The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-03


was at once sittingroom, eating room, sleeping
room, and Kitchen. Here is where the cholera
started, says our companion. We look around.
and-wonder that IL had not started sooner. and
with more deadly power. The vegetable refuse
and kitchen oGal OF all descriptions we're heaped
with piles OF ashes. From the offensive heaps
the morning sun raised vapory clouds of pestl.
lent0l miSsIna that spoke plainly of disease and
death. Around us were half-naked groups of
poor creatures, who seemed to wonder what
brought us to such place. We could hear deep
muttered curses and imprecations from the ruf
fianly looking men, who imagined that we were
there for no good 10 them.
Says our companion:-"Y see these misera-
BILE Loyels. Well as paying investment there
is no speculation that is better than to build
and in a just such places as these. There is a
house (pointng to a one-storied mudhut) that
would probably not cost over $50 to put up, and
yet it brings not less than S12O to $3.50 a year.
And yet these places are owned by men whom
society looks up to as wealthy and upright citi-
zens-men who would not venture within the
unhallowed precincts OF their own possessions
but who think it no harm TO own them, and get
an income from them through their less scru-
pulous agents."
We stopped at dllapidated doorway that led
into narrow entry. short flight of rotten
and rickety stairs led the way to the upper
story. In that place, on a Saturday night
especially, could be seen crow wds of thieves
pickpockets, bummers, and tramps of all
descriptions. AT night every available spot is
taken up by the lodgers who, for ten cents,
have the shelter of its walls for a few hours
No bedding of any kind is furnished. Down on
the bare floor, with no other covering than the
rags that cover them, lie these miserable
wretches. In one mass they lie, regardless
of age or sex. On any clear night there are
numbers Of the vilest of both sexes who con-
gregate and lie around like brutes. Humanity
shudders and sinks abashed at the horrible
debaucheries and lasciviousness that the pen
refuses to picture, and the mind cannot con-
ceiye of unless it were seen.
On our way out OF the "slumn we stopped
at the open doorway of room that opened
into it. There an old, wrinkled-looking hag
lived with her three daughters. The latter
were from fifteen TO eighteen years old, we
were told, but to our eyes their ages were a amys'
tery Dissipation, want, and misery had so changed
and warped their features that there was little
OF humanity in them. They looked at us with
hollow, glazed eyes, and a stolid, listless ex-
preston on their sallow faces that seemed to
say smile was never to illumine them in
this lite. Stunted in gro With, mentally de-
formed and old before their time, they were
the victims of the crime and penury of her
who ought to have been their guide and pro-
tector under God-their mother. Prostituted
for gain in their earliest years, these poor
honor, unless, perchance, a iaihtiy iIruisr1.oa
thought would flash through their dwarfed
minds, as the glorious sun or the starry
heavens would, for passing moment, arrest
their attention. We emerged from that alley
feeling doubly sad at what we had seen, and
proceeded through Bedford street again.
There were numbers of children thronging
around. And oh, what spectacle! Not happy
childhood, with its many pranks and gleeful
laugh, but old faces on young shoulders. Per-
haps a smile would linger for moment on their
poor attenuated features as kind word was
spoken to them. Our friend, the Missionary,
would always have pleasant word for them,
and would inquire why they were not at the
Mission School. Some of them would say they
had to 90 out and earn something for their
parents to buy bread with, and others would
give somewhat similar reasons for nom attend
anee- As we went along the street there was
one particular group that arrested our attention.
Some seven individuals, equally divided as to
sex and color, were lying huddled together on
cellar door. Two of the men had black
stumps of pipes in their mouths and so
also had an, old, Unlocking negress. AL
though the morning was pretty we'll ad-
vanced they still slumbered on, smoking and
snoring In their troubled rest. Not one of the n
but would have made a study for painter.
Their dilapidated garments, reeking with grease
and DIRT, scarcely covering their nakedness:
the pallid, vicious looks, the begrimed faces
and tangled hair and boards of the different
members of the group, made sad picture. And
see, one brutal fellow quarrels with one of the
wretched females, and raises his fist and strikes
her! For few seconds there is wrangle, and
then they relapse into their old stold condition.
This is common picture, and not as bad as
some that are daily and hourly TO be seen at
any place in the whole street.
A Bedford Street GrOggery
is the lowest place that the mind can conceive
Of low, dark room, into which the light of
heaven only enters through the battered door
way. We enter, and what a sight meets our
eyes-a mingled mass of bestialized humanity
There are no other pieces of furniture but Two
or three rough chairs, and some barrels labelled
"0ld Rye" "Gin," and Rum" several bottles
of the fiery poison on dirty shelf, and half
dozen green glass tumblers. Behind an old
rough piue counter, cut and lacked by gene
ration of lOafers and bummers stands a fat, un-
wieldy woman, whose low brow, coarse face,
and Titanic limbs give evidence of tremendous
muscular noWer while the oIat q of bar ,oa hlao,.