The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-18


The Now York girl does not have mis-
sion. Her mother had one and 40 did her
grandmother. A generation ago 1t was
good form to have a mission. wrapped
away with yellow laces in old layende- :.
But nowadays the New York girl feels her.
SELF relieved of all such responsibility in
life
II she would a-summing go, 1t Is for the
fun Of it. to crafty the curiofi.y OF vivid
Imagination that travels down no channels
OF artistic expression. Size is interested
IN other phases OF life, as she ia in o new
play; poverty, misery, the reformer who
does not forget his red necktie and the
exile of famboyant grief all appeal to her
dramatic Instinct.
And 80 she delights in ferreting out
strange places in the remote foreign quar-
tiers. wherein she may shop or dine and
observe the ways OF other races. This
doesn't mean dining in Chinatown which
is just dingy street or two turned into an
outdoor playhouse. nor attending the
Italian theatre, where tho poorest Italian
opera IL sung with tremendous fervor in
extraordinary costumes, but it means f1nd-
simply and as closely as possible to the
ways Of tho lands they are homesick for.
The average italian table d'hote in New
York Bohemia is a place where in sordid
surroundings you eat inferior food cooked
With bad ingredients and served with
suspicious red fluid and extreme formal
courtesy. Several Of them in New York
have had an ephemeral popularity because
q famous artist or writer has sometimes
dined there between checks. But they are
largely the meeting place Of imitation
Bohemia, where uninteresting people go to
sec people who aren't there.
But here and there, scattered about New
York. are restaurants run for people OF
foreign races who have found no homes for
themselves In a new country. who are home
sick for native dishes and native faces
exiles, Anarchists patriots, failures in
their own country because Of the law and
failures in a new country in spite Of the
law, people who have vocal wrongs, who
wall for surroundings to which they would
not return.
These restaurants are not run for sight
seers. In fact, the intrusion Of the smart
curious American is usually resented.
The Yiddish women scream their vehe-
ment disapproval and the men look down
their boards. The Syrians are different,
silently disappearing; but they stand be-
tween a pretty girls curiosity and their
inner rooms. where plots are Matched TO
kill the Sultan. and if they are eating tho
hand that holds the knife shows a swelling
cord.
At the Japanese club there Is only courte-
GUS refusal Of admittance; in fact, one Is told
that there SIS no restaurant" though lac
quered trays are at the moment being borne
past laden with saki and crushed chest
nuts and tea like amber.
But II you are known. and the New York
gtri somehow manages to be, then you
are an honored guest and the saki bowl is
ever full, and the Syrian puts down his knife
and twangs love song on his lutte. and the
Yiddish woman will show you her babies.
40 brown as old canvases, and the Italian
exile Will sigh for you and show you medals
Of honor won in unsung miniature revolu-
TONS.
On her last prospecting trip the New
York girl discovered restaurant for Italian
people, with Italian dishes and Italian refu-
gees, where the customers are like one great
family, with the proprietor as patriarch.
A painting Of him. in which he looks like
King Humbert, makes a striking, II eccen-
trio, mural decoration, and during the din
ner he moves heavily about, copying his
pictured pose with more or less success.
The restaurant Is located in possibly
dangerous part OF New York and amid
certainly squalid surroundings
The party. not to antagonize their to-be
netghbors, left their motor cars at an old
French hostelry at the foot OF Fifth avenue
and crossed deep shaded square due south
west. From the quiet and cool green peace
OF the old park they were suddenly In the
midst Of the end Of day Of discontinued
labor.
Men hurrying by from overtime work,
girls wearing skirts like cornucopias and
hats at full mast wriggling past; simoering
pretty and mostly wailing pathetically,
were as sands Of the shore The roar Of
the elevated road through a Cross street,
tho faint note Of ragtime music, the cries
Of vendors OF fans and neckties and under
wear were all surging around as the guide
stopped before house with the shabbiest,
most unreservedly depressing Of brow
led the way through long, dim hall past
o room full Of men playing cards. past a
kitchen that waited savory greeting, out
to a long, narrow yard, looking like nothing
% much as a recovered bowling alley.
which 1t Is. or q Dart OF one, the companion
alley being on the other side OF an awning
partition.
The sky was shut away with low canopy,
and O board wall completely closed in an
alley. down the centre OF which from end
to end ran long table. At the upper end
q second table crossed the first like at,
and at this section sat the most famous of
exfles and patriots.
The Anarchist may appeal to the Latin
imagination, but he does not tip. 30 his