Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-03-23

the insect market he mas Oeen
given orders to get rid Of his sur
plus stock. His point was: II the
men don't kick, why should the
health department? But, says 1.
These men go to al parts of the
city and we do not want them to
take with them excess baggage. +"
Not all of the citizens Of the
Bowery are very poor. according
to Inspector Davis. Many Of them
are employed in factories, ware
houses, shipyards, and a large
number Of the younger men in Of
fees, where they make fairly good
salaries. They stick to the Bowery
because living there is cheap. and
then, they say, they are afraid to
move to other parts Of the city
which seem so unhealthy" In
spector Davis knows Of hundreds
of SUCH men who are making at
least $40 a week, living on $40 and
putting the other $50 a week away
in the bank.
But to the casual explorer,
walking down the Bowery in
search OF its peculiar healthful
charm, there is certainly little to
recommend it. At present. weeks
after the great blizzard of the win
ter, the street, under the arch of
the Third Avenue Elevated, is still
covered with thick, irregular
carpet of grimy ice, broken in
places by large ponds of black wa
ter, so that crossing the Bowery on
foot is almost as impossible as
crossing the Hudson or any other
great river.
The numerous small stores
which hubble against each other
on each side of the street, are all
in need Of paint, to say nothing OF
soap and water. Above them are
the dusty, silent windows of the
lodgings of the healthy, with fire.
escapes at frequent intervals, ap-
parently not so much for use in
case of fire as for supporting lines
| of wildly Tapping, drying clothes
Much of the business on the
Bowery is transacted out Of doors
hardware, secondhand furniture
secondhand clothes. nondescrip'
wares and occasionally books in
the last stages Of dilapidation be-
ing exhibited in stalls outside the
stores as lure to the constant
stream OF poorly clothed humanit,
surging past their doors. Most o.
the women customers are be
shawled, sometimes the shawl be
ing the bright vermillion worn b,
| gypsy women, but the mems garb
such as it is, is secondhand Amer
lean. The other day a middle-aget
married couple stopped before ;
hardware stall in search of /;
screw-driver.s The woman. wht
looked Italian, wore a black wool
en- skirt, and a red shawl closet.
i wrapped about her head. The mai
wore a jaunty felt hat and dust.
fur-collared overcoat, which look
ed as if in days gone by it nigh
have belonged to a popular matt
nee idol.
/ 1t is noticeable that the complex
ion of the men and women VIII,
tend the stalls is EXCEPTIONAL,
ruddy, a condition one would b.
about to attribute to the outdoo
air were it not for Inspector -Davi
and his statistics. For, accordinI
to him, neither fresh air nor com
! plexion have anything to do wit
it. Even the pale dope victim
who dwell along the Bowery, o
whom there are hundreds between
the ages of IA and 40, have goo
; health, he says.
i While dingy and in places ap
} parently falling to pieces, the Bow
cry reflects the general prosperit
!, of the nation. 1t is not quite S
j. hungry and miserable as it used t
be, and hence not quite so desper
, ate. Criminal joints have give
way to employment Offices; sa
looms to movie theatres, and dane
halls to banks, so that the stree
seems to be headed for a future a
healthy, respectable and thrifty a
it's birth in the days of the earl
Dutch settlers. Then it was a ref
uge for fugitives from the small
pox scourges that were CONSTANT
breaking out in New York; later
was a refuge for criminals, an
now it is a sort Of giant dustpa
receiving all the human sweeping
from the surrounding metropoli.
But through all these stages Of dc
d. cline, the Bowery has retained ii
uncanny original inheritance {
health. flouting all scientific as
sumptions that pestilence and dis
ease follow in the path of dirt.