The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
Morning service over, an early dinner follows. Then everybody thinks of
enjoying himself if the weather is fine, or of sleeping the afternoon
away if the day is too wet to go out. The cars are filled with persons
_en route_ for the Park to pass a pleasant afternoon--the drives of
that beautiful resort are filled with the elegant equipages of the
fashionables, and the churches are comparatively deserted. Almost every
livery hack, buggy, or other vehicle in the city, is engaged for
Sunday, several days beforehand, and the poor horses have no mercy
shown them on that day.
The low class theatres and places of amusement in the Bowery and
adjacent streets are opened toward sunset, and vice reigns there
triumphant. The Bowery beer gardens sell lemonade and soda water, and
such beverages as are not prohibited by the excise law, and the
orchestra and orchestrions play music from the ritual of the Roman
Catholic church.
The excise law forbids the sale of spirituous or malt liquors on the
Sabbath, and the bar rooms are closed from midnight on Saturday until
Monday morning. The police have orders to arrest all persons violating
this law. There is no doubt, however, that liquor can be obtained by
those who are willing to incur the risk necessary to get it; but as the
majority do not care to take this trouble, the North river ferries are
thronged on Sunday, by persons going over to New Jersey for their beer,
wine, and stronger drinks. There is no Sunday law in that State, and
Jersey City and Hoboken are only five minutes distant from New York.
At night the churches are better attended than in the afternoon, but
not so well as in the morning. Many ministers will not open their
churches for afternoon service, because they know they cannot fill a
dozen pews at that time. Their congregations are driving in the Park--
the young men, perhaps, in Hoboken, after lager.
Sunday concerts are now becoming a feature in New York life. These are
given at the principal halls of the city, and the music consists of
selections of sacred gems from the master pieces of the great
composers. The performers are known all over the land for their musical
skill, and the audiences are large and fashionable. No one seems to
think it sinful thus to desecrate God's holy day, and it must be
confessed that these concerts are the least objectionable Sunday
amusements known to our people.
The reason of all this dissipation on the Sabbath is plain. People are
so much engrossed in the pursuit of wealth, that they take no time in
the week for rest or amusement. They wait for Sunday to do this, and
grudge the few hours in the morning that decency requires them to pass
in church.
THE EXCISE TRIALS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account