Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-11
Charges That, Public Servants Are
Lacking in Courtesy.
EVERYTHING A NINE-DAYg WONDER
Summing in Chinatown Suddenly
Out of Fashion.
LITTLE ITALY GETS IT
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.


NEW YORK, August 10, 1900.
Attention has hitherto been called in this
correspondence to the general lack of COM
mon courtesy on the part Of New York's
public servants, the phrase being employed
to Indicate nearly all classes of Uniformed
and ununiformed men and women in this
town who are nominally required by the
terms and conditions of their positions to
treat patrons with ordinary civility and
respect. There has been no exaggeration
in the statements made as to this matter.
A sort of contemptuously Indifferent feel
ing, II not one of acute dislike, appears to
be behind the conduct of large majority
of the men and women over here who in
any capacity, elevated or humble, are
called upon to minister to the desires Of
their fellow brings The trouble seems to
be that the folks over here don't seem to
have much respect for each other. Pub
lie servants in New York appear to be
afraid that everybody who comes along is
DESTROYS of being patronizing to them. and,
taking this for granted without any OBJ
viouS reason whatever for doing SO, they
proceed to make their own attitude hostile
from the beginning. If you call to pay
your taxes, the waX-mustached chap be-
hind the desk, who is required to attend to
the bit of business for you and to be nice
about it, seems by his manner to be saying
to himself: This fellow probably thinks
that because he's a taxpayer, and I'm
city employee he's in position to put 1t
on me. Well, I'll fool him up and the
result is that taxpayers of no personal as
sumption at all feel when they come away
from the New York city tax office that,
after all. they fill mighty diminutive inches
in the game of life.
A New York cabman who in his anX-
!ety to get you for fare. will follow you
along the curb for block soliciting you
at every revolution of his vehicles wheeis.
will completely alter in his manner toward
you as soon as he has Captured you, 50
to speak, and has got you safely en-
sconced in his rig. Where he was obsa-
qu;ous before he becomes either Indifferent
or downright impertinent once you pass
into his temporary keeping, and the heed
lessness he manifests with respect to any
changes you may desire to have him make
in your first-stated itinerary is as newt
able as the speech he usually makes at the
end of the journey to the effect that he
understated the cost of your transportation
at the outset of the trip, and his hint that
if you show Discrimination to accede 10
his new terms there are means at his DIS
posal for compelling you to do so. A Ne"
York citizen of experience who should be
addressed by a local cabman as Sir
would be liable to put his hand to his head
in a PANIED sort of way and conclude that
that particular cabman was gradually go
ing into mental decline.
Passing Of the Polite Prefix.
In truth, the Sir or "Ma'am' prefix Is
virtually unknown over here. The average
New York public servant regards any pre-
fix of courtesy as only fit for country
men''-snd everybody is a countryman eX-
cept New Yorker. middle-aged wo-
man will walk into a confectioners and
ask the young woman in attendance:
Have you any Neapolitan ice?' NO.
the young woman in attendance will reply
without apparently ever dreaming that it
would be worth her while to utter an affix-
ed "Ma'am'' as a token of inexpensive re-
spect to the niddc-aged womans gray
hair. You ask a New York street car con-
ductor to put you off at certain street,
the exact location of which is unfamiliar
to you. and IN nine cases out OF ten ne
will take you far beyond that street. ana
when you complain even in the most meas
ured terms he will reply. Say, Wot
d'youse t'ink I'm here fri git wise
were all youse people is travelin' to an
den t. drop you dere as If you was ridin
in a automobile?'
The average New York hotel clerk is
more than Indifferent to whether you
decide to become a guest of his house or