THE BOWERY NOW HAS A WOMAN BOSS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19529, 11 July 1925, Page 9

THE BOWERY NOW HAS A WOMAN BOSS.

As Tammany leader of the old Fourth Ward, Mrs Thomas J. Nolan is the first ■woman to rule the Bowery, where “Big Tim” and “Little Tim” Sullivan once reigned, and more recently the lamented Tom Foley. “Surely the woman who has inherited their battle-scarred mantles must bo regarded as a symptom, a beacon, an extraordinary, almost incredible result of changing times, writes Kenneth Andrews, who asked himself before meeting her, “What sort of woman could possibly wield the power which this exacting office would place in her baudsln his expectation, “undoubtedly she would be some sort of feminine counterpart of the bluff; leatherreeked, hard-fisted old war horses of the past, who almost invariably began their careers as saloonkeepers or blacksmiths.” As be discovered, she is “not that type at all,” and in the New York World he tells us :

I found Mrs Nolan in her home at No. 9 Madison street. She received me graciously—with a friendly formality that was almost quaint—in the old-fashioned living room of tho solidly dignified, old-fashioned house where she has lived for 20 years. She was born in Tom Foley’s old district in the house which stood at 39th Street and Lexington avenue. She suggested at once the quietly efficient mistress of a gently-run household; it seemed all at once a little grotesque to think of this modest and placid little woman as the political boss of the city’s most important district. Yet, as she talked, I think I got a hint of the secret of her hold over Tammany’s followers in this stronghold of Tammany. For her leadership has been accepted with enthusiasm. She was appointed temporarily to the post; but so natural and willing has been the acknowledgment of her that there is every possibility,that she will remain as the permanent leader. The hint as to the reason came more from her manner than from anything she said. There was something maternal in her attitude toward tho people in the district where she has spent so much of her life. (The old mansion on Madison street might have been a feudal manor house. Mrs Nolan might have been its mistress, toward whom the tenants of the estate looked quite as a matter of course when they were in trouble, or when they wanted favours.

tine talked to Mr Andrews about her work

“It seems sort of funny for me to have this position, for I have always regarded politics as man’s work. I scarcely realise even yet that I am really trying to carry on the work started by Mr Foley. I never even took part in tho fight to get the vote for women. I wasn’t either against it or for it. It just didn’t interest me. I have two daughters and a husband and this house. And I have lived hero so long that I know nearly everybody and havealways been busy in the church and with our social gatherings. “I see now that there is a big field for women in politics—or, at least, m what I mean by politics. There arc things that women understand better than men, and there are things—little troubles—that a woman will bring to another woman when she would not bring them to a man. I am a sort of go-between. Some of the difficulties that people bring to me I can adjust myself; but almost always I ask the advice of the men.

“People from the district come to me with everything. There are at least 10 or 20 a day. They may need coal—and, through the club, I can" get them tickets to the coal yard. They may not have the next month’s rent. And if they are deserving—and we always know if they are —I can arrange to have it paid. “A young man was in here yesterday who wanted to get a.license as an undertaker. I may he able to help him. A young Italian boy came to me recently, and said he wanted to go to Europe, but was afraid he coulcl not come back because he did not have his final citizenship papers. “They come to this house as a sort of headquarters anything goes wrong. And I do what I can to help them.

“That is what my work mostly is, humanitarian. There is no political rivalry down here—except to see who can get to the polls first. “Wo are like a little village, where everybody knows everybody else, and where families have lived for years.” It is in many respects a happy village, and Mrs Nolan says :

“We don’t have the trouble that people in other parts of the city do. The landlords haven’t raised the rent, except just a little to meet the increased taxes. People, I think, are more comfortable and better off than they have ever been in the 20 years I have known about conditions in our section. It is mv job to keep them that way, if I can. That is all my job is. “We don’t have any ‘younger generation’ problem, either. Our girls hardly ever go up-town to the gay restaurants, and they don’t carry flasks or go on motor rides. They have their good times here in the neighbourhood. We have social meetings right along in church. They are content to have their fun there, with the girls and boys they have known all their lives.

“1 think I can help in keeping our people comfortable and contented, and if I do that I feel that I shall be worthy of the responsibility which was so surprisingly given me. “The work does not interfere with my homo duties. 1 don’t see why public work should interfere with any woman’s making a good home. “I think she will make a better one if her interests arc broadened. It is so easy for one to become swallowed up in the routine, and I don’t think that is the way good wives and mothers are made. “When my husband comes home’’—her husband is Justice Thomas J. Nolan, of t Spccial Sessions —“I say’: ‘Well, sit dowxl; there’s lots of work to do.’ Then, together wo go over all the cases of the people who nave come to me during the day. He tells mo what to, do with each, or else he tells me where to go for advice. And I think it is splendid for a woman to come into contact with so many other lives.

“It seems natural for people to come here, for they always have. They know there has never been a lock on our door. We are like a big family in our district. I shouldn’t be called a ‘boss’ at all.”