Growth of Jewish Population of New York City
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EV YORKERS have been nraaa-1
recently by figures that show, as
the rifcuU of careful cn'culation,
that on Manhattan island the
old city of New York every
fourth person is a Jew.
They find it hard to believe, because,
In spite of all that they imagine they
know about their metropolis, probably not
1 per cent knows anything about the great
city of the Jew that has been bullded
within New York.
They hear much talk of the "Ghetto,"
Lut comparatively few outsiders ever see
it. If New Yorkers did visit it they would
believe the figures. For in that wonderful
section one may pass through forty miles
of streets and tsee none but Jewish faces,
with the exceptions of policemen, street
sweepers and other city Employes.
The section could not have been located
better geographically to insure scculslon.
of all New York territory It Is the one
that does not contain at least one great
thoroughfare vital to the life of the city.
The thoroughfares that traverse it East
Ilroadway, Grand street and Houston street
serve only a relatively small proportion
of outside workers and remain noticeably
local in their nature.
So, as the famous Ghetto of old Frank
furt once was walled In with structures
of masonry, loop-holed and guarded with
towers, the Ghetto of modern New York
is walled In with natural conditions that
make It a land so unknown to the mass
of the rest of the population that it might
as well be In Siberia.
Possibly more New Yorkere would know
it if It were.
Its limits are deflnexl almost as sharply
as If, indeed, they were marked by walls.
The visitor steps out of the German quar
ter or the Hungarian quarter or the Ital
tcl " .
Ian quarter at once Into the City of the
Jew. This Is a city truly, and no "mere
lan ' n lu n r v iriuv nnn nn mprfl
quarter."
The tall flats of the tenement houses,
from end to end of vistas, nre gaudy with
pinks and bluee and yellows from top to
bottom, as If they wire Orieuial houses
with gorgeous rugs Hung from each opeu-
ln TKo cnattiirlnir tt hnoa la (rnm t ; u
rugs of the East Side-.l.e' bedding that
Is hung out from every window to sun
throughout the day.
Th.. .....ium ..f .1... .,i.i
whelmed the hideous tenement house de-
. ...I . L- - . . , . V. . . I , t . r . tn
the crowds on the streets, everywhere U
K touch of the Orient. ,nlal ,IB '"'" ''"""''''
In the eei.sU ss flowing to and fro of a throughout the territory curb Urns are ob
peoplo there come and go true figures of ruled. Sidewalks exist only ns places of
th, magical east. Here, presiding over a refuge f.om trucks an 1 careering fire en
stand with melons and pears, black bearded. Bints- The ,hlo,,6 n,,!i tbu lrt'cl ,
hawknosed, hawkeyed, straight and lithe,
surely Is a son of Ishmael-sueh a one as
... a n. v
U1IKUI uv uitiunu 111 a iiuviiis uuiuuunc,
riding a white racing camel and waving
flashing weapons In a charge over Arabia's
yellow sand.
By the side of him, chaffering with
would-be buyers of the cheap cottons and
in us Ins cn his handcart, stands a veritable
Egyptian sculpture come to earth,
stalking out of twilight tombs on
ih Vila tn Ktanil on Essex street
Connect!-
and Darter stuffs made in
cut. There are the wide thighs, the sinewy
shoulders, with the muscles laid on them
as they aie laid on in those carved figures.
A Russian general could not l)Ok more
imposing th:.n does von ler Jew with his
lose trimm.d beard and his keen, strong,
deierm.ned face. That he should be pushing
a cart with suspenders and hose on it seems
as ridiculous as the topsy-turvy things seen
in dreams.
Bent oi l men with while ringlets and
majestic beards, noble modi Is for pictures
of Cadis and Talmudists. sit behind tnasy
show windows waiting for customers to buy
th'lr unleavened breads or groceries or ko-
sher meats. Tall, thin German Jews, modern
in every respect, with the deep, angry eyes
of men who talk o" nights of social tyran-
libs. press ihiough the crowds, biaring unfin-
ishel tiouseis and e.-ts to the sweatshops,
Ii hind a tun.bl'd. junk-like mass of shoe-
fctrlngs, tin spi.ous at the price of two for
THE PEDDLERS ARE MEN OF STANDING.
' V'-
1 cent, and 2-cent whlskbrooins. there looks
a man who bears on his brown ucck a per-
fict Nubian head.
Swaying from the hips a girl who is a
pcture of a biblical water carrier, passes
along With her is one as modern as the
bright day In all the streets hardly a
' ... lh i,i00 .h PB ,, ...
their cowled shawl headdresses wears a
head covering unless the wigs on every
other woman beyond middle-age may be
called that.
But what the women lack, the
men make up;
head undecked.
for not one of them has his
Even Inside of the houses
the men wear something anything from a
8,ilk ca" lo a bjtteml "d' rby" fr'"" th'
l!ov,ery'
All the crowds vibrate with keen, thrill-
Ing zest of life. Here there is no IndUier-
tBce- klule ana Ert'al nappcnints provoke
the same amount of eager communal and
"
triminateiy irom nouse ue .u lu
Every detail of housekeeping Is carried
on frankly in the open. Even the washing
- , , . i
f clothes Is done In some of the hallways
Here and there someone Is cooking a meal
on an oilstove in front of a store. The
women wash their children on the street.
