The Washington herald., 1908-01-04

New York, Jan, 3.-This Is the way the
East Side rent story was started and
promoted: There is on the stan of one
of the East Side Yiddish newspapers
good-aatured, well-educated. thrifty young
Jew who pieces out his income by send
ing in tips on East Side news stories
TO the papers printed in English.
This young man lived as well as works
in the Ghetto, has a large circle OF ac-
quaintances, and is thus able usefully 20
serve his patrons among the American
papers. The sun receives his tips. and
sometimes, upon investigation by its own
reporters. has found them the basis for
stories worth printing.
Something more than week ago the
tipster met a friend. a lawyer of the
Ghetto, who told him that there was a
story In a meeting then being held in a
little hall, Of thirty women who had
signed a petition TO their landlord, ask
ing for a reduction in rent.
The tipster said to himself. IF all the
tenants Of the East Side should sign
a petition and refuse 10 pay rent, there
would be 60,C00 evictions."
4 Tipster's Mental Process.
Tipsters have peculiar mental processes,
This one, on his way TO the newspapers
be favored with his information, framed
his tip thus:
There is a big rent strike story in the
Ghetto. Thirty thousand tenants-60.O O0-
are going 10 refuse to pay rent, and OH,
such an eviction,
Some papers sell and print stories con-
EfrupFrd on ma hvfdoad lfuaC and tho rim
star aweke the next morning to find that
he had not less than $50 worth of space
in some Of the papers which fell" Or
ders flowed in from those that fell for
more stuff
The riot" by the way. was thrown in
by the tipster's patrons for good measure
The Hiddish Socialist papers took up the
story from the English papers, and their
distressing accounts of unjust evlctiCns
50 excited the people of the Ghetto that
meetings were held to protest against
rent rates. one of these meetings was
addressed b. a Mrs. Hillman. described
by the tipsteT as "a beautiful young Jew
ess, new Joan Of Arc"
Mrs. Hiiimun and the Landlord"
The next day a morning paper printed
a picture of Mrs Hnman addressing a
crowd Of tenants who had hanged a land
lord in ehigy,"
To-day reporter called on Mrs. Hill
man in room Il, one flight up back, 2lS
Cherry street, and as she could not speak
English, he tried 10 interview her through
the medium Of her young son.
When she was asked about a mob
which had hanged "a landlord, she be-
came so earnestly voluble that her own
on RING
teen-year-old matron who had fluent Eng
ish was procured, and the story evolved
was that Mrs Hillman never spoke in
the street. but she had made anti-rent
addresses in shops,
Then she went on to tell how she had
been overrun by reporters and photogra-
piers. The reporters. she said. wrote a
lot OF things for her TO say, while the I
photographers had her pose in the street
for her picture, surrounded by a setting
which the photographer himself had ar
ranged, She went on to tell of the trou-
bic that was made for her, and how the
pictures printed Of her had scandalized
her aunts, uncles, cousins, and other
relatives.
What the Police say,
To-day the reporter went 10 the Sew
enth precinct police station and asked
the desk lieutenant what he thought of
the rent-strike situation. He said:
We are having no trouble worth sneak |
ing or This thing happens every winter !
and It will all quiet down now. as It has /
before, unless the Yiddish Socialist pa /
pers, with their big headlines and pictures. |
Keep the agitation Up until the nightly |
crowds give US trouble
But guess we can handle the crowds /
without much trouble, unless the excite /
ment is stirred up too long"
justice Roe5ch, Of the Municipal Court /
situated in the Ghetto district attributed |
the whole trouble to absentee landlord |
ISM and the subletting Of tenements. He |
declared each succeeding lessee raised the
rents 10 make profit He added that So /
clalists used the anti-rent agitation To /
make political capital, and the young
Jewish lawyers of the district found that /
the agitation was profitable
he concluded by saying that the tene- /
ments were not any more rebellious than !