Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-09-05

estimated that there are ten million
people in Greater New York and it's
immediate environs. BY simple cal
culation one of the leading dailies ar.
rlves at the conclusion that New York
Is therefore one-tenth Of the whole
United States. -
This impressive fact suggests that
perhaps the importance of New York
is being overlooked This is not only
One-tenth of our country, but the tenth
by which we are most often Judged
A great deal has been written and said
about various things in New York, but
relatively little about New York as a
whole. Comment seems to have been
left largely in the hands of few Brit.
ish authors on lecture tours, who al
most invariably confined their, obser-
and the subway. ~. &...
There is obvious need, then, for a
comprehensive and scientific study OF
New York to determine just what it
is, and why. 1t might be added that
this is not the said study but merely
a few tentative suggestions.
First then, New York is money mad
This has been noticed before, and by
other people, and New York has there
fore been termed cold, ,heartless and
inhuman. But the reason for this in
ordinate money hunger has been over
looked. 1t is that the city Is a wonder
full machine for the arousing and slim
ulating Of human want. There is no
such thing here as getting enough or
being satisfied. However much you
may have, the city Is always Haunting
in your face what you want and can't
get. The man in New York without
money is like a kid before a Christ
mas tree forbidden to touch thing.
1t hits the visitor the same way 1t
is true that all New York lines up
along Broadway and Fifth avenue with
outstretched paw to relieve the itin-
Grant of every particle of his change
And likewise the man who is here
from Muncie, Idiana, on his fall buying
tour having sewed up his return ticket
in the lining of his vest and deposited
his watch with the hotel clerk, sets
out with the equally piratical intention
of getting every bit of fun that he can
for his money.
New York is the most provincial
place in America. There are more
people in New York who have never
been anywhere else since they got
here than in any other city Of the
United States. There are more strange
and outlandish modes of dress to be
seen on the streets-and most of them
are worn by the natives. There are
more queer dialects spoken. ,"Wux-
try for example, means that another
car line is tied up and the papers have
printed an extra to announce the fact,
is a purely indigenous noun to be
heard no where else in the world.
There is bar keeper in Broadway
place-and he is not exceptional-who
has never been out of greater New
York and seldom more than mile
from Broadway. Compared to such as
he, the man who lives on a ranch in
Wyoming and goes to Chicago once a
year to sell steers is globe trotter
and cosmopolite.
The New Yorker is very healthy,
active powerful type of the species
homo .sapiens, despite many allega-
lions about the unwholesomeness of
city life. And there is good reason for
this. Those who are not fit, either die
or migrate. The New Yorker has to
be up on his toes and ready every min
ute of the day. His facility in thread
ing the thunderous mazes of his ma
tive town show him an athlete and
manor woman-of galvanized nerve
The chap from Sioux City, contemplate
ing an expedition across Broadway at
Forty-f1fth street, teeters on the curb
like frightened bird, peers up and
down, grabs the brim Of his hat and
makes numbering dash for it. The
native strolls across with mastery
nonchalance, avoids a taxi by hairs
breadth without looking at it. and
reaches the other side without having
interrupted his conversation with a
frieQd. ~ - =-- ~
OF course poverty and disease take
their toll IN some sections, but even