Goose-plucking In Hester

Passing through Hester street a few evenings ago I paused before a steep flight of steps leading down into a cellar room beneath a tall, overcrowded tenement, says the New York Herald. The door was partly open, and through j the crack I saw a peculiar fog dimly , lighted up by an oil lamp that stood on a table. It was this fog that attracted my attention, for at first glance it appeared to be smoke and I thought the place añre. That it was not afire, however, I at once perceived, for the atmosphere seemed f uil of feathery, floating partióles, and there was no odor of smoke. I determined to learn wliat the mysterious appearance was, however, and quietly descended the steps, pushed the door further open and looked in. A very curious spectacle greeted me. It was a small, square room, with an apartment partitioned off in the rear, into which opened a window, sóme six feet or more above the floor. The oly furniture was the roügh, pine table by the door, on vhich stood the lamp. There were four oecupants, a man, woman, girl and boy, all Russian Hebrews, and scantily dresaed. The woman and cbildren were seated upon the floor, amid a mass of geese, which they were busüy engnged in plucking. The man was gathering up the feathers, and, with the assistance of a wooden box to stand upon , pushing them through a high window into the rear apartment. The atmosphere was so choked with floating particles of feathers that it was astonishing they breathed at all. They (lid not notice my appearance ar.d I stood at the door for some mientes and watched them curiously. The gooso-pluckers would grasp a bird by the legË and in a surprisingly hhort time completely strip it of feathers. So expert was the woman that it took less th3 :i two minutes to clean a lange bü d perfectly. She would throw the caicass in a corner, where scores were alreaöy heaped, and grasp another. Goc?! pïucking is one of the niany curious oecupations of the big east siui-. Kstablishments such as this are ruiroeroui. The goose-pluckers buy the birds ín wholesale lots, pluck them ind se!l the carcasses to marketmen at the name figure sometimes even at slight !cs r.;;aer the spur of competiticn. The profit is in the sale of the feathers. There are gooso-pluckers in ter street wno own tenement