New-York tribune., 1907-08-05
A BUMP FOR PROGRESS.
East Sides Little Green Spot Forth
More Than Big Rentals.

The march of progress. as it Is undersl''i 'i'
the lower East Side. has struck against a shas'
1t is only a woman, and an old one at mat bnI
she has a mind of her own and, even though
her green embowered pagoda-lke home IN lower
Cannon street looks fine for investment 70 the
man who knows what a twenty-foot front IN
that cighborhood means. Mrs Catherine SuhTer
does not at all the virtue Of having the only
spot of green in the district turned into twelve
or eighteen, or even twenty-four. tenement
building for a city's fostering population
Despite her seventy-three years, she retains
much of the old hardness whose foundation was
laid in the Prussian RhineIand and she has still
a soft spot for Mtisenheim, although 1t is fifty
eight years ago that she left it But ''Mein Gott,
fur cine Narrheit!" says the speculator,
who cannot make out the woman who would re-
fuse actually more than what the property at
No. IL Cannon street is WORTH though he tells
her not a word Of the big profit tenement
house the spot would mean him.
Whether it were 1000 or thrice as much. this
would make difference TO the hardy old frau.
even though for mary year she has been, as
II were, among strangers But the little green
house, with its dark-red trimmings. it's many
flowers and plants. both natural and artificial.
IN front, and its balcony and bell tower. which
bear their own reminder of the days when she
and Friedrich Suhrer were boy and girl to-
gether in old Musenheim. mean more than men,
ories of the Rhine country. To her they stand
for the best OF her years in this country, when
she and her husband toiled together with Ger
man thrift 10 make their way in life. They
succeeded. But then her husband died, and
some time after two of her sons. Her other
sons were Independently Established in life when
they left the old home in Cannon street. and
even her daughter has gone TO be mistress OF
another household
The alteration in the complexion of the resi-
dents of the old 18th Ward since the days when
they were able 20 buy substitutes for themselves
when drafted for their country-s service has not
been lost on old Catherine Suhrer but she is still
attached 70 the old neighborhOod But what
would you Of woman who has lived her life
hfty-elsht years on the same block, thirty-five
of them just where she is now
There is no spot so near to Grand street that
IS 50 green, outside of the city parks as that on
Cannon street. The old house was burned down
twenty years ago. but Mrs Suhrer who had
plenty of offers for her land even then. reso-
luteiy refused. and built the picturesque two
story frame building, which is an oasis for the
on a summers day comes the German greeting
Of the parrot. Fritz. Even all the Hebrew chill
dren love at distance Mrs. Suhrer's educa ted
rooster, Dick. who understands and obevS COM
mands uttered in both German and English.
Most Of Mrs Suhrer's old friends now live fa-
distant from Cannon street, but they know they
can always rely upon her. For many years she
had the Nanderbilts among her patrons. and in
1855 when the blizzard which struck New York
kept strong men from their work. she trudged
across the Brooklyn Bridge and had the Turn
Hall decorated in time. she had promised 10
do, for the festivity for the stormy night
And so, what are shrewd real estate spectators
against such a woman