The record-union., 1894-06-23
CHURCH OF TEE RAG-PICKERS. .
The Queerest Place of Worship in
New York.
Italians Who Combine Religion With
misunderstanding in Rags Dur
ing the Service.


heard of the Church of the Rag pick
ers." In the neighborhood of Roosevelt
street, where it is located, this is the ia
mliar name Of the Roman Catholic
Church of st. Joachim, where Father
Vincini is the pastor. The members are
Italians exclusively, inhabitants of the
densely populated district roundabout,
and as some of them are rag pickers and
have rented the lower half of the church
for the storage Of their goods, the nick
name which designates the church as the
peculiar place of worship OF this class
came into use.
Years ago, when Roosevelt street was
not as squalid and as overtiowing with
human beings as it is to-day, this church
belonged to a Methodist Episcopal con-
gregation. There were merchants, solid
men of downtown New York, living
there, and the neighborhood was emil
nently respectable.
Now the church stands with a cheap
lodging-house on one side and typical
slum grocery store on the other. y nest
of tough saloons arc near by, up and
down the street. Organized in 1888. the
Italian population thereabouts grew so
rapidly within a radius of mile that
the church has now one OF the largest
congregations in the city.
The building is of brick and is dingy
and dirty. 1t is only by standing across
the street that you can see q small cross
on the roof the only thing about the
edifice that suggests it's religious char
acter. Looking in on the first floor. you
will witness curious spectacle. The
whole depth and breadth of the floor is
filled with rags. Rags loose, rags In
piles and rags in bales ready for ship
ping are ali about. Big cranes and chains
Tor hosting purposes run here and there.
Half buried in these piles of rags are men,
women and children-the men and
women busy asserting rags, and the fat,
brown youngsters tumbllng about III
play or sleeping, as the case may be.
It is the biggest rag shop in this city.
1t is wholesale and retail in the sense that
here the individual rag-pickers of the
town dispose of their wares. which are
assorted and baled and sold for manu-
featuring purposes. The pastor of st.
Joachim's rents this lower floor TO the
company that conducts this rag business
at a good rental, and, indeed, were it not
for that, the mission would suffer.
Italians are very practical about their
religion, when they care for 1t at all, and
thew are very slow about contributing to
the support of the church, and expect a
good deal OF religion for very little
money.
The church proper IS on the floor over
the rag shop, and this In itself gives an
odd character to the services at times.
On week days the men are at work in the
basement when services are going on up
stairs and one can plainly hear them
joining in the responses and chants dur
ing the celebration of the mass. While
VoTId reporter was there the other day
one of the rag pickerS in the basement
sang hymn TO the Virgin while services
were going on, and his voice was of rare
sweetness and purity.
At certain hours Of the day laborers
will come in, set their picks and shovels
in corner, and then join III the devo
tions. The peanut venders and fruit
stand keepers in the neighborhood al
ways attend the services for at least
few minutes each day. Bootblacks wan
der in with boxes on their backs and say
a few brief prayers, and the Italian pop
ulation generally comes and goes.
Six masses are said IN st. j JoachImS 8
Church every Sunday and from twelve to
fifteen hundred persons attend every
mass so that some 5000 or more people
worship in the little church every week.
Father Morrill,, who established this mis-
sion and who conducted it for years. has
recently been sent to New England to
organize Italian churches there. His
place has been taken by younger priest,
Father Vincini. The position of the par
ish priest at st. Joachim's is that OF
patriarch. Not only does he marry his
parishioners, baptize their children and
bury their dead, but he is their constant
adviser in other matters. He settles their
disputes of all sorts, from business differ
ences to lovers QuarrelS.
One trouble the priest has to contend
with is the manner in which his charges
get married. Coming from Italy, where
civil marriages are the proper thing, the
Italians believe that the same laws OBJ
tain here. AS result the Italian quarter
is filed with professional marriage brok-
ers and matchmakers.
They Ming couples together for a fee,
then steer them to the City Hall, where
two men have for years done a steady
business securing Aldermen to marry
couples, in getting certificates for them
and arranging all the details or City Hall
weddings Father Vincini tries to i'm
press upon his people that he will marry
them for nothing at all, but they still
flock to the City Hall. Some Of them buy
pictures of the building and send them to
Italy, so that their friends may see the
palace in which they were married.
New York World.