The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-03-14
A TYPICAL CHICAGO DIVE.

''We can get warn in here" says Clark alb
ruptly, and he turns into a doorway which
opens on the street.
| follow him down q narrow passage whose
faint light enters through a stained-glass par
tition, which hems il in along the inner side
wall Of the building Through n door at the
end of the ID ssage we enter n large room bril-
liantlv lighted, and follow Clark 10 an iron
stove at one side in which n coal fire burns
furiously. In tire corner nesr us are three
ihen, slouchng, listless, weary specimens Of
their kind, who nre playing comrades"
with gusto curiou.ly out OF keeping with
their looks of bored faticue One has a harp,
another violin and the third drums cease
lessly upon n piano of harsh, metallic tone.
There are n dozen round tables in the room,
and at these arc seated small groups OF men
and women drinking beer. Some Of the men
are workmen, but most are lonfers. not IF the
tramp but Of the rough civic type
The women are young, rIost OF them very
young, and there is little trace Of beauty and
almost none Of hard brutality in any face
among them. They are simply commonplace.
As company the women lack the hale ro-
business Of the men. They are mostly little
women, Of slight figures, and some add to this
transparency of skin and a feverish bright
ness OF eye which clearly mark the sure burn
ing of consumption A few are cast in stur-
dier mould. and. their faces flushed
with drink, they look strong and healthy
All seem warmly dressed in cheap. worn gar
ments suited to the season, and there are
many touches of fnery and some even OF taste
in their sh abby winter hats Each carries a
leather purse in her hand, or allows il to lie
on the table before her with her gloves. The
hands of nearly all of them are hare and you
see at once that they nre large and coarse and
very dirty.
Suddenly you note that tn social atmosphere
Is one Of the strangest, completest camarad-
erie. The conversation is the blasphemous,
obscenest gossip Of degraded men that keeps
the dead level of the ordinary unrelieved by
anger or by. mirth, and varying only with the
Indifferent interchange of mems and women's S
voices.
The naturalness and untrsmmelled social
ease have blinded you for time TO what you
reilly sec and then the Hack reality reveals
itself in human degradation below whicn
there is no depth-as though lost, sexless souls
were already met upon common plane of
deepest knowledge of all evil And yet in
very truth they are living fellow men and
women i'm " hom have centered the strength
of natural love and hope, and centres still the
constrsinng love of Heavenly Father
From "The Workers-The West" by Walter
A. Wyckoff, in the March scribners.
Helen-Are you sure God Will forgive me
for slapping sister IL ask Him, mammap
Mamma-Certninly, dear.
Helen treaectively) Then 4 wish l had
slapped her.-Life.
The Uncle-Are you entirely satisfied with
your lots
The Niece (still angry at her grandfa hers
willD-No. I'm not 1t ought to have a house
on it.-Harlem Life.
A little girl rebuked her brother for laugh
ng at man with a crooked nose who passed
the house. "You mustn'r do that" she said :
"God made him that way"