LIFE IN NEW YORK.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1963, 20 November 1874, Page 3

LIFE IN NEW YORK.

[NEW YORK HERAI.D.] As cities grow in age they seem also to grow in distinctness — that is to say, the populations become more separately distinct in their characteristics and gather in certain little centres,, around which they seem to move as stars around fixed orbits. The older the city the more this becomes apparent, and these people, who have once adopted these centres, seem themselves to be unable to move away from them or to break their connection with them, as it were. Where single efforts are sometimes pur forth to break through this invisible but none the less arbitrary law the result ia not generally successful, and they return in the end, forced back to their original starting point. In London this peculiarity is especially notable and the singular distinctness of particular places is something wonderful. Of late years New York has shown this peculiarity very remarkably in the gradual growth of distinct quarters, which may be picked out and named with boundary lines of the city itself. We are, indeed, getting to possess this peculiarity to a degree which is unsurpassed by almost any city in the world, by the establishment of particular classes of people or peculiar lines just eirdenb aa the boundry lines of hnsineas in certain particnliar streets, oat ot which ' one might almost seek in vain for them. Trades, Jike nationalities, settle down in certain places and stick to each other in a remarkable degree. It would seem as if existence itBelf depended upon remaining thus closely associated, and, no doubt, there are good reasons which cause this congregation of homogeneous elements in certain distinct districts. If in nothing else it is sensible in simplifying the business of life in a ve?y wonderful degree. Our business is simply with the cosmopolitan city of New York in this article, and we may be enabled to bring the fact which has been stated more clearly to the reader's mind, together •with the account of many peculiarities which will lend interest to the enumeration. THE FEBNCH QT7ABTER. In spite of the great increase of our French population during the past few years, particularly since the close of the Franco-Prussian war, which sent bo many of this nationality out of their own country to us, the quarter in which they have elected to live seems not to have expanded to any great degree, It is still mainly bounded by Canal-street, Amity, Broadway, and South Fifth Avenue. Here the French are gathered in great numbers, and in going along any of the streets comprised within the boundaries named one will be apt to hear almost as much French spoken as our own vernacular. The district seems to be particularly avoided by the Germans, no doubt because of the old hatred, and in particular spots of this district a stranger might almost imagine himself transported to Montmartre or Belleville. Taken as a rule, this population is by no means a rich one, and the inhabitants are mainly engaged in all sorts of trades peculiarly French in themselves. Green and Wooster streets are foil of third-rate French boarding-houses, where the principles of Communism appear to be "very popular. This is particularly the case in the lower portion of the two streets named, where well known Communists keep these board-ing-houses, and are generally very well patronised. The boarders are mainly workmen in various branches of skilled trades. One meets also numerous houses where the manufacture of artificial flowers, feathers, and such like, is carried on to a great extent by Frenchmen who have been long domiciled here. Candies and all sorts of sugared sweetmeats are also manufactured in great quantities roundabout here. Lager beer and French wine saloons also abound, as also French laundries. Higher up, towards Bleecker and Amity streets, the class of French board-ing-houses improves somewhat, and the Communist element is not so strong and the political opinions seem to be more of a moderate republican tone. The inmates are in many cases proprietors of some small business or other, or clerks in wholesale houses or teachers. One peculiarity of all this French population will strike the observer at once. This is that not one in ten of all these Frenchmen however long they may have been in the country, can speak English so as to be at all understandable. While other nationalties appear to make it their first business on arriving to learn, at least moderately well, the language of the country, the French, by being so clannish, associating almost exclusively with countrymen of their own, seem to attach no importance whatever to the acquirement of the English language. The writer has known Frenchwomen who have been here from ten to twenty years who did not know as many words of English. This has its disadvantages. They simply seem to care for their own prosperity, and do not fraternise either with the spirit or the institutions of the country they dwell in. It is an extraordinary thing to see a Frenchman vote, and only some very peculiar occasion will take him to the ballot-box. They seem only to care to accumulate enough here to give them the opportunity to return to La Belle France, with sufficient for a comfortable maintenance. So true is this that out of one hundred Frenchmen here you will certainly find ninety-nine who, on being questioned, will acknowledge that their dream is a final return to their own country after they have made' enough out of America to enable them to do it. As a population,' however, the French are a sober, industrious, and exceedingly useful people. In spite of their many bitter hatreds for each other, mainly born of political differences, crime is almost unknown among them.