The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-14
The Shanty Settlements Of New York
and the Character Of Their
Inhabitants. ts.
pENs OF VICE, wRETCHEDNEss, MUIR
DER, THEFT AND RIOT.
From the New York Times.l

From the New York Times.l
The poverty, Indebtedness and crime
of New York is by no means confined
to the Over-crOwded tenement-houses,
underground dens and seething alleys,
recently described in the columns of the
Times. In another quarter of the me-
tropolis, close to that magnificent Park,
which is the pride of our citizens, the
wonder and envy of our visitors from
provincial TOWNSHIP a quarter which is
destined to become the finest built and
most fashionable part of the city-there
are dozen or more collections of shanty-
settlements, which shelter the vilest,
most degraded and most turbulent pop
ulatiOn that ever disturbed the peace OF
a city. In one police precinct alone
(the Nineteenth) there are, it is esti-
mated, not fewer than eight hundred
shanties or cabins, each one containing
from one to six prolific families, with
their household duds. and cows, goats,
chickens, in number limited only by
sand Is supposed to be low estimate of
Guiding, of course, the children.
growth of years, and some of the more
antiquated cabins have quite moss
grown and picturesque appearance from
the passing ears. The squatters have
evinced no little judgment and taste in
Wherever the shaly gneiss crops out
above the level of the street, the indie
pendent SONS of the Emerald Isle have
Il 4, al ~,
lar groups, forming miniature villages,
in which the squatters bid defiance to
the advance of city civilization. Were
sober, and order-loving workmen, no
one would have word to say against
them, however irregular might he their
temporary tenure Of the premises. But,
as we have said, this is not the case. So
far from being peaceable, industrious,
and orderlOving, the people who have
thus taken unlawful possession of pro
perty, and hold on to it in spite of thu
most strenuous efforts to get rid of them
are INDECENT, dissolute, boiling over will
the instincts of robbery, arson, murde
and riot; and at night they make thu
neighborhood hideous by their yells
their rows, and their scenes of violence
and debauchery. If the reader wants to
know why this abominable nuisance is
tolerated for so many years, we will give
him the answer which we got from the
police. The squatters rule the ward
and no man who owns property in theil
neighborhOOd Qures to make complaint
against them. If he has a house
near enough, they will burn it down, o.
at least smash in the windows witt
brickbats, and set on their ugly littl'
boys to steal his gates, tear up his shrub
berry, deface his front door, chalk lob
scene words on his front steps, bedau
his free-stone front with filth, and com
nit a thousand other spiteful and mali
cious acts which the devil helps them t.
invent and practice. The records OF thu
police courts show these statements tx
be well founded. No less than ten at
te mpts have been made within q few
months to fire the house of gentleman
of wealth and high social position, who
incurred the anger of an old woman by
having h er goats driven eff to the pound
These attempts have thus far. happily
proved unsuccessful; but they may
prove successful tonight, and the obltrHc'
of squatted vengeance never knows
when the peace of his family may be
disturbed. As no one will buy his
house at anything like true valuation,
he is obliged to remain in that unplea-
SAINT neighborhood, or sell at a great sac
rifice. He hopes, we are told, to succeed
in inducing sufficient number of res
pectable property-holders to combine
against the squatters and force them to
abandon their settlement and leave the
ward in the possession of its rightful
owners. The prospect of achieving this
most desirable consummation is, how
ever, so dim as to appear quite Utopian
in the estimation of the police, whose
experience with the squatters is even
more Intimate than his has been.
Nothing but general conflagration, or
I Provide initial earthquake will ever
make them skedaddle from their com.
ortable quarters, SO convenient to the
,ity, for which they pay no rent, no tax
IS, and, above all, have the supreme
abstraction of knowing that they make
intolerable nuisances. Per-
Ons who merely ride in the street cars
llOng the outskirts of these settlements
IAN have no conception of the annoy
lnces which they occasion. Leaving
he troops of dirty, ragged, impudent
children out of sight there, unhappily,
hey are always IN sight they fill the
streets in their neighbOrhood with pigs,
lows and goats that take possession of
he sidewalks with the most impudent
repOse on your frontsteps,
'ub open your gate and browse on Your
'hrubbery, and scare decent little chill
lren half out of their wits. Remon-
Itrance is, of course, useless. If you
want to complain, no owner is anywhere
n sight. But attempt to drive COW, or
zig, or goat to the pound! Twenty Yell I
ng little ragamuffins will instantly con- |
ey intelligence to the settlement, and |
efore you have gone half a block YOU will |
e surrounded by ascore of old harridans,
rom whom, if you set any value on your
air andeyes, you will beat hasty retreat.
Residents of the Nineteenth Precinct
ave learned to treat stray animals with
respect that would delight a Brah-
min. If they find a. cow in the
ard, they open the gate quietly
nd respectfully request her to walk
ut. A blow or kick is sure to be re-
aid with interest. To make matters
worse, the reward formerly paid for driv-
ng vagrant cattle to the pond has been |
and no one cares to risk his |
tide for nothing. The police sometimes |
tempt to do their duty in this respect, |
ut, unless they go in such force as to |
bake the whole thing ridiculous, thew |
lose their game before going |
alf a dozen blocks. The spectacle Of |
en- or twelve policemen guarding a soli- |
ary COW on her way to the cattle-jail.
rovokes too much merrinient even for |
hOcn uhn arn iufaractod in boxin,r al