The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-15
IN CHICAGO'S GHETTO.
SUMMER EVENING SCENES AND
 SIGHTS.


 the Better CIasses--PhiIosopher Says You Will Not Find Narrowing De. tails of Misery There.
 My excellent and purposeful friend the Socialist, takes exception to what he is pleased to term my superficial view of human misery. It was he who routed me out of my hammock, where l was vainly trying to be com fortable Saturday evening, and bade me go forth in search of more misery than sand flies, starched collars, and an attempt at the preservation of middle class responsibility. As I felt hardly equal to the entire responsibility of such a mission, and as the Socialist had other engagements, I coaxed the Philosopher into joining the expedition. He yielded the more readily because it Is part of his system in life to sub ject his philosophy to recurring tests of hardship.
 We will go to the Ghetto" he said. 'There we shall be sure to find the ir- repressible conflict between the multi tude and the weather"
 We left the South Halsted street car mot unwillingly l may add-at Four tenth street and immediately my at tention was directed to an imposing line of baby carriages blocking the sidewalk half way down the block, ill., ed with infants of all ages and airs of distinction and presided over by moth- CTS or older sisters, well dressed and apparently well satisfied with the world. What Is thls?" I asked, "a baby show"
 "A baby show?' echoed the Philoso- pher. Cant you see the dry goods store? Wherever there is dry goods store there do the women most con- gregate. It is as true of the Ghetto as of State street"
 Let us away" I exclaimed with the usual masculine impatience. So we went east on Fourteenth, on through the crowd of still arriving mothers, turned north on Union, and came to Liberty-that remarkable compromise between a street and an alley which is presumably typical of the humber life. It is not to be disputed that Lib erty street needs a few arc lights-at least as far as the convenience of the stranger is concerned To avoid step- ping on the children, who were bob ping up In astonishing numbers, We walked in the middle of the street
 Look out for the kittens," warned the Philosopher, dexterously executing a side-step, and as performed a simi- lar evolution I thanked him.
 You will observe" the Philosopher went on, "how the Ghetto teens with youthful life, whether of humans or cats. have often thought that if the Pied Piper could take in Liberty street ---6r one of his musical tours he would lead an extraordinary procession.
 "Or if MT. Roosevelt could be present to distribute a few personal felicita- tions" I suggested. Surely if there is anything in the strenuous life that calls for his immediate acknowledge ment and gratitude our Ghetto friends are entitled to it."
 gave pretty little girl in an Ignor- rote costume a penny. The Philosopher shook his head disapprovingly, That is a dangerous precedent" he said, s'inless you have several thousand pen nies in your pockets He was right, for in half minute children shot out of the pavement, the sidewalks, and seemingly the thin air, all cheery, but all insistent We escaped in Jeffer- son street, where the kittens were less in evidence, but where the Rooseveltian doctrine was equally respected. A well dressed young man, with the general air of theological student, was stand ing on box at the corner of Maxwell street, harranguing crowd in a tom que that was musical but unintelli- gible I plucked up courage to ask a bystander what the discourse was all about. He told me that the young orator was relating the grievances of the assassinations in Russia, but 1t seemed to me, in view of the smallness of his audience, that his information, however true, was not 0eWSys l4dLeI III lll6 evening we IdU across another orator, collarless and in his shirt sleeves, addressing a much larger crowd on Maxwell street, near Halsted, and, as he was interrupted by occasional bursts of laughter, 1 gather ed that he was tempering his socialism with few relevant jests, Still third orator was holding forth on Johnson street, but he was not having good luck, perhaps because he was a trife out of the socialistic belt. I marveled that people with so many children and domestic duties had the time to listen even to the discussion of other mat ters. even to the discussion of other matters.
 But, returning to human misery, l said to the Philosopher, suppose you show me little of it. For my part, all have been enabled to dis cover on this warm evening thus far is an extremely good tempered crowd oi people patronizing meat stalls and barber shops, of which there is most astonishing number. I desire to sec some suffering, the narrowing parti- culars to be duly carried back to my friends, the socialist"
 Well, you won't find 1t here, replied the Philosopher. You noticed as you came through Liberty street and Des- plalnes and Maxwell, that, although il NyaS II O'ploek most of the nODUla tiOn