davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
Germany's Birth Rate Falling
Despite Increase in Marriages

increase of 80 per cent. in 1920 over the 1917
figures. Still even this total was apprecaby
lower than in 1913.
The natural question is: What is the
probable cause of this alarming tendency?
Is it a deterioration in national health and
an accompanying decrease in reproductive
power, is it deliberate choice?
These questions have so far no solution,
and even the recent birth rate congress at
, Cologne produced no satisfactory answers.
On the other hand the Social Democrats
have brought forward two proposals in the
Reichstag proposing radical amendments to
the law on abortion which seek to make
artificial control Of the conception legal and
may accentuate the decline.
Several hundred prosecutions for abortion
take place annually, but this total as COM
pared with the number of actual cases that
go pnpunished, is insignificant. as the fig
ures of death in childhood show. For in
stance, in Berlin half these deaths. are due
to abortion.
Basing their contention on the theory that
such conditions only make the law ridicu-
lous and work serious harm to the COM
munity by inequality of application the So
calists want to make abortion legal when
IL is performed with the consent of the ex-
pectant mother or that of duly registered
physician, provided it takes place within the
first three months of pregnancy.
The Independent Social Democrats go still
farther and wish to strike out whole sec
tions of the criminal code
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
What Would Peter Cooper Say
Were He to View 1t Again ?

There is always Chinatown-not the
utterly existent Chinatown of the tour
lists imagination and the ballyhoo's split
tongue. but a very engrossing little colony
withal, a colony of quaint shops, different
slightly weary of the commonplaces of white
mems roadways. sunday is its throbbing
day for on a Sunday Chinese flow in from
the whole metropolitan district They used
to come to gamble--do still doubtless-but
for whatever reason they come the Sons of
Ham fancy Sunday. But the Chinese are not
the only outlanders of the Bowery, and one
whose interest seeks the faces and the be-
havior of the drifters of the earth will find
them along that street.
One wonders what Peter Cooper would
look upon it again-in the flesh, one means
1t was different enough in his day in the
years before he set down at its northernmost
limit the institute that has done so much for
it's regeneration He used in his old age to
come out and sit in a little park and read
sometimes bringing his little grandson with
him.
Old Peter would take out of his pocket
a rubber cushion and get several small boys
to see which could blow the hardest Then
HI would lay the inflated ring upon the bench
seat and sit upon 1t and think or doze or
read.
How the old man would stare If from that
bench he could now look down the Bowery
upon the massed traffic surging between the
precpices of decent honest buildings!
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

sprouted the Bowery was the most likely,
the need for religious guidance being so
much greater. But this is balanced now
,adays by the fact that policeman is rather
hard to find. unless. one excerpts the traffic
men. There are plenty of them. There
have to be along the Bowery of 1921, the
regenerated Bowery. OF the other sort
the sort that used TO walk with ready club
and ready pistol taking theN middle of the
street and avoiding the danger of the house
wall, there are not many around even at
night.
Truly is the Bowery grown good!
Early night is still a first rate time to
stroll in this ancient highway. The four
principal theatres, two Jewish and two Ital-
an are going strong, and there is still much
Of interest to the observant eye the seeing
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

Everywhere the change is in the same
direction from the deciduous trees to the
evergreen; that is. from those of the falling
leaf to those that keep their verdure all the
year round.
This results from the. practice of pastur-
ing woodlands TO domestic cattle. These
animals eat greedily every young beech and
maple that they can find. They have no
relish for the young fir and spruce trees.
with their dry and prickly foliage. Then.
again, the resins secreted by the evergreens
seem to be unpalatabe to all animals ex-
cept sheep and deer. These will browse
upon even the pitch pine under stress of
hunger, when snow is deep on the ground.
In a state of nature or under the hus-
bandry of the savages, a certain balance
of power was maintained among forest
trees The squirrels ate the beechnuts.
acorns and spruce seeds with seemingly
equal zest They made return for their requi-
sitions upon the beeches and oaks by bury
ing at intervals the nuts and acorns. None
of the seeds of evergreens needed any such
planting They are all of them light. ano
are furnished with wings. that the vino
that shakes them from the cone carries
them sometimes for miles Wherever they
happen to alight upon the soil they germi-
nate and take root. They need no covering
In the New Forest of England the tenant
population has enjoyed right of "pannage"
that is, OF pasturing pigs in the woods
These animals eat all the nuts and acorns
they can find and very few seeds escape
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
Bywd World Infamous
DayLocal Color That IIumined Its Sinful Years Recalled

