The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-13
HAPPY HESTER STREET.
IMPORTATION FOR a TdILoR-MlDH
GIRL FROM UPTOWN.

Is HnpprninEt Not Lonesome. ns In FIFTH
Avenue. sass u tiri on n Doorstep-Nics
People. Too. aud They're All Acquainted.
The Fifth avenue girl stood at tho corner 81
Essex and Hester streets and wondered what
HAD broken loose. Not that the ncighborhood
was moro chaotic on that particular day than
on any other; but Hester street and upper Fifth
avenue are different. Even q casual observer
might notice that.
How the girl happened TO DO where she was
isn't a long story. She had started for a walk In
Central Park, and In tho course of It had dis
covered that she vas bored, exceedingly bored.
That didn't suit her and she Shutdown on n bench
TO think what could be done about IL. The even-
ing before she had dincd Mt n house where sho
met two aggressive college girls, rabid with
College Settlement enthusiasm, and sho had
heard a good doal about tho cast side. She
didn't know exactly where tho east side was;
/ but she had n vague idea that IL one should ride
down on n Third avenue chr until things began
TO be very noisy and dirty, and then should leave
the car and walk east. one would find something,
che hardly knew what. AT my rate, It would
be different from Central Park and it might
entertain her. That's how she found Hester
street, and now she admitted that IL wasn't like
her usual haunts.
She looked at the struggling. shouting. mass Of
Hcbraic humanity. and when tho pcddlers
turned their attention to her she politely dis
owned any intention of buying shoestrinRs,
sauccpans. or chocolate candy. Really, after
one got used to the thing. 1t was rather anus
ing and decidedly picturesque.
A girl, who might have been 10 years old and
might have been 30. vas sitting on n flight OF
rickcty steps and taking care Of q grimy
baby whose face had tho same look OF indefinite
ngc. The Fifth avenue girl looked at her and
smiled. Tho Hester street girl smiled, too.
us it always crowded like this T. the stranger
asked. confdentially.
well, 20 don't call this a crowd. I hopa.
we've missed the push"
And isn't anything special happening I"
Not as l know of. This is dead quiet for
Hester street."
Tho tailor-mnde girl tried to take that in, and
was glad she hadn't tackled the neighborhood
on its busy day. She looked at the shrewd, old
face OF the girl beside her. Then she looked al
the steps and wavered. She had a horror of
germs; but thero was no use in straining at Q
door step and swallowing the east side, so she
picked up her rustling skirt, said a nunc dimit-
tbs for her silk pctticoat, and sat down beside
her new acquaintance. Tho latter wasn't sur
p~rised-one gets over all capacity for surprise
when one lives in Hester street; but she was In
~terested. She looked the stranger over.
- spose ye live uptown!' she said.
sweetness. She didn't want the poor child to DO
awed and envious. She really hated to say that
should have such good luck when the other girl
Was thn, So so n59ifS9rr tun Still !rs she had to confess
looked at her, but there was something in her
syfs Tina. i@pS Masn't G Inv :wd Il the nfr thing Mau had mt been 20.
cided that she was being pitied.
TbtS % "Wf%l slo Sir Up b jh n ANT Ev i !" the,,
were two ways Of looking at the sitGstion. 'ne-
VEL i isn't as lively as this" she admitted.
full y Ss he s'DGs ]s, tesFf " iRa i %siHy o RlHS woman ss sh ssiS
In a satisfied tone. as she rescued the baby from
Fourteenth street: and onct / went up to visit
EN- fer a week, but. my sakes, l was that lone
some ! Jest couldn't stand it no way, and / come
though. Maybe yc'd feel funny down WI here
perhaps / ,would-jpst at, first" said tho
effort to- digest the new I'D eHs she was swallowing,
.o al wish Saissh f ye Gpd sc. see it when its real lively"
Nobody can't git lonesome down here. Look q
here, Re6ecca! II ye eats them cinders yen DO
Have you always lived hercf asked the
Born right here. 1 guess I know everybody
Hester street. This here baby belongs to Missis
out a gigantic Hf HEBREW brew 'n matron H~ who s'e w pG'I pro-
with small boys who had evil designs in the
I'm lust minding the baby for hor.", said the
girl don rS h n lives I tight in here ere Say: I've heerd
town"
ma w u iohcSoihe.
Just then there was a complex howl. and APP
parently all the crowd in the street piled intoe
heap in, front of the steps. The uptown girl
clutched the railing. and turned pale, but the
Hester street girl looked quite serene.
ITS nothtn' but Uncle Isaacs making a row
cause somebody's stole his breastpins,' she
said, cheerfullv. He allus kicks up a fuss
afore ~night-thinks, everybody's trying to steal
his things, and makes everybody mad. There
comes the cop. He'll settle EN-. Amt he lovely r.
Cit onto the Teddy Jenny's hooked. jeered .
small girl on the sidewalk, and a tide of peddlerS
set toward the stems.
"ld better GO" said the visitor, nervously.
She gave the dirty baby n dime and shook out
her skirts suspiciously.
We'll. good-by. Come down and see me agIn.
Come some Thursday mornin'. / amt mover
busy, and it must be dreadful lonesome up
whore you live. Good-by."
Now the ta~ilor-made girl knows there's an.
other half OF the world, and that Fifth avenues
not so warm, after all.
CURIOUS HAPPENINGS IN CHURCH..