New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-09

years ago that Walhalla Hall was built by
man named Hartfeldter and to this day the
property remains in the Hartfeldter FAMILY
Hartfelder is dead long ago, but his widow Is
alive, and owns the hall to-day. Her husband
was originally a brickayer that Walhalla
Hall was built for the East Side by man or
the East Side. Hartfeldter never ran the nall
himself He leased II at once to man calied
Adam Geib, the first of many managers. the
hall was not long in coming into popularity ior
it's managers understood the people they had 10
deal with. and in their line they were just as
clever caterers as the Delmonicos or Sherry.
The status Of the hall has not changed appre-
ciablv for nearly a score Of years During that
time 1t has been centre of East Side life.
As a rallying place for organized labor, 1t has
been often in the eye of the public Of The coun-
try. Thousands of men have recently read each
morning Of what the taors have done at WAL
hala Hall on the day before. Last summer
too the taiIors carried on their strike from the
same vantage point. Every day in the week
from 6 o'clock m the morning until AFTER ma
light Walhalla Hall has been filled with n con-
stantly changing crowd of the taiors' nearly
all German and Polish Jews. The moor mas
been crowded with them and they have swarmed
in the railways and the stairs and far out
into the streets. while down in the little bar
room the air has ben thick with cultural as
cussions Of the situation. The various COIL
mttees have met in the anterooms Oh WhlCh
there are several and the results OF their de-
alterations are announced on the moor Oh the
hall and are always received with cheers. Nn"h
the strike is over the tailors VIII desert wa,
halla Hail. but when trouble comes again as II
is almost sure to do. to Wahalla Hall they
will all return. TN 49,
ayFD
gayety and happiness, for here take piace tne
Walhalla dances in which the East Side peopie
take such great delight. Everybody dances II, II,
the East Side They learn to dance In summer
evenings to music furnished by jewsharp or
harmonica, or on rarely fortunate OCCASIONS 10y
a barrel organ. And az the children grow oidei
they display in Walhalla Hall the skill acquired
on the sidewalks Of NewYOrk" 1t was not so
very long ago that the dances here were one OF
the sights that all parties made up to 90 tne
East Side sure 10 take in. Ana IL shouio
be said that they were well worth seeing
The parties always gay, II sometimes
somewhat too demonsrative, and the East oide
beau was always on his best behavior and In MS
best clothes which were. In the case or the typi-
cal Bowery boy a strange combination OF colors
and cuts These clothes he saved regousiy Tor
the dances Of the club that he particularly fan
cied. Clubs, by-the-way, are probably more
numerous on the East Side than in any other
part Of the city. 1t would be hard to find bow
cry boy who does not count membership IN at
least haf-dozen. There are associations
named after every individual VIM mas
been prominent in the life Of the Bowery for the
last twenty years, varying in grandeur from the
Paddy Diver Club down. There are as many OF
these clubs on the East Side that derive their
names from individuals as there are tugboats In
the East River whose cognomens come from
similar source. At these dances there Is always
a full orchestra of at least four pieces and some
times five. But the most amusing feature of the
performance in the eyes of the stranger is the
scrlpuous pOliteness that L. shown by the
corts of the women. This excessive formality
prevails until late in the evening, when too fire.
quent visits to the adjacent bar have induced
condition of melloWness that, while doubtless
most pleasing to the mellowed. is not exactly
conducive to etiquette. But although the too
fervent patronage Of the bar sometimes brings
in the police and stops the band the bar is not
abolished 1t is far and away this most profit
able feature of the hall to the proprietor He
would shut up the place if the bar had to be
closed.
The entertainments in which dancing figures
are of two sorts--the reception" and the
ball" The sole difference between the two is
that the reception lasts until o'clock. and costs
SO, while the ball" continues until daylight
and costs $50.
Among the associations with picturesque
names that will shake their heels" and spiel"
in Wahala Hall this fall and winter are the
East Side Dramatic and Pleasure Association,
the Thomas McArdle Association, the Pete Hill
Association. the East Side Crashers. the Lady
Liberties Of the FoUth Ward. the City Col
lectors the Bowery Indians the Crescent Co
teries. the Jolly 4S. the Lady Fashers the Abe
Bernstein Association and the East Side Ath-
letics
Wahaa Hall passed into the control of new
management about the middle Of last May. The
new manager is the one who has undertaken the
seemingly Herculean task or changing the name
of the resort. He does this because, he says. the
hall began to fall into disrepute while it was In
the hands of his predecessor. There We're fire.
quent fights there and other little unpleasant
nesses of a like nature which demanded the at
tention of the police and. he says. gave the hall
a bad name with the more respectable classes.
He thinks he will better win back whatever OF
the old patronage the hall has lost by the adop-
ton of a new name. SO he calls it New Pros
pect Hall. which. as before said is not bad
name for any hall except Walhalla.
Just at present. during the hot weather. the
big hall would be comparatively deserted but
for the strikers. Yet there is one use to which
II is put the year round regardless of weather.
and that s the soemniZation of weddings.
Scarcely one family in a thousand on the lower
East Side that has room enough in Its tenement
quarters-the wretched place cannot be called a
home-to marry the sons and daughters In
way that seems to them proper. And In the eyes
of East Siders a wedding Is the one affair In a
lifetime that must be done with due regard to
ceremony Funerals do not matter. and christ
enings do not count, but weddings must be done
in style. So the head Of the house engages Wal
halla Hall weeks ahead. and there the priest
comes. whatever the nationality and the friends
come dressed in their poor best and the bride is
the centre around which the whole show re-
wolves and she is happy for the nature OF an
East Side woman Is at the bottom much the
same that of her more fortunate sister in
Fifth-ave. The wedding supper is always the
great feature or the OCCASION ana III is always
a good supper There Is not family from
Cherry-st. to Ninth-st the members of which
will not starve themselves If necessary-and 1t
often is necessary-for weeks in advance in order
that the dear daughter may nave grand" sup
per at her wedding. and when she has children
of her own she starves herself for them against
the day when they too shall appear at Walhaa
Hall for the great event of their lives.
Walhalla Hall has just received new coat Of
paint. 1t has been thoroughly cleaned within
and n new name has been given it. Mr.. Kemp
Ter says he paid so to have the rubbish carted
away. But Wahaa Hall Is the same to-day In
the eyes of the East Side as it has always been.
1t name has been for years the lips Of the
great cosmopos of the city. the like OF which Is
scarcely to be seen elsewhere Millions of the
feet of the poorest in the land have crossed its
threshold in the pursuit of such poor pleasure
was possible for them or in the struggle for the
- hn lnrn tina Of u