On the West Side, in a district bounded by Sixteenth Street on the south and Polk Street on the North and the Chicago River and Halsted Street on the East and West one can walk the streets for blocks and see none but Semitic features and hear nothing but the Hebrew patois of Russian Poland.

In this restricted boundary, in narrow streets, unventilated tenements, and rickety cottages there is a population of from 15,000 to 16,000 Russian Jews. The Jews of Russia on their removal to this country follow precisely the habits of their forefathers in Warsaw; the habit of living together in cities and that of trading as in Warsaw; for instance, the proportion of common laborers and menials is very small, hardly eight percent.

Every Jew in this quarter who can speak a word of English is engaged in business of some sort. The favorite occupation, probably on account of the small capital required, is fruit and vegetable peddling. Here also, is the home of the Jewish street merchant, the rag and junk peddler, and the "glass puddin" man. The big rag warehouses and scrap iron yards are here supplied by the decrepit old rag pickers and the noisy owner of the "old rags and iron" wagon.

The principal streets in the quarter are lined with stores of every description, all of them kept by Jews and nearly all with a sign in Hebrew hung out that the trade catered to is not to Gentiles. The streets given up to domiciles are very narrow, hardly wider than alleys, and lined on both sides with one story cottages and garbage boxes.

In tenement houses glimpses are had of whole families in hot crowded rooms at work with sewing machine and needle putting together the "indestructible overall" and in a stifling little closet of a room a cobbler is at work on rough, heavy boots.

Trades, with which Jews are not usually associated, such as saloonkeeping, shaving, and haircutting and blacksmithing, have their representatives and Hebrew signs. The butcher and his satellite, the man who goes to the abbatoir and slaughters animals and who slits the gullet of the Sabbath chicken or the holiday duck, both have their signs, which to the uninitiated look much like a bar of music without the staff.

In a narrow street a private school is in full blast. In the front basement 3room of a small cottage forty small boys all with hats on sit crowded into a space 10 x 10 feet in size, presided over by a stout middle aged man with a long curling matted beard, who also retains his hat, a battered, rusty derby of ancient style. All the old or middle aged men in the quarter affect the peculiar headgear, and one would imagine, that they had all been manufactured at one time from the same block and had withstood the same vicissitudes of time and weather.

The men are all bearded - that is those who are old enough to have beards - and they are all of the type one sees in pictures of Jewish Siberian exiles. The hair is also worn long, with little curls, which hang before the ears. A middle aged or old man without a long black coat is a rarity, and to the passing stranger these men all look very much alike.

The younger generation of men are more progressive and having been born in this country, are patriotic and want to be known as Americans and not Russians.

The women know only three stages of life. The young unmarried women are 4often very attractive, with keen dark oriental faces and large, dark eyes. They affect little coquetries of dress and are able assistants in the shops of their fathers and brothers. The married women soon show the effects of care and the troubles of motherhood. The younger ones still show traces of former beauty fast being lost in approaching obesity and attention to their household, maternal and shopping duties. The last stage, that of old age is passed in attendance on the younger children or doing light housework. The old women are usually very fat, with here and there a little, wizened, old great-grandmother who wanders about crooning to a fat baby while mother cooks the dinner.

The streets literally swarm with children, who play about the gutters and are a dark skinned, tumble haired, noisy lot of youngsters. There are a number of dingy looking doorways, over which a sign proclaims that Russian baths may be taken within. There is also the usual sign in Hebrew. But the Russian bath houses have the appearance of neglect, which the condition of the inhabitants does not belie....

The commercial life of this district seems to be uncommonly keen. Every one 5is looking for a bargain and every one has something to sell. The home life seems to be full of content and easy going unconcern for what the outside world thinks. During those hot nights the dwellers on Judd, Liberty and other residence streets bring out mattresses and blankets and camp under nature's roof on sidewalk and steps.