The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-28

boards that their fathers love TO have
hanging from their chins and the girls
may not robe themselves in the peculiar
shawls of their mothers, but for all that
the rising generation will be just as faith
full to the orthodox Jewish religion with it's
Kosher butcher and Kosher restaurants
and the Kosher "Mikrah,'' or ritualistic
bathing institution.
They are firm and true to their teach
ings-these Interesting inhabitants of the
Ghetto-and they are so honest in their
convictions that your lukewarm Christian
may well hang his head in shame. To min
gle with the worshipers in one of the East
Side synagogues is a revelation of the char
ter of the people. They are so in earnest,
free fro all affectation. simple in.
their prayer utterances TO the Uppermost
that one forgets the squalor and prohibitive
odOrs of the street outside and finds himself
saying. instead. that here is a people who
only ask to be let alone, and people who,
be they ever so low i'm the social scale,
are never quarrelsome. rarely troublesome
so far conflict with the law of city or
I State is concerned and almost always pa
triotic and ready to sacrifice something, il
need be, for the sake of the land that gives
them protection.
Hester street, when the sun came out the
other morning after many days of hiding
behind lowering clouds. presented a scene
that visitor to the spot can never forget.
All was activity. hustle and hustle, and
such bargaining surely never was heard be-
fore since the world began. What babel
of voices rose from the rain-soaked street
upward between the high red brick build
no
the merchants worked to make up for lost
time, for the many days of rain had kept
countless customers away; how the women
i'm the long shawls elbowed and pushed
their way through the phalanx of trades
people with their everlasting push-carts
and rickety baby wagons, and how the dark
featured, shrill-voiced children-myriads of
them, acknowledgements and frolicked
and reveled through the mud and the ref
use of the cutters!
MAKING A LIVING.
Commerce in all the branches has
greater charm to the average Russian Jew
without a trade than has any other occu-
patton; hence the overcrowded market
place. How do all of these poor street mer-
chants manage to make living? The Jew
ish emigrant from Russia requires only
a small assortment of groceries, fruits, dry
goods or motions to start him on a COM
mercial career on the East Side. On the
occasion in question it was all that the
interested outsider could do to worm MS
way through the mass of human beings as
sembled there on Hester street from Es-
sex to Norfolk. The very fact that these
queer foreigners are willing to enter into
such tremendous competition in the gain
ing of a livelihood, instead of devoting
themselves to farming or other less active
fields of labor, shows how dear to their
hearts is their religion. Much is written
and said of the Jews love for money, but
the Jews love for the laws of his people
is far greater. These struggling merchants
of Hester street, with their absurdly small
profits, remain in New York where work
is hard and competition almost overwhelm-
ing, rather than journey to some other
place In the country where 1t would be diff
ficult to live I'm accordance with the laws
of Moses and the rabbis-where it might
be hard to get meat that had been slaugh-
tered in the manner demanded by the Up
permost and where other ritualistic OBJ
servances might possibly be neglected.
Jehovah and the laws of heaven are ever
present in the minds of buyers and sellers
alike. The writer's attention was arrested
time and again by the conversation between
merchants and their customers in which the
name Of Jehovah figured prominently. 1t
is impossible, Of course. for any American
visitor In the Jewish quarter to understand
the strange jargon that is the accepted
speech Of the Ghetto-a mixture of Rus
sian. German, Hebrew, French and English
But there are inhabitants in this section of
the East Side who do not speak the jar
gon and when such people become patrons
of the Hester-street merchants the bar
| gaining between merchant and customer
takes an exceedingly interesting turn.
How much vot you take for der goots?'
| inquired little black-haired, black-eyed
woman, who. although decidedly Jewish in
| appearance, addressed the long bearded
man behind one OF the push-carts in her
best English. AS she spoke she picked UP
the end Of a piece Of blue cloth and scru-
| tinized II with critical eyes.
IT sell heem to you for forty cents" said
the man, dropping his voice as he an
] nounced the price and giving a cautious
glance about him, as If to make sure that
this unprecedented offer was not overheard
by rival tradesmen. HE cost me t'irty-
| but : like to do for you der favor"
och. you say dot eff'ry time, Morris, ="
| and the woman shrugged her shoulders as
| she turned away. "You know dot 1 can
| buy such goots-"
| The merchant clutched her by the sleeve
| Don't co." he pleaded. 81 make heem for
| you t'irty-five cents, und 1 lose much
| money ven / let heem go at dot. You gif
me t'irty-five. but don't you tell vot do
KEEN IN BARGAINING.
The woman hestated. She evidently de-
sired the goods and she probably knew
their true worth, but she was too expert
enced a shopper to buy until she had made
sure that she was getting them for the low
est price possible.
Dat cloth isn't wort more dan twenty
five cents" she said as she gave the goods
a somewhat contemptuous backward
| glance.
! "Oh, hear dis woman, Israeli" cried the
merchant, with eyes rolled heavenws I'd
! "Oh. dot l could be treated as a fool" And
| then, suddenly changing his tone from one
of all-powerful Indignation to one of cold
heem twenty-eight cents. You take heem or
| leaf heem"
Den leaf heemi" exclaimed the woman.
and again she turned away and in another
moment was examining some ribbons at one
OF the adjoining push-carts. The trades