toward the blue for which the sky of Man
haitian later became famous.
This, mind you, was the Bowery, the Great
Bouwerie as they called 1t then in the Dutch
record books, and no locality in the world
was sweeter, cleaner, decenter 1t was, in
deed, kind of paradise. close to imag
Unable habitational perfection as Nieuw Am
Amsterdam ever knew.
Skip two hundred years, which you may
be sure Old Man Time did not do, and We
have a very different Bowery from the
placid ordered fragrant community of the
retaners of Stuyvesant. The Evil One has
entered this paradise and his works all
around. Rollicking pleasure, flowing rum,
staggering men from all the seven seas,
adventurers of hawk noses and bright black
eyes, not few of whom knew the feel of
pirates deck under their bootheels; loose
women flashing provocative glances at the
riffraff of half world, boorish cattle drovers
stupidity lushng at the noisy inns-what a
changel
Add fifty years to times score and the
picture is eviller and less attractive, wick
eder and less picturesque For the life Of
the Bowery has become in two centuries and
a half pestiential thing, thing so rank
in it's ugliness as to invite catastrophe
punishment from on high. Gomorrah was
sinless compared to the Bowery of the late
nineteenth century.
Then again the wheel rolls. although only
the small space of the periphery between two
spokes--ten or a dozen years, say twenty to
go it large. And we have what? The
Bowery again respectable almost stodgiy
respectable, for it is Bowery devoid of
liquor dens, devoid of dark and bloody lures
for the golden half wits empty of scarlet
pretence, deprived of that ranting blare that
makes the night eager for twisted souls.
Time has played ter-totter in his delib-
crate, unhurried way. Goodness knows the
picture is changed enough, but the effect is
the same.
Gone are the pleasant Dutch farms, the
winding. fagstoned walks, the gardens of
old fashioned flowers, the blue eyed Dutch
maidens, the wide grassy spaces, the visible
horizon the sylvan beauty and peace. But
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

returned is the orderiness and calm decency
Of those long gone days.
The effect is the same. Topside is down
side again. The old Bowery has entered
another cycle, to last no man knows how
long. Who dare say it may not be wicked
again some day; may not return to it's
swearing, tipping, bloody ways? Lest the
men of real estate that painfully
intent upon maintaining solid repute for the
ancient highway take ALARM may sug
gest that there seems little likelihood of
such turn of the wheel. The Bowery is
apt to keep its seat the mourners' bench
Having got religion, it is scarcely apt to
backslide. Still, one never knows when one
is dealing in a large way with the strange
old fellow Time
For those who fond of the curiosities
of their own city it is not dull to trace a
little of the tale of the Bowery To begin
with-one will be brief-it was a very
ancient Indian trail, narrow path beaten
inches into the scanty topsoil by the feet of
countless red men. 1t was part of the long
trail that all the way from the southern
end of the island clear to Spuyten Duyvil-
all the way to Albany, in fact, where 1t
hooked on to the great east and west trail
of the Iroquois
1t was a cowpath for the Dutch settlers
and it led to the Vlache, now City Hall Park.
When Gov. Stuyvesant secured his Great
Bouwerie and erected his house just west
OF the present St. Marks Church he widened
the cowpath from the Vlache to the path
leading to his house, and this was the real
beginning of the Bowery az public thor
oughfare. His Bowery originally extended
from Chatham square to a creek. afterward
called Sunfish Creek, which ran from a pond
at about Fourth avenue and Thirty y-third
street to the foot of East Twenty fifth street.
The. lane which was called Bouwerie
Pathje, was cut through in 1852. century
or so later 1t became Bowery lane All
aroun6 it were the holdings of the families
who were to give their names to the streets
of New York-the Deanceys, the Pells, the
Bayards and others. set of books could
be written about the Bowery, yet it never
had corporate existence like the village of
Harlem. 1t had no fixed limits like Green
wich Village. 1t began a settlement of
the employees of Gov. Stuyvesant, and, like
Topsy, it just "growed."
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
LeisureIy Stroll Will Reveal
The Many Changes Recently

