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WARM weather has brought out for the first tifne in six months all the Inhabitants of v“Llttle Italy,*1- and revealed to those who on pleasure or business bent are compelled to pass along ®South Seventh street some very foreign and picturesque sights and scenes. Pew, except perhaps those of artistic tendencies, appreciate thoroughly the many ahd varied clotures, altogether un-American in their aspect, which Italian street life in this city in summer presents.For some years Italian immigration to this country'has been on the increase, and at the present time there are several thousand sons and daughters of sunny Italy, who have settled do^nfor the remainder of their lives inFAVULLI ERNESTO AND HIS COUSIN, GIOVANNI, WITH THE ORGANAWlGfoHave Your Fortunes Told, Ladies and Gentlemen*Italian Motlier and Child.this city. Little Italy has two seasons, an out-of-door and an in-door season. In winter a stranger might walk through the district and And it exceedingly quiet and uninteresting, for only a few of the inhabitants are to be seen on the streets, as the long, winter months are passed housed up in close and stuffy rooms, a torture to the sons and daughters of Italy, who love the sunshine and out of door life.When the first warm spring dsys come, therefore, nobody, recognize* them with more delight than the Italians. The doors of their houses are thrown ocen, and a stream of men, women and children pour out, to live until cold weather, to all intents and purposes, in the streets-and on the door steps. It is consequently in summer that all the local color of Little Italy is rampant, and at that time, there is no reason for our artists whp are making their way In the world tp. yearn for the models of Italy, as doz-' ■ens quite as good can* be had for trifling sum on South Seventh street They are fully as pretty, have quite as soulful eyes and quite as pictur-little Italy in Philadelphiaesque head-dresses as their cousins in the fatherland.* The policemen who patrol the Italian section characterize the neighborhood as “tough,” and no doubt brawls and fierce controversies are by no means uncom«r.cn. However, Little Italy ought to be forgiven its Sins, for it fulfills a mission that no other section of this city can accomplish successfully. It furnishes a picturesque side to otherwise quiet Quaker City life. The local coloring at times is exquisite, and the pictures that are to be seen on every doorway and at many open windows, as*well as the street vista, are distinctly attractive.The majority of the inhabitants of this colony are from southern Italy, Sicilians and Calabrians, and their love for color is intense, the brilliant ^owns of many hues which the women wear .adding much to their picturesqueness. They Are clannish people, living much to themselves, and following as nearly as possible, in their mode of living, the original customs of their native land.Among other things which these people packed and brought with them to this country, is a vast amount of reverence for the church. They are in fact very religious, and this quality shows itself especially in the avidity with which they celebrate all the saints’ days in the calendar. The frequent . holidays that have amused writers on Italy, give the Italians as many fete days in the month as the rest of the world in a year. It is almost a weekly occurrence to find the colony taking a day off in honor of some saint, whom most good Americans never heard of. All the men who can possibly afford it stay away from work, and after they have attended to their religious duties there are games of cards in nearly every house, accompanied by liquid refreshments, while dancing and music assist in swelling the noise until far into the night.Next to Saint’s day, the residents of Little Italy shine with brilliancy at weddings and cHHstenings, w'hlch frequently occur after church services. A wedding in Little Italy is a picturesque affair. The wedding party comes in state, and a line of open barouches draw up before the church door. The bride is in all her finery, and to catch a glimpse of her the street before the sacred, edifice Is crowded with enough children to fill two ordinary public schools.Most of the business of Little Italy is conducted in the open air, the corner stand or whatever serves for a counter holds all the vegetables that are in season, garlic unlimited, strings of dried onions, sweet peppers and foreign looking herbs, that only the residents of Little Italy find use for, being always prominent. Old wrinkled women and young and pretty brownskinned Italian girls, literally weighted, down with great gold pendants in their ears, bedecked with beads and with red flowers in thelf hair, sit beside these stands and wait on their many customers.The retail fruit trade in this city is practically in the hands of Italians in its branches, from the up town shop* to the corner fruit stand in Little Italy. Favutll Ernesto is never bapplfer than when roasting chestnutsand peanuts in winter, and in summer dispensing slices of watermelon, green apples and half-ripe peaches #to the street gamins, just as he did to the small caAaronl of Naples, and the flsher-boy of Venice. These fruit mer-. chants are from all parts of Italy, and always converse cheerfully with anyone Who can ypeak their language, with the exception of a sulky youth who declines to tell you where he came from, thereby inviting suspicion that he fled to escape conscription. \ * The Italian love for music is as inherent as their passion for finery. Probably more barrel organs and piano organettes and other music-making devices fill the air with their music In the small section known as Little Italy than in,any other portionof the dity. while every other house has a concertina or an accordion. You may wonder at this, as you imagine that the Italian organ grinders made music for people of other nationalities. Correct