The Yazoo Democrat., 1854-04-26

1t must be remembered that prostitution is
by no means the only occupation on the Five
Points. The wives and children of most of our
most notorious thieves and robbers live there
covering and starving by day, and trembling
and shivering with fear all night 1t is true that
must of these women have few pretensions TO
virtue-but it is also true that a considerable
number of them do manage to remain true to
their husbands and children--wait for, tend and
watch the felon as he steals in and out upon his
marauding expeditions, or sit patiently nursing
/ their sickly aud half-sarved infants while the
father is carousng in the cellar or dance house
below. Picture to yourself this infancy, this
childhood--never drawing pure breath of air,
never hearing sound Of human voice save the
suppressed meanings of the mother and the cur.
sings and blasphemies of the father-brought up
in ignorance that any other way of life exists
than by theft and robbery, and trained TO them
fir, m The hour the infant mind can first receive
lesson! What a magnificent nursery of crime,
and pauperism, and prostitution! Enough to
stock country with population of hundred
millions.
Then, too, there are a great many women
who. from age disease, decrepitude. and what
not. are not saeable, even in that Market
These, with the young girls ana boys, do what
they can at stealing. Some of the women and
children proiessed beggars. which is only
blind for petty theft and plumber. Others sweep
the streets, sell matches, run of errands, do any
thing bat obtain regular situations AMI employ
ments--for who would employ boy or girl
from the Five Points? 1t in this respect that
the schools Of both the Mission aud the House
Of Industry doing their greatest and most
tangible good. At The latter place there are
some hundreds Of children kept eaployed and
the Mission, since its foundation, has obtained
situations for three hundred of its scholars,
not one Of whom has turned out badly. These
numbers. however, are comparatively insignifi-
cant. The population of the district of the
Five Points and It's immediate neighborhood is
about thirty thousand which would leave an
average of fifteen 10 twenty thousand childr n :.
SO that all that has yet been done is mere drop
in the bucket Indeed, The police department
positively assert that he general condition OF
the Five Points, and tnat whole neighborhood
was never at lower point ;han now--that no
dimnulion has taken place in the amount of
theft, rowdy ism, drunkenness, and prostitution.
bat that, on The contrary, the numbers OF the
abandoned of all grades and classes is constantly
increasing,
The history of the Five Points. in the past.
is By no means destitute of interest, and gloo
my fatality seems aIwaos to have hung around
way was at Pearl street, and Orange street ran
along the Western margin of a fresh water
pond, where are now the Five Points Out of
this pond ran creek, where is now Lispenard
street, wide strip Of marshy meadows, inter
spersed with pond $, occupying the whole of
the space in the vicinity of what is now Canal
street and Broadway. In 1733-one hundred
and twenty-one years ago-a law was passed
.to preserve the fish in Fresh Water Pond r
Poor fish Our Common Council have other
ash to fry nowadays, In l74l, New York.
then containing about II 600 inhabitants, one
sixth being slaves, negro conspiracy preceded
by series of fires, murders and robbelies, was
brought to light, and thirteen negroes were
burnt at the stake, at the intersection of Pearl
and Chatham streets, and twenty-one were hung
Zone of them in chains.) on an island in Fresh
Water Pond, in the very centre of what is now
the Five Points A few miserable shanties
were, from lime to time, put up along the mar
shy banks of the pond and when Broadway
was continued and opened through the Sailors
Snug Har5or." property owned by Thomas
Randall the hills wer levelled and the dirt was
carted into the pond, until it was filled up, and
was gradually built upon and divided up into
lots. as we see it at present,
The Herald here gives list of the names of
the owners of the property in the Five Points
and the immediate vicinity and its assessed val
ne, and thus proceeds
Here is a sum total of S26l 900 Of the asses
sed value OF property in the Five Points and Vi.
cinity, paying. by the atrocious system Of cram
ming and rear building, an average interest, bs
way of rents, Of not less than twenty per cent
So that you see these old, rat eaten, rotten. rick
] city and uuinhabitable sheds-these vile ane
noisome dens-are more productive pTopert,
i than the finest palace mansions in the Fifii
avenue They have the advantage, too, OF no
4 costing anything for repairs, and the landlord
never have any bad debts; for the moment |
tenant in the Five Points don't pay his rent, d
, matter whether from sickness or want # work
out he goes, neck ana heels. Who ever hear
of giving poor devil credit on the Five Points
) Some Of these landlords live in a part OF tn
| premises. keep grog-room and dance house Be
low. and thus swell their incomes. But th
greater portion are owned by respectable and pi
Gus citizeus who go to church regularly ever