“A lost people!” cried Roy. “With Tammany Hall full of Murphys, and Caseys, and Hennesseys, and O’Haras! What are you giving us?”
“It’s a fact, though,” said the purser. “Of course, there are plenty of Irishmen in New York, but not around here. Yet some years ago, this was a solid Irish settlement. And before the Irish, it was a region of fine American homes. Now nobody lives here except Armenians, Syrians, and a few Turks. We have migrations from location to location in a city, as well as from country to country.”
“So these folks are Syrians and Armenians, are they?” said Willie, quietly. “I’m mighty glad to have a chance to see them.”
All about them were Armenian shops. Swarthy, black-haired women sat in dark doorways, singly and in groups, chatting and industriously doing needlework as they talked. Mostly their features were regular and pleasing. Their olive complexions were strikingly beautiful. Their teeth, exposed when they laughed, seemed to be as fine as pearls. Generally they wore shawls about their shoulders, or thrown over their heads. These were of fine, thin material, gay and even gaudy, but very beautiful for all that. They formed splendid settings for the dark faces they framed. There were men of the same races about, too. Not large, also swarthy, with piercing, black eyes, the men attracted far less attention than the women. Their dress appeared quite similar to that of most Europeans or Americans, though a close observer would have noticed many small differences, in shoes, neckwear, ornaments, and so on.
All these foreigners talked for the most part in their native tongues. They seemed to chatter interminably. The men from the Lycoming could understand nothing of what was said. But they gathered, from the tones and the glances that were bestowed upon them, that they themselves were the subject of some of the talk. Indeed, on several occasions Willie noticed that as they came along women jumped from the shop steps on which they were sitting and darted into the stores behind them or called excitedly to persons within. Then the women sat down on the steps again and went on with their lace making or knitting. But always the women seemed to be watching them. At first Willie thought nothing of this. But after two or three of the women had gone through same performance, Willie saw that it was more than a coincidence. Something about their appearance attracted undue attention to them.
Presently Willie fell behind his comrades, in passing a group of pedestrians, and he purposely remained behind, even dropping back several yards, as though he had no connection with Roy and the purser. They were deep in an argument and for some time did not notice that Willie was not abreast of them.
Willie took advantage of this opportunity to observe what was passing. He saw that he himself attracted no attention whatever, but that at shop after shop, on the approach of Roy and the purser, there was a flutter of skirts and a woman scurried into the shop. But Willie could see nothing in the shops that explained it. After a while he came to the conclusion that it must be his friends’ uniforms that caused the commotion. He was a bit puzzled about that, but when he recalled that he had heard how badly some of these foreigners had fared at the hands of American immigration officials, he thought he understood it. The women, he thought, must have some fear of ship’s officers.
Willie was just stepping forward to speak to his friends about it, when he heard the purser say, “Here we are. Where’s Willie?”
“Right here,” called Willie.
“This is the place where we eat,” said the purser, and the three entered a dingy old house that had become an Armenian restaurant. Willie entirely forgot about the incident he had observed, for the restaurant was unlike any place in which he had ever been.