The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-05-16

l OUH FOREJH oats~<'
we presented " our readers a MAS Of facts on
this subject, drawn from the Sanit0ry report Of
the State commissioners. We have now before
us report of different character, FROM one who,
in neighbonng city. has bsen contending hand
to hand with ignorance. lazekess, vice and pau
perism This report gives W some Of the lights
and shades Of the life of home missionary
we say lights and shades, for MIR. Richie says
aThere are many bright and sunny spots scat
o. red over the field of my labors;" and it also
Ienesents the results OF experience in this war
fare, and points TO various methods OF amend
ment and amelioration.
Before proceeding further, we would say
that JAMES RITcHIE, esq, to whose report we
have reference, is the missionary TO the poor OF
the city of Roxbury. He is not a preacher, but
layman. He is not city officer, but is sup
ported by private contributions, and large por-
ton of the funds which are placed at his dis
posaI are the proceeds of labor performed by
the females of Roxbury in making great varie-
| ty of articles, useful or ornamental, which are
disposed of ut their May day Fair
| Mr. Richie has now been nearly two years in
this employment, and is perfectly at home in it..
He solicited the privilege of taking the census
last summer in the three lower wards, where al
most the whole Of the foreign population is
found, for the purpose of being able to penetrate
into every abode of poverty, and of bringing to
light all which lay concealed therein. In this
way, he says:
81 have personally explored every inhabited
cellar and garnet, and by ocular demonstration
satisfied myself of the condition of the inmates.
| have been an eye witness to the home life of
many, who, in no other way, could have been
subjected to my vision and my manifold ques-
tionings. Every by-way has been surveyed
every secret lurking place inspected"
And now let us look Mt some of the things
which our Jealous inspector turned up.
"IIere in Roxbury," he says, "are some oc-
cuped cellars into which the sea water monthly
ente2a, and which at times can only be APP
preached by wading through the water which
submerges the street Not six months since
in several tenements, the water stood for days
euen aoith The doors Of the cooking stoues, and
shivering women and children Were compelled
to bail it out of their dwelling places every
morning for days, nay, even weeks. At the
same time into few tenements the filth from
the drains Uos backed by the entering food"
What picture What nursery for disease
Nor is it confined to our neighbors the same
vigant exploration and inspection will bring to
light in the precincts of Boston hundreds of
these nurseries, where the warm sun of sum
mer, which carries life and light, and joy every
where else, stimulates and developcs the most
virulent and fatal disorders and causes death
and despair. "The proportion of DEATHS" says
Mr.. Richie, in these three wards a0as one in
every thirty fpe, aohile in The other fire soards IL
,oas only one in one hundred and ffieen'
Speaking of the same locality, he proceeds:
I" Here will be found nearly all the dispensary
patients. Hence come the hordes of beggars
and their children, early receiving an education
for the same business. Here live the vicious
and abandoned-and hence are taken the OBJ.
ects which fill our watch-houses, our aims
houses and our jais. Here congregate most of
the Incorporate. Daily and nightly, the poor
and miserable assemble in the drinking palaces.
can reckon three hundred places in Rorbury
iphere ardent spirits or beer can be obtained.
hare found these stored in closets under beds, and
eren in The bed clothes | have been in several
houses where the inmates, men, women and chill
dren, had all partaken of the intoxicating cup
have seen mother and daughter fighting over
dress, apparently begged or stolen, while the
father and son lay on the floor, filled with rum,
and excited by terrible passions"
These are the nurseries of vice and crime
without which we should not find use for half
our police, our courts, houses of correction,
prisons, or aims houses. They are costly estab-
lishments. Mean and revolving as they are in
appearance, in one way and another they cost
the commonwealth more than all her schools
and colleges. They are not confined to Rox-
bury; it is admitted that we have 800 just such
nurseries within our own limits, and we have
no doubt that the same strict scrutiny which
has been used in Roxbury, would increase our
number to 1900!
Mr. Richie has made another discovery of
some Importance. He says:
"Of those soliciting the charities of the city,
&C., it has been ascertained that by far the
greater number are lrish and that almost all of
these are from one district in Ireland, that of
Connaugh Fe,o from other districts are found
in our olms-houses or among our beggars." These
Connaught people, he continues, are by word
and scoffing in all the other districts of Ireland
They will not work long as they can live
without. Purely Celtic in their origin, their
character has but slightly changed. They hare
come here in hope TO find an easier life.
1t is a great error to suppose that
such people come here to gain support in our
public institutions. This is just what they do
not want. Many would flee the city rather than
go rohere they must ,oork for Hiring, and be
deprived of the many indulgencies they crave"
This is the stuff of which beggars are made
it abounds with us also-and the remedy sug-
gested by Mr.. Richie is LABOR Instead Of
giving to child-beggars, sent about by their pa
rents to enable themselves to live vagabond
life clV the whole family into the alms-house,
make the old earn their living, and educate the
young. This plan, gorousy pursued, would
scatter street beggars, and do something towards
reformation or Punishment of the worst class of
our foreign population.
In justice to other portions of the Irish, we
must give one more extract from Mr.. Richie !;
he says:
ave have all around us people from other
districts of Ireland. They are our workers
provident men and women, looking ont for
themselves, and making their way in the world.
When poor, You can trace their poverty to mis-
fortunes or sickness, but not generally to i'm
providence or inefliciency"
We agree with him that Here, then, are two
classes requiring different treatment" and we
are glad that he has so clearly presented the
fact, and marked the distinction between the
two. We have no better population than the
one class, none worse than the other The one,
il they cannot get a living here will seek il