Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-08

estimation. He loaded her with gifts, as
only Babylonian king could.
But still she wasn't happy. She didn't
like the city life. and she wanted her old
garden.
My love, we are rather crowded here
said the king, but we will do our best for
you So he sent for his palace chamber
lain and ordered garden you would
order lunch.
"'Oh. kingr said the chamberlain. I'm
doubtedly you are the greatest monarch
that ever lived. but I don't quite see how
you can have a garden. We are too
crowded here. There's no room anywhere
on the ground.
Then make one on the roofs said the
king, and thus it was that the hanging
gardens of Babylon became one of the
seven wonders of the world. They were
the original roof gardens and none of our
American limitations Is over likely to equal
them"
The Rich Mans Roof Garden.
Nevertheless. New York manages to get a
great deal of pleasure out of its roof life
even though it is way behind Babylon. In
other crowded American cities life on the
roof is a great institution but nowhere else
is it 30 much practiced as in New York
New Workers." says a widely Travelled
man, dwell on their rooftops far more than
has been written"
When the good old summertime" spreads
its hot hand over the city life is not pleas
ant even in q fashionable and spacious
apartment house. Parties given on the roof
are always far more popular than those
given in the room below.
II have noticed: remarked a confirmed
way to the drawing room after dinner dur
ing the hot spell the function is always a
failure. The guests sit around Imply in
easy chairs, mop their heated brows and
are as dull as ditchwater. They talk about
nothing but the weather. Nobody is in
clined to play or sing or do anything enter
tanning.
the roof everybody becomes alert and
jovial at once. Cushions and light chairs
are taken up. the banjo and the guitar are
produced. everybody remembers a coon
song which his negro nanny taught him
in his childhood. and the guests don't want
to go home until long after midnight-so
delightful is 1t to sit out under the stars
and enjoy the cool night breezes. with the
humming city far beneath you"
In the Tenements.
To wealthy people who remain in the city
during the summer roof life is a luxury,
but to the poor folk in the tenement dis
tricts it is a stern necessity. When the
mercury in the thermometer is mounting
steadily upward to the heat prostration
point life in their boxed-in. ill-ventilated
cubicles becomes uncomfortable. The very
roofs themselves are often hot to the touch
long after the sun has gone down. but at
least one can get fresh air on them and an
occasional Whit of cool breeze.
Rich people often come down here and
pity the poor tenement jewellers because
they have to stay in such small. stuffy
rooms, said the janitor of East Side
tenement house; but, as matter of fact,
I don't suppose there are any people In the
world who live more in the open air.
THE children are always out in the
street all through the summer days. They
romp about. lightly clad, and don't seem
to feel the heat. The women spend a great
deal of the day gossiping out of doors or
sitting on their Stops or at their open
windows. And soon as the sun goes
down they gather on the roof to spend the
evening. Very often whole families sleep
there. dragging their mattresses and pill
lows upstairs.
Il don't suppose a summer ever passes
without some people falling off these roofs
and being killed on the sidewalks 1t is the
commonest OF East Side tragedies. Some
times q man simply rolls Off In his sleep,
sometimes he gets sleep walking and tum-
bles of.
'-The children and young men scramble
about the roofs and jump from one roof
to another in the most reckless manner.
Some OF the roofs are divided from each
other by high spikes, which are curved SO
as to project several feet over the streets |
Do you think that stops the youngstersf
Not q bit of 1t. They swing themselves |
stories above tho sidewalk. It makes a |
mans blood run cold to see them some |
times. but they very seldom. II ever. fail. |
Arcadanfa Aas,sf h hA advonturoua.