Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-18


someness like that of a great city were not
the thing so bitterly true that II merits
the perpetual iteration 1t receives. At this
hour there are perhaps more men and
women suffering from the grieyous noa-
taig1a OF the great city than from any
other disease on the Island of Manhattan
me virtual impossibiiity of making
iriendS In New York is something neither
contemplated nor understood by persons
VINO come here to make their home 1t In
simple fact. however. that nine-tenths of
the New Workers move in a vastly more
contracted social orbit than the residents
OF any OF the inferior cities of the country
Iney nave very few friends, that is to saw
iheir aioofness is really more a matter of
naDit, OF preservation of certain queer
form. than of intentional inhospftality
coidness or suspicion. All hands of the
middle class over here, that is to saw are
IN fear OF making the first overtures toward
Ir1endships-in fear. because the one thing
that they cannot stand is to be considered
guilty OF any sort of effusiveness They
prefer to maintain the foolish blase pose,
even at the sacrifice of friendships which
would make their hours of relaxation in
nnitely more passable and happy. There
Is absolutely no such thing neighborliness
an NeW YORK You rarely or never catch
even a glimpse of the people living in the
apartment right across the hall from your
own.
The Result of It All.
The result of it all is that most New
Workers are all but friendless. and. there
lore veritably unhappy beings To see
human faces. to hear human voices. thu
lonesome folks over here have to jam the
restaurants throng the concert and beer
nails. fill the theaters, repair to all sorts
or public places where there is something
doing" to take them away from their sense
OF lonesomeness. The people become
drear1ly weary of their stuffy flats and
they break out of them whenever they can
70 20 somewhere. SO overpowering is their
o or OF puIoensome confinement with few
or no friends to call upon them and divert
their minds. In New York there are no
back yard fences for the women to lean
comfortably over and become acquainted.
lew front StoopS for the men to squat upon
ana exchange little condolences and cigars
Every man and woman has his or her little
cen, ana to their cells all hands repair
when they are through with their day's
work, most of them remaining in their
eoops about long enough for a wash-up and
change of linen. when they start out to
go somewhere"
To the young man or woman cor,;,o 60
New York to make a start the lonesome
conditions are little short of appalling.
eueh one walks alone among thousands
OF chatterers. imagining them all to be
happy and cOntented and provided with
scores of friends whereas. If the truth were
known, even the majority of the cha tterers
are suHerlng in their spirits from a lone
someness that Is oppressive and abiding
particularly do those who come to the big
town from the smaller. neighborly places
where everybody knows everybody else
Suner from what might be called the in
voluntary ostracism Of New York.
The only people who actually mingle and
get together in New York are the persons
VINO frankly belong to the lower classes
and the members Of the haut ton, most of
whom know and address each other by
their first names. But the middle classes
do not mix. They do not know how to get
together. And, because they do not know
how. their days go by drearily. and they
nave frequent sense of the uselessness
of everything. If there were any way of
obtaining such statistics. it would probably
be found that more of the suicides that fill
the New York papers are attributable to
plain. old-fashioned consequences than to
any other cause.
To Prevent Race Suicide.
The race suicide" note of alarm sound
ed by the President has even penetrated
such ObtuSe 1ntellects as those of the
members of the New York board of alder
men. They are now talking of framing an
ordinance similar to that which was re-
Gently passed by the aldermen of Chicago
which infiicts fine of 500 upon the owner
of any apartment house who refuses to rent
apartments to applicants with children.
The .sumptuary laws cry has been raised
in Chicago over that ordinance, and 1t
would undeniably be fiercely resisted here
should it be placed upon the Manhattan
code. but there are tens of thousands Of
people in New York with children who
would joyously hail such ordinance.
1t is all very well for the funny papers to
make a jest Of this mo children rule of
the owners and agents of fiat houses but
the thing is very far from a joke to the
unfortunate fathers and mothers of broodS
who set out to look for places to live for
themselves and their progeny. One can get
into any old fiat in New York, from those
that rent for $40 month to those that are
leased" for 5000 a year. with dog, or
a kangaroo, or a pet grizzly, two or
three marmOSets, screeching parrot:
but If you have a young one you have got
to execute what is known as the marrow
bones stunt in telling the fiat agent or
owner about your misfortune and then
the chances are four in five that he will re-
quest you to look elsewhere Instances are
not infrequent in which desperate parents
have actually smuggled a young one into
flats that struck their fancy, but that-had
the bars up against children. In such
cases the possibility exists of some sort OF
a composition being arranged with tho
janitor-strictly financial basiS-but
generally the children -smugglerS are incon-
tinently ordered out. More than that,
when babies are born in fats in which the
rule against children is positive it is the
regular rule for the fiat agents to give no
tice to the parents to seek other quarters
And still there are thousands of selfish
persons in New York who are in favor Of
twisting the proposed ordinance about 50
that fine of 81 900 shall be inflicted upon
any fiat owner or agent who does take in
children. c. L. c..