my sister’s husband having something to do with this narrative, i will touch upon his history as well as that of my sister. in her youth e—— was one of the most attractive of the girls in our family. she never had any intellectual or artistic interests of any kind; if she ever read a book i never heard of it. but as for geniality, sympathy, industry, fair-mindedness and an unchanging and self-sacrificing devotion to her children, i have never known any one who could rival her. with no adequate intellectual training, save such as is provided by the impossible theories and teachings of the catholic church, she was but thinly capacitated to make her way in the world.
at eighteen or nineteen she had run away and gone to chicago, where she had eventually met h——, who had apparently fallen violently in love with her. he was fifteen years older than she and moderately well versed in the affairs of this world. at the time she met him he was the rather successful manager of a wholesale drug company, reasonably well-placed socially, married and the father of two or three children, the latter all but grown to maturity. they eloped, going direct to new york.
this was a great shock to my mother, who managed to conceal it from my father although it was a three-days’ wonder in the journalistic or scandal world of chicago. nothing more was heard of her for several years, when a dangerous illness overtook my mother in warsaw and e—— came hurrying back for a few days’ visit. this was followed by another silence, which was ended by the last illness and death of my mother in chicago, and she again appeared, a distrait and hysteric soul. i never knew any one to yield more completely to her emotions than she did on this occasion; she was almost fantastic in her grief. during all this time she had been living in new york, and she and her husband were supposed to be well off. later, talking to paul in st. louis, i gathered that h——, while not so successful since he had gone east, was not a bad sort and that he had managed to connect himself with politics in some way, and that they were living comfortably in fifteenth street. but when i arrived there i found that they were by no means comfortable. the tammany administration, under which a year or two before he had held an inspectorship of some kind, had been ended by the investigations of the lexow committee, and he was now without work of any kind. also, instead of having proved a faithful and loving husband, he had long since wearied of his wife and strayed elsewhere. now, having fallen from his success, he was tractable. until the arrival of my brother paul, who for reasons of sympathy had agreed to share the expenses here during the summer season, he had induced e—— to rent rooms, but for this summer this had been given up. with the aid of my brother and some occasional work h—— still did they were fairly comfortable. my sister if not quite happy was still the devoted slave of her children and a most pathetically dependent housewife. whatever fires or vanities of her youth had compelled her to her meteoric career, she had now settled down and was content to live for her children. her youth was over, love gone. and yet she managed to convey an atmosphere of cheer and hopefulness.
my brother paul was in the best of spirits. he held a fair position as an actor, being the star in a road comedy and planning to go out the ensuing fall in a new one which he had written for himself and which subsequently enjoyed many successful seasons on the road. in addition, he was by way of becoming more and more popular nationally as a song-writer. also as i have said, he had connected himself as a third partner in a song-publishing business which was to publish his own and other songs, and this, despite its smallness, was showing unmistakable signs of success.
the first thing he did this morning was to invite me to come and see this place, and about noon we walked across fifteenth street and up sixth avenue, then the heart of the shopping district, to twentieth street and thence east to between fifth avenue and broadway, where in a one-time fashionable but now decayed dwelling, given over to small wholesale ventures, his concern was housed on the third floor. this was almost the center of a world of smart shops near several great hotels: the continental, bartholdi, and the fifth avenue. next door were lord & taylor. below this, on the next corner, at nineteenth and broadway, was the gorham company, and below that the ditson company, a great music house, arnold, constable & company and others. there were excellent restaurants and office buildings crowding out an older world of fashion. i remember being impressed with the great number of severe brownstone houses with their wide flights of stone steps, conservatories and porte-cochères. fifth avenue and twentieth street were filled with handsome victorias and coaches.
going into my brother’s office i saw a sign on the door which read: howley, haviland & company, and underneath, wing & sons, pianos.
“are you the agent for a piano?” i inquired.
“huh-uh. they let us have a practice piano in return for that sign.”
when i met his partners i was impressed with the probability of success which they seemed to suggest and which came true. the senior member, howley, was a young, small, goggle-eyed hunchback with a mouthful of protruding teeth, and hair as black as a crow, and piercing eyes. he had long thin arms and legs which, because of his back, made him into a kind of spider of a man, and he went about spider-wise, laughing and talking, yet always with a heavy “scutch” burr.
“we’re joost aboot gettin’ un our feet here nu,” he said to me, his queer twisted face screwed up into a grimace of satisfaction and pride, “end we hevn’t ez yet s’mutch to show ye. but wuth a lettle time i’m a-theenkin’ ye’ll be seem’ theengs a-lookin’ a leetle bether.”
i laughed. “say,” i said to paul when howley had gone about some work, “how could you fail with him around? he’s as smart as a whip, and they’re all good luck anyhow.” i was referring to the superstition which counts all hunchbacks as lucky to others.
