The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-28
TRAGEDY OF A LITTLE SHOP.
Business Destroyed by Subway, the
Owner Killed Herself.

New York Evening Sun.
All the victims of the subway do not
die by dynamite. Take the case OF Miss
Catharine Ryan, the little shopkeeper who
committed, suicide on Monday morning by
jumping from the roof of her home on
West Sixty-sixth street because the subway
excavations on the corner of the boulevard
had so isolated her little shop that she and
her partner (sisters) were no longer able to
meet their bills. 1t would take a Dickens
or a Balzac to do justice to this heart-break-
ing tragedy. The Misses Ryan's little shop,
sandwiched in between the bigger build
ings, was one Of the institutions of the up
per boulevard. Not alone TO every child who
ran there for its scent glass of ice-cream
soda or il cents worth of caramels was the
little shop bivouac and tryst place after
school hours, but in the old days before the
subway contractors, like medieval ogres,
came and camped before their doors, car
riageS would often stop in front of the
Misses Ryan's shop, for they not only num-
bered all the residents OF the Hotel Marie
Antoinette among their customers, but
many of the wealthy women of the neigh
borhood made it a rule to buy all their sta
tionery and current literature there. 1t was
a quaint little place, with its big black cat
always odZing on one Of the showcases, its
tiny little cubbyhole where ice cream was
dispensed In the rear, and its walls lined
with hundreds and hundreds OF the old pa
per-covered Franklin-square Library novels
of fifteen years ago-a remarkable little Ii
brary OF itself. Any reader in search of an
old-fashioned novel like 1.-The Arundel Mot
to- or the very earliest works OF Miss Brad
don and Bertha M Clay had only TO mount
| the little stepladder and the book he wanted,
mildewed, perhaps and trifie musty,
| would soon be found. On the other hand.
you could always FIND the latest novel there
and all the latest serious literary works.
The sisters, in their spare hours. were ON
nivorous readers, and generally knew thor
oughly the contents OF any book they sold.
For twelve years the Misses Ryan were
happy and prospered. They made good
| living, and as their patronage grew larger
little shop. Twenty years ago New York's
side streets and more humble avenues were
| ful of just such little shops.
Most of these little shops went out OF
| business long ago, and for that reason
| this one, a survival of the fittest as Ii were,
attracted the more attention. Then two
| summers ago the subway excavation in
| front of the Pyans' shop began. For fif-
| teen months the street directly in front of
| the little shope has been impossible. Fences
were built and half the pavement was filled
with the contractors paraphernalia. Bit
by bit their business fell away; the resi-
dents of the big hotel still took their pa
pers from them, but the filthy state of the
| Boulevard and the distractions which had
by this time surrounded the little shop like
| a stockade made IL almost impossible for
would-be customers to reach the shop. To
| shop they were still the same bright, CHEEKY
| little women all the neighborhood respected
| and liked Too proud to let any OF their
| friends know their troubles, the sisters,
| hoping against hope, fought on. Last Sat
urday matters came to climax. All their
little capital expended in trying to keep
| the shop afioat the sisters saw failure star
| ing them i'm the face The elder sister, be-
| ing almost stone deaf, brooded over their
| troubles until finally her mind was I'M
hinged. In a moment of despair on Mon
day morning, she rushed TO the roof of the
| apartment house where she and her sister
| lived and threw herself down the airshaft
| Two hours later the little shop was pad
| locked and a card written in a woman's
| hand announced that II was closed ac-
| count of death in the family, and by some
| strange irony of fate that very morning
| the subway workers removed their last
| obstruction from the front of the little
| shop.
The funeral of Miss Catherine Ryan oc-
| CURED yesterday. A great many residents
| of the neighborhood who had known Miss
Ryan and her sister for many years sent
flowers, and Manager Albert keene has
| started a subscription among the residents
| of the Marie Antoinette which has already
| reached such substantial sum that IL is
hoped IL will enable the surviving Miss
T, Ryan to keep the shop open.