Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29
Streets Look as Though They Had
Never Been Cleaned.
THE DRINK HABIT AMONG WOMEN
Two SwindIers Who Worked an
ingenious Scheme.
MEANEST MAN ON RECORD
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.


of New York were SO indescribably filthy
as they are now. New York has degenerat-
ed into a city of ooze and slime. 1t is a
| sort of erratically paved quagmire from one
end to the other. The New York streets
are actually as dirty now as the streets OF
Chicago have always been-which would
seem to be about the last word In describ-
| ing such a condition. However. there are
natural difficulties to be contended with IN
Chicago In the city fathers unopportune
| phrase enough, that, applied to the gang
| In control of Chicago's municipal affairs
| efforts to keep the streets OF the town BY
| the unsalted sea in shape. For Chicago
| was built on swamp. and the made
| earth OF the site consists simply Of crust
| about foot and half thick. man Of
| moderate weight has but to step a bit
| heavily on a Chicago paving block to
| fetch up few geysers of the origna,
swamp slime through the cracks between
the stones. So that Chicago will In all
| probabi.i forever remain a vile place,
| considered from the underfoot point OF
| view.
| There is no such tenable excuse for the
| vicious condition of the streets Of New
| York The town is as sound as a stee!
Platform from edge to edge, and its present
| slime is development, not a natural con-
dition. What is much more to the point.
| New York city has been kept beautifully
| c:ean. and that quite within the memory of
children ten years of age-in the golden era
| of the conscientious. energetic and sadly
| regretted Col. Waring, of perpetual blessed
| memory to New Workers, the one and or. y
commissioner of street cleaning who took
| the situation in hand like a business man
and kept this town looking like Dutch
kitchen during his entire incumbency. War
! ing was the organizer of the famous
White Wings brigade. When he first
took hold as street cleaning commissioner
he was ridiculed by all hands. But when,
within less than a month after he came
into office. the town began to look If Ii
had been subjected to a magical nocturnal
scrubbing seven nights in the week. the
New Workers. who are just enough at bot
tom, arose one Individual and kow-towed
to Waring. and he became the most below
ed city official Of the whole municipal sys
tenn before he had been in office six months
No Valid Excuse.
In view, therefore, of the fact that the
city streets were kept scrupulously clean
by one man for several years at a stretch
the folks who pay taxes over here are quite
reasonably inGuirng why the streets can't
be kept at least decently clean by this
mans successors. 1t is surely for no lack
of facilities. The man in charge of the
street Cleaning now gets a much larger
appropriation for his work than Warning
ever did, and the corps If white Wings
has been enormously increased since War
passab'e by women with any respect 1oi
their skirts, and even the well-dressed men
of the town are giving up the habit Of hav
ing their shoes po.shed-polishng them Is
OF no use when such gummy. filthy. NAL
OdOrOuS .hOrOughfares as even Broadway
has become have to be traversed by the
wearers of the shoes.
Even the men who vote the Tammany
ticket as straight they drink their
whisky are beginning to growl about this
state of things, and to inquire right out
loud where the gigantic appropriation for
the cleaning of the New York streets is
going.
Making Hay Now.
The whole truth Of the matter seems to
be that Tammany seeing the handwriting
on the wall, is going after everything in
sight during the brief period that remains
to 1t. The same laxness is visible In almost
every department Of the municipal govern
ment. The word has unquestonably been
passed around that after the next NUM-
cipal election there Will be muffin dom
so far as Tammany Is concerned. and that
the "bhoys" who are now inside the rail-
ings had better make all of the hay they
possibly can during the short time left 20
them.
little run down to Washington. where he
finds the beautifully paved streets in such
shape that a meal could served or
almost any Of them without any particular
comes back to the unspeakably nasty thor
oughfares Of "deah old Moo Yawk" has
something to think about.
Two Smooth individuals.
1t cannot be said that this strenuous, end
of-the-century rush Of life has served to
kill the sense of humor that has always
abided in the bosom Of the New York
CRATER" A pair of these "grafters'-
plausible. oilytongued youths they were
turned off, a German aoon keeper over
on I'd avenue the other day in a manner
eminently characteristic of their tribe.
They made proposition to him to decorate
his saloon in proper holiday fashion They
told him that they had contract to fix up
the saloon of an Irishman in the same
block In manner that would do credit to
the blue ball room Of the Wa,dorf-Astoria.
This was the point that decided the Ger
man saloon keeper. He remarked that he
didn't intend to let any harp in that or
any other block Guido him in Christmas en-
thusasm The pair of "grafters'' told him
that they could make display in his sa-
loon that would dazzle the town for $50.
and the deal was made. They said that
they'd have to come early as 5 o'clock
on the following morning. for the reason
that they had an engagement to decorate
with holly and mistletoe and stuff one OF
the Vanderbilt mansions later on In The
day. The German saloonkeeper told
them that would be all right, and that he
would leave the $50 with his porter. who
ton of their decorating labors.
Fooled n German.
The two "grafters' drove up in front Of
the saloon in wagon somewhat before
o'clock on the following morning. and were
admitted by the porter-a German who
hadn't been long In the country. They
stuck a little holly around on the bar cor
nices, and then they produced from their
wagon the main effects in the decoration.
These consisted of frazzled, storm beat ten
floral pillows. bearing such legends as
Gone. but not forgotten" Our Little
Pet" Rest in peace ITO Our Carrie;''
"Slumber on. little one:" "A loving hus-
band and father" etc. In addition. there
were frayed floral broken columns, worn
out floral anchors, and that sort of thing.
These the decorators solemnly distr:b-
uted in the windows of the saloon. When
they had finished they got the German
porter to look their work over.
The porter. grinning, pronounced 1t i'm
mense, and handed over the $50. Then one
OF the "decorators'' cleaned out the till
while the porter wasn't looking. loaded q
few dozen bottles of fine old whisky onto
the wagon talso while the German porter
was admiring the decorative effects with
the other mani, and then the two. who had
neatly lifted their pieces de resistance in
decorative work from q graveyard on the