“yes,” said my brother. “i know they’re lucky, and he’s as straight and honest as they make ’em. i’ll always get a square deal here,” and then he began to tell me how his old publisher, by whom howley had been employed, had “trimmed” him, and how this youth had put him wise. then and there had begun this friendship which had resulted in this partnership.
the space this firm occupied was merely one square room, twenty by twenty, and in one corner of this was placed the free “tryout” piano. in another, between two windows, two tables stood back to back, piled high with correspondence. a longer table was along one side of a wall and was filled with published music, which was being wrapped and shipped. on the walls were some wooden racks or bins containing “stock,” the few songs thus far published. although only a year old, this firm already had several songs which were beginning to attract attention, one of them entitled on the sidewalks of new york. by the following summer this song was being sung and played all over the country and in england, an international “hit.” this office, in this very busy center, cost them only twenty dollars a month, and their “overhead expeenses,” as howley pronounced it, were “juist nexta nothin’.” i could see that my good brother was in competent hands for once.
and the second partner, who arrived just as we were sitting down at a small table in a restaurant nearby for lunch, was an equally interesting youth whose personality seemed to spell success. at this time he was still connected as “head of stock,” whatever that may mean, with that large wholesale and retail music house the ditson company, at broadway and eighteenth street. although a third partner in this new concern, he had not yet resigned his connection with the other and was using it, secretly of course, to aid him and his firm in disposing of some of their wares. he was quite young, not more than twenty-seven, very quick and alert in manner, very short of speech, avid and handsome, a most attractive and clean-looking man. he shot out questions and replies as one might bullets out of a gun. “didy’seedrake?” “what ‘d’esay?” “anynewsfrombaker?” “thedevily’say!” “y’ don’tmeanit!”
i was moved to study him with the greatest care. out of many anywhere, i told myself, i would have selected him as a pushing and promising and very self-centered person, but by no means disagreeable. speaking of him later, as well as of howley, my brother once said: “y’see, thee, new york’s the only place you could do a thing like this. this is the only place you could get fellows with their experience. howley used to be with my old publisher, woodward, and he’s the one that put me wise to the fact that woodward was trimming me. and haviland was a friend of his, working for ditson.”
from the first, i had the feeling that this firm of which my brother was a part would certainly be successful. there was something about it, a spirit of victory and health and joy in work and life, which convinced me that these three would make a go of it. i could see them ending in wealth, as they did before disasters of their own invention overtook them. but that was still years away and after they had at least eaten of the fruits of victory.
as a part of this my initiation into the wonders of the city paul led me into what he insisted was one of the wealthiest and most ornate of the roman churches in new york, st. francis xavier in sixteenth street, from which he was subsequently buried. standing in this, he told me of some jesuit priest there, a friend of his, who was comfortably berthed and “a good sport into the bargain, thee, a bird.” however, having had my fill of catholicism and its ways, i was not so much impressed, either by his friend or his character. but sixth avenue in this sunshine did impress me. it was the crowded center of nearly all the great stores, at least five, each a block in length, standing in one immense line on one side of the street. the carriages! the well-dressed people! paul pointed out to me the windows of altman’s on the west side of the street at eighteenth and said it was the most exclusive store in america, that marshall field & company of chicago was as nothing, and i had the feeling from merely looking at it that this was true; it was so well-arranged and spacious. its windows, in which selected materials were gracefully draped and contrasted, bore out this impression. there were many vehicles of the better sort constantly pausing at its doors to put down most carefully dressed women and girls. i marveled at the size and wealth of a city which could support so many great stores all in a row.
because of the heat my brother insisted upon calling a hansom cab to take us to fourteenth and broadway, where we were to begin our northward journey. just south of union square at thirteenth street was the old star theater of which he said: “there you have it. that used to be lester wallack’s theater twenty years ago—the great lester wallack. there was an actor, my boy, a great actor! they talk about mansfield and barrett and irving and willard and all these other people today. all good, my boy, all good, but not in it with him, theodore, not in it. this man was a genius. and he packed ’em too. many a time i’ve passed this place when you couldn’t get by the door for the crowd.” and he proceeded to relate that in the old days, when he first came to new york, all the best part of the theatrical district was still about and below union square—niblo’s, the old london on the bowery, and what not.
i listened. what had been had been. it might all have been very wonderful but it was so no longer, all done and gone. i was new and strange, and wished to see only what was new and wonderful now. the sun was bright on union square now. this was a newer world in which we were living, he and i, this day. the newest wave of the sea invariably obliterates the one that has gone before. and that was only twenty years ago and it has all changed again.
north of this was the newer broadway—the broadway of the current actor, manager and the best theaters—and fresh, smart, gay, pruned of almost every trace of poverty or care. tiffany’s was at fifteenth and broadway, its windows glittering with jewels; brentano’s, the booksellers, were at sixteenth on the west side of union square; and sarony, the photographer, was between fifteenth and sixteenth, a great gold replica of his signature indicating his shop. the century company, to which my brother called my attention as an institution i might some day be connected with, so great was his optimism and faith in me, stood on the north side of union square at seventeenth. at nineteenth and broadway were the gorham company, and arnold, constable & company. at twentieth was lord & taylor’s great store, adjoining the old building in which was housed my brother’s firm. also, at this street, stood the old continental hotel, a popular and excellent restaurant occupying a large portion of its lower floor which became a part of my daily life later. at twenty-first street was then standing one of the three great stores of park & tilford. at twenty-third, on the east side of the street, facing madison square, was another successful hotel, the bartholdi, and opposite it, on the west side, was the site of the flatiron building.
