The record-union., 1894-08-04
JEVRY IN new YORK.
The Long-Coated, Black Bearded
and Robed Brotherhood.
The Russian Jew-wage-E e-Earners and
Traders-A Cafe and Beer-socialist
Rendezvous Strange Markets =
Hard Landlords.

Irregular correspondence OF RECoRD-UNIoN.l
New YORK, July 2L-Jewry in New
York Is on the East side, downtown, and
is one of the most fascinating regions OF
the city for the student of man or the
casual observer TO visit. It is q deep
mystery which no one not OF the people
there can solve. It is a journey to for
sign country to go there, even for an
American, German or any but Polish
or Russian Hebrew. Why it has not
been written about more is hard to un-
derstand, unless it is that SO much is in
comprehensive
People mind their own business in this
busy America, however, and probably
the true inwardness of the quarter will
not be made known till it produces It's
own novelist. I know young newspa-
per men now who were born and brought
mp there, but though they are willing to
tell what they know, they are apparently
unable to do so. They take things as a
matter OF course, and write better of the
West side.
Go across the Bowery anywhere below
Fifth street and enter side street. You
Will have seen Hebrew faces everywhere
IN town, but those that pass now are dit-
1erent. Most striking are the men who
keep their olG-country dress and out
ward appearance. They wear black gar
1nents, straight but kneed trousers, with
4 long shapeless coat, somewhat like a
Prince Albert. The shirt is any kind they
have been able to get, with or without a
collar. From white faces, very pale be-
cause there IS q sense of blackneSs be-
meath, hang long, black full boards, such
as one associates with ancient Hebrew
priests or prophets. The hair is also
black and long. The necks are InYari-
ably extremely thin and weak-looking,
and SO, for that matter. is the frame.
There are no rat men.
The first time one looks at one OF these
men the impression is that they are mid
dle-aged sub-priests. But usually they
are young men under thirty. Why they
should be OF so uniform an age, l do not
know. May be they are not. But l saw
that l made a note Of sameness of ap-
parent age, and l recollect that l always
saw something youthful in their Old faces.
They stalk silently and solemnly about
the streets with their hands behind their
backs. The children OF the Irish, whom
they are driving up town, call these men
s'de crows" and fear them. The boys
throw rocks at the "crows," but not with
out running the risk OF a severe beating.
FOR these sad figures are as they look
angry men, completely at odds with the
world. They have been banished from
one country to be left to shift for them
selves in another. They came with ex-
aited notions OF freedom and liberty, but
they miss State protection and beg soci-
ety's aid.
Still they are only the most picturesque
individuals, not the most typical and sat
istactory. There is very little to despise
IN New York's Jewry, nothing to scon at
IA her Jews, even at their worst, as things
are on the Eastside. Even the ''croWs"
are preparing TO rise. 1t looks out of
place 10 see a reyerend-looking, priest
Ike man IN patriarchaI beaId pushing a
cart or peddhng suspenders. But they
10 1t. They won't work for wages, not
the Crows They are traders, robbed
OF their capital before banishment, but
they cling 10 their old line. When last
winter they were offered work at street
cleaning, they said they were too delicate
Tor such labor. Some preferred to COM
init SUICIDE. This deprived them of SYM
pathy, but they are right in the end.
Quite another kind of immigrant is the
Russian j eW who works for wages. Him
you viii find IN these hard times in his
cafe. He brought the cafe with him as he
did his ideas. Tie most characteristic OF
t1eSe places IS one passed through once
on q visit to Herr Most's Office, the edi-
JOrial room of Die FTeiheit, his organ.
That Office, by the way, was about eight
feet by ten, and when l entered IL to talk
with the great man" his staff had to get
out. Down the dark stairs was the cafe.
1t looked like mean groggery, but the
European cafe Was there, too. 1t was
crowded with young men who sat at the
tables and scowied at the representative
of the KGpltdtlSLiSche PreSSe. They were
drinking liquors from small thimble
glasses at a few pennies drink. 4 few
drank coffee black.
Parenthetically il may be observed that
both IN Germany, where beer is so cheap
and wholesome, and all over Europe,
poor alcoholic drinks are cheaper than
the beverage Of the country. That makes
all those countries have a temperance
question so far as the very poor are con-
cerned. The problem is solved only in
Munich, l believe, where under the pol
icy OF the court brewery, the famous Hof
Brau, the price of beer is kept below that
OF liquors of whatever cost. Anyway the
influence of the old countries is evident
in these cafes, where the Iiquor-drinking
habit holds full sway even among the
thrifty Jews.
This East-side cafe for socialists is a
dark and dingy place. The bar is across
what was once show window where the
pots of boiling coffee advertise the bust
ness OF the place. The tables accommo-
date three or four men, and the leisure
with which IN the busiest hours and sea-
sons these men sit at one, is that which
characteriZes the European life they con-
finue here. Men chat and argue over
their tiny, infrequently called for drinks
and make the place blue. They have to
take time to develop their social systems
aud to exchange fuel for their hatred Of
the order of things about them. They
are dressed not all alike as are the
f'crows." They wear the cheapest of
secondhand clothing and make up all
sorts of queer rigs. Only the Italians
and Chinese cling to their national cos
tunes. Ali that is common among the
Jews Is their prediction for black.
Socialism among these Jews is pass
ing disease. They are capitalists by ma
ture and so soon as they scrape together a
little money. they are the most uncom-
promising of the adherents of the COM
DetitiYe system. The young men of the
cafes are the Workmen of the sweater
shops. These shops are all over the East
side. l have been IN some where there
was not q single window that admitted
lgnt. There these men work as tailors
aud garment-makers for small pittance
They are poor workmen, too, having
little skill and no speed. No matter what
be earns day, the East-side Jew is q
eociallst so long as ne works Tor wages.
Around the corner from the Herr
MOST cafe lives a young man who was
once socialist. but has now turned
business man. He started q junk-shop
room after he lost his job as tailor.
When the depression came and turned
him out In the streets he went around
picking up bits of iron, steel. and rags
lie had some luck, didn't eat for awhile,
and got ahead. Then he began to buy
serap-iron to sell at a profit 1t took little
capital to start shop with, and he opened
up, and now is making money. Ii asked
about his socialisric ideas he SCOTS at them,
and rails at his old COMPANIONS in the
cafe for their idleness. There are many
ways of beginning he says. He relates