Litchfield enquirer., 1858-04-22
Lodging in the ". Y. statioa Houses.

Lodging in the ". Y. Station Houses. Hoao Vogramts Sleep-Four ia Bed-A
 4 Peyieet Specimen of tAe Genus Bum
 mcr"-Scenes, Lneldents, 5e., Sc.
 There is, as all the world knows, building in each ward of New York city, set apart for police purposes, and called Station-House.
 Among the objects 10 which station houses have been devoted, the lodging of destitute persons is prominent, and is enumerated in the fourteenth section of the Metropolitan Police act. Tine unusual number of persons out of employment during the past winter has great y increased the applicants for lodgings and | the Police Commissioners, in anticipation of l this, passed a resolution on the nineteenth of November last, representing the crowded con- dtion of the station-houses and requesting the Common Council to afford extended ac- commodations for destitute persons, either by i enlarging the station-houses, or hiring other buildings in their vicinity. But the city faith CTS were at that time too busy with Mayor Woods labor and flour scheme to attend to this humane suggestion. As it is, however, an average of seven hundred and fifty-tive has been accommodated through the winter.
 Beside the many applicants made destitute
 
 of permanent vagrant lodgcrs, who rely upon the station-house for nightly shelter, without any apparent desire of obtaining better There are many of this class who will begin in the first ward, and lodge as long as the officers will keep them, and then go on to tie next, aud so on through the city upon one side of Broadway, then down again upon the other side, expecting to be forgotten, as many of them are, before they complete the circuit The lodgings afforded vagrants do not ma terially differ from those afforded prisoners. A person locked up in a statioll-hcnse to await examination as criminal, is put into mar row cell, which he has generally to himself, with the privilege of sleeping upon an eleya- ted plank. And so lodging" in the case of the vagrant does by no means imply that he was accommodated with bed, but simply that he had the privilege of lying upon the floor or an elevated plank, generally under lock and key.
 When there are prisoners cells unoccupied, these are given up to vagrant lodgers, who do not fare as we'll as the prisoner, from the fact that they are packed together in such num- bers, that lodging in their case implies the l privilege of sitting upright or leaning against the wall. If, in the night, a new prisoner must be accommodated, a cell is vacated by routing the lodgers therein, and setting them afoat to shift for themselves.
 1 In the First ward there is stat;on-house and a substation-h houSe-the former over Frank In Market, and the latter in Trinity place, a l narrow and obscure street. In the main sta 1 tion-house over the Franklin Market, in an up- per story, eight cells, properly capable of hold | ing one person each, are often crowded with four, who are obliged to sit bolt upright, while just outside the cells another squad are per lnitted to lie on the floor. The women, some times seventeen in number, are accommodated ill three apartments, with platforms fit for three apiece. In this establishment and it's sub-statiou in Trinity place, most of the scum of the city, consisting of what are classically | termed bummers," snoozers," etc., arc usually to be met with, though even in these | filthy resorts unfortunate respectable persons are often found enjoying the city's hospitality. The odors which enanate from the lodgers' garments are almost strong enough to pros trate an elephant. The average number of male and female lodgers accommodated at these two establishments through the winter has been about ninety, while about forty oth- CTS have been nightly turned away. These pldceS oiGeu dHoru reluSe TUT tile uhioi luuato as an incident will show : A poor Scotch wo, man was discovered apparently in great dis tress,, who, it appeared upon inquiry, had started from Brooklyn the day previous (where she was employed as servant, for the pnr- pose of meeting Andrew Donelson, her hus- band. After she visited him, he requested her to take walk, which she did but when he presently stopped before groggery and asked her to give him some money to buy a drink, she refused and endeavored to persuade him not to go in. Hcreupon the brute burst into violent passion, and thrusting his hand into her pocket, took her last penny, and then assaulted her, tearing her bonnet, tippet and veil into ribbons, and beating her with his fist. She then ran away from him and was soon after discovered by an officer near the f Battery, weeping bitterly. On being convey ed to the station-house, it was discovered that her eye was shockingly bruised and backened r and that a whole handful of hair had beer g torn out by the roots.
 s At the Second precinct, the lodging apart Q ment is large paved cellar, where, upoi ' stray boards, benches, and the flags themselves the male lodgers are allowed to reposc as bes they can. There are here fifteen. crmina