St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-04
A FIELD FOR HARD WORK.
RSTONE,,WALKS OVER
THE DISTRICT WITH BRIDGE
JUMPER BRODIE.
CHINATOWN TO JEW QUARTER
The BOhemians North of Stanton
Street.-The Bishops Plans Not
Fully Outlined.
Special Correspondence of the Globe.

IColueICG VI BISHOP HOlCer, VINO is
at work in the New York slums, is
on Stanton street, which begins ait
the west end on the broad Bowery,
that cheay, ffashy, wicked thieves
walk and popular thoroughfare,
which winds it's fifteen blocks of
clothing stores, pawn shops, low var
1ety concert halls and theaters, sa-
looms, gaudy jewelry stores and
twenty-five cent hotels, from just be-
low Chatham square to Sixth street.
From the Bowery, or half way across
Manhattan island, Stanton street
runs easterly to the East river to
the homes of wharf rats, river
thieves and other desolation. To the
south, north and west of the street
a two or three-minute walk will take
you to the homes, if you will permit
the use of so good a word, of the
chinese on Mott street, to the rotten
JOINTS OF Italians on Mulberry street,
to the suffocating tenements of the
new arrivals from Russia, Poland
and Hungary, the respectable. com.
PORTABLE club saloons of the Germans,
the headquarters of the reformed
ponce commissioners on Mulberry
street, the stale beer and other dives
the tramp lodging houses, as we'll as
ABOUT everything that is Godforsak-
en- IN the city. The French popula-
ton is not within walking distance
1of they are to the western and
northwestern part of the city. and
with them, or next to them. wher-
ever they are, are the negroes. for
whom the French have greater toll
eratlon here as in France than have
thelr other white fellow-citizens
Inc bishop may take I'D the French
ana negro colonies next, but lust
now ne is the near neighbor of the
iflshman, the Bohemian, the Ita1-
lan' the Jew Of all nationalities. the
sweater, the sneak thief, pickpocket
burglar, beggar, drunkard and m1Jr-
oerer. 1t is upon these that whatev-
er power the good bishop NAV or
game and inspire must be exerted
ana heaven knows there is material
LOT many year of missionary labor
IN thls section. Hardly a night passes
Whlcn does not hear a scream of
agony or terror, or a drunken veil.
or cry for the police, or Ioud
curses and foul words, and, as these
enter the open windows of the bish-
OPP, ne must realize as he never did
oefore the terrible condition of his
fellow beings and the unleavened
mass of unregenerate humanity
winch he could have seen at dis
lance mad he gone to the top of the
steeple OF his favorite church.
just where the temporary Episcona1
see is is the center of the most crowded
distrlct of the metropolis. Houston
street Is just one block north of Stan
ton street and the board of health c.1-
cuiate that at this point the popula tion
Is so dense that there are five hundred
Thousand people to one SQUARE milo
which would put the whole ponuIa tion
OF New York, now scattered over on
area OF fifteen miles 1ongand about two
ana one-half miles wide, into a. snace
TWO miles square This will saom
clearer when 1 tell you that there are
oo,OU0 tenement houses, of all grades in
the city. Thirty-f1ve thousand front
ana 5000 rear tenements. shelterine
nearly twelve hundred thousand neo-
pie. Among these one hardly recllons
the cheap hotels all over the lower
eastern and western sides, saw below
Fourteenth street, the number of
winch is 120 which give lodgings. such
as they are, to 1900 literally homeless
creatures. Most of these hotels and
HloSt OF the poor tenements are within
easy distance from the bishop's dweT-
ing and oh! the misery, the crime. the
poverty, the degradation they have 70
tell.
Here and there throughout this
Wretched province are those who are
and who have long been a. work irving
10 heip lift the heavy burdens of the
poor and to do missionary good among
the depraved. They are ardent coad.
tutors of the bishop, regardless of re-
lg1ous sympathies. The University
settlement society, founded on a Lon
don prototype, has two practical mis-
sions called the "Neighborhood Guild. -,
occupied by college men, who mipele
with their neighborS on terms of per-
feet equality, and by their companion
snip seek to improve the morals of
those they meet, and the college settle
ment, founded by women college grad
yates, with the same end in view: and
SO, IN the more general way, the Ro-
man Catholic society of st. Vincent
de Paul, the non-secular charity or
ganlZation society, various branches
OF Christian associations and the miss
ions Of the Episcopal and other
churches. But there cannot be too
many helping hands held out, and to
organize, instruct in spirit, on the SPOT.
the various interests under his official
control, is among the causes of the
bishops moving to his humble quar-
tiers on the East side.
In order to give you as nearly cor
rect an idea as possible of this section
of the city, and to place you as closely
in touch with it as 1 can, I asked
Steve" Brodie, the Brooklyn bridge
jumper, a typical Bowery development,
to 80 with me through some of the
scenes thereabout. Brodie started in
life as a bootblack, having energy.
ambition and pluck, and when the
Brooklyn bridge was built, Brodie
started saloon, having foreseen his
opportunity for a good business adj
vertisement by jumping from the
bridge. The newspapers were full of
this bold and successful Jumper. and
when Brodie came back wet from the
river, he found his saloon was being
heavily patroniZed and it has been a
financial success ever since. There is
not a square inch in the sombre, small
saloon which is not covered with
pictures of prize fighters and cock
fights, and about the only thing in the
place besides the pictures is the bar,
behind which you can get pure liquors
a phenomenon on the Bowery. Through
his pluck, his generosity to the poor
and those down on their luck Bredie
is very popular all over the district,
so 1 selected him as being a man
whose presence would open such doors
as 1 chose to enter L asked him if
he had met Bishop Potter and he re-
piled in his quick witted way, not in
tending to be irreverent, wat tell
wud his nibs want wild me, unless he
wants to reform me, and he can't do
that, not on his birthday. Besides, I
run moral saloon, see? and I'm all
right. Did he ask about me? Well,
bring him over to me place of business