New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-30
ppOOKLYN'S FOREIGNERS.
.xcr TONGUES TO BE HEARD IN
THE C1TYs STREETS.

r,r THE DIFFERENT NATIoNALIr1Es HAVE
-ur,R OWN CUSTOMS AND CHARAcTERIs-
-,cs-coloNIEs WHICH HAVE INCREASED
THE POPULATION OF THE CITY
QUARTERS" WHERE ENGLISH
is SELDOM HEARD.
There is no surer proof of the fact that Brooklyn
l., hv leaps and bounds coming into her own as
IA, metropolis than the growth and increase
rubers Of her foreign quarters or colonies
ys,ry every corner OF the city has been invaded
:, ,hsr and few moments walk from the centre
:, Amos, any OF the arstocratic sections will
,,ns the searcher for various natonalities into the
uss,of some settlement picturesque in its strange
s.s Authors and novelists i'm plenty have written
:, The foreign quarters" Of New York with ,rt
aver once realizing that in BROOKLYN vastly more
soIor and stranSeness are to be found II is not
until within the last few years that this mas been
So The great tide Of immigration from all the
Sums Of Europe did not begin to lap over into
BROOKLYN until after the tenemeI' -crowdel streets
of New York had been filled to the hrim Twenty
years ago there were foreigners in Brooklyn hut
in no great numbers. not in colonies OF sufficient
size TO stsnd out by themselves and attract atten-
iion.
More than half-it would probably be found to lie
considerably moro than half If the statistics could
be gathered tOgether-Of the enormous md
uphulding of Brooklyn within the last decade is
due to the influx OF the various foreign elements
tha: have focked the East River for the
simple that they could find qu!eer streets
cheaper rents and more trees than IN NewYoik
On its outer edges Brooklyn has been growing Ike
magic into a new city OF wooden buildings es
thy cottages and painted board tenements. These
Mew districts well many of the oder ones
in Brooklyn are now inhabited largely by ard
IL @
little or no English
From Ncwtown Greek 10 the parapcts Of Fort
Hamilton and from the East River to the heights
o. Rdgewcod the city is dotted at various points
with these little towns within town. II every for
eien settlement in Brooklyn marked on the
map Of the city by blotch Of red. the map would
present strangely notified appearance. If each
nationality of Europe was indicated on the map by
hlotches of different colo-s. the map would he
hodge podge Of many tiats SO far the writer
knows there Is no Syrian colony In the city. nor
any settlement Of Greeks But every other lace
that NewYork as a cosmorolis can boast OF is rep
resented in BROOKLYN
There is German colony known as Dutch
town" that Is many blocks in length and width,
Covering in fact. good part of the old town Ct
Williamsburg, or the Eastern District. In addition
20 this. the Germans have other settlements. two
If the largest being near Broadway. Myrtle and De
Ealb aves. (once the county town Of Bushwick).
and around Cour-st and Atlantic-ave.. four five
blocks south Of the City Hall. Italy has three big
quarters where her sons and daughters live ny
themselves in little communities that are distinct
from The world surrounding them. The strongest
,. these "colones' Is that near Hamilton Ferry
ere the NeaDolitans are in the majority AL
mos: on the outskirts Of Greenpoint in the section
Ling Just between that old town and Williams
h-rg thousands Of people from the north cf Italy
arc gathered. and in the shanties and tcnemeHrs
near the Gowanus Canal, in South Brooklyn. an
o,hor settlement of Italians has been established.
The Scdndinavians Ghis title including the
sweGes NorwcSians and Danes have two distinct
quarters" of their own. the negroes thckly peo-
PIE TWO other sections. and modern Judaism has in
ore corner o. "Dutchtown" in another corner of
East New-York over by the Canarsie WOODS. and
around Myrtle-ave., just below Fort Greene Park
as orthodox bodies of Hebrows-men and women
rom Poland Austro-H Hungary and Germany-as
re 10 be found anywhere in America
All these people cling 10 their time-honored be-
lefs. their old national customs and their quaint
superstitions. The march of progress does not af-
feet them strongly as 1t does their compatriots
IN the busting foreign quarters" Of NeS-
York; the ambition of being Americans" does not
urge itself on them in so great degree. Even
more than IN New-York these foreigners want to
keep 10 themselves The little Ghettos Of East New
York and "Dutchtown" preserve in most marked
manner the characteristics Of Russian Iebre"
towns within the pale" The negroes of "Africa.'
OF Fleet-st, Fleet Place and the alleys that lea
into these avenues descendants If the slaves Of
a generation ago A trace. even, Of voudoOism lin
gers about them, ana strange things arc known to
have happened in the shanties and alleyways OF
this Brooklyn "Darktown." The Klein Dcutsch-
land" Of Williamsburg is German 10 its finger tips,
and one does not need 10 far within its depths
10 find city blocks where English Is barely under
stood
Day by day these foreign colonies are being IN
creased by new accessions. becoming stronger
and more powerful. All OF this IS strangely inter
esting when II is considered that Brooklyn in its
early days was a Quaker. a Dutch and a New
England town and looked askance al any foreigner
within its boundaries. Now II is changing Itself
into a cosmopolis that is worthy Of the name
WHERE GERMANS CONGREGATE.
Largest Of all the colonies and by far the Oldest.
Is tho "Dutchtown" Of Williamsburg fully twenty
years In age and with population in its crowded.
wooden tenements Of fully 10000 Its bouldal les
are elastic and hard 10 fix upon, vet, roughly
speakinr they are Broadway on the south, the city
limits over toward Newtown Creek. and Maspeth
On the east Meeker-ave and North Fhteenth-st. on
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