This is one of the “places” of New York.
It is not worth looking at in the daylight, because there is nothing to see.
It is gray, dull, dreary and desolate—too dismal to be considered for even a moment.
About it all there is not one thing that is attractive.
It is downtown and on the East Side, and that is enough to tell the story.
If you have never been downtown on the East Side of this big city, go and take a look some time, it is worth it, and you may see some things there—as I have—that will interest you.
At night you wouldn’t recognize this place because of the softening and concealing effect of the electric lights.
Besides the lights there is music, and in addition to that there are women—what kind of women you can guess, but the fact remains that they are still women, and even their presence helps to brighten up this spot of the slums.
Toughs of the street straggle in singly and by twos, glancing warily about for prey, or in search of girls to whom they are attached. The type is familiar enough in every city. Square-jawed, low-browed, with shifting eyes and an aggressive manner; dressing well when the money comes easy, and not so well when hard times arrive; living by their wits, which at the best is precarious, relying for the necessities of life upon a girl; spending a certain portion of time in jail, unless, as it often happens, they are too cowardly to rob a man, but not too cowardly to take from a woman.
