New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-05
LIKE OLD DAYS AT COMFY.
FORT GEORGE RESORTS.
Dance Halls and Raines Lao Hotels
Ran Vide Open.


wild and siddy amusement which in it's Sunday
excuses equals. If not surpasses the most dis
graceful days that Coney ever saw. The new
Coney Island is Fort George. at the end of
AmsteTdam-ave, where the streets begin to be
numbered two hundred and odd For more than
a quarter Of mile the east side Of the avenue
is a continuous line of dance halls Raines law
hotels, shooting galleries. side shows and catch
penny shops of all sorts. in fmsy buildings
which hang over the bluff Nearly every place
has from one TO four noisy barkers exhorting the
crowd 70 eat, drink and amuse themselves.
Fort George is not nearly large the old
Coney Island, but il draws crowd all out of
proportion TO its size 1t be reached for g.
fvs-cent fare from any part Of Manhattan which
is of Itself a considerable inducement to the
poor. Then the word has spread among those
who want wild time that everything goes at
Fort George. This appeals particularly to the
East Side youths who have found Coney Island
less and less 10 their liking, the plan Of its
regeneration is being worked out
The Sunday crowd numbering tens Of thou
sands, goes early and stays late. By 2 o'clock
a fine day every resort is crowded to the
doors and the street in places is filled from curb
to- rb with noisy crowd. The police of the
SD and SD precincts have their hands full keep
ing anything like a semblance of order, and are
forced 10 make number Of arrests each Sunday,
not go unpublished in another part of the city.
The most dangerous feature Tribune reporter
found yesterday afternoon in tour Of the new
resort was the dance halls, which were crowded
with young girls of the poorer classes and men
OF various ages. The first OF these is the Hotel
Terrace at 1S4th-st A raised platform sur
rounds the dancing floor and is filled with tables
at which the crowd finds seats between the
dances The walters see TO it that the end or
every dance brings a new order for drinks, winch
are rushed in from bar in the front of the
building AS in other places of the sort, no ques-
tons are asked as TO whether not the girls
are minors, as many of them seem to be. If they
order beer or whskey they get it Now and
then a boy is thrown out because he is too
much of a kid
A little further on is the Speedway Hotel.
operated by an Italian. The hotel part seems
TO be \ the basement and in frame buildings
ar the end Of the hotel proper. There Is the
usual dance hall. with its throng of half in
toxicated men, girls and women Those VINO go
to dance and not to drink soon find their pres
ence unwelcone.
In Paradise Park which is on the west side
nj tba avenue and reached by a, steep flight or
stairs is the largest of the dance halls An ad-
mission fee is charged and yesterday the place
1vas so crowded that there was not room at the
drinking tables for all who entered. ParaolSe
Parlor in Audubon-ave-, is another typlcdl foi'
George resort 1t was the scene yesterday aIIeF-
noon Of one Of the fights which are SO common
that the police seldom make arrests, though IN
this case they carried two youthful prisoners on
TO the West 152d-st. station, charging them
with disorderly conduct
Walter Seagling. sixteen years old, Of NO SO
East 1O4tl-sf and Frank Lichtenstein, seventeen
years, Of No. 3O1 East 104th-st., took two young
girls to the parlor and were drinking with them
at a table. 4 stranger insulted one Of the girls.
The boys resented the insult and free for all
fight followed in which tables were overturned
and glasses broken The "bouncer' tried to
mt the boys out, and was getting the worst of
1t when the police went TO the rescue
There are a half dozen Raines law hotels IN
giday Fort George. which are crowded all day
sunday The observance of the Raines law
consists in putting two slices of bread on each
table 1t matters not if a dozen are seated
there-the two slices serve as a meal for the
crowd The police, a reporter was told, insist
on this pretence Then there is music man.
where sacred concert is given from noon
,,r+il midnight There is no admission. but one
cannot sit Ions, at a table until a tip hungry
waiter demands that one buy drink. Small
bo,s and girls without escort are admitted
without question If they have nickel or two
TO spend Generally the walters insist on their
drinking soft stuff another precau'ioi WHICH
the police command
The noise in this new Coney Island Is oe' an
inc If has never known a quiet Sunday since
a. eeaeon opened. The bankers shout the loud
<r ,,aca,,se the crowd is more dense. The auto
matte pianos which draw the crowd to different
attractions know no soft pedal. Scores OF noisy
-. GRO dashng about calling their stock Of
,,aan1,ts and popcorn The din even penetrates
~ cars of the deaf old men who are passing
tLee,, last DAYS at the Isabella He1math' ABOUT
--,,tct the resort has built itself
Little Coney Island" is the name OF a paruc-
,,,o~Iv noisy resort. spread over ledge few
rods down the hill
..t5,r 9ol Ha! Hev' bowls the barker OF one
side show. Come and see the living wonder!
ITO children grown together! Hi! Ho! Ha! He!
Two in one; come along!
..snend your carfare for a ride on the ocean
su-ine,., cries another barker. IT'S worth walk
ing homer
This cry is most successful II the nu1hOer OIL
CRYING. penniIess children whom the ponce
Gather in at the end OF the day is any criterion.
The oldtine plan of East Side fathers ana
,nothers Of taking their children to resort ana
leaving them there to be returned without eA-
,ense by the police. also adds to the NUMBER
On another ledge near the point where tne