Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1843-03-30


THE FIVE POINTS IN NEW YORK.
I AS presume you are interested ia tn,
one portion of New York made classic By
a foreign pen, let me iot you down mem
or two from my first visit to Dickens Hol'
at the Five Points, made one evening las
week, with q distinguished party under
charge of the Boz Officer.
| had had an idea that this celebrated
spot was on the eastern limit OF the city
at the end of one Of The omnibus routes
and was surprised to find that il was not
more than three minutes walk from
| Broadway, and in full view from one oithe
fashionable corners. 1t lies, indeed, 10 a
lap between Broadway and the Bowery
IN what was once secluded valley ofihe
island Of Manhattan, though 10 believe il
ever to have been green or clean requires
a powerful effort of Imagination. We
turned INTO Anthony street al half past
ten, passed /" the Tombs,' and took the
downward road, rs did Orpheus and Dick
ems before US. 1t was a cold night, but
women stood al every door with bare
heads and shoulders, most of them with
something to say, and, by their attitudes,
showing complete lnsenslbllty 10 cold.
In every thing they said, they contflyed 10
bring in the word shilling" There were
very few men 10 be seen, and those whom
we met skulked past as if avoiding obser-
walton possibly ashamed TO be there, pos.
sibIy Shrinking from further acquaintance
with officer Stevens, though neither OF
these feelings seemed to be shared by the
females OF the community. A little turn
10 the left brought US up against what
looked to me blind, tumble down, board
fence; 5u, the officer pulled latch and
opened door, and flight OF steps was
disclosed. He went down first ard threw
open door al the bottom, letting up
blaze of light, and we followed into the
grand subterfanean Almack's Of the Five
Points. And really II looked very clean
and cheerful. Ii was a spacious room
with low ceiling, excessively whitewash.
ed, nicely sanded, and we'll lit. and the
black proprietor and his mnisiering
sptrits" LITERALLY fulfilling their vocation
behind very tidy BARI were well dressed
and well hammered people, md received
Mr.. Stevens and his liends with the pc.
likeness Of grand chamberlain,. We were
l,ttlc early for the fashionable hour, tho
ladies not having arrived from the Then
tres !" md, proposing to look in again AZ
ter making the round OF the other resorts,
We crept up again TO the street.
Our next dive was into a cellar crowd.
ed with negroes, ealing, drinking, and
dancing, one very well-inade mula.to giri
playing the castane,s, and initiating Ellis
sler IN what she called the crdcorer again.
In their way these people seemed cheer
full, dirty, AMI comfortable. We looked
in afterwards OF several drinking places,
ihronged with creatures who looked over
their shoulders very significantly at the
officer found une or two bar.ronms kept
by women who had preserved the one vlr
tue OF noatness, (thouah in every cl0an
place the hostess seemed terrible vira
go,) and il was then proposed that we
should see some Of the dormltoies of this
Alsaiia. And al this puiEt must end all
the cheeriuness Of my description. This
is called numbering alley, SAID our
walls, with barely room to pass, sud by
the police lantern made our wy up bro
ken and filthy staircase to the floor of a
large building. Under its one ROOT the
officer thought there usually slept thou
sand of these wretched outcasls. tie
knocked at door on the left. Ii was
opened unwilhngly by woman who held
dirty horse blanket over her breast, bu,
at the SIGHT Of the police. lantern she step
ped back and let US pass in. The floor
was covered with human beings asleep ia
their rags, and when called by the officers
TO look in nj low closet beyoud, we could
hardly put our feet 10 the ground, they
lay so closely together, black and white.
men, women, aud children. The door
less apartment beyond, Of the SIZE a ken
mel, was occupied by woman and her
daughter, and the daughters child, lying
together on the floor ana covered by rags
and cloths OF no dlsiingulshable color, the
rubbish Of bones and DIRT only displaced
by their emaclated limbs. The SIGHT was
TOO slckenlng TO endure, but there was no
cgress without following close to the Ian
tern. Another door was opened to the
right. 1t disclosed low aud gloomy a
partment, perhaps eight feet square, Six
or seven black women lay together in
heap, all sleeping except the one who
opened the door. Something stirred IN
heap OF rags, and one ofthe party remvv.
ing dirty piece of carpet with his cape,
discovered a new born child. II belong
ed to one of the sleepers in the rags, aud
had had al hours experience Of the ten.
der mercies Of this world But these de-
tails are disgusting, and have gone far e
nough when they have shown those who
have the common comforts Of lie how in
eslimably, by comparison, they are bless
ed (? For one, had never before any adj
equate idea OF poverty in cities. | did not
dream Of human beings, within reach Of
human aid, could be abandoned 10 the
wre,chedness which there saw-and
have not described the half Of il, for the
delicacy Of your readers would not hear
At, even in description. And all these
horrors of want and abandonment he al
most within sound Of your voice, as you
pass in Broadwayi The officers some