to be able on any night of the
week by some species of magic to look
down upon all the urban and suburban
pleasure resorts at once. He would
see thousands upon thousands 1T
Coney Island and other resorts that
line the harbOr; other thousands across
the Hudson on the Jersey bluffs, still!
others at the upper extremity Of the
island; and yet others up the Sound.
to say nothing of enormous numbers
upon the streets, in cafes, on the roof
gardens, at the theatres and in the
parks and public SquareS-a number
exceeding the population of many big
cities-amusing themselves in their
leisure hours.
One thing that interests rural Amer-
cans in New York is the same thin.
that made Walt Whitman celebrate
"Manhatta'' as his first love, its fluent.
unnumbered crowds. Chicago has tat
ler buildings, Philadelphia has several
more charming residence streets than
New York, but when a cOuntryman
wishes to see his fellow Americans in
the aggregate he has to come to this
city. 1t is the bewildering crowd that
makes Coney Island fairyland to the
rural visitor on a summer night It is
the varied crowds that make thUll-
sand restaurants and two hundred aud
fifty club dining-rooms places of inter
est to the rural visitor The clubs. by
the way, tell another interesting story
of New York life Scarce any one of
them dares have its earliest breakfast
hour in summer later than o'clock,
or in winter later than 8. The most
fashionable clubs must consider the
| necessities of busy men. There are
members who breakfast up to 3 o'clock
in the afternoon: but the great mass
| of men who breakfast at clubs are off
to business shortly after 9 o'clock. II
is big town. insatiably Industrious
but fond of wholesome pleasure.-NeW
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