The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-10-22
A Peep at Anthony street An Improve
ment Greatly Needed.

some yFbts since 1t WhS prOpobeu 10 Wiueu Ausuony
street. from Broadway to Orange, and to continue It,
ct its increased width through TO Chatham street
This is most desirable improvement and would effect
two objects. In the FIRST place, 1t would afford
venient and much needed thoroughfars from Broad.
way to Chatham street, and would at the same time
the demolition Of large part of the miserable
tenements at present occupied by the disreputable
GLASS known Five Pointers.
The buildings the upper side of Anthony street
are great number of them, wooden fabrics In state
Of dspdation. The owners will not rebuild, because
they get more rent for the novels which now occupy
their lets than they could obtain from respect
able class of tenants which would become the lessees
of better buildings for it is well known fact, that
from the wretched beings who live in the midst Of de-
graduation and crime round rent is, in some way or
other, extored They know that for them there Is no
law but the law Of condemnation and even il there
were they not how to set to work, to advantage
themselves by it, They, therefore, submit to the ex-
orbtant taxation OF their landlords and manage by
their wicked Wits, to get together the weekly sum
necessary to keep "a shelter their hes DIS for
should they seek better home the very fact Of their
present residence would sta nd before them an in
surmountable barrier to the Accomplishment Of their
object and but few of them desire change Of abode
They have, for the mot part descended through the
various grades Of vice. till they tie very lowest
even exult in their degradation. They have be-
come go accustomed to ths atmosphere Of moral pesti
ence which they breathe that they would not change
It for one of virtue and rectitude Driven by crime
misfortune, wrongs, and neglect, they have sought
and found companions in misery, and they accept
relief from remorse and remembrance of happier days
in the brawng and tumultuous scenes which sur
round them here. They look out occasion ally from
their aens Of infamy and pollution, and evil COM
partnership and the passing stranger casts
look of COMMUNICATION towards them they either
return the gase with stupid indifference, or cackle
forth their sardonic merriment at the individual
who is unfashionably employed as to dev>te
glance or . thought to the poo3 wretch who lives
in the vicinity Of the Five Points. What il it
now to the wretches Of fallen fortunes whether the
sweetest music, the most skilful performances the
most eloquent appeals, made to amuss the minds
and crafty the tastes or ambitions Of men who were
once their companions They are outcasts now, and
their emulation is in vice. the sounds Of the miserable
fiddle and the squeakng clarionet, which accompany
their midnight orgies more coDgenal to their feel
ings than the refined airs Of Donizetti or Verai
though the latter may be discourssd by Bishop,
Jenny Lind, or q Biscacesnti. They are sckened
with ensc eoquenoe for they only remember 1t as
accompanied by the hateful sound of the condemning
sentence which at time another has consigned
chance their minds wander to the topic at all, they
hastily dismiss the subject which has ceased to
concern them, or look upon the man who procaims
the gospel who would say 10 them "Staud aside,
| am holier than thou" A bad emnence is all they
seek II they have even the spirit left to seek that
Poor wretches they hover arou nd the Halls OF JUS
tice from habit they look in ualy to crafty
their curiosity aud learn who Of their companions have
bee caught within the meshes of tao law
be cent their represe ntatve to the congress- Of
thieves and other felons q. Sing Sing who of any
other class the goddess with ndaged optics may have
laid Der hands upon in her legal game of blind
buff If perchance, heretofore uusuled and ele
waited has fallen they suppress their exu.aton till
they their haunts when they give vent - their
| demoniac Joy, and with ,develish glee !make known
the incident to their comrades Talk not to them of
warning What evils should they guard against
What misery can bar them bisbtsd name
it is theirs and they boast oft Ruined fortues' la
ha the fortunes of a vagraut They are easy that
The feelings of near and dear friends Alas
there is chord that yet vbratss slightly but
matter; all the social tendriis that once etwinel
around them long since been rudely severed and
either wthered and died from the shock, or sought
new supports and show only to the scrutiniziug that
they ever have been sadly rvsn these were mostly
younger shoots, which, after the rst shock
ca silly accommodated themselves TO new relances
There is indeed in this neighborhood, the piih
and marrow Of misery, and some morning, "a
you pass that way and ched form lying
extended upon bench, the door open to admit little
light and twelve men casting occasional glances at
the CHASTITY corpse, don't be shocked The coroners
inquest will be over, and the pauper's dead cast
will remove the ofe nsve object. To- morrow it
will again, and the next day and the next; and
it, percbance day pass and the driver be not called
there will know that his customer has only gone to
the river to drown, and he will nd his decaying
form upon the dock The body will surely be brought
to Ia nd for it will be worth dollar to frugal one
to drag it out and call the coroner; and very likely
there will be merry between two or three compet
tors who will contest the to get the informant's
fee; but you much either the streets
or on the docks.
There are away down in loathsome cellars, where
the light Of heaven never comes and away up gar
rets cocklots places only to be reached stoop-
ing and c,imbing-away back in alleys and courts,
where filth and putrescencs undsturbed, aud for
the existence of which because they not the
Common Council are never called to account. Away
of in these places, IL you like to investigate you may
death in al its lenses, past present and future
The infant which born 10 unassisted la Dor and
refusing tho boon Of human life shrunk back I'm the
horrible to which it was introduced, and sped
away to the spirit land mercifuly spared the life
which ii born Euaciated childhood too frail to
support the diseases which it inherited finally sack
and went out, like poorly fed taper light Youth
manhood old age all dead and dying and all bearing
in death the stamp Of the e nd of wretchedness Mise.
ry in all its grader from ro.ous killing dssipa-
ton TO gnawing hunger existing in the damp cold of
the solitary chamber which is too wre.ched to
claim plurality of tenants, and a hot AMI reeking
dungeons which emit disgusting and sitting vapors
exholed fse multitude of lungs, far gone in the
diseases attendant upon continual dissipation There
too you may study the vagrant fashions. They are
there ali tbere-from the full dress of tat.ers and
patches down. through all the grades to stark naked
ness Is horrible! 1t is true Aud you m ay see It,
1. al fun,i 4 ID IL.