across madison square, its delicate golden-brown tower soaring aloft and alone, no huge buildings then as now to dwarf it, stood madison square garden, diana, her arrow pointed to the wind, giving naked chase to a mythic stag, her mythic dogs at her heels, high in the blue air above. the west side of broadway, between twenty-third and twenty-fourth, was occupied by the fifth avenue hotel, the home, as my brother was quick to inform me, of senator platt, the republican boss of the state, who with croker divided the political control of the state and who here held open court, the famous “amen corner,” where his political henchmen were allowed to ratify all his suggestions. it was somewhere within. between twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth on the same side of the street were two more hotels, the albemarle and the hoffman house. just north of this, at twenty-seventh and broadway, on the east side of the street and running through to fifth avenue, was delmonico’s. into this we now ventured, my good brother hailing genially some acquaintance who happened to be in charge of the floor at the moment. the waiter who served us greeted him familiarly. i stared in awe at its pretentious and ornate furniture, its noble waiters and the something about it which seemed to speak of wealth and power. how easily five cents crooks the knee to five million!
a block or two north of this was the old fifth avenue theater, then a theater of the first class but later devoted to vaudeville. at twenty-ninth was the gilsey house, one of the earliest homes of this my rialto-loving brother. at thirtieth and broadway, on the east side, stood palmer’s theater, famous for its musical and beauty shows. at thirty-first and broadway, on the west side of the street, stood augustus daly’s famous playhouse, its façade suggestive of older homes remodeled to this new use. and already it was coming to be passé. weber & fields’ had not even appeared. and in my short span it appeared and disappeared and became a memory! between twenty-eighth and thirty-fourth were several more important hotels: the grand, the imperial; and between thirty-third and thirty-fourth streets, in sixth avenue, was the old manhattan theater, at that time the home of many successes, but also, like daly’s, drawing to the end of a successful career.
in thirty-fourth, west of broadway (later a part of the macy store site), was koster & bial’s music hall, managed by a man who subsequently was to become widely known but who was then only beginning to rise, oscar hammerstein. and around the corner, in broadway at thirty-fifth, was a very successful theater, the herald square, facing the unique and beautiful herald building. beyond that in thirty-fifth, not many feet east of sixth avenue, was the garrick, or the lyceum as it was then known, managed by daniel frohman. above these, at thirty-sixth, on the west side, was the marlborough, at which later, in his heyday, my brother chose to live. at thirty-eighth, on the southeast corner, stood the popular and exclusive normandie, one of the newer hotels, and at the northeast corner of this same intersection, the new and imposing knickerbocker theater. at thirty-ninth was the far-famed casino, with its choruses of girls, the mecca of all night-loving johnnies and rowdies; and between thirty-ninth and fortieth, on the west side, the world-famed metropolitan opera house, still unchanged save for a restaurant in its northern corner. at fortieth over the way stood the empire theater, with its stock company, which included the drews, favershams and what not; and in this same block was the famous browne’s chop house, a resort for thespians and night-lovers. at forty-second and broadway, the end of all rialto-dom for my brother, and from which he turned sadly and said: “well, here’s the end,” stood that mecca of meccas, the new hotel metropole, with its restaurant opening on three streets, its leathern seats backed to its walls, its high open windows, an air of super-wisdom as to all matters pertaining to sport and the theater pervading it. this indeed was the extreme northern limit of the white-light district, and here we paused for a drink and to see and be seen.
how well i remember it all—the sense of ease and well-being that was over this place, and over all broadway; the loud clothes, the bright straw hats, the canes, the diamonds, the hot socks, the air of security and well-being, assumed by those who had won an all-too-brief hour in that pretty, petty world of make-believe and pleasure and fame. and here my good brother was at his best. it was “paul” here and “paul” there. already known for several songs of great fame, as well as for his stage work and genial personality, he was welcomed everywhere.
and then, ambling down the street in the comforting shade of its west wall, what amazing personalities, male and female, and so very many of them, pausing to take him by the hand, slap him on the back, pluck familiarly at his coat lapel and pour into his ear or his capacious bosom magnificent tales of successes, of great shows, of fights and deaths and love affairs and tricks and scandals. and all the time my good brother smiled, laughed, sympathized. there were moments with prizefighters, with long-haired thespians down on their luck and looking for a dime or a dollar, and bright petty upstarts of the vaudeville world. retired miners and ranchmen out of the west, here to live and recount their tales of hardships endured, battles won, or of marvelous winnings at cards, trickeries in racing, prizefighting and what not, now ambled by or stopped and exchanged news or stories. there was talk of what “dogs” or “swine” some people were, what liars, scoundrels, ingrates; as well as the magnificent, magnanimous, “god’s own salt” that others were. the oaths! the stories of women! my brother seemed to know them all. i was amazed. what a genial, happy, well-thought-of successful man!