New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-20

phpicia,, which viii be found in another column,
with regard to the poor Of the Fourth Ward; not
because il contsns any thing new or remarkable to
those familiar with the condition of the poorest
cla.s in the city but because the simple tsstl-
mory Of scientific man, no way interested In any
special charity, it may succeed in rousing those
who have never thought of the subject.
We are told. in the first place, that about nine
feet square of space is the least which medical
authorities allow for human being to live aud
breathe in. With this as the measurement, We
find in one room visited by this gentleman, OF
scarcely twelve feet square, three families OF men,
women ard children, containing probably 10 or2O
persons. and even this crowded lodging place stu
ated below ground. In another room, eight feet
square, with no ventilation even from window, are
three persons In still another cellar, are mother
and children suffering from ophthalmia, occasoned
by danpness snd bad air. And again, occupying yet
smaller basement-only six feet square-wiIh one
small window. are mother and two children
We do not dwell upon the details Of this picture
50 simply given-the rooms with wet flooring, and
with no stove for warmth-the bsrefooted woman
burning her last handful Of coals-the drunken
mother wrangliDg with her daughter for the bed
clothes she had pawned though these are enough to
startle, for moment, the tens Of thousands whose
only sensation of hunger has been just before a
good dinner, ard whose sole experience of frost
and cold has been on mornings walk down
Broadway.
We wish more particularly to call public atten-
ton TO one general Gauss or promoter both of this
poverty and of the physical diseases accompanying
it, namely-the habitations of the poor.
We take it that such observations as the,e III
the Fourth Ward, will apply equally to the Sixth
TO portions Of the Seventh, Ninth and Seventeenth
Wards, and TO ether districts of the city. Accord
ing to detailed Investigations communicated to this
journal in 1850, the number in that year Of people
who lived continually in under ground rooms in
New. York amounted to / : GOO; in the best medical
estimate now, this number is put high as $4,000.
Though Commission was appointed By the
Legislature some two years since to investigate
the subject of tenant houses snd the oyeIcrowding
ofpopulation, We doubt whether the results re-
ported by them are sufficiently definite and
scientific TO be Of permanent value Their in-
terestiDg report, however, showed clearly the
fearfol extent to which the crowding "f the
foreign poor in certain quarters had been car
red. 1t is well known that in tenement houses
for Germans and Italians, fifteen or twenty-five
persons is not an extraordinary number for room
I2 feet by lj single barrack in Cherry street
i, said to contain from 100 to 800 human
beings The disease, the mortality, the degrada-
ton of morals and the open vice resulting from
this indiscriminate crowding together of all ages
and sexes is something horrible to cOntempa
1t is well known that ophthalmia scrofuls and con-
sumption are almost direct effects Of such an un-
natural mode Of life, while the filth and impurity
accompanying it tend to produce cholera, typhus
and yellow fever. There is, probably ne city
Of the world where the mortality Of the poorer
classes is greater than in New-York. The deaths
Of infants exceed in proportion by considerable
percentage those in London.
The influences from these evis-bOth moral
and physical-extend to all classes; aud the
richest and most Indifferent cannot Altogether
escape the miasmata Of whsteyer kind which
steam up from these poisoned dwellings of the
poor Prudence, as well as humanity, calls upon
us for vigorous public action upon this evil.
we IL is tIuc, OuiONi ii tu'
City, appointed by the Mayor, whose duty it
should be to look after the sanitary condition of the
poor. But experience thus far has proved that the
City Inspector appointed from political motives
and with party ends in yiew-will do little that
is permanently valuable for this end. We are
rejoiced 10 hear that a private Association is
forming of experienced physicians and others inter.
ested in the matter. They will perhaps, be able to
employ their own Inspectors TO issue documents and
publish tracts. aud thus form public opinion and in
fuence the poor. We need tO know the exact sta
tistical facts in regard to the amsssing of popu-
lstion in our tenement houses. Then We want to
kLow from an authoritative and scientific body
what is best to be done. This Society, if it be
formed, should remember that what the public
msnt of it i. not much oratory or pathetic appeals
--oi these We have had 4 sstietJ--but facts aud
practical methods Of cure.
4 similar association in Lngand las procured
the passage Of some of the most stringent and be-
ne6cent acts of legislation on this subject which
mode IN law making can show. We need similar
laws from our own Legislature, for legislation
offers the ony prscti al remedy. Model lodging
houses DO no. seem TO be adapted for this
country, and all similar phil,nthropic expert
ments for improving tie dwellings Of the poor
have thus far mostly proved failure with U.s.
Let us have al at, in the first place, forbid
ding, under certain conditions, all cellar habita-
tions-.o that villains who would exc incomes from
the bitter penury OF the poor at the cost Of all heata
and virtue, may he summarily fined and punished
Let those 81 CO DOOR vretches Ii ing under ground