The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-09
NEW YORKSHIRE ON THE ROOFS
Delightful Gardens on Some Houses-Tene-
meut Roofs Used to sleep ON In Hot
wcather--L0ve Making and Tragedy
There. Too--.Janltors' Castles In the Air

1 NnRrd, NWO--JNTutWtb AnSaero"ahc AIT
Come and see my real roof garden
said New Yorker to his guests after din
ner one hot summer evening. 4 datter
myself that it's a new stunt
He took them on the roof of his house
] and showed them one Of the best small
( gardens to be found anywhere In the city
| The flowers and plants were growing in
real beds OF soil not In pots and tubs, as is
usual in gardens on the roofs Of houses In
large cities.
| A small fountain played In the centre,
amid, Japanese dwarf trees, and cosy seats
we're provided! In shady hooks. Altogether,
the garden was 6 delightful place. A man
could linger there and imagine that he was
in an old-fashioned rustic garden, instead
| of on roof in the heart Of great city.
! what do YOU think Of it," asked the
host Isn't it really new stunt? Doesn't
it beat everything In the rus in urbe line
ever attempted"
well, hardly" SAID one OF the guests
wasn't there a Babylonian king who did
the same thing some thousands OF years
| agoP He took a country girl for his queen,
and nothing was too good for her. in his
\ estim alton 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 a garden as you would
order lunch.
oh kingr said the chamberlain. Tn
doubtedly you are the greatest monarch
! that ever lived. but | don't quite see how
,, you can havea g4rdo IN. We are too crowded
| here. There's no room anywhere on the
! ground
Then make me one on the roof. 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 ever likely TO equal
them
Nevertheless New York manages to get
great deal Of pleasure out of its roof life,
even though it is away behind Babylon.
In other crowded American cities. life on
the roof is great institution. but nowhere
else is it so much practis Vi as in New York
New Workers. says a widely-travelled
man, dwell on their rooftops far more
than the 0risrtals, about whose roof
life so much has been written"
To wealthy people who remain in the
city during the summer, roof life lis lux
ury. but to the poor folk in the tenement
districts it is a necessity. When the mer.
curry in the thermometer is mounting
steadily to the heat prostration point.
life in their ill-ventilated rooms becomes
uncomfortable. The very roofs are often
hot to the touch long after the sun has
/ gone down, but one can at least get fresh
air on them. and an coca sional Whit of
| cool breeze.
Rich people often come down here
| and pity the poor tenement dwellers be-
cause they have to stay in such small.
stuffy rooms" said the janitor of an East
| Side tenement; but. as matter of fact,
don't suppose there are any people in
the world who live more in the open air
The children are always out in the
, streets 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 as soon as 'he sun goes down they
gather on the roof to spend the even
| ing 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 Oh the sidewalks It
is the commonest OF East Side tragedies.
| Sometimes a man simply rolls of in his
sleep, sometimes he gets sleep-walking
and tumbles of.
The children and young men scram-
| bic about the roofs and jump from one
| roof TO another in reckless manner Some
, OF the roofs are separated from others
| by high spikes, which are curved so as 70
| project several feet over the streets. Do
you think that stops the youngsters? Not
| a bit Of it.
They swing themselves around the
| spikes like cts, hanging seven stories
above the sidewalk 1t makes a mans
| blood run cold to see them sometimes;
but they very seldom, if ever. fall"
Isn't the roof rather small sometimes
for ell the people who want to use it,"
| the janitor was asked
Yes. il ia, and that's our greatest trouble.
The roof causes more qusrrels in a tene-
| ment than anything else.
ON very hot evenings you can see them
| lying there packed almost as close as sar-
dimes in box. One man walks over
hnOtteI WHO Is sleeping, ana wakes MIN
| up, as cross as a bear with a sore head.
cor, perhaps, baby insists on CRYING
and keeping every one awake. until they
all turn on the unfortunate mother and
| try TO make her take it down to her rooms
Then the father offers TO fight, and there's
a rough house.
$50 netimes the people who live on the
top floor don't care to SO on the roof them
| selves and object to other people doing
So They say the noise keeps them awake
| have known them to block up the pas
sage to the roof and defy anybody to try
Then, of course, there are quarrels and
| fights, appeals to the landlord and COM
| plants to the Board of Health And the
| poor janitor has TO mix up in the sa,labble
until his life isn't worth living"
| In many Of the New York tenements
pigeons, fowls and other live stock are
J kept on the roofs. Quarrels often arise
| through one man stealing another's pigeons
This has been reduced TO fine art Some
East Siders train tumbler pigeons to at
/ tract the ordinary pigeons to their coops
| by their queer antics In tho air. When
the strange pigeons are safely inside the
! coop Ia closed and they are kept prisoners
| for few days until they regard the new
coop as their home. Other thieves at
| tract the pigeons by smearing anise seed,
which all pigeons love, on the coop.
Patrolmen who do duty on the East
Side tell YOU that a tough, when chased
by the police, nearly always tries 10 get
away over the roofs rathar than aIos,.