The joys of the Christmas tide are no illusion with most of us, the strange exhibition of fancy, of which it is the name, no mockery of our dreams. Far over the wide land the waves of expectation and sympathetic appreciation7 constantly oscillate one with the other in the human breast, and in the closing season of the year are at last given definite expression. Rings and pins, the art of the jeweler and the skill of the dress-maker, pictures, books, ornaments8 and knickknacks—these with one great purpose are consecrated9, and in the material lavishness10 of the season is seen the dreams of the world come true.
There is one region, however, where, in the terrific drag of the struggle for existence, the softer phases of this halcyon11 mood are at first glance obscure. It is a region of tall tenements12 and narrow streets where, crowded into an area of a few square miles, live and276 labor a million and a half of people. It is the old-time tenement13 area, leading almost unbrokenly north from Franklin Square to Fourteenth Street. Here, during these late December evenings, the holiday atmosphere is beginning to make itself felt. It is a region of narrow streets with tall five-story, even seven-story, tenements lining14 either side of the way and running thick as a river with a busy and toilsome throng15.
The ways are already lined with carts of special Christmas goods, such as toys, candies, Christmas tree ornaments, feathers, ribbons, jewelry16, purses, fruit, and in a few wagons17 small Christmas greens such as holly18 and hemlock19 wreaths, crosses of fir, balsam, tamarack pine and sprigs of mistletoe. Work has not stopped in the factories or stores, and yet these streets are literally20 packed with people, of all ages, sizes and nationalities, and the buying is lively. One man, who looks as though he might be a Bowery tough rather than a denizen21 of this particular neighborhood, is offering little three-, five- and ten-inch dolls which he announces as “genuine American beauties here. Three, five and ten.” Another, a pale, full-bearded Jew, is selling little Christmas tree ornaments of paste or glass for a penny each, and in the glare of the newly-turned-on electric lights, it is not difficult to perceive that they are the broken or imperfect lots of the toy manufacturers who are having them hawked22 about during the eleventh hour before Christmas as the best way of getting rid of them. Other dusty, grim and raucous23 denizens24 are offering candy, mixed nuts, and other forms of special confections, at ten cents277 a pound, a price at which those who are used to the more expensive brands may instructively ponder.
Meats are selling in some of the cheaper butcher shops for ten, fifteen and twenty cents a pound, picked chickens in barrels at fifteen and twenty. A whole section of Elizabeth Street is given up to the sale of stale fish at ten and fifteen cents a pound, and the crowd of Italians, Jews and Bohemians who are taking advantage of these modest prices is swarming25 over the sidewalk and into the gutters26. A four- or five-pound fish at fifteen cents a pound will make an excellent Christmas dinner for four, five or six. A thin, ice-packed and chemically-preserved chicken at fifteen or twenty cents a pound will do as much for another family. Onions, garlic, old cast-off preserves, pickles27 and condiments28 that the wholesale29 houses uptown have seen grow stale and musty on their shelves, can be had here for five, ten and fifteen cents a bottle, and although the combination is unwholesome it will be worked over as Christmas dinners for the morrow. Cheap, unsalable, stale, adulterated—these are the words that should be stamped on every bottle, basket and barrel that is here being scrambled30 over. And yet the purchasers would not be benefited any thereby31. They must buy what they can afford. What they can afford is this.
The street, with its mass of life, lingers in this condition until six o’clock, when the great shops and factories turn loose their horde32 of workers. Then into the glare of these electric-lighted streets the army of shop girls and boys begins to pour. Here is a spectacle interesting and provocative33 of thought at all seasons, but trebly so278 on this particular evening. It is a shabby throng at best, commonplace in garb34 and physical appearance, but rich in the qualities of youth and enthusiasm, than which the world holds nothing more valuable.
