The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-08-23
For the Echo and Advertiser
Five Points House Of Industry.
No

Since our Introductory article was in
print, we have received q letter in an
swer to one recently addressed to Rev
L. NJ. Pease, Superintendent of the
House of Industry, from which we learn
that he is about making arrangements
for publishing book of Five Points
history and incidents I" As this work
is expected to have very extensive cir
culation, and comprises minute history
of this subject, any detailed account
from us seems uncalled for at present.
We have, therefore, decided to include
our narration in a much smaller com pass
than we at first designed, referring the
reader for more particulars to the forth
coming work which (from the nature
of subject, and tho we'll known ability,
energy, and pathos Of author) We doubt
not, will bo most thriIlingly interest
ing one. But to our subject.
Reader, you have heard Of the noto-
rious 8 Five Points of New York:
you have heard of its sin, and its shame;
its deep degradation, aud its utter ,desti-
tuition; its pitiabls ignorance, and its
squalid pestilenco its reeking cutters,
and It's infectious odors; its haunts Of
pollution and debauohery; its dens Of
crime and infamy. Doubtless ofthe ex-
istence Ct all this you are already ap-
prised, for it is as familiar throughout
our land as " household words" But
of its astounding onormity, its fearful
reality, none can know but they who
have witnessed it. But it is our pleas
urs to state that a vast and happy
change has been effected by an influence
which is still progressing, and which is
destined, we believe, to annihilate this
great moral maelstrom, which has ongul-
phed thousands of hapless beings in its
ruthless vortex. Notwithstanding this
"pestilence which walketh in darkness,
the destruction which wasteth at noon.
day." even now: yet, but compara-
lively brief space Of time has elapsed
since which all this existed in degree
four-fold more alarming than at present.
A few years since and any individual of
respectable appearance would have been
considered as jeoparding purse, or life,
or both, to have ventured (oven under
the broad glare Of the midday SUM-
within the precincts Of this most aban-
doned of all the wretchcd purlieus that
curses Gods beautiful earth. And this
fearful plague-spot, too, in the very
heart Of the great commercial emporium
Of enlightened and christian America !:
in the center of its business and attrac.
tions, encompassed by its crowded and
busy avenues, and contiguous to that
great and renowned thoroughfare, where
the human tide of Broadway pours along
past marble halls, magnificent palaces,
and stately edi6ces, (from its morning
flow to its midnight ebb,) its mighty
current Of wealth, fashion, and gorgeous
display. Yes, readers, but Eve short
years since, in the Empire City,"
with all its wealth and grandeur, inter-
mingled and Interpreted throughout its
vast territory with its destitu,ion and
squalor such was the deplorable condi-
ton of its great and deep central ulcer,
the Five Points" And such the
Rev. l.. M. Peass found il when, in the
spring Of 1850, he entered its wrctched
borders for the purpose Of ipstilling into
the minds Of its abandoned inhabitants,
! the principles Of morality and religion.