An Italian Church

Not many New Yorkers have ever heard of the "Church of the Ragpickers." In the neighborhood of Roosevelt Btreet, where it is located, this ia the familiar name of the Roman Catholic church of St. Joachim, of which Father Vincini is the pastor. The members are Italiana exclusively, inhabitants of the densely populated district roundabout, and as some of them are ragpickers and have rented the lower half of the church for the storage of their goods the nickname which designates the church as the peculiar place of worship of this class carne into use. Years ago, when Eoosevelt street was not so squalid and as overflowing with human beings as it is today, this church belonged to a Methodist Episcopal congregation. There were merchants, solid men of down town New York, living there, and the neighborhood was eininently respectable. Now the church stands with a cheap lodging house on one side and a typical slum grocery store on the other. A nest of tough saloons are near by, up and down the street. Organized in 1888, the Italian population thereabouts grew so rapidly within a radius of a mile that the church has now one of the largest congregations in the city. The building is of bnck and is dingy and dirty. It is only by standing acrosa the street that you can see a small cross on the roof, the only thing about the edifice that suggests its religioua character. Looking in on the first floor, you will witness a curious spectacle. The whole depth and breadth of the floor ia filled with rags. Baga loóse, rags in piles and rags in bales ready for shipping are all about. Big cranes and chains for hoisting purposes ruu here and there. Half buried in these piles of rags are men, women and children - the men and women busy assortingrags and the fat, brown youngsters tuuibling about in play or sleeping, as the case may be. It is the biggest ragshop in this city. It is wholesale and retail in the sense that here the individual ragpickersj of the town dispose of their wares, which are assorted aud baled and sold for manufacturing purposes. The pastor of St. Joachim's rents this lower floor to the conipany that conducís this rag business at a good rental, and indeed were it not for that the ïnission would suffer. Italians are very practical about their religión, when they care for it at all, and they are very slow at contributing to the support of the church and expect a gQod deal of religión for a very little nioney. The church proper is on the floor over the ragshop, and this in itself gives an odd character to the services at tiuies. On weekdays the men are at work in the basement when services are going on up stairs, and one can plainly hear them joining in the responses and chants during the celebration of the mass. While a reporter was there the other day one of the ragpickers in the basement sang a hymn to the Virgin while the services were going on, and his voice was of rare sweetness and purity. At certain hours of the day laboréis will come in, set their picks and shovels in a corner, and then join in the devotions. The peanut venders and fruit stand keepers in the neighborhood always attend the services for at least a few minutes each day. Bootblacks wander in with boxes on their backs and say a few brief prayers, and the Italian popnlation comes and goes. Six masses are said in St. Joachim's chtrrch every Sunday, and f rom 1,300 to 1,300 persons attend every mass, so that some 9,000 or more people worship in the little church every week. Father Morilli, who established this mission, and who conducted it for years, has been sent to New England to organizb Italian churches there. His place has been taken by a younger priest, Father Vincini. The position of parish priest of St. Joachim's is that of a patriarch. Not only does he marry his parishioners, baptize their children and bury their dead, but is their constant adviser in other matters. He settles their disputes of all sorts, from business differences to lovers' quarrels. One trouble the priest has to content! with is the manner in which liis charges get inarried. Coming from Italy, where civil marriages are the proper thing, thu Italians believe that the same laws obtain here. As a result the Italian quavter is filled with professional marriage brokers and matchmakers. They bring couples together for a fue, then steer them to the city hall, where two men have for years done a steady business securing aldermen to marry couples, in getting certificates for them and arraaging all the details of city hall weddiags. Father Vincini tries to impress upo-i his people that he will marry them for nothing at all, but they still flock to the city hall. Some of thein buy pictures of the building and send them to Italy sothat their friends may see tho palace in which they were married.-