Youth in all the glory of its illusions and its ambitions. Youth, in whom the cold insistence35 of life’s physical limitations and the law have not as yet worked any permanent depression. Thousands are hurrying in every direction. The street cars which ply36 this area are packed as only the New York street car companies can pack their patrons, and that in cold, old, dirty and even vile37 cars. There are girls with black hair, and girls with brown. Some have even, white teeth, some shapely figures, some a touch of that persuasive38 charm which is indicated by the flash of an eye. There are poor dresses, poor taste, and poor manners mingled39 with good dresses, good taste and good manners. In the glow of the many lights and shadows of the evening they are hurrying away, with that lightness of spirit and movement which is the evidence of a long strain of labor suddenly relaxed.
“Do you think Santa Claus will have enough to fill that?” asks an officer, who is standing40 in the glare of a balsam- and pine-trimmed cigar store window, to a smartly dressed political heeler or detective who is looking on with him at the mass of shop-girls hurrying past. A shop-girl had gone by with her skirt cut to an inch or two below her knee, revealing a trim little calf41 and ankle.
“Eee yo! I hope so! Isn’t she the candy?”
Christmas in the Tenements
“Don’t get fresh,” comes quickly from the hurrying279 figure as she disappears in the throng with a toss of her head. She has enjoyed the comment well enough, and the rebuke42 is more mischievous43 than angry.
“A goldfish! A goldfish! Only one cent!” cries a pushcart44 vendor45, who is one of a thousand lining the pavements to-night, and at his behest another shop-girl, equally budding and youthful, stops to extract a penny from her small purse and carries away a thin, transparent46 prize of golden paste, for a younger brother, probably.
Others like her are being pushed and jostled the whole length of this crowded section. They are being nudged and admired as well as sought and schemed for. Whatever affections or attachments47 they have will be manifesting themselves to-night, as may be seen by the little expenditures48 they themselves are making. A goldfish of transparent paste or a half pound of candy, a cheap gold-plated stickpin49, brooch or ring, or a handkerchief, collar or necktie bought of one of the many pushcart men, tell the story plainly enough. Sympathy, love, affection and passion are running their errant ways among this vast unspoken horde no less than among the more pretentious50 and well-remembered of the world.
And the homes to which they are hurrying, the places which are dignified51 by that title, but which here should have another name! Thousands upon thousands of them are turning into entry ways, the gloom or dirtiness or poverty of which should bar them from the steps of any human being. Up the dark stairways they are pouring into tier upon tier of human hives, in some instances not less than seven stories high and, of course,280 without an elevator, and by grimy landings they are sorted out and at last distributed each into his own cranny. Small, dark one-, two- and three-room apartments, where yet on this Christmas evening, one, and sometimes three, four and five are still at work sewing pants, making flowers, curling feathers, or doing any other of a hundred tenement tasks to help out the income supplied by the one or two who work out. Miserable52 one- and two-room spaces where ignorance and poverty and sickness, rather than greed or immorality53, have made veritable pens out of what would ordinarily be bad enough. Many hundreds or thousands of others there are where thrift54 and shrewdness are making the best of very unfortunate conditions, and a hundred or two where actual abundance prevails. These are the homes. Let us enter.
Zorg is a Bohemian, and has a little two-room apartment. The windows of the only one which has windows looks into Elizabeth Street. It is a dingy55 apartment, unswept and unwhitewashed at present, where on this hearty56 Christmas Eve, himself, his wife, his wife’s mother, and his little twelve-year-old son are laboring57 at a fair-sized deal table curling feathers. The latter is a simple task, once you understand it, dull, tedious, unprofitable. It consists in taking a feather in one hand, a knife in the other, and drawing the fronds58 quickly over the knife’s edge. This gives them a very sprightly59 curl and can be administered, if the worker be an expert, by a single movement of the hand. It is paid for by the dozen, as such work is usually paid for in this region, and the ability to earn much more than281 sixty cents a day is not within the range of human possibility. Forty cents would be a much more probable average, and this is approximately the wages which these several individuals earn. Rent uses up three of the twelve dollars weekly income; food, dress, coal and light six more. Three dollars, when work is steady, is the sum laid aside for all other purposes and pleasures, and this sum, if no amusements were indulged in and no sickness or slackness of work befell, might annually60 grow to the tidy sum of one hundred and fifty-six dollars; but it has never done so. Illness invariably takes one part, lack of work a greater part still. In the long drag of weary labor the pleasure-loving instincts of man cannot be wholly restrained, and so it comes about that the present Christmas season finds the funds of the family treasury61 low.
