The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-30
DIGGING OUT CONEY ISLAND.
REAL MONEY is CIRCULATING
THERE IN BLEAK WINTER.
Esqulmaux Get 10 Work with VIII nj
Twenty Cents an HourWe Not Afraid
OF Snow-How and where Some OF the
Money Received was Spent at Night.

Money Received was spent AT Night.
Coney Island came back TO life yesterday.
Street Cleaning Commissioner Woodbury.
was responsible for the resurrection. He
sent an inspector from the snow removal
bureau to the summer playground, which
had been overlooked during the hustle OF
the last few days when New York was
shaking of it's mantle Of the beautiful.
Manhattan, Brooklyn and even Long Island
City had burTowed out from beneath the
high piled snow by Saturday night but
Coney was a bleak and frigld desert when
yesterday mornings sun climbed out oil
the ocean and sent warm rays broadcast
over that section of this great city which
ia the most thickly populated portion on a
hot summer night.
The bright sun didn't arouse Coney. 1t
slumbered on. But when the snow re-
moving inspector took up position In
front Of the Pabst loop and announced that
he needed men and carts there was some
thing doing. The inspector showed
batch of tickets and stated that these same
tickets could be exchanged for real money
at nightfall. Then Coney ceased its hiber-
nations. All that this representative Of
the Street Cleaning Department wanted
in exchange for his little blue tickets and
subsequent money was work and he got It,
Coney Island was almost instantly trans
formed from torpid and lethargic state
into one OF throbbing activity at the tune
of 20 cents an hour. The more fortunate
huckster and small merchant got out his
cart and harnessed a stiff muscled horse.
He was hired at the rate of $3.50 day--a
lot Of money in Goney Island at this season
OF the year The rank and file of the islands
population had no horses or carts but they
had hands. and didn't intend to let them be
idle as long as a chance to pick up some
money was in sg ht. SO Coney Island went
to work with shovel and pick. The man
who eats live snakes shook of MS dignity
and labored along with crowd Of peanut
and hockey pokey men.
Big men with sonorous voices. who in
the good old summer time sport on oc-
casons long velvet coats and high silk
hats. forgot the time when they stood be-
fore the passing throngs shouting "Up-
in the airl' BE a millionairei7 "He eats m
alivel' and other such things and worked
like beavers with the tattooed man. the
Swiss giant. the rubber skinned gent and
the glass eater Ia hurting snow into carts
as fast as they showed up empty. Bankers.
who in the heated term are wont to refer
TO 10 cents as only a dime paltry 10
cents" in this wintry season have come TO
consider 10 cents sum worth striving for,
and they were among the first to take up
the shovel.
The news that real money could be had
for the shovelling spread to the banks OF
Concy Island Creek where the Esuuimau
village from Luna Park has been giving
a free exhibition of getting back to nature
and leading the Alaskan simple life. These
swarthy sons OF the North proved cracker
jacks when it came to assailing the snow.
If n shovel baked they went at the piles
with their hands and they didn't wear
gloves at that. Six Of these fellows cleared
out the lower end of Surf avenue in a jifTy.
The inspector in charge said they accom-
plished more than twice as many others
for the reason that they didn't stop every
few minutes to blow on their fingers.
BY shutdown last night Surf avenue, the
Bowery, West Eighth street and Neptune
avenue had been thoroughly cleaned, while
the Sheepshead Bay road and West Fifth
street were at least traversable. A notice
able feature Of the day was the interest dis
played by the women Of the place in the
male contingent at work.
Couey Islands feminine population turned
out and cheered the shovellers on As "A
rule the men are not in good favor at this
season, but they were yesterday. An
acrobat in strengthening up while pro-
polling n shovelfu OF his natural enemy
over the side of a cart caught the lady
slackwire walker beamingl upon him
The blond snake charmer who explains
that the reason she takes in washing is
that she hates 10 be idle, paused to tell the
man that guesses your weight that he was
one of the incest men she ever knew, and
Trixie Of the Bowery dance halls, avowed
that Jimmy, the beer waiter, was Just too
cute.
Coney Island and the attack on the snow
ceased. things began to lven up for fair.
As the shovellers snapped their blue tick
cts for the genuine mazuma the proprietors
Of little places in the Back Bay" section
got busy. During the afternoon they had
hustled in getting wioks trimmed and
lamps filed with oil, Several of the big
places in Coney Island keep open all the
year, but these places are not for the people
81 the town. The gilded Brooklyn youth
with his weeks salary reigns there.
When a true Coney Islander starts out
10 spend his money he seeks the little places
in the section lying TO the north of Surf
avenue. There was reason for his doing
so last night, because in the dull winter
days it il a nice thing to have stove to sit
around and talk with old cronies even if
you haven't got a penny. II vilager
attempted to sit around in one of the swell
places he would go out accompanied by a
foot or a policeman. Naturally, he seeks
the places where he Is welcome When broke
and that's where he went last night when
the blue ticket was exchanged for coin.
The female division sought these places,
too, and there was great Joy on all sides
Old pianos out of tune we're uncovered
and the way the excise law was violated
was the limit. The midnight moon arose
amid the strains of:
Ncwports the place for style.
I've been there for a while.
But there's one place on earth.
You can bet all you're worth.
And it's dear little Coney- Coney Isle