The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-10-10
Asa Hartz on Rents.
NO. IL.
L.eouE O'D1MuNrz, ESQ:

NO. Ii.
JAcQuE O'DIMuNTz, EsQ.:
! Mn Dear Bowrr-I am a victim to the
gleed Of landlords.
The greed h s become an epidemic, and
| if owned property anywhere beyond the
| brick walls which inclose cemetery; !
would catch the infection and be as greedy
as the yeliest Shylock among them.
| have no house, my bower ] have a
family of seventeen and no place to put
them. / can't take them to the ST.. Charles
| Hotel, for Mr.. Boyd hasn't room for them
all. The City can't take tlcm, and the st.
James is full. What am to do4
| Put an advertisement in the paper ask
| ing fer q house suitable for family Of
moderate size. Got an answer from u gen
tlen,an in the Fourth Municipality, who
had small house containing eleven rooms.
Asked him the price per year Ans.-Seyen
thousand dollars:
| NV bower, that house is not large enough
and the price is too small. No decent
house with two rooms can be had for that
money, nowadays. Told the agent in
terms indignant that we had been well
raised, and could not lower our social
status by living in q house which tented
for SO small d sum. Agent seemed to re-
gret it, and felt duly sorry for him. Hope
some darkey of small means and large Ia
ciiities for stealing may take it OFT his
| hands.
Got another note from q sweet female
patriot in the Third District Went down
| to look at the premises. Saw the house,
bat couldn't perambulate any considera-
BILE distance beyond two feet from the
back door, on account Of the water. Water
privilege, she told me, would be thrown in.
Good thing to make steam OF, or to run a
boat in. but / preferred dry land in the
yard where children We're apt to gambol.
House contained one room, besides the
hen-coop, and was not suitable Besides,
one hundred and fifty dollars week was
too much for it.
Literary gentleman in the First Dis
trict answered advertisement in brief
note of eight pages, in which he spoke of
the beautiful situation Of his dwelling
house to rent. Got into Camp street car,
and started for it immediately. Never
reached it. The beautiful situation" was
so damp that a foot passenger couldn't get
nearer than two squares Off Had no canoe,
aud abandoned the project Seven hun
bred dollars month is too much for a
house with three rooms in it, unless the
landlord pays ferriage.
Saw an advertisement in city paper Of
an eligible residence for small family"
and went to the broker who had the rent
! ing of it. He gave me ticket to visit and
look through the building, now occupied
by family of twenty-three. Went to it
Immediately. just one door this side lives
q venerable and highly vanished ebony
knob belonging to a Bureau, and she owns
a villainous dog whose sole occupation is
to lie in waiting for innocent and nnsus-
pecting pedestrians who pass that way
| The dog must have known that my object
was to be his next door neighbor and had
an objection to it. Ididn't get beyond the
old knobs gate, and returned to my pres
ent quarters with considerable rent in
my pantaloons and only one-half Of the
tail OF my best coat. In view of the fact
that the old knob has a life lease upon the
next door house, and that her dog is too
confirmed in his bad habits to try q reform
now, it is hardly probable I shall become
his neighbor. Besides. seventy dollars a
,week for rent makes rather too large a
hole in the seventeen dollars which l heb.
dcmadally receive.
l am in despair, and have no doubt
would drown myself were it not for the
change in the weather. What am to dol
There is not house to be had unless pay
more for a years rent than the structure
and the ground upon which it is built or e.
inally cost. Every day the pricesincrease,
and expect that by the first OF Noyem-
Der no man will bB allowed to ask o land
lord If he has q house to rent without pre-
paying fifty dollars for an answer:
Seven thousand families are to return to
the city the next month, and where they
are all going to live l cannot, for my life,
imagine. Try to do something, my bower,
for my relief. Yours, in despair,
ASA HARTz.
PSI have just been informed by the
creature board with that must leave, as
the creature has received notification that
her rent has been raised from fifty dollars
| per month to one thousand. ! shall have
to eat in tue market and sleep at the police
station. A. II.
P. S., Again.-Say something soothing
for me to the gentle creature who keeps
your linen In order. A. H.