The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-02
Alone inNewYCr
Experience OF a
Country Girl.

Miss Dorothy Adams In the New Yorl
Herald says:
When I stepped on the ferry at Jer'
sey City the long finger Of the big clocl
on the ferry house pointed ten minutes
TO twelve. Then there was tOlling OF
bells-of funeral bells, it seemed TO ne
there was a rasping Of chains, a shrek
ing Of whistles, and with an almost i'm
perceptible motion the boat stole out
INTO the current Of the dark North
River.
A terrible loneliness crept over me.
Alone. ar midnight, was approaching
for the first time the great the terrible
city OF New York So lonely did I feel
that il seemed years since L had left
home. Yet IN the early dawn Of tfat
very incoming I had watched the Ettie
red scnocI house on the hill fade away
into The grayness Of a Western Pennsyl-
vania landscape, while the great groal-
ing pedler wagon, with its freight Of
I've calves and chickens and ducks and
geese, labored over the rough Butler
county road to the railroad station.
Had walked these thirteen miles I
need not have missed the train had in
tended taking, and which would have
landed me in New York early in the
evening IN plenty of time to find a respec-
table lodging house. But, as it happen
ed, the pedler wagon made extraordinary
slow tine, even for a pedIer wagon, and
when at last we numbered up to the lit
lie station and found my train gone,
an hour before. Mr. Dodds, the driver,
SAID:
We'll, I'll be switched But I'm not
q bit surprised. Didn't I tell you when
you dun Up on this here wagon seat
that you'd meet bad luck a-startin' out
on a Journey in the dark Of the moon,
and on a Friday at that?"
And this IS what he did tell me. In
deed, that Is what the whole countryside
told me, and thus far their predictions
have come true.
As the boat swept into mid-stream it
seemed that I must be sailing into the
Holy city itself. All along the east, out
lined against the purple night, their bea-
con lights burning side by side with the
stars. turret upon turret and tower upon
tower, stretched the lofty battlements
Of a city such as the prophets and the
patriarchs saw in dreams celestial city
such as children conjure up in the mus
tering Of summer clouds at sunset.
Nor was there anything to destroy the
illusion Of heavenly splendor. All the
utilities of earth, in festaI trappings,
seemed TO be holding a princely carnival.
Grim warehouses had taken on them
selves the most fantastic forms Of cas-
tied fortresses. The merchant vessels at
anchor. by the wand of the strange ma
gician, were a phantom feet of winged
pinnaces that a breath Of wind might
have waited away to the other side Of
the world
The black, unsightly coal docks seemed !
lordly quays. while. as if to intensity the
Biblical significance Of the vision the
electric light signs which inscribe the
horizon with the names of divers house
hold commodities burned into the black
sky. not their own familiar homely let !
terings but the awful Meme, Meme Te- /
keli" Of Belshazzsr's feast.
But as the boat drew nearer and near /
er the vision faded. the transcendent !
glory Of what a few minutes before had
seemed a celestial city became with the |
strange and rapid metamorphosis Of a |
dream. an uncanny witchery of a black
shadow and fitful cleaning The big
black hulls Of the ocean liners. the long
white coast steamers. the dirty little tug
boats. all were asleep in their soft swing
ing cradles, while the clock on the ferry /
house. both hands lifted slyward, pro-
claimed that it was midnight
Then began to realize the full extent /
Of the awfulness Of a great city to 1
girl stranger, alone and friendless. A /
great crowd pressed upon me as I hur- (
ried on the boat and into the waiting 1
room Of the ferry house. Here I ap- /
preached the ticket egent for inf0rma- |
ton, and he directed me to The Astor /
House, which he explained was only a
few blocks away up Broadway. I heard I
him direct a man and woman to the /
same place whom I had noticed to- /
gether on the ferryboat
Although 7 had never laid eyes upon !
either of them before. it seemed that /
must have known them a long time. so /
hungry was 7 for the sight of a familiar I
face among all that great crowd that still /
poured through the ferry shed. And so 4
I followed them bindly up dark. dimly /
lighted CORTLAND street and around the |
corner into Broadway. Although 1t was ?
midnight. to my unaccustomed eyes
everything seemed s,ustle and excite
fore. except at the county fair at home. /
7 followed the man and woman ND /
Broadway past the quiet old churchyard 4
of ST. PauIs and into the hotel office.
The night clerk evidently mistook me I.
as belonging to this mans party. for /
he seemed much surprised when accomo- /
dauons for only two were ordered. /
While he was selecting the key to their /
askance. as much as to say: 'Wnat are /
YOU doing out alone at this hour Of the /
night2'
81 would ike 70 have a room, please" /
7 said. with my best air of self posses /
sion. when the clerk turned to me in /
Quiriagly "and I should like if Won would |
be sure to have me awakened at seven ,
o'clock"
"He looked at me. hesitaHngIy. cues
tionngly. ct am sorry. madam. but the 4
house is full" ne replied. and then. see 3
ing. presume. that was almost ready /
20 sink upon the floor from exhaustion.
he kindly AIDED. you may be able TO ind .
acomodadons further up town"
And SO 7 walked down the steps again f
into the glare OF Broadway. and SO T be-
san my quest for a decent nights lodg-
ing. an ignorant Of that inbuman. al- .
biet unwritten. law Of frst-class New
York hotels which denies protection from
the terrors Of nisht to woman travelling
alone.
Where TO SO. what to 90. did not
know. Fortunately. had plenty Of
money with me. In my sstchel I had
the hundred dollars that was to spend
for hypnotic Lessons. did not know
which was uotoWn and which was down
and so I walked up a little way to ask
q policeman. as had b.an v-a~De4 ,,,