The Monmouth inquirer., 1893-01-19
rHE NEW BowERY.
where 1t May Be Found and How 1t
Differs from the Old.


For many years the Bowery was typ
ical for all that was rough and ready in
American manners. The Bowery boy
Who ssrun wild der nasheen" was praised
in song and story, and his many pecul-
iarities from amiability to eye gouging
were being continually written about.
But all this was many years ago. The
glory of the Bowery has departed. In
its entire length there is now but one
fake museum, and three solitary second
rate concert halls keep up miserable
Snerriment that is CHASTITY in its hollow
ness. The shrill cry of the waiter,
1.-TWO up and one down, and certain
death with seltzer on the sidelp has de-
generated into the request, in husky
whisper, for s'T'ree beers, two large an
one small, an whisky an a seltzer."
For, like Barney Rourke, the Oliver of
SIDE Ate" the Bowery has moved up
town, too, and the Bowery, the old
Bowery that we loved for its pure cuss-
Hdness, is in the possession of foreign
element that knows nothing of fake
auctions and bunko steering. Polish
and Russian Jews, shabby and long
bearded, flock in crowds to the old Star
and Bowery theaters, places that once
knew the histrionic triumphs of Fanny
Herring, the one that never dies, but
Siow known as the Roumania and Thalia
theaters, where sentimental and mild
dramas are presented in place of blood
and thunder plays. Chinese from Mott,
Pell and Dover streets; Italians from
Mulberry and Bleecker streets, and the
Teutonic residents of the eastern dis
fricts take the place of "Rag Gangs"
siDead Rabbits" and 'SWhyos."
II may be for the best, but it is sad to
contemplate. The dear, old dirty Bow
cry is now a good old hasbeen.
But there is a modern Bowery-a
Bowery broad and bright, with asphalt
pavements and all improvements, less
rough and changed for the better.
You will find the new Bowery on
that part of Eighth avenue which ex-
tends from Twenty third street to Thir-
ty-ffth street. Saturday night the hum
of the great street market on Ninth
avenue comes over to t1;s promenade of
shoppers and pleasure ssekers. Old dark
les with delicious shot CON" take the
place here at the street corner of the
dirty looking Italian OF the old Bow
cry.
The shops are neat and bright. There
is an opera house on the corner of Twen-
ty-third street for the theater goer of
the new Bowery who likes standard at
fractions. But up farther on the other
side big variety theater is open night
ly for the lover of vaudeyilles. There
is no danger here of losing a watch or a
scarfpin in crowd as there used to be
on lower Third avenue.
And then there are concert halls in
plenty in the new Bowery. It will not
do to praise these too much. They are
a legacy of the old Bowery, but they
are better if anything than their old
prototypes.
The new Bowery has the finest dime
museum in the country. Large, hand
some halls, where the lion faced lady
holds forth, Punch and Judy squeak,
and the fat boy breaks hearts and sells
his photographs. A variety show con-
cludes the performance.
The middle class New Yorker likes
the new Bowery. His home is in the
streets adjacent. His boy comes out on
his velocipede and his girl on her tri-
cycle and trundle on thesmooth asphalt.
He takes his wife to the theaters there
at night and he purchases his goods from
the merchants of the thoroughfare.
Everything goes with rush and
whirl on the new Bowery. Young men
go skylarking up the bright lighted
sidewalks and laughing girls go sweep
ing past. Considering the crowds that
throng the way the Objectionable e1e-
ment is much in the minority The
street cars go faster on Eighth avenue;
the stores are brighter and life is gayer
there than in the somber tenement
house districts down town and less arti-
fetal than the more pretentious portions
OF the city farther up. The old Bowery
down town has evoluted on and up. Its
successor of middle Eighth avenue is
distinctly American in its entirety, and
the rowdy foreign element has no foot
hold here.
1t is the pleasure ground of the un-
pretentious people.-New York World.