Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-17
IN PARADISE ALLEY.
The Reaio Of New York Celebrated
In Current Song.

In Current Song.
Paradise Alleyl There is a name 10
c%onjure with There is a name which
carries along with IT suggestions Of primevai
innocence inc and Of de,eetable surroundings.
Il has already been celebrated in song, and
through Its fame is to be further extended
ale" is a Unknown as on such me s, s,asei P moSnse
denlzens. They have allowed its poeticai
name m to lapse into the ienohle prose, Of
srobsbly, TO distinguish it from It's noIshboSr.
why %h! sins S1r' nlffsy! Us w ySsnd SINGLE to The aI HScs |. 50
named because 1t has onterabie habitations
only on one side. A blind wall runs along
yields to yard fences. But Double alley has
tai edifces on either side. and these edlfces
can enter them. and windows which open
upon the perpetual gloom that alone visits
the alley. even on the sunnlest days.
Therefore Double alley arrogates to itself
a name that is at least distinctive in tho
nSishborhood where It Is situated. though
diTerentiate 1t from other alleys further
down town.
habitable sides on its entire length Is I'd oubly
entitled to the distinction OF being Double
Yet outside of its immediate environs. in
tho outlying districts where Us fame and its
name are cherished, Double alley Is still
s knGw to a chi narae'f Tad aitsy' for II es "a HpSwn B az
does not smell fragrant to him even under
that name.
Paradise alley is one Of the offshoots from
Cherry street, between Franklin square and
Roosevelt street. Cherry street is indented
with, several alleys running to the west
AS to Cherry street Itself, in the early
days 1t was a country, lane called "the road
grew along its border, A famous garden,
known, as the Cherry Garden. was kept here
much frequented by the A~ngio-Saxons, who,
IN 1864. had assumed forcible possession Of
another generation had risen and the bitter
ress Of foreign CONQUEST was a lite forgot
ten, Cherry Garden va abandoned to
Dutch merry making and patriotism. on a
basis OF sehnapps, were carried on at VOL,
what Is now Chatham square, while at
Cherry Garden the dominant English were
to Queen Anne and to the first of the
Georges in their own favorite West Indian
Finally, when the city surprised itself by
extending into this scene of semi-ruIal fes-
%tivities. and when houses began to rise on
street. BY this time the Dutch and their
GGonqusrors had grown to be one people and
Blood Bloc i" commi Haf ed With Win that e Of Holland mi'i in
the veins of the New Yorker
looked upon as proud and lord::y mansions.
uhu HiS hooSCu BCSpic I u q Wv
patriclan names, But as the city spread
the older families went with II.
until at last such well nigh po'ar extremities
as Bond street and Lafa yette place and
Washington square gathered up the wealth
and fashion of tho city. During al. this
period of transition Cherry street was
gradually losing all social prestige. But
1t still remained respectable. 1t was given
up to the poorer. but also the more in
dustrious class Of Irish emigrants.
The single block between Franklin and
Roosevelt streets. with its interdependent
alleys, resounded with the music of the
Every IN n who was not an O'Brien
or an O'Flaherty was q McDougai or a Nc
Nab. Paradise alley became the Eden OF
Patrick and Bridget.
At No. 20 Boss Tweed is said to have been
born. At No. Is William J. Scanlon first
saw the light. Ed. Harrlgan's birthplace
was somewhere in the immediate vicinity,
and he moved in the best clrc'es of the
alley.
Then came another revolution, or ssr!es Of
Wave after wave of foreign
Immigration passed through Cherry street,
crowdina the Irish into the alleys. To-day IA
mixed population reside in the street itself.
The Italians have conquered the three most
alleys Double alley. Single alley
and Mikes alley. The Irish in native force
eutrenched themselves in their last
stronghold. Murphy's Alley. or Blind Dams
Al.ev. No alien element has yet dared to
foot In that last rallying ground of Erin.