Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-08-31
LITTLE ITALY. p"
Jacob Riis Describes a F'east-Day in
the Italian Quarter in New York.

When Governor Roosevelt was presi-
dent of the New York police board, he
attended a saint s-day celebration in
little Italy," and Jacob Riis, who
went with him, thus describes the
scene in the Century:
The rumble of trucks and the slam
ming of boxes up on the corner ceased
for the moment, and in the hush that
fell upon Mulberry street snatches Of
familiar tunes, punctuated by a deter
mined drum, struggled into the dock.
Around the corner came a band of
musicians with green cOck-feathers in
hats set rakishly over fierce, sunburnt
faces. A raft Of boys walked in front,
| abreast Of two bored policemen, step
ping in time to the music. Four men
carried a silk-fringed banner with
evident pride. Behind them strange
procession toiled along: women with
babies at the breast and dragging little
children; fat and prosperous padrones
| carrying their canes like slaves of
office and authority; young men out for
a holiday; old men with lives of hard
| =
gait and worn and crooked frames;
! lastly, a cripple on crutches, who
strOye manfully to keep up. The Of
| fcials in Police Headquarters looked
| out of the windows and viewed the
show indifferently. 1t was an every
| day spectacle. This one had wandered
around the block thrice that day. Pres
ident Roosevelt (of the Police Board),
| who had come out to go to lunch, was
much interested. To him it was new.
"Where do you suppose they are go
ing?" he said, surveying the process
sion from the steps. He was told
| that some Italian village saint was
having his day celebrated around in
| Elizabeth street, and he expressed
desire to see how it was done. SO we
fell in, he and I, and followed the band
too, at little distance.
1t led us to ramsnackle old house
in Elizabeth street, and halted there
in front of saloon with the appealing
announcement on a swinging sign:
'FVino, Vino, di California, di Italia.
And Kind of Whisky for Sale" The
| band and the fat men went into the
saloon. We followed the women,
| the children, and the scraggy ones
through a gap in the brick wall that
| passed for an alley to the back yard,
and there came upon the village of
Auletta feasting its patron saint.
1t was yard no longer, but
| temple All the sheets of the tene-
ment had been stretched so as to cover
! the ugly sheds and OuthOuses. Against
! the dark rear tenement the shrine Of
the saint had been erected, shutting it
altogether out of sight with a wealth
of scarlet and gold. Great candles
and little ones, painted and berlb-
boned, burned in a luminous grove be-
| fore the altar. The sun shOne down
upon a mass of holidayclad men and
women, to whom it was all as a mem
DRY of home, of the beloved home
across the seas; upon mothers Nkneel-
ing devoutly with their little ones at
the shrine, and upon children bring
ing offerings to the saints glory. His
face smiled down benignly upon them
from the frame Of gaudy colors with
the coat of arms of the yillage-or
was it hint at the legendary history
of the SANTA fox dragging re-
luctant rooster by the tail. In his
own country the saint is held to be
mighty against fever, and the ague, of
!, which there is much there. The faith
which prompted a stricken mother to
hang the poor garments of her epilep-
tic boy close to his hand, in the hope
that he might be healed, provoked no
smile in one latter-day spectator. The
: sorrow and trust We're too genuine for
that. The fire-escapes Of the tene-
ment had with the aid of some cheap
muslin draperies, little tinsel, and
, the strange artistic genius of this
people. been transformed into beauti-
full balconies, upon which the tenants
, of the front house had reserved seats
:, In a corner Of the yard over by the
9 hydrant, a sheep, which was to be raj
: fed off as the climax of the cele
bration, munched it's wisp Of hay pa
: tiently, while barelegged children
= climbed its back and pulled its wool
:. From the second story Of the adjoin
= ing house, which was stable, a bis
= white horse stuck his head at intervals
out of the window, and surveyed thu
shrine and the people with an inter
ested look.
- The musicians, issuing forth victori
: Gus from a protracted struggle with
feet of schooners in the saloon, cam
:. out, wiping their mustachios, and blev
, Santa Lucia" on their horns. Tn
- sweetly seductive melody woke tn
echoes of the block and its slumber
:, ing memories. The old women rookie
:. in their seats, their faces buried i
=, their hands. The crowd from tn
- street increased, and the chief cele
l brant, who turned out TO be no less
u person than the saloon-keeper himsel
reaped liberal harvest of silver hall
RS dollars. The villagers bowed an
ii crossed themselves before the sain
III and put into the plate their share tc
lg ward the expense Of the celebration
RS Its guardian made strong effort t
or explain about the saint to Mr. Roose
IN Welt.
= He is just-a-lik'-a young St. Pa
" rick here he said, and the presider