The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-03
THE BUMMER'S RESTAURANT IT
THEPEopLEwHo oDwELL THEREIN
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In all great cities. and indeed in all places
where O great number of people are congre
gated together, there is class that seems 10
fall into the lowest depths, as sand falls TO the
bottom of water They seem to get there at
once, and never to make any exertion 70 rise
again. The whole end and aim oftheir existence
are comprised in the qualification of their low
est animal desires and appetites. Degraded in
appearance. they shun the light of day, and
keep within their burrows. stunted in their
moral growth, there are none of the better,
loftier impulses of humanity that should ac-
tuate the creature moulded after Gods own
image. AS we think of their condition-as IL is
now at this very moment, as it has been Tor
generations, and as it will be for generations to
come, unless new and more powerful measures
are resorted to to cleanse them from their moral
degradation we feel sad when rejecting on the
depths to which poor human nature can sink.
And yet there are few comparatively who are
aware of the immense amount of filth, squalor,
disease, and all manner of wretchedness that
exists amongst the lower strata that herds in
our midst
Perhaps our readers have read the description
u
the English periodicals from time to time, or as
more viyidly described in Victor Hugo's cele
brated "Miserables.n But terrible as is the
misery there described, wretched as the poor
creatures said to be- even these descrip-
lions do not give all the details OF the fr1ghtful
picture. We remember reading once descrip-
ton of place In bonuv,. Deg straat
1t told how the houses in that place were
packed with its miserable humanity-of rooms
reeking with filth, foul with exhalations from
the bodies of its inmates, and from the rotting
walls shelterng (?) men, women, and children,
huddled together indiscrminately. Sometimes
there were four or FIVE families in one
wretched room, which was at once their
sleeping eating, and sittng-room. There there
were none of these kindly feelings that SO en-
noble the mind and the heart; there there
were none of those household virtues that alone
can give happiness to man. But living like
beasts, stunning the sight of all that was pure
and heavenly, retiring within the shadow of
their abodes as the beasts, these wretched
beings lived on in their misery and degrada-
ton, In reading the description of these hor-
fible localities in the old cities, we would be
ant to exclaim :-"Tbank God, zoe have
no such places!" But how idle is the
boast may be very easily shown by taking
stroll into the lower quarters of any of
our great cities. Only few years back New
York had one locality that was celebrated for
Its squslor,r filth, and misery. Who has not
heard of the s'Five Points" and the "Old
Brewery ~, Artists have made studies of its
ancient-lookibg, decayed and tumble-down
shapties, with Its crowded tenement-houses,
swarming with human beings and yermin of all
kinds crowded with those poor wretches
whom poverty compels to crawl for shelter
under the leaky roof, and in rooms where the
old battered windows could not boast of glass;
where furniture was luxury unattainable, and
where the cold crust of bread or the rejected
bone was ravenously devoured by the aid of
fingers and teeth. Rooms that in the hot sum-
mer months were swarming with flies, reaches
and all manner of vermin, whilst decay
ing vegetable matter and filth bred
disease with every breath; where in winter
the bowling storm swept with unresisted
force through the broken doorway and the
.ungIazed window, and through the wide gaping
cracks In the shanty itself, that have not been
Flosed with old paper and rags, There through
the day might be seen poverty and misery
stalking around with pallid features and skele-
1on-hke forms. There through the night crime
and sil manner OF iniquity were carried on in
the nost uarihS anu 1od-defying manner. The
sounds of debauchery, drunkenness, and bias.
phemy rang their discordant notes on the air
through the horrid nights until the dissipated
wretches ceased from exhaustion and dropped
of into their drunken sleep. Such was give
iPoints"-such is
Bedford Street
even now, much as has been done for il bv tho
Mission, which is even now striving to stnl
further improve the street and its enyirons.
Who that picks up the daily papers does not see
the name of this notorious and terrible locality.
All manner of crimes that are known in tbe
laws used TO be committed within its unbal.
lowed precincts, and even now it is a sad snac.
facle. And yet, much as has been said of it.
much as has been written about lt-it is COM
paratively an unknown region to thousands of
our citizens. I'll father of family as he sits
down to his morning paper, with his happy
children and wife around him, and shudderingly
Klances over an account of some terrible crime
or outrage that has been committed within the
limits Of Bedford street, can form no idea of itl
miseries. Not even from the finely portrayel
descriptions Of Charles Dickens, or the DOW
fnl writings Of Victor Hugo, can the mind form
.@proper Idea Of what is to be seen in the lower