1t is difficult to appreciate what changes
have come to the Bowery within decade or
a decade and half unless one leisurely
PAGES the wide roadway--one of the widest
in all the city--that runs between Chatham
square and Cooper square. The saloons
have disappeared, of course, and with them
has disappeared much of the color of the
<thoroughfare an ugly color. but color never
theless
Gone are The Bucket of Blood, Suicide
Hail. Niger Mike Calahan's. the Flea
Bag, Gumbossy's and score or more of
lethal dives where murder was the nightly
diversion and no waiter inexpert in the
use of chloral drops could hold Job twenty
four hours.
Gone are the picturesque, sometimes ex-
traprdinary characters that once made the
peculiar annals of the street-Schuyler Van
Ness, once a gentleman of fashion, then a
demlict in this Sargasso Sea; Dan the
Fiddler, a long haired Irishman with some
skill upon the violin and wheedlng tongue;
Bat Sweeney, Billy McGlory McGurk, the
notorious; Sloppy Mag McUnskey, Tin Can
Cushman, Steve Brodie, Chuck Connors-so
many, indeed, that the list is impossible of
reproduction; some with reporter made
regulations others quantity deserving Of
their queer repute.
Gone are the oolorful politicians of those
days of twenty years ago, the clan of Sulli-
van having fallen upon thin days Forrie
and Big Tim dead and gone and Little
Tim too, Larry Mulligan passed out the
whole group broken up, scattered. powder
blown into the air
Gone are the famous eating houses Mike
Lyons's for one the places that never knew
the use of a front door key and where good
solid food was served for prices that fitted
the necessities of patrons. Mike Lyons by
the way. lives to this day and may be found
for the seeking at his home i'm Brooklyn.
hale and hearty at something over so years
The One Mile House. Bowery landmark
for 100 years. closed in 1921, fallen before the
progressiveness and business demand that
swept out OF existence and even out OF mind
such famous resorts as the Atlantic Garden,
Germania Hall, Brodie's, Pat Farleys, Mike
Lyonss and the Howard Cooper Hotel
Books might be written about these departed
individuals and departed institutions but
is 1t worth while? Who cares for the past,
a dead thing. after all. The present is what
rings the bell of interest
Until recently a nationwide renowned
old time Dutch glory at least as a respect
able. reputable and creditabe downtown
business street. It's regeneration was not
due to prohibition, however earnestly some
moralists may desire that TO have been so.
1t was due to a variety of causes mostly
strictly business, sheerly economic.
The resurgence OF the Bowery followed
close upon it's intersection by the williams
burg and Manhattan Bridge Plazas The
great volume OF traffic that rolls daily across
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

site, fire having destroyed the others OPP
posite the old Bowery. now the entrance to
the Manhattan Bridge. is one of the most
interesting theatrical sites in America. The
Bowery Amphtheatre stood here nearly a
century ago and then became a circus where
Tony Pastor appeared a clown. Then il
became successfully the German @tadt The
atre and the German Volks Garten famous
pleasure resort, seating 5000 or more. it
became the Windsor Theatre in 1879, burnt
down In 1883 and was finally demolished to
make way for the bridge
The Peoples Theatre occupied a famous
site. I'm 1856 it was Tony Pastors Opera
House and in 1871 it was Aberles Vollks Gar
ten. The Germans were strong along the
Bowery in those old days. They left in the
early eighties, most of them, because a
vicious element was creeping in, the element
that made the name of the Bowery an ugly
byword. The two variety theatres, the most
of the theatres in fact. have utterly changed
character now
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
First Saloon Was Bowery Inn,
And Site Always Held One

If you care to know where the first saloon
of the old Bowery mot the present much
shorter avenue) stood. it was at Fourth
avenue and Fourteenth street, where John
Clapp's Bowery Village Inn was first erected
and where until the coming of prohibition
a saloon invariably held the corner. 1t was
the last stopping place before entering the
city of the Boston stage coach, which began
making monthly trips in 1700 and it was
regular stopping place for the Boston coach
until the route via boat to Providence and
rail to Boston cut down the time from forty
one hours to twenty-four hours.
In 1882 the first street car line began run
ming in the Bowery, old village lines had
been wiped out streets had been cut through
and complete change had come over the
scene.
The story of the Bowery as a street of
pleasure begins with the opening of Sperry's
Botanical Gardens in 1852. One of the show
places of the old city, it covered the two
blocks between Fourth street and Astor
place and between Broadway and the Bow
cry. In 1903 it was renamed vauxhalf Gar
dens which remained for many years the
most popular place in the city. There still
exists a relic of the old place, house in
the middle Of the block just south of the.
Smith, Gray Building.
OF theatre sites there are several quite
famous ones Where the Thalia Theatre
now stands the Bulls Head Tavern enter
tanned the town loungers in the middle Of
the eighteenth century. The present Thalia
r,haatra ie tho fifth theatre hufldfno on this
The New York herald., 1921-10-23


