The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-04

The contents of the guide book havs
caused some comment within and wi h
out the conference. The handbook seems
to have been written from mere secu-
lar point Of view than was to have been
expected under the circumstance OGe
of the most remarkable chapters is one
called "A Ramble at Night" After am
Introduction which strives to tell the
reader what the streets Of a great city at
night look like. the writer of the book
throws out these suggestions:
Some suggestions as to good route
for a nocturnal ramble. and the sort of
thing a person may expect To see may
be useful. If you are in search OF evil
In order to take part in it-dOn't l0Oh
here for guidance. This book merely
proposes to give some hints as how ths
dark, crowded, Woodworking and some.
times criminal portions Of the city look
at night
''Supposing that you start from an up
town hotel say at 9 o'clock. a good pan
would be to take the Sixth Avenue Eie-
waited railroad TO Bleecker Street station.
This Is a shady corner. in more senses
than one. The Junction of BseeCker and
South Fifth avenue is quite rooted over
by the elevated station and tracks, and
the latter street is one of the most poorly
lighted in town; moreover the locality ia
largely inhabited by negroes mainly by
d very low class, becoming still more low
and vicious as you go down Sullivan and
Thompson streets, below Becker; and
large portion of the white residents.
American Italian, French and irish. are
fond Of shady places and shady ways"
After going through the more thickiy
settled parts of town the guide book
comes in turn to Chinatown and makes
the following observations:
Opium smoking rooms. popularity
called Joints are hidden away IN Pell
and DOyers streets, but it Is dangerous 90
visit them, as the police are likely 10
raid them at any moment, and the con-
sequences to every one found there are
exceedingly unpleasant. The price OF
hitting the pipe is ST. The habit has
spread outside the Chinese quarter and
now joints exist uptown. whose patrons
are wholly white men and women. who
yield themselves to the pipe without any
restraint of dignity or decency. They
are. however. rigldly suppressed by the
police, and an experience is likely to end
in Jail
There is a paragraph headed Wine
Women and Song" The stranger is pi-
loted to Clarendon Hall annex, the de
lights of which are thus described:
I'VE find a spacious hall in the rear Of
a brilliant barroOm. A small orchestra.
mounted on a stage. is pulling and push
ing and pounding noises out of vtoi and
horn and piano. Presently big girl. As
brazen as the instruments, comes out TO
sing. AS music it is dreadful, as a pic
ture worse, yet the crowd stays and ap-
pauds and calls for more. and IL is not
q bad crowd, either-at any rate early in
the evening. In East Fourteenth street,
between Fourth and Third avenues. A
glare of yellow light illumnes the whole
pavement. Portals of barrOoms. res
taurants and amusement resorts OF va
rious kinds. open and shut with what a
moralist might call damnable Iteration
as young men and gaudily dressed girls
pass out and in. A glimpse Of this is
enough. Westward, Fourteenth street
Stretches blaze of light in front Of the
big shops that line its south side all the
way to Sixth avenue. Female figures
fit jauntily along under the glare. but
their retreats are In darkness, elsewhere
and we have no temptation to heed their
beckoning to what they misscall home -
Ore member of the hospitality commit
tee said last night that he thought that
the guide book had been offered TO the
committee free of cost by the publishers,
by whom it is ordinarily sold for . ceuts
a copy. The publishers prepared a spe.
cial cover out of compliment To the con-
ference. The committeeman said that
he did not believe that any member of
the committee had taken the pains 70
read the book. He was much Mortified
when the passages quoted above were
pointed out to him.