BOYS AND GIRLS OF NEW YORK STREETS.[1]
A DAUGHTER OF THE TENEMENTS.
BY EDWARD W. TOWNSEND.
In one of the Roosevelt Street buildings called "back tenements," because they are built in the spaces which were once the back yards of the buildings in front of them, when those buildings, years ago, were occupied by single, well-to-do, and sometimes fashionable, families, Gabriella Moreno was born. Her parents were not the poorest, by any means, of those who lived in that neighborhood, for her father, Antonio Moreno (he was called "Tony" by all his English-speaking acquaintances) was the proprietor of a fruit-stand, and did quite a prosperous business. In fact, among the Italians of that neighborhood it was somewhat a mark of rank to own a fruit-stand instead of a fruit "push-cart." Tony Moreno had been a push-cart fruit peddler for years, but some time after his only child was born he became the proprietor of a little stand near the entrance of the Tivoli Theatre on the Bowery. Part of the space his stand occupied was a broad entranceway which had formerly been used as one of the entrances to the theatre, but which was now closed for that purpose. Tony was one of the first Italians to settle in the neighborhood of Cherry Hill, which is near Roosevelt Street, and his knowledge of and influence over those of his countrymen who followed him there made him useful to Mr. Kean, the proprietor of the Tivoli, who was also in the business of politics.
That was the way Tony came to have the privilege of running a fruit-stand in front of the Tivoli. His profits were so great that he and his wife and Gabriella were able to keep their one tenement room, and it was a large one, all to themselves, without taking in two or three boarders, as most of their neighbors did, to help pay the rent. This made Tony one of the aristocrats of the neighborhood, and when it became known that Gabriella had a cot to sleep on, instead of sleeping on the floor, as the children of other families did, the neighbors looked up to Tony more than ever before as a man of high standing and solid position.
Gabriella's little friends, however, were in the habit of calling her "proud" and "stuck-up" on this account. When she was six years old Gabriella was sent to Miss Barstow's Mission School, where many other little Italian children also went, to learn to speak and read and write in English. Most of the children left the school when they were eight, and very few remained there after they were nine years old; for at that age their parents thought them old enough to help at home, to care for the younger children when both parents were away at work, and even to learn to do sewing for the big clothing factories. Gabriella would have been taken away, too, had it not been for Miss Barstow, who went to talk with Tony and his wife. She told them that Gabriella was one of her best scholars, and it would be to their interests, as well as their daughter's, to let her remain at school until she was well enough educated to do something better than sew on coarse clothing for wages which would never support her decently. This pleased Mrs. Moreno, who was ambitious for her pretty child, but Tony grumbled a good deal.
Gabriella was old enough, he said, to help earn bread, as the other children of her age did. Had not her father and mother worked since they were six years old? he asked. Then why should their child be kept in idleness only to learn things out of books which were well enough for the rich, but did the poor no good?
Miss Barstow was more interested in Gabriella than in any other child of the tenements she had ever known, for the girl was really unusually bright and pretty, and she was determined to keep her longer in the school. She knew that Tony had his stand at the Tivoli by Mr. Kean's permission, and to Mr. Kean she went for aid.
Miss Barstow's fashionable friends would have been surprised to learn how often she went to Mr. Kean for aid and advice, and to know how often he gave his aid, and how valuable his advice always was.
Mr. Kean smiled when Miss Barstow asked him if he could not help her keep Tony's daughter in school, and said, with rough politeness,