The herald., 1895-02-11
Hudson Street and Its Relics OF
the Dim Past
LIKE OLD ENGLISH TOWNS
A Dead Spot in the Heart of the Metro
poIitan Life
With the New York of Ninety
Years Ago.

other part or New 1Ork, barring tno
lanes and twisting tboroughfares Of
Greenwich village. The elevated rail
road and the march Of progress have
both passed them by, and the real estate
agent and the builder and contractor
have not yet laid plans to Haussmann-
:ze them out of existence or ont Of all
likeness to their quaint old selves. This
cannot be for long, however, and al
ready the new order of things, huge
business blocks and crowded tenements
is pushing up Hudson street from Cham
bers to Harrison at the one end and
down it for b.ocl; or two, where 1t
runs into Ninth avenue at Thirteenth
street. But bctwonn Abingdon square
and Vcstry street Hudson street retains
its characteristics almost unchanged
since it was opened up, and a prowl
about this part Of its length will give
one an excellent idea of how people llv
ed and traded when the century was
just able to walk alone. This seems all
the more astonishing because Hudson
street is an unusually wide thorough
fare and furnishes direct communication
between tho wholesale quarter Of the
south and west and the crowded living
quarter of the middle west.
Hudson street is no more like the
New York of today than an English
tavern is like tho New Netherlands no.
tel. In fact, there is a distinctly old
world atmosphere about the place, and
if sections of Hudson street were to be
photographed and labeled "Street Scene
In Bristol or "In Exeter" or I'm Dun
des'' there is no one that would dis
pute tho legend. So, too, it would be
out of all keeping to call the stores any
thing else than shops. They are just
plain, coy. tucked up little old fash
toned shops, where the stock in trade
ard the customers are so crowded to-
gether that two or three people will
crowd tho place, and where you can sit
at the short scrap CT counter and liter
ally put your hand on just what you
want. There is no need for stepladder
in these shops. The salespeople just
reach up easily and take down any
thing that is needed, while the ceilings
are so low that you instinctively feel
like ducking when you open the door,
with its little jangling boil, and when,
in fact, you can sweep tho plaster with
your outstretched hand. There is gener-
ally, too, an unnoticed step down into
the shop at the junction of the doors,
over which you plunge headlong in the
dear old fashioned breakneck way.
There is no need of clerks in these
stores. The proprietor and ono assistant
can look after all the customers that
can be accommodated at one time, and
sometimes all the business is transact
ed by comfortable and rotuud old lady
who rolls her way slowly down the
foury lanes between the piles of mill
truck or comes up slowly on starboard
tack and lies to beside the open tubs of
salt mackerel and pungent bloaters.
Some of the progressive shopkeepers
and one or two of the younger people
have put plate glass into their windows,
but most of the places are still lighted
with sashes filled with many small
panes of glass. Nine and twelve lights
to the window are quite common, and
there Is one weather worn place on a
corner where each window has Is little
panes of glass; and where you can stand
on the sidewalk and look in through the
top row, as was the proper thing when
New York thought that French plate
for American light was as foolishly for
eign as French songs for an American
audience These are the windows that
one sees in cuts where the passersby are
shown in scuttle bonnets and pelisses if
they are ladies, and in bell topped hats
ind strapped trousers if they are men.
There is distinctly old time and old
country character about what is sold in
the shops as well as about the shops
themselves In the bakers shops, for in
stance ono sees the old mansion loaf, :"
Scottish scones and English currant
cake. The candy shops sell sweet
tuck" and "lollicops. " The ''tonsorial
artist calls himself squarely chair
cutter, and the furniture man carries
heavy mahogany tables, high marble
topped bureaus and four post beds in
stock, not as secondhand goods, but as
the proper thing for present use.
Here one may find tho real English
chophouses and grillrooms, dull little
places whore you pick out your steak
and can if you choose stand and sec it
broiled over an open fire of live Goals
built up in hugo brick ranges, and
where the great brown ware teapots are
kept hot on the hob, with Rebecca and
tho well both glowing in the freight.
In one place, too, is an old fashioned
"dresser" on which arc ranged blue and
white crockery, as though you We're
taking your meals oheorily and without
formality in the kitchen, which, by the
way, is where things always taste the
best.
Between the boundaries indicated
there isnot tall, reeking and thronged
tenement to be seen. There is good
deal of boarding and lodging, to be sure,
but there is also good deal of that
rarity in Now York, home life-that
is, the single family occupation of the
whole house. This is largely possible
down here b1caucc of the remarkable
conservation of tho coy little two
story red BRICK houses which are so
characteristic Of the period when the
quarter WIS laid oct. Here ard there on
Bond and Delaney aud Thompson
streets these tiny Noah's ark houses
are to he met with, but they are only
the dingy and dirty Indications Of what
they were-housa t-amps, SO To speak