Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
PHILADELPHIA STYLE

''OlQ PhlIa delphla may De SLOW, puI ehoAS
are cheerful workers there, who are quite
as ingenious in devising schemes to get the
money as are the Industrious and inventive
grafters operating in the big town over the
river from Jersey CITY," said man just
municipality.
Il was walking along Chestnut street
along toward theater time one evening last
week. when, near the Philadelphia post
office. 1 heard the wheezy. inharmonious
droning of an old-fashioned hand-organ.
The Siciian presiding over the crank had
taken his stand in front of the Continental
Hotel. and his half frozen-looking monkey
was perched chatterngly on top of the dis
NAL old machine. The organ was wailing
in broken gasping and smothered tones
the 'Miserere,' and nary pedestrian stop
ped to listen to the mournful music or to
watch the impending antics of the SILVER
ing simian.- In fact, l observed that most
of them fastened their pace when they
came within range of that miserable Mis-
erere.' Chestnut street and the contiguous
thoroughfareS were crowded at that hour
and all hands were moving along rapidly
even without the acceleration of that dis
NAL music for the evening was sharp and
chill. suppose l had more time than any
OF the rest of the moving crowd, for l
halted to look at the Italian, and to wonder
what possible profit he could expect by
manipulating an ancient and outworn hand
organ in front of Philadelphia hotel on a
dark evening. even with the adventitious
aid of monkey. 1 wondered if he could
be fond enough to expect, for example, that
the guests of the hotel in the front rooms
would throw up their windows and toss
him money i'll return for such barbarous
sounds as he was infiicting upon the air.
But then the situation suddenly changed.
pretty well-dressed young chap, who
looked to be decidedly intoxicated, 1urched
out OF cafe across the street. He seemed
to be instantly attracted by the sounds
emanati ting from the hand organ, and he
tackled precariously across the street,
leaned against an awning pole and, with
his hands thrust into his overcoat pocl.-
cts, stood and listened to the droning for
moment.
Then he reeled over to the Italian and
brushed him away from the organ. The
ltal1an-a pretty good actor himself, within
his mitations-pretended to be unwilling
to give up his grasp of the organ crank and
muttered what sounded like Dagoesque OBJ
Jurgauons as the apparently drunken young
man continued to nudge him away from his
instrument but after a brief shuftlins he
shrugged his shoulders and the young man
with the obvious load began to turn the
crank.
We'll, that made difference, of course.
It's queer, but true, that if there's any one
particular thing that city wayfarers in this
country will stop to look at, no matter how
hurried or busy they may be- it's the spec
tacle of man making holy snow of him
self. In something less than half a minute
a crowd began to surge around that hand
organ, upon the top of which the cold
looking monkey still perched, it's teeth
knocking together like castanets. The Ital-
ian grinned sheepishly. The Young man
lurched at the crank, playing the Miserere'
In eccentric time, now with the swiftness of
the rollicking 'Bedelia and again with the
long-drawn- out measure of dirge. The
still gathering crowd looked upon 1t as
something very funny.
Hey. there, git busy, monk" at length
said the young man to the monkey. prod
monkey only hid his head in his hairy arms
and shivered dismalIy.
" Take this, Giuseppe said the appar-
emily jagged youth, then turning the crank
over to the Italian. Your monks on a
strike, and then he proceeded to convert
himself into an understudy for the monkey
He capered up and down the ditch in all
sorts of initiative monkey Shines. giving
out sounds like those emitted by conversa-
tional monkeys, and the crowd rlared it's
delight. There must have been several
hundred persons gathered in close order
around the hand organ by that time.
That poor little tad of monkey looks
like he's both starved and frozen said a
big, fairly well-dressed young fellow, step
ping out of the crowd when the perform
ance of the monkey shining young man
was at it's height. It's a burned shame,
and go get that monk of yours something
to eat and he tossed a half dollar on top
of the hand organ, which the monkey
picked up and bit into, after the
immemorial custom of hand-organ mon
keys.
That's right, the monk does look all to
the bad, doesn't hep said a lot of men in
the crowd, and they promptly went into
their change pockets for silver. The mon
key had resumed his hopeless attitude
bruised battered
by his hairy arms. His doleful aspect made
the shower of silver that began to fall upon
the organ more generous. Nearly every
man in the crowd came forward and tossed
some coin on top of the organ, while the
young man with the apparent jag went on
cutting his caperS. Not a few of the con-
tributions were quarters, and there were
quite number of half dollars. AS they
tossed their coins on top of the organ the
men making their contributions commented
gruffly on what a shame 1t was for a poor
little captive dumb brute to be treated in such
a barbarouS way. l couldn't undertake to
say just how large that involuntary collec-
ton was, but 1 am certain that it was at
least ten times as great as any collection
l ever saw hand organ Italian take up at
one stop. When the rain of coins ceased
the seemingly jagged young man gave up
his antics with a grin, leaned against the
awning pole again for a moment with his
hands in his pockets, and then strolled
back to the cafe from which he had
Just one hour later 1 was walking along
Market street near 18th, on my way back
to the hotel when was surprised to again
hear the strains of the same 'Miserere'
proceeding from the same hand
organ 1t was the same hand organ This
time it was planted in front of the Bling
ham House. The monkey was still perched
on top of the contraption in his attitude of
hopeless resignation. Then the same young
man with the imitation of jag emerged
from a nearby cafe, lurched over to the
hand organ, took the crank against the
protests of the Italian went
through the Identical monkey performance,
the same large 'capper' stepped out of the
throng and tossed a half on top of the or
gan with the same expression of sympathy
for the monkey, and the crowd Clipped in
just the Chestnut street crowd had done
The whole performance was just as like as
two Punch and Judy shows.
Even in little old New York as they
call it, l don't believe the cheerful work
ers could fix up a more unique scheme for
separating street crowds from their money
than that one"
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