Broadbrim’s New York Letter.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 878, 28 December 1888, Page 9

Broadbrim’s New York Letter.

Not many years ago Paris was supposed to be the most cosmopolitan city in the world ; but the sceptre is passing away from Paris, and its abiding place in the future will be the city of New York. Twenty-five or thirty years ago, all the hoodlums of the town would have run after and pelted a Chinaman ; to-day a Mongolian dressed like Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado might march from one end of Broadway to the other, and scarcely any one would give him a second look. I stood on Broadway facing Wall street with my back to Trinity Church, and within thirty minutes such a procession passed as could be found in no other city in the world. First oatne a party of ten carrying all their earthly goods—the women and men wearing wooden shoes and thiok homespun goods, which had evidently been woven on domestic looms away in the north of Europe. The women shared the burden with the men, and seemed abundantly able to do their share. One carried a hnge trunk on her baok, and all of them had loads that would have appalled or broken the back of an American woman ; but they trudged along as contented and happy as a New York woman going to Many’s or O’Brien’s on a bargain day. They had scarcely passed when along came a patty of Albanians with their huge turbans, flashy scarfs and baggy breeches, and a fine active, healthy looking body of men they were ; but what struck me particularly was that the women were so inferior to the men. The men weie well featured, some of them remarkably handsome, while the women were mostly ill-featured, and lacked that bold free air that distinguished the men ; they were not companions ; they were not equals ; they were merely slaves. Now a dozen Chinamen sweep by ; they do not seem to be afraid of Dennis Kearney or the Chinese exclusion bill; these happy Celestials chatter and laugh as freely as they would iu Hong Kong or Foo Chow—satisfied that as long as their barbarian relations are kept out they will have a monopoly of our washtubs. Ah, here come a dozen Swedes ; their bright, frank, handsome, honest faces win them to you at once ; they are all bright blondes, with large blue eyes and a comfortable clean look that is at the first glance a recommendation. Right behind them are some Russian Jews on their way to the Russian Jewish quarter on the west side. A sorry looking lot they are, unkempt and unshaven, as if they had never seen soap or water since they left the empire of the Czar. In looking at these miserable immigrants human degradation seems to have reached ita lowest depth. The faces have all a mean, suspioiouß sneaking look, like that of the ooyote on the western plains. Can such a race ever beoome good citizens—are they desirable ? can they ever assimilate with us and beoome part of us ? Is not the importation of these ignorant, ill paid, mean living hordes, a constant menaoe to the well paid labour of the United States ? The sight of them is hateful to me, but here they are, and what are you going to do ab.ut it 1 Six or seven years ago, during the Judenheitz, when thousands of these miserable, starving wretches were driven out of Russia, and came pouring in like a deluge on New York, the English, American and German Jews, who are among the wealthiest and most intelligent and respeotable portion of our population, sought to grapple with this Russian problem; they laboured night and day for months ; they spent hundreds of thousands

of dollars, and in their great distress they made no appeal for outside aid, but raised the nooessary money among themselves, but it wa3 no use ; the Russian Jews were an ingrate race, the more that was done for them the more they expected. They were fed and housed for weeks free of expense. At last they surrounded the offioe of the disbursing agent of the Associated Jewish societies, and boldly demanded money—he had none to give, and they assaulted him in his office, and would have beaten him to death, if he had not been rescued by the police. Since then the New York Jews have let their Russian brethren severely alone, aud I don’t think there would have been any very general mourning in the houses of Israel and Judah on this side of the water if the Russian Emperor had massacred a few thousands more. But the procession still rolls, up on Broadway, a steady stream — Frenchman, Italians, Scotchmen, English, and I need not say Irish, for * the woods are full of ’em,’ Danes, Finns, and even Kalmuk Tartars. Another considerable sensation has been the explosion of the Knights of Labour, The dynamite bombshell was Thomas B. Barry, who for years, past has been high up in the Labor Saudeidrim. He had tne straight tip from the inside, and he gave it to the crowd. Ho told the shameful story to the poor dupes how these so called champions of Labor had rioted away hundreds of thousands of dollars on wine, whisky, high living and cigars, how a few of the elect audited their own bills and refused to account for four hundred thousand dollars of their money. Robbery, peculation, and shameful waste characterised the management, and he declared that the Knights of Labour were perishing of dry rot. If any man had attempted one year ago to do in New York what Mr Barry did last week, lie would bardly have esoaped with his life. But Barry’s expose was heartily applauded by thousands of Knights, and a vote of thanks wa3 awarded to him. As a sequel to the Barry meeting came the row in District Assembly 49, which has been in the midst of a faction fight for a year past. Saveral weeks ago Master Workman Quinn, he of the big head, got unceremoniously kicked out of Pythagoras Hall, which was the meeting place of the Knights of Labour. Then a lawsuit commenced, occasionally spiced by a broken head, aud this week Quinn gob a decree reinstating him in possession of the hall; he went there with six of his heelers, overpowered the watchman in charge, broke open all the doors and marched into his old office only to find the safe busted, and all the official papers gone. He got the shell but lost the oyster. On Sunday at midnight the rival factions pounced down on Quinn and his faction, broke their heads and pitched them into the street and now hold the fort. The order can now be safely let'alone,, the waring factions will eventually destroy each other. The interests of working men can safely be trusted to their Trades’ Uuions; they understand the wants of the different trades, and will no doubt abundantly provide for them. The attempt at a wholesale autooracy has turned out a miserable failure, and the expose of Mr Barry may be considered its death knell and its epitaph. Truly yours, Broadbrim.