T- HE fall in the birth rate already evil
dent before the war in Germany, as
- in most other highly developed coun-
tries, still continues. despite remarkable
increase In postwar marriages. Although
the German pre-war birth rate never fell
so low as to approach the death rate, as in
France, the whole question at present, be-
cause of postwar economic and labor prob
lems has taken new significance, espe-
cially in view of the proposed legislation
looking toward what for all practical pur-
poses is partial birth control.
In 1876 the German birth rate reached its
highest point, and in that year 240.3 chill
dren were born to every 1000 married women
in Berlin. But from then on began steady
decline, until i'm 1918 the average per 1000
was only one-third the 1876 figure. This is
an extreme instance, but it represents gem
eral tendency all over Germany. even in
the country districts. Despite the advance
of medical science which brought an in
crease in average longevity, and the de-
crease of emigration in 1907, the number OF
boys Is to 16 years old in 1907 was showing
a slow but steady decrease with relation to
the total population. OF course the war
caused still further fall in the rate, but
the naturally expected recovery as normal
circumstances returned brought about an
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

M restoring the balance of things
He's as fond of teeter- -totter as
a kid. Up and down, up and down-that
pleasures the old person. He achieves in
cycles and his cycles are never closed.
Human beings trees, animal life-what you
will-deveop decay, develop, by some sort
of mysterious but mathematically regular
rule and rote topside becoming downside If
only one waits long enough. A good many
saws some with sharp teeth, some with
dull have been hammered out of this phe-
nomenon since mankind began to pretend
they were sapient.
Take the Bowery. If any footpath that
has ever been trodden by humans of any
color had urider name only a few years
ago than the old Bowery / want to know
about it. 1t stood for battles. murder and
sudden death 1t stood for rum and ruin,
for sickness and soddenness, for poverty and
that black despair that comes upon men
who have gnawed the bitter fruit of failure.
It's heralded name meant vice all around
the world, in every port that rolling, rollick-
ing sailormen downed strong liquors and
regretted they were not back where stronger
could be had. Among the streets of the
earth it was the veriest drab, the Doll Tear
sheet of streets. 1t had the repute of a
common trull. Not even the Barbary Coast
or San Francisco had as poor a name In
the mouths of decent men. This, of course,
well on to twenty years ago, scarcely
less, for the transmogrificaton of the Bowery
has been no sudden and hasty affair.
Began Life Most Respectfully
As FeudaI Dutch Hamlet
But you know-or do you?-that the best
known (save two) thoroughfares in all New
York began life in such responsibility as
few streets or even alleys can boast? The
origin of the Bowery was Dutch farm
house, none other than Piet Stuyvesants,
which logically expanded into sort of
feudal hamlet. 1t was responsibility utterly
Dutch, than which there is no more COM
plete respectability ip this sinful world. 1t
was sylvan respectability Songbirds twit-
tered within 1t. Flowers lin the old Dutch
fashion) grew upon it's proper borders.
Prim maids in edged aprons and wooden
shoes raised blue eyes among it's struggling
paths. Ponderous householders pointed
church wardens toward the then visible
horizon and drifted little feecy clouds
The New York herald., 1921-10-23
By EDWIN C. HILL.

w THAT a way old Pop Time has of
AA/ restoring the balance of things
He's as fond of a teeter- totter as
The New York herald., 1921-10-23

Special Correspondence to THE New YoRK
HERALD.
Copyright bD The New York HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
Berlin, Oct. 12.
T HE fall in the birth rate already evil
dent before the war in Germany, as
Il in most other highly deYeloned coun-
, 1921-08-08
OFFICIAL NOTES.

