Benjamin Reich, in the annual report of
the University Settlement, which has just been published, tells
about the candy store as a factor in East Side life, as follows:
To the boy home from work in the office
or factory and to the schoolboy with nothing to do in the evening,
the candy store serves as a clubhouse where he can meet old friends
and make new ones, as well as a haven of refuge and a safe retreat
from the persecution of the corner policeman. Here he finds what is
lacking in his stuffy little home of two or three rooms - boys whose
friendship he desires to cultivate because he sees in them traits
which appear to him to be in keeping with his own notions of
American ideas and ideals. Altogether, he finds in the candy store
an agreeable change from his usual surroundings during the day. Not
only are the candy stores used by individuals or groups but
likewise, the members of some social or pleasure club meeting in a
little room above a dance hall once a week, discuss or wrangle over
club business, the remainder of the week, play cards in some
favorite candy store nightly, smoke cigarettes, and manage to pass a
pleasant evening.
The entire East Side is pretty well dotted with these stores. A
careful census of the Tenth Ward alone, shows the existence of fully
fifty of them, nearly all of which have more or less of a clientele
of these youngsters. Quite a number of these stores - some, true
enough, not literally candy stores (they may be cigar stores or
small lunch rooms ) - are used as meeting places for clubs. It may
be interesting to note by way of illustration that in one store
alone - a cigar store - as many as eleven clubs have their meeting
place. It is not at all unusual to see from twenty-five to fifty
young men and boys loafing about this place in the evening.
MANY CLUBS MEET THERE.
The candy stores, however, are the true social centers. A counter
along the length of the store decked with cheap candles and perhaps
with cigars, some shelving behind filled with cigar and cigarette
boxes, and invariably a soda water fountain make up the entire
furniture of the store, if we except a few cigarette pictures on the
wall. Usually the proprietor lives with his family in the rear of
the store. Some stores, making a pretense to stylishness, have
partitioned off a little room from the store to which they give the
elegant name of "ice cream parlor," a sign over the door to that
effect apprising you of its existence. One or two bare tables and a
few chairs furnish the "ice cream parlor."
But this little room is very useful as a
meeting place for a small club for boys or as a general lounging
room. Occasionally a dozen or more youngsters are entertained here
by a team of aspiring amateur comedians of the ages of sixteen or
seventeen, whose sole ambition is to shine on the stage of some
Bowery theater. The comedian or comedians will try their new "hits"
on their critical audiences (and a more critical one cannot be
found), dance, jig, and tell the jokes heard by them in the
continuous performances at vaudeville theaters.
It must be borne in mind, however, that
the privileges accorded the boys are not given out of the goodness
of the proprietor's heart. He exacts a small sum for the use of his
cards, and if they play for money (as they often do) he must come in
for his share of the winnings; the boys must also liberally
patronize his goods and stand all the curses and kicks he chooses to
inflict upon them. He is practically the tyrant of the place, and
woe betide the person who gains his displeasure. It is no more than
fair to state, however, that many candy store proprietors do not
seek the patronage of the class of boys here referred to, for they
must be constantly on guard that no mischief is done.
EFFECTS EVIL AND GOOD.
From the above somewhat short and meager description the candy store
may not appear to be an evil, but there is no question that it has
in a large number of cases led to evil effects. The boys who
congregate in these stores are of an age to be susceptible to either
good or evil influences. They are under no restraining or uplifting
influence whatever; as a matter of fact, the proprietors, in many
instances, if not indifferent to what is going on in their presence,
encourage extravagance and viciousness so long as it does not
interfere with their trade and custom.
Unless there are some outside
factors at work to counteract the preponderating evil that the candy
store exerts, the boy is bound to succumb to it. As he grows older
and earns more money, the candy store ceases to fascinate him, it
loses its attraction, and, to use his own words, he finds it "too
slow." The invitation of the barker of the Bowery concert hall to
"come right in, a free show's going on" meets with a ready response.
He is enchanted with the cheerfulness and brightness about him, and
with his friends he finds the show more pleasing over a glass of
beer than was ever the amateur performance over a glass of soda. He
commences to frequent poolrooms and other more or less questionable
resorts, stays out all night, and in the end makes the beer saloon
or the poolroom his nightly headquarters.
Of course, it would be hardly fair to
say that the candy stores are entirely responsible for this
condition; but there is no doubt in the writer's mind that if the
boys were given better and healthier moral surroundings and better
places to meet in than are afforded by the candy stores, much of the
evil would disappear. It is a fact, to the writer's own knowledge,
that the work of the Settlement and kindred institutions in this
direction, and the extension of the evening school and lecture
system by the Board of Education, have perceptibly diminished the
use of the candy stores for the purposes mentioned in this paper.
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