A PESSIMISTS VIEW OF NEW YORK.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2593, 23 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PESSIMISTS VIEW OF NEW YORK.

In the November number of Temple Ba Mr Arthur Montefioro gives an acoouii of hie experiences in New York. Th picture is sufficiently dark ; we belicvi that it has another side, hut wo coutun ourselves with quoting a few of his ob servations and comments. After a pie liminary malediction on the abominabl cab system (under which three person would pay Ss in New York for a drivi which would cost Is Gd in London), and ; few observations about " boarding," M Montefiore takes us to the Broadway. H< ga y S ._" lam willing to grant every thing that can be granted to this famou street ; but beyond this I cannot go. Ti persist in calling it the ' Broadway' is ti perpetuate a fraud. Down the centre o the roadway run two tramcar-linea sidi by side ; between these and the pave ment there is just room for a vehicle ti pass. There is a long slope to the gut ter, and the augle at which this vehicl proceeds is the reverse of comfortable To adapt a Yankee expression, one ma; well say, " How is that for broad ?" I is, in fact, of very ordinary width and ii place approaches the width of Regent street. The horrors of Horrible Lon don have their parallel in New York :- " A. walk down the Bowery is a fair in (■.reduction to this aspect of this city' life. Pawn-shops, low saloons, am lower exhibitions—those famous ' dim exhibitions,' whose montrosities an( beastliness are at your service for tei cen t 3 _Hne the pavements on cither hand These attract men and women, yoniii and old. and are never-failing delight ti prurient American yonth. Undersizei girls, noisy and unpleasiiig, cluster rount the fifth-rate stores of vulgar finery, ant strew the side-walks with orange-pee and the husks of pea-nuts. Foreigi cripples and hunch-backs, Italian laz zeroni, Polish and German Jews, rag vendors or ' slop-sellers,' clamour at yoi as you pass for charity or patronage Tawdry women insult you, and thievr, and pickpockets jostleyou ; overhead tin elevated railway darkens the whole road and adds its roar to the din around But there are worse places :—" So mucl —sometimes more—may bo safely seei by oneself. But there are darker place —more villaiuons nests—where I wouk advise no stranger to penetrate alone Down these narrower alley* live biillie of all nationalities who would tako you life for a dollar. If you pause at tin head of one of these narrow, reeking utterly unwholesome rookeries, you wil see the women sprawling about on tin doorsteps, half-naked, drunk, blasphem intr, the little children righting am screaming in the gutters over some ofFu they consider a prize ; and the voices o the men rising in besotted shouts fron some low den"of a drinking and gamblinj shop hard by. The general aspects an loathsome, but they are frequent." Afte describing the Jewish abodes and custom and the Chinese opinm-den and gamblinj hells, Mr Montefiore passes on to tin neneral disrespect and open violation o the city laws :—" Many of th». city law are only made to satisfy an outburst o acmipopiilar feeling, ' whooped up' b; the press, and then allowed to lapse b; simply non-enforcement, -tor instance Kew York saloons and liqnor-stoivs an compelled by law to bo closed on Sun day ; and yet every Sunday scores o customers go in and out of nearly evi r; 3aloon by the side door. I have actunlh seen policemen who were standing out 3ide the doors walk away round the cor iier when they sisv men approaehin: them. Such a thing as closing at th statutory hour is hardly known ; an. when this law i 3 enforced public feclin; leans towards the offender." The lilsera professions, according to our observer an in a bad way in New York. Americai utists work as caricaturists for the news papers or as copiers of tha Old Work masterpieces. The native writers canno compete against the shoals of Englisl aoo'ss which have paid no royalty to tin uithor. Journalism alone is thriving. I should be mentioned that Mr Montefior jays little or nothing about the numerou Dthor professions—such us those of tli lawyers, the doctors, and the ministers c> -eligion. "In that republic of republic there are as thin divisions and narrov joundarics of caste and clique as exists ii ;he oldest and most aristocratic and mon irehical countries. The success of to da; s scorned by the success of yesterday ind he in his turn by the Fortunatus o ast week. Families who, for all the; jnow, are innocent of grand parents ipeak with contempt of the unfatherec irrivals from California. The few rea eaders are worshipped, are idolised Their word is law, their garments th ashion. To speak or walk, or cntertaii is they do is ton, and nothing else is. T( >e socially surpreme is to bean unwayer njfdespot. Ostracism from the clique is I leath to the world. If you do not niov n the circles of the Fifth Avenue yo\ night just as well retire at once. Indcci naiiy do, .and come to Europe. For it i i fact that some of our souial succcs-:e: iere were outcasts in America. Domes iic grievances are freely ventilated in th niluic press. Husband and wife have i lifTcrence, and fisht it out iu public \lorc often they resort to the Divorci Jourts of the different States. " A shor ;ime ago, over a hundred cases of divorce vere disposed of at Chicago in a singl lay; and almost anidentical state of thing !xist3 at New York. The family life o ;he nation is being rapidly undermined •everenco, fidelity, and stability becom ng by-wonls in society. At Lon\ Branch and Saratoga Springs womei neet their two, three, and even four 'late uisbands with perfect unconcern, ant vill sometimes mix with them on tin nost friendly of footings. No hostess ieed be terrified should a divorced oouph ind themselves by any oversight on hei iart at a ' squash' in her house ; the ihances are that they will greet each ither with aflability, and the last feeling ;hey will experience will be surprise ■ 3ut people are beginning to see that this iort of thing is unworthy of a great lation, and is a liindcranco to its higher jrogress in refinement and civilisation." h\ the whole, we do not recommended Mr Montefiore to pay another visit to New sTork, if he has so poor an opinion of the >lace and the people. It is possible he nay find things made warm for him if lie :ver returns to the United States.