The Secretary of Agriculture has Sc
lee ed Mr., John b. Thompson to take
charge Of the Agricultural Experiment
tai Station, St. Croix, by request Of Gov
ernor Kittelle The Secretary of lgri-
cul ure who takes great interest in the
Virgin Islands has selected a man Of
wide experience. Mr.. Thompson has
served for a long period in Florida, has
been in charge of the station at
Manila and was in charge of the sta
ton at Guam for six years and was
also stationed in Hawaii for two years.
Mr.. Thompson is a graduate of the
Agricultural college Of Kansas and he
has had experience in fruit growing in
California. The Secretary has acceded to
the request of Go vernon Kittelle and
will. as soon as practicable, establish
DEMONSTRATION farm on St. Thomas and
St. John to teach the people how to raise
vegetables and fruits for local and home
consumption.
, 1921-08-08

George, Esme Aletia Turner, Randolph
E. Sullivan, Adams Oliver Emanuel,
Roy Arlington Wallace, Iris WATERPROOF
and Bernard Alphonso Ludwig.
The first five prizes were in money,
but the two last consisted Of two beauti-
tui posters painted by Miss KittelIe and
which were recently on exhibition at the
Post Office.
During The show sweet music was dis
coursed by the Naval Band, which along
with cooling refreshments, and the sight
Of happy, healthy b~ahyhood, added much
to make The afternoon an enjoyable one.
We 'are glad to observe the interest
evinced by the Governor and his family
ia 5uch affairs as it certainly demon
strates their true attitude towards the
community St. Thomas Mail Notes,
Aug. lib.
, 1921-08-08

thai the Posi- Ofi4e Department has
officially changed tht name of the post
office at ST. rnomas, Virgin Islands, from
Charlotte Amalie to Saint Thomas, Ell
~fective July rs, 1921. In the prepara-
ton Of applications f6c and in the issuing
Of money orders as we'll as in the adj
dressing OF mail Charlotte Am2he" VIII
be omitted in future.
From the same source We learn tina the
new postmaster at ST. Thomas is Albert
Pfaus, appointed July 25th.
, 1921-08-08
EDITORIAL.

News has been received here of the
dea'h of Mr.. A. NJ. Colbeth at his
home in Richmond Hill, l.. l.. on the
night of the 9th. ultimo, as a result of
a sudden attack Of heart failure. The
deceased is we'll known in this is
land where he resided for years and
conducted mercantile business for Mes
srs. Batram Brothers, and for his own
account. He leaves a wife, four sons
and two daughters to whom and others
bereaved by his death we extend cur
sincere condolences and sympathy.
We have information that Mr.. r, Bau-
mann, K. D., former Danish Consul
General at st. Thomas has been appoint
ed Danish Consul at Chicago, ILL.,, U.
S. A.
AS an item of news for public infor-
nation the postmaster here informs us
, 1921-08-08
TLLEGRA MS.
ST. CROIX STATION.

-" SASOA 49,
Dublin, Aug. 4th.-A full meeting of
the Irish Republican Parliament is to be
called The official announcement of
the call, with the date for the meeting,
will be published in tonight's issue Of
the Irish bulletin. 1t is reported the
reply of Ulster to overtures by the Sim
Fem has been received and is not favour
able.
Belfast, Aug. 4th.-The Ulster -abin-
ct met this morning for a short session
at the close OF which there was no COM
munication, issued as TO the subject of
its deliberations. 1t was authOritati geiy
learned, however, that no message from
De Valera has yet reached the northern
cabinet.
London, Aug. 4th. Reports published
here that the Government of northern
Ireland has definitely and finally refused
to have anything to do with the Govt.
proposals relative to peace in ireland,
were today officially declared TO be al
|soiutely unfounded". 1t was asserte%
that no proposals had been submitted to
the Ulster cabinet by the Government.
London, Aug. 4th.-The Prince of
Wales may be in Canada. again In April
of next year. the Daily Mail states that
His Royal Highness our OF India will
conclude to Karachi on March Itch, 1922,
when the Prince and his party will re-
turn home via Japan and probably via
Canada.
P~ittsburg, Aug. 4th.-Tennis experts
of, the British Isles and Australia today
played the first of their Preliminary
rounds in the Davis matches on the grass
courts Of the Allegheny Country Club,
ten miles from Pittsburg. A fashion
able gathering filled the stands erecfed at
the courts for the matches, and included
tennis enthusiasts from all parts of the
middle West and Canada. Ioday's play
brought together in the singles Ander-
son, Australia, and Woosnam, British
Isles, Hawkes., Australia, and Lowe,
British Isles.
London, Aug. 4th. While Govt. cir