The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-01
A LONELY NEW YORK QUARTER
Quietness in Certain Old Streets Equal
to that of Country Town.

New York Mail and Express
In spite of new tenement houses and an
increasing foreign population, the old West
Side. south Of Fourteenth street and be-
yond Sixth avenue. retains many of the
architectural and social characteristics of
| fifty years ago. 1t is true that the larger
part of some streets has been transformed
in appearance; that scores of old three
story brick dwellings, once the homes of
families whose grandfathers lived in the
same houses. have been turned into lodg-
| ings; that many other houses have been
| turned into shops or small factories; that
still others have come to house three or
four families instead of one.
There are whole blocks. too, in which
nearly every house bears on its Intel a tiny
rectangle of note paper announcing in fem
! inine manuscript that there are lodgings
to let. 1t is a mark of West Side respecta-
bility TO make such announcements in this
particular fashion rather than by printed
or painted legend.
Even the teeming East Side region of
tall tenementS is not a better place than
the West Side for man in search of quiet
TO lose himself to the world. There are
quiet streets here through which no street
cars run, into which few strangers come
secure retreats where a man of wide ac-
dozen years with small probability OF his
ever coming in contact with any one he
knew. He might if he chose supply all his
wants, save that of society, without VEN
turing a dozen blocks from his lodgings.
without penetrating any region ia which
he would be likely 10 meet an acquaintance,
for the old West Side is in most things
sufficient unto itself.
II has its own markets. where all that
any man needs for the table may be had
as cheap and good as anywhere else I'm
ind
of ware. Blocker street is just at its door
where there is good half mile of retail
shops selling all that man woman can
want There is public library; there are
churches of nearly a dozen denominations
AS for amusements. there is the Italian
theater Spring street besides half a
dozen cafes chantant.
Some New Workers when utterly tired out
go to Philadelphia for quiet when they
have within half an hour of their own
homes a Philadelphia as soothing as the
stillest spot anywhere within the limits of
the more distant city of rest.
In nothing has the old West Side been
more conservative than IN the matter of
street-car service. Only on the great thor
Oughfares that lead out OF this dim quarter
into the busting regions north and east has
other motive power than horses been In
troduced. Elsewhere the peace of the re-
giOn is scarcely disturbed by the dreamy
jingle of an occasional horse car coming
few know whence, going few know whittier
Only the oldest residents are acquainted
with the eccentric routes OF the old West
Side hOrSe-car lines. They wind and twist
from the ferries Of the East Side TO those
OF tho west, turning unexpected corners and
surprising strangers by suddenly coming
out upon familiar streets
Most of the old West Side streets how
ever, are traversed by no cars, and there
are spots in the region where the noise Of
no such vehicle is ever heard and whittier
the clatter OF traffic on the elevated roads
comes. IL at all, in the form OF a subdued
hum. There are streets. indeed, through
which no vehicle passes save at the hour
OF the grocer's early call for orders and
again at the hour when no makes bis deliy-