Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1849-09-17

Of the Runi-shop. In this lane of desolafion
at least one hundred houses or huts are hud-
died together, some frame, some brick, all
with their windows stuffed with rags
These houses yield handsome rent to their
owners. You imag gine'thata family cf three
or four persons occupies each house?
You don't know Philadelphia. That is
evident. ~
Let me show you Lowa a single room in
one of.these huts that one. .lext the, tenth
AZ nm-shef oreispie .ss &, e s. gs=.a
Thfoh II tiiestfSfrroW door into this. foon1
with low ceiling, black " ais, and floor
some ten feet square. What have we here!
By a light, not baf so beautiful as the
chandelier in the church, believe me-the
light of faring candle, stuck in porter
bottle, you may behold the scene. Close to
the wall, side by side, their knees drawn
up to their chins, are crouched at least thir-
ty human beings, from the half naked girl
Of fifteen, to the old man of eighty; here the
Mother with baby at her breast; there, the
Negro with his rum bottle; and along the
square formed by their huddled forms, YOU
may see everything that is miserable in na-
kedness, disease and rags.
These are the Rum shop keepers lodgers
but not all. All day long they prowl the
streets, picking rags irom the cutters, beg
Eging cold vi'tuais, or stealing a mo.sel
where they can, and at night they repose
here, as you see them, for one cent lead.
The porter bottle which ilumiuates the
room, is held By a huge negro, who, with
rags upon his bugly chest is playing cards
with white oman, also crouching on the
filthy floor AS the greasy pack passes
from the white hand to the black hand, you
see a woman ouly mise:a able rag upon
her lorul- stretched stihy cut in the center
of the floor, her bosom and arms and limbs
Disclosed by the light That bosom is vast
ed, those arms sllruuken to TIE bone. As
for face, you cannot see it, for her black
hair, sreaked with grey, falls oven it. Does
she sleep? a-. -...
! Lift the hair from Ler face and behold
these stormy e,eballs. She sleeps. And
sleeps all the better, that she has hand nc
bread for three days. ' -
And " bile the dead woman lies there,
and the wretches crouch against the wall,
hideous group are seen near the fire.
place, engaged in those horrid debaucheries
which have no name.
! My coed Missionary, permit me to take
you by the bow Of your cravat, and lead
/ You, gently from the crowded church into
= TITS room : aha don't think me impertinen
when tell on that Abe Lord Jesus vii
smile in richer blessings on you if you bu
sell one or more of your handsomely bouLt
= Bibles to buy little bread, little shelte
for these Heathcns of Philadelphia Excus,
my freedom, friend; Eve an odd way of sa "
ing things but as there is d God, you neeo
not go all the way to Hindoostan, to FIND
perishing Heathen.-
! Every room in this rum-shop keeper:
house is tenanted in this way. We dare moi
go into tie cellar; the sight is too horrible
A charnel crowded with living corpses, and
streaming with leprosy and pollution! Ev.
cry house in this narrow alley has occu.
pants like these: in the afternoon, when fhe
sun comes warmly on one side of the pave.
ment, you may see the bricks, the cutters.
the cellar-doors, swarm and blacken with
the thousand shapes of nakedness and rags.
This is not a solitary thing in the Great
City, believe me, but only one among a
hundred; this horrible Lane of Desolation,
shooting away from the main street, not five
hundred yards from Church of God.
Three Millions of Dollars for marble pill
lars and pure Grecian architecture, in city
, which beasts scenes like these.
Sometimes the filth and pollution of this
den gives birth to horrible pestilence, the
leprosy or fever, and then you may see the
kind of harvest, reaped by death, in the cell
lars and the rooms, the cutters and the gar-
rets, where the dead rot tor days, naked and
unburied, while the leper is dying, and the
drunkard drinking, and the maniac curs-
ing, within the confines of the same walls
Oh, for eloquent Webster's presence here,
with one of his sound lectures against Inf
deity and in favor of pure Christianity.
You may not like these scenes. confess
do land would rather they had no exis-
tence But as they do exist, painful neces
slty is upon me to show them to the world,
in order that every body may curse the mem
ory of the eInfdeP Girard, and love the
Marble Pillars, that were purchased with
! TIVE Millions Of Dollars.
| But let us pass to another scene, which
may have some pleasing contrasts between
the Guilty power that robs, and robs by
law, and the Poverty and Toll that must be
robbed ard bear it. Away from the dark
alley, and behold a scene whose Luxury
mocks the Leper's rags to scorn. There
was a night; dark, cold, winter night
| when a round-faced, good-humored Bank
Director sat in his comfortable parlor count
ing the gains he had won by the failure OF
his Bank.
Observe the bland smile that undulates
over tho corpulent gentleman's face as he
sits in his luxurianlly finished parlor, with
his oysters and his coffee, and his terrapin
soup, spread out before him. The deli
cious influence ofthe terrapin and cham
pagne pervades his round visage and i'm.
parts its soul to his eyes.
Tell me; can you believe that this man
retired on a handsome fortune last week
in consequence Of the failure Of Bank
Is this mystery to you!
He is the President of the broken Bank
: That sentence makes plain many remark
able things.
While he is. sitting there smiling a
$ the President of broken Bank only cal
smile; 10! there Is faint knock at the door
"Come in!,'
And yon half clad man, with hollo,