They visit with their friends on the street.
Many of them eat midday meals on the
street.
Children in hordes dare death every min-
and escape
They hull theinselvis l'l
sh. utlng festoons across a thoroughfare Just
as a taping team of truck horses comes
thundering along. They are under the feel
or e:eBirians. joey uang iu u...jr ....
nenccs and cackle wlih easy minds. There
are thousands of them. Yet one can walk
through the City of the Jew for hours and
not s.e as many Juvenile fights as he may
ee In other tenement house sections in a
few bort Wotks.
One may walk for hours, too. ami near
and see all the domestic life going on openly
around him. and yet not hear or see a single
dispute bi twecn man and wife. This city
may not te the ideal one of love, but as-
suredly It Is not one of anger.
That the Jew loves children is seen In
the 1 re. dom they enjoy. They play around
ihe sh p doors, crowd the wagon., examine
the men h indlse, and rarely are they driven
away wlh angir or unkind words.
M. st remarkabl. wonderful in this ci'y
la the amazing array of shops. Wi'h hardly
ri:i
MILES AND MILES OF SHOPS AND ST RE ETS PACKED WITH MERCHANTS.
single exception there is no house without
one.
By actual measurement there are thirty-
'our unbroken miles of shops lu the set-
Hon. A man walking steadily at the rale
of four miles an hour could walk for more
than tight hours past one continuous row
of stores. And on bis other hand there will
be an almost equuny continuous row oi
street merchants. Even the crossings ate
bordered by them wherever they dure.
., .. .. ...
une cau stunu on ine nign grounu oi
urauo street ami, looKing norm auu houiu
along any of the twenty cross streets, see
that unbroken line or stoits, crowucu us
closely side to side as builders could pack
them, flanked and fronted and surrounded
with street slumis uud push carts and
p. d . I, ers1 wa-. us. one can t-tuud n any .f
those cross streets and look up or down
lr. els stretching
from tue isowery to tue it.usi nvei uuu sue
the same thing.
The doorwajs to all the
tenements, dark clefts that lead into the
duiker mysteries of black corridors, uie
hidden by piles of baked stuffs, meatb,
groceries, chickens, wearing apparel uud
any other kind of merchandise that the
mind of bartering man could conceivably
evep q
Probably the Ghetto of New York never l8h.
will have lo sustain a siege, us the Ghetto Si rolling, t r rather walking, his way
of Kiuukfu.t liad lo do more than once. (h,oiiKh the crowds, the visitor finds hini
But for Buch a siege the new Ghetto Is pro- S1.lf wondering before long If the dwelbrs
Vlsioned better even than the old wus. if or ,nR Ghetto ever cease eating -not be
lt were shut lo suddenly from all the world cause he sees them cut, but because every
It bas within It all the needs of a me- other store and str't stand is devoted
tropolis. Everything from a string of gar- m frujt stuffs.
lie or peppers to gilded parlor furniture K.uits lead. They re sold everywhere,
can be obtained there. It has factories of nu.. i f,,n ,v,.ir , - n.,,.iir,,i
arli,,, fl0m B(i0cs to colllns. It pro-
duceiJ is own ,.1(jlilinK U ,, cigars, Its
ow1 ul.WBpa),.rSi lts own food supply in
evt,ry varll.,y ,.Xcei.t that or raw material.
Th(. vt.ry ,,.e auJ jdivcry wagons In It an
,,rhel, ,,y jew. T.,e HU-U are dnven by
JeW8 JeW8 (lo th(. blaeksmithing and the
lanlng Hwi ,be roofing and the building,
Jewa own the tar room8 SU(1 the banks,
The number of shops on famous Mroad-
way Is almost lusiguineant compared wiin
those in this remarkable territory. And
there is brisk trade always along all the
miles of them.
In no other part of the city, possibly iu
no other American city, do the vendors dls-
play such utter confidence In the respect of
the population for the rights f property.
In front of every shop lie mounds of m-r-
chsndise and foodstuffs. Pressing sround
them are the crowds. The ownirs of the
shops are Inside, arguing wilh customers.
The goods outside lie within the reach of
CONSTANT PASSING OF
TUHIES.
j j- Hr:
. MPS'
all. Yet the visitor can walk through the
Ghetto and never Bee man or child take so
much as an apple or a plum from the piles
placed so temptingly wlthlu reach.
The sidewalk merchants of the Ghetto
are far removed from the low commercial
level or tnetr colleagues oi tue ouier cuy.
They have their regular trade. Their cus-
. . . ... , l
lomers sn on ooxes unci uusneis uu uui
at their stands and push carts ns If thev
were under roof. They have goods for tale
mat are not, ureaiucu oi uj me tnn--"
peaaier oi ine reai oi io. u un n
stands they have not only fruits and vege-
tables and nsn, nut naniware, snoes, nous
of cloth, "delicatessen" and wearing ap-
parol even tailor made gowns.