as you are, at the same time a good street organ with' lively popular airs is perhaps more highly appre elated in Little Italy than in any other section. The dealers know this, and as a result every organ grinder with a repertoire of the latest songs and melodies reaps a harvest along Seventh street and adjoining thoroughfares on warm summer days, particularly in the evening, when every door step and store box, and every place along the street that can furnish a seat, is occupied, by bronzed men, with little hats stuck on the back of theirheads, and with their cheap checked shirts open almost from neck to waist, showing a broad expanse of hairy breast, while the women of Little Italy, the bright, flashing color of the place, are everywhere gowned In purples, greens, reds and yellows, in fact in any costume that makes a striking appearance. There is one thing about even the poorest of tjie women of Little Italy that Is, unfortunately, not to be said of any other women of the same position, they have fine heads of hair, and though you may walk through the colony day after day, you will hardly ever see a woman whose braids are not immaculate and whose hair is not slick and shiny.On warm days the children of Little Italy are everywhere; there must be thousands of them of all sizes and ages, and as soon as a hand organ begins to roll off “She May Have Seen Better Days” or “The Sidewalks of New York, they come pouring outkof the houses and dark alleys In the vicinity and fill the streets. It is not long before they are dancing, and how they dance! round and round, keeping perfect time to the music, never once losing step, reversing and pirouetting with *easy grace that would put to Bhame older girls of other nationalities, on whose education much money has been spenLto enable them to dance half so well as these self-taught little things, so dirty, so happy, and so innocent looking.Perhaps by contrast, if nothing else, the picture which these youngsters present is exceedingly suggestive of the foreign land across the seas, with Its dreamy medieval towns and sunny vipeyard-laden hillsides, their dearly beloved Italia.Pictures of Detectives”G’OF THE STREET MUSICIAN WITH MONKEY,IVE you my picture? I should say not.” Thus spoke one of Philadelphia’s most successful detectives when asked recent- ly by a reporter for his photograph for reproduction in his paper. Don’t you know,” he continued, “that such publication of Identity militates against the efficiency - of the detective force? Well, such is the case.”Cigars were lighted and the detective proceeded to give his views: “Perhapsit is impossible for many detectives to remain unknown to the dangerous classes who make the city their field of labor, but the principle involved is that evildoers who are not local should be given that which, posted in their hats, would be to them what the Rogues' Gallery is to us. For tpjstance, at any great public gathering fibany of the dishonest are attracted and their operations would be influenced largely by their ability to recognise the detectives on duty.‘T will give you a case in point. During the big Odd Fellows’ denronstration last year I was assigned to the Continental. Not many of the evil-doers knew me, because I had not been long oto outside work; but I knew them. At the Girard House were stationed two old-timers, known to nearly every dishonest man in town, and to many of the visiting delegation of thieves/No robberies were reported at my station, but the other two men reported four or five*Secret service men are useless unless they can work secretly, and this they cannot do if their portraits are In the possession og those they have to watch or arrest. From what I know of European detective methods I believe that a secret service officer in London, Parts, Berlin or St. Petersburg who would give his portrait for publication or submit to sketching would run the risk of dismissal and punishment.”A system that tolerates the publication of detectives’ portraits,” said one of the United States Commissioners, wheninitials.“An executive head, such as the Chief of Police, has no need of keeping hla Identity or his features secret, but the policy in regard to detectives should bo one of the greatest secrecy. The publication of their portraits would tend largely toward making criminals successful in that it wbuld enable them to Identify and evade or avoid the detectives.”This, then, explains why the public so seldom see a portrait of a detective what perhaps has gained celebrity In a great case.FAST FRIENDS FR LIFE.asked his opinion, “is not likely to succeed in keeping the dangerous classes *n check. It Is absurd, dangerous and not to be thought of. No statute is against it, but it seems to me that any officer who would permit his face to appear and furnish any thief a clipping is to be blamed. His usefulness is at an end, for naturally an evil-doer would cut such a portrait out and preserve it. Many thieves and criminals thus obtain a collection which to them is of great value.These views were concurred in at the United States District' Attorney's office, an attache of which said: “There is anunwritten law that the members of our secret service, in Its many branches, shall avoid. disclosure of Identity and recognition so far as possible, and I know that they try to live up to it. Such a circumstance as one of them giving his portrait or submitting to be sketched is unknown to me.”The chief of a large agency said: “In the private detective business there are men who make open Inquiry, and others whose retention in service depends on absolute secrecy in regard to their Identity. This idea is carried so far that those who pay for their services do not know them by name, but by numbers or
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Sun, Apr 26, 1896
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
DC, USA 06 Nov 2023
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