Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-22
BEG. srEAL OR aTARYE.

Life i'm the Suburbs-FamiIfes Hud-
died in Poverty -Pens-Nurserles of
Vice ana Crime-AppeaIs of Pau
pers.
We have often thought, and sometimes
remarked it, that one half of our people
did not know how the other half lived.
This remark Is appropriate to Nashville as
to any large city in which we have ever
soiourned. As we walk our streets iostling
against each other in the whirl of business
pursuits, or leisurly enjoying quiet stroll,
we encounter the little beggar street girl
with her soiled and extended palm, and her
piteous give me ten cents to buy mother
some bread" or the ragged little urchin
asking aims to protect his trembling limbs
from the cold, or satisfy his necessities
against the pinches of hunger, without
bestoWing a thought of who they are,
or wither they come, swarming into our
streets. These beggar children, the with
cred fruits of no lineal tree, gather about
our hotels after meal hours, with baskets
more favored tables than theirs. Sometimes
they are accompanied by their pale and
haggard mothers, pressing sickly infants,
that try in vain to draw nutriment from
sapless bosems. Our landlords are gener-
ous and charitable, and the poor mendi-
cants are seldom sent away with their
wants UNDECIDED. They go away, but the
next day brings the pitiable crowd back
again. And thus these paupers pass the
weeks and months of winter. Do you ask
where they come from? They are sprinkied
throughout the city in promiscGous power
ty and depravity, but they are thickest in
the suburbs. Go with us through certain
localities in the outskirts of our busy city
and we will show you where many of
these same people huddle together, breed,
tester, freeze, st&rve and die, or pass
through the ordeal, dwarfed in body and
mind, to become criminals for our courts
and iails. Some of these we will find on
lower Front street, grouped together in
Easements, abandoned kitchens aud out
houses, destitute entirely of every necessity.
Along Criddle street there are holes and
dens that rival the most beggarly and POI
luted precincts of the New York Five Points
There, in these filthy dens, human beings
grow, breathing with their very vitality
the taints of moral and physical
poison. Skirting the hollows of Lick
Branch we see miserable shanties
into which white, colored and mixed
breeds are indiscriminately crammed,
with nothing to do, nothing to wear
and nothing to eat. On the hillsides be-
vond and to the left of the Nashville aud
Chattanooga depot there are little houses,
in which wretched families breathe, live
and have their being. From these emanate
daily the sufferers OF want coming to the
city to procure the means of keeping soul
aud body together. Out in the direction
of Fort Gillem still worse class, if pos
sible, exists There, in rookeries of the
very worst description, whole families,
mostly females, herd together in the most
squalid