Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-01

block or two away the scene changes star
tlingly. On the side streets you may see
poverty and squalor enough in a half hour
to last you lifetime. In New York the
wretchedness is kept pretty well apart from
the more comfortable aspects of the town.
They are near enough together and run in
parallel thoroughfares. SUCCESSFULLY easy
is the transition from one to the other as
luck" changes or dissipation brings its
sure reward.
Chicagos Unemployed.
In Chicago all sorts and conditions of
men and women are jumbled together.
Such an OLA podrida of humanity never
saw anywhere else. Smart business men,
fashionable women, rub elbows on every
street with an almost infinite variety of I'M
fortunates. And the streets teem and pal
pitate so with human beings! Chicago is
almost terrible in its outward evidence of
poverty and distress. The streets are liter
ally full of unfortunate men and women,
who seemingly do not know where thenext
meal is coming from, or where is the bed
they are to occupy at night. Mile after mile
of this restless, surging ill kempt throng-
hungry and footsore hopeless and desperate
-appalls one.
1t is easy to believe the published state
ments that Chicago has greater number
of unemployed than any other American
city-not because the commerce and indus
tries of Chicago are suffering from stop
page, for they are not, but because the
Worlds fair drew to the city hundreds of
thousands of the shifting, floating popula-
ton of the country, the greater share of
whom are still there, vainly seeking en-
ployment, and their ranks swollen by thou
sands more who have drifted in from all
the west for the winter months.
After Chicago st. Louis is distinct re-
lief Compared with the city by the lake.
St. Louis is almost villagelike. The streets
are so quiet; it is so easy to get about with
out danger of being run over, without jos
Ting. Chicago is maelstrom; St. Louis
pleasant bay, with quiet waters and gentle
breeZeS. St. Louis impreSSeS one as town
where most of the people nployed,
where business is conservative, where few
large fortunes are made on the one hand,
or many failures on the other. It's street
scenes are indicative of an easy going. rath-
er comfortable population.
Where Street Scenes Are National.
But Washington is the ideal. Here the
street scenes are national rather than local.
Here the whole United States is typifed
and eNemphtled. Take, for instance, two
currents ofhumanity that move down Penn
sylvania avenue between 4 and 5 o'clock in
the afternoon. About the time the big pub
lie departments are closed congress adj
journs, and thus from opposite ends of the
avenue two streams are let loose, gradually
approaching one to the other and finally
blending. It is difficult to say which of
these streams is the more interesting. That
from the departments shows by far the
greater number of women. Some of them
are women almost any man would want a
second look at too. They are stylishly at
tired. Their gowns and millinery are ''up
to date, and there are evidences of the fact
that when awoman provides for herself she
is better taken care of than when she de-
ends upon husband.
Most of these girls of the treasury" or
o Ter departments are we'll behaved. They
are ladies. The wicked days of old, in which
service in the departments often went by
favor dearly bought and not by merit, are
no more. With now and then an exception,
nothing of the sort is known in the great
executive departments of today. If the
civil service law has done nothing else of
value, it has paid for itself in the protection
which it has thrown about woman in pub
lie office here at the capital.
Dressy and Debonair.
The men of this department stream are
for the most part dressy and debonair too.
Your average government employee finds
time hanging heavily on his hands. He
has not enough in his work to absorb his
energies, and as a consequence he thinks q
good deal about the clothes he wears, more
especially his gloves. The department
young man has great ado about his gloves.
Put him and them in crowd, and they are
by far more conspicuous than he is. 1t is
sad to think what the department young
man would come to if it were not for his
gloves. The work of selecting them, of
choosing the III n date shade and the Of
fort to carry them in the way most approx
ed by fashions fad afford him an employ
ment without which he would surely die
of ennui. If you want to make sure of the
latest things in gloves, che very newest
ways of carrying them and the freshest edi-
ton OF the modern idiotic handshake,
watch the department stream as it flows
down Pennsylvania avenue
There is in this throng g refreshing alb
sence of the sense of responsibility, of seri-
business. Life to all of them is an easy, in
iolent sort of routine The work they have
to do calls forth little of their originality
or character. What they do today they did
yesterday and will do tomorrow, in precise
ly the same way in which it was done III
years ago and will be done 10 years hence.
So it is with two-thirds of all the gov
eminent employees in Washington. and
considered such good ''show town. and
why it has more furnishing goods, millin-
cry and haberdashery shops than any other
city in the country of the same size.
Washington is exceedingly fond of the
theater. The humdrum, routine grinding
government employees must have some
sentiment in their lives, even il they have
to go to the theater for 1t. The theatrical
houses are nearly always crowded here. ne
matter what the character of the entertain
ment. AS for the millinery and haberdash-
cry, those trades thrive amazingly in
the Capital City, where there are SO many
men and women whose principal care In
life is to make certain that they are properly
and fashionably attired.
An Earnest Throng.
Adifferent lot of men are those that leave
the capitol between and 5 in the afternoon
and move westward along the avenue.
These are the senators, the representatives,
the newspaper correspondents As a rule,
they are as earnest as the column moving
In the opposite direction is careless. The
statesmen walk down by pairs, trios and
quartets. AS like as not they are discuss