It is in such a family as this that the merry Christmas time comes with a peculiar62 emphasis, and although the conditions may be discouraging, the efforts to meet it are almost always commensurate with the means.
However, on this Christmas Eve it has been deemed a duty to have some diversion, and so, although the round of weary labor may not be thus easily relaxed, the wife has been deputed to do the Christmas shopping and has gone forth63 into the crowded East Side street, from which she has returned with a meat bone, a cut from a butcher’s at twelve cents a pound, green pickles, three turnips64, a carrot, a half-dozen small candles, and two or three toys, which, together with a small three-foot branch of hemlock, purchased earlier in the day, completes the282 Christmas preparation for the morrow. Arba, the youngest, although like the others she will work until ten this Christmas Eve, is to have a pair of new shoes; Zicka, the next older, a belt for her dress. Mrs. Zorg, although she may not suspect, will receive a new market basket with a lid on it. Zorg—grim, silent, weary of soul and body—is to have a new fifteen-cent tie. There will be a tree, a small sprig of a tree, upon which will hang colored glass or paste balls of red and blue and green, with threads of popcorn65 and sprays of flitter-gold, all saved from the years before. In the light of early dawn to-morrow the youngest of the children will dance about these, and the richness of their beauty will be enjoyed as if they had not been so presented for the seventh and eighth time.
Thus it runs, mostly, throughout the entire region on this joyous66 occasion, a wealth of feeling and desire expressing itself through the thinnest and most meager67 material forms. About the shops and stores where the windows are filled with cheap displays of all that is considered luxury, are hosts of other children scarcely so satisfactorily supplied, peering earnestly into the world of make-believe and illusion, the wonder of it not yet eradicated68 from their unsophisticated hearts. Joy, joy—not a tithe69 of all that is represented by the expenditures of the wealthy, but only such as may be encompassed70 in a paper puff-ball or a tinsel fish, is here sought for and dreamed over, an earnest, child-heart-longing71 which may never again be gratified if not now. Horses, wagons, fire engines, dolls—these are what the283 thousands upon thousands of children whose faces are pressed closely against the commonplace window panes72 are dreaming about, and the longing that is thereby expressed is the strongest evidence of the indissoluble link which binds73 these weakest and most wretched elements of society to the best and most successful.
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1
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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consecrated
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| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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lavishness
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| n.浪费，过度 | |
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halcyon
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| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
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tenements
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| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
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tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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holly
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| n.[植]冬青属灌木 | |
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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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denizen
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| n.居民，外籍居民 | |
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hawked
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| 通过叫卖主动兜售（hawk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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27
pickles
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| n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱 | |
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condiments
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| n.调味品 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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ply
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| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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pushcart
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| n.手推车 | |
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vendor
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| n.卖主；小贩 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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attachments
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| n.（用电子邮件发送的）附件( attachment的名词复数 )；附着；连接；附属物 | |
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expenditures
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| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
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stickpin
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| n.领带夹 | |
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pretentious
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| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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fronds
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| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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sprightly
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| adj.愉快的，活泼的 | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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popcorn
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| n.爆米花 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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meager
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| adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的 | |
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eradicated
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| 画着根的 | |
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tithe
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| n.十分之一税；v.课什一税，缴什一税 | |
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encompassed
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| v.围绕( encompass的过去式和过去分词 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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