Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-28
NO REIGN OF TERROR
New York's Poor Hope for
Better Days.
A RECENT INCIDENT
THE ACCIDENTAL" SCHEME FOR
CROSSING THE BRINY DEEP.
Pool Room Men and Theatrical People
Longing on Broadway--Lillian
Russell's "Contraption."
A RECENT INCIDENT
rhe Evening Star.

| opeSiai correspondence VI Inc CFeuiu8 ctoi.
NEW YORK, May q. 1904.
| The other day an East Side rabble at
| tackled rich man and his wife in an auto
| mobile. Consequently some of the emo
| tiortal papers here are predicting that the
bloody conflict between the rich and the
| poor of New York is at hand. 1t is going
| to be worse than the terror that believed
| France with the blood of its highest. they
say. Sansculotteism is rampant. The muir
| murngs of the populace are heard like the
! rumble of the advancing avalanche. The
poverty-stricken are enraged over the spec
| tacle of the stupendous and inconceivable
luxury of the rich. The rising will occur
| suddenly and its effects will be horrifc.
| And SO on, and SO on, to the end of the
world and the extinction Of the stars.
| All of which is diluted and sieved moon
| shine. AT the smallest computation, there
are two sides to all of these stories. Every
New York newspaper save one-and that
one an insignificant, littie-read sheet-fail-
| ed to print the real nub of that affair The
| nub of it was that only few weeks before
huge Juggernaut of buzz-wagon, in
! shooting like bullet through that same
! East Side street where the attack occurred,
| had ground tot of girl into fragments
| Had that automobilist with his merry
party of women. stopped his machine to
pick the dead child up and to speak a word
OF comfort to the macerated young ones
mother, the accident might have been laid
| to the hand of God or passed up to some
other equally devout attribution. sBut the
| automobilist with his party of merry wo-
| men didn't stop at all. He was on his
way to the park. perhaps, to dine the
women al fresco, under the leaf1ness of
| the first spring foliage, and he had no time
| for dead children. even If he had slain
them himself. And so some rough-handed
but tender-hearted women of the tenements
went into the street and picked up the limp
| body of the dead tot-in whose frail frame
there were no bones left unbroken-and
laid her before her mother, a scrubwomna
| In office buildings.
rms, then, is an explanation In some sort
or that attack upon the rich nan and his
wife who passed through the same street
| In their automobile few weeks after the
hanging of the child by the automobilist
who was too busy to come back. 1t may
| be said that 1t is not much of a justifica-
ton for an attack upon innocent people
This Is true enough. But there Is some
| thing very human about the very poor of
New York's east side. 1t were we'll by the
way, could the same thing be said about
some of New York's very rich And the
| heart Of an east side mother is just as LA
| BILE to ache over a dead child as the heart
| of mother of the west side In similar cir
cUmStanceS.
No Reign Of Terror.
But there is going to be no terror" in
New York. The 'populace" are not going
| to use their naked hands to tear down the
| palaces of the rich. stone by stone. No
dormant Robespierre lies brooding and
/ awaiting the hour in his tenement hutch
| The conflict between the rich and the poor
| Of New York lies far in the pouch of the
| future II for no other reason than that
every New Yorker expects to be rich HIM
| self some old day and he doesn't want to
take q hand In destroying the luxurious
conditions in which he himself hopes to loil
q N pa y-h a Cd IN, In,
Nevertheless, 1t has come to pass that
Summing among the tenements of New
York is dangerous work for the Summers
The people who live in the s1ums have
grown tired of being looked over lackadaisi-
cally by sleek and sniffy and obtrusive
men and women just from the f1ower-orna-
mented tables of the lavish restaurants
! They have taken stand, many incl
dents of the recent years show, for their
| own privacy. They don't like the busybody
woman with the pince-nez and the smelling
salts who "ahsks them, you know how
they can possibly continue to exist under
such insapitary conditions and inquiries
| of them why they don't have porcelain
"bahth tubs put in The people who I'M
dertake Summing tours of the tenements
nowadays are mo.e often invited to go out
| side to see how the temperature Is holding
| out than not; all of which seems right and
| equitable enough. The man of family who
| pays his rent in a tenement house thinks
he has just as much of moral and legal
right to his homes privacy as the chap
who holds the title deed to a palace in
9Th avenue. Supposing a bunch of east
side tenement jewellers were to press the
front-door button at one of the 5th avenue
mansions and calmly announce to the sum-
moned head of the house that they had
come to look over his place and ascertain
| If he and his family were getting enough
light and air and IL they had sufficient
bathing facilities, and, If So if they wash
ed themselves often enough for health and
so on-how long would those east side tene-
he ahle- to duck the rest
police station and the charge of disorderly
conduct against them on the blotter?
An Investigation Proposed.
And now there is going to be an investiga-
ton of g number of so-called sanitarums
scattered around the state of New York.
several of them down en- Long Island. A
large number of recent instances would go
far toward proving that not few of these
institutions are run for the convenience of
men rich enough to afford the luxury of
putting away their wives as insane persons
without first going through the little legal
Formally of having them declared insane by
the courts. 1t il all very simple. The man
with the ample bank roll longs for a re-
newal Of the joys of his bachelorhood or he
cuts thu trail CT some other yearnful and
starry-souled creature upon whom he hank
ers to lavish mis- deviatlng affections. How
ever the woman who bears his name stands
liz the way, an obstruction to these high as
pudiates even the thought of obtaining a d.
vorce Which, of course, leaves but one
thing for 1T. She must be put away. 1t has
been charged by responsible people that
there are large number of plants in this
state where these obstructive wives may be
put away, and kept put, with the greatest
ease A high authority on diseases of the
mind alarms upon his honor a man and
medical practitioner that he knows of one
institution down on Long Island where no
less than eight women. all wives of wealthy
New Workers.. are kept in close confinement,
and all of them possessing as lucid minds as
his own. They were induced. he says. to go
to this "sanitarium' for neurasthenia and
such kindred disorders brought on by the
unique brutality CT their husbands, and they
have been kept there ever since. The inves-
tigation of this sort of thing is going to be
undertaken the autumn. 1t is really pitia-
bic to reflect upon how many wealthy New
York men who must be shuddering right
now over the impending calamity of having
the wives cf their bosoms removed from
straight ia cisets and dungeons and things
and thrust back upon their tender care and
protection.
A Free-Travel Scheme.
Tne transatlantic steamship people are
going to see to 1t, hereafter. that fewer
Solks are taken across the sea one wav or