The tailor made gown Is a surprising
feature of East Side commerce. Whire
did these Immigrants from Poland and
Lithuania and Tartar Russia learn to give
a woman s garment, ine inm an iuuuik uuni
of "style" that stamps the tailor made
gown? They surely possess ine knowl
edge. Nobody can do It better thau do
the unkempt tenement house dwellers.
Many of New York's fashionable women
brave all the vague terrors of the East
side to have their dresses fitted by an un
couth tailor who can hardly speak Eng-
rBn( - ,, .,, . , ,',.i11 ,,.
(;h,.tto th8 y,,ar b((ri. ,hf.y W(.r(. ,
he H(,en anywh(.re ,.,. In New York, ex-
cept lii ihe most expensive fruit stores.
The grocery stores all carry big tocks
f melons, pears uud plums. Next in I in -P
rtunce in them are onions an 1 greens.
Cabbages are scarce.
Following In number after the groceries
come the meat shops and the bakeries.
Tne ijun hers' windows look like execu-
iiu grounds, for in most of them He the
,i,.(.apltated heads of fowls wilh the feath-
rrs grotesquely left on, making them look
rather awful, as If they were the ghastly
evidences of a sudden outbreak of the
Red Terror.
Prominent in the bakeries are pallid
flask-shaped loaves of unleavened bread
that give a fantastic, foreign appearand
lo the shop windows.
At about 2 o'clock every afternoon comes
a ruBh of shrieking newsboys, shouting
out tlunr lu tnu narsu jaDKia u
ICugli.'h, Hebrew, Uertuuu uud a dozun
i.tlu-r liiaKcla that Is known as Ylddmll.
i lie papers that they curry all huvu fat
I laik lieudliues lu Hebraic churaclers, us
if the iiilbUt be decrees of !h patriarchs.
They tell each day of the tnuuaaud loves
and griefs and Intrigues and Joys of the
grcul City of the Jew thut the Jew bas
vsuu.
Pusslvely, peacefully, never assuiulug
the ulleiiHive, he has tilled It to Its furthest
eontliies us the wuleru from a uiountuln
1:11 u valley uud turu It Into a lake.
Swilling sluwiy, irruslstubly, ever
quietly, euHlward, his tribes nave Inun
dated uud oblileruted the famous rivel
colonics of the sturdy Irish, who held to
iliubu fuBtuesseu along the river fronts
I I om t'uiln riue tn eel to Houston street
tun il teu ycurs ago, with all the grim
fervor Willi vthich they love to confront
i he Suxou across the sua.
T'notie biuve, ever belligerent, desperately
hostile bordererB uiuluiulued themselves
for a long while, always ready to raise the
slaudurd of war on sign of Intrusion. The
Jew cumped around that plucky last stand
In his armies. His multitude lay front
to front with that border ground, but
within the Irish fuBiucBH none of him ven
tured save on compulsion. Wuut Hebrews
were seen there rarely Were seen moving
at u lesser puce thun a inn. Their ei
perieuce in the Irish quurters wus a mod
em repetition of the iTuiiKluil uuys, when
the. Jew who ventured out of his Ghetto
was marked for bulling uud hunting.
today the river f route belong to him.
l he Irish huve vuuished before hlui and
from river to llowery, from river to
Chatham square, the laud belongs to the
tubes. They have made uuoiher conquest
like those of the days of luo old testa-
"" ""' u.m. u
overwhelming numbers, by putieuce, by
...... ..Il t.......
uu.uuic mii.uj, mv-j uu nv-quiiou m
land uud it is theirs. So surely Is it
theirs that the uomud aliens of New York
. "
u.,bUL " " mo
u lu being. It would be u daring band
mm .in.un.-u uuw. dhuiu h. uuu peue-
naltd many blocks into the City of the
Jew it would be swullowed lu the sea of
life- that roars uud swells forever In those
ruuge streets swullowed uud lost as
vverc certain Egyptians oucu lu another
s a thut could not eugulf a multitude any
more Burely.
Tointed Paragraphs
Chicago News: The undent clusslcs never
get too old lo learn.
Tho charily that begins at homo covers
the mosl sins.
A husband iu hand Is worth two that are
beyond control.
It's the coastwise sleuiuer that manages
to avoid the rocks.
It's easier to be u hero worshiper than
il is to be a hero.
Some men are boru wilh black eyes and
some acquire them.
Nearly every family has the skeleton of
an old clock In its closet.
The wise weather prophet lays up an ex-
pluuatiou for a
Love muy be
rainy day.
blind, but it never falls
to bear pupu's footstep on the stair.
Aduu had his troubles, but be never bad
a spasm at the sight of a dressmaker's
bill.
Marriage isn't a lottery; when a man
draws a blank iu a lottery that's the end
of It.
(iolt in Home
New York Times: Aurellao bad Just de-
tailed a slave to uphold the golden fetters
of the beautiful Zenobla, when the menial
rebelled.
'"Hut," they expostuated with him, "you
should be glad to have the opportunity of
following the links."
And thus, Indeed, was golf first Intro-
duced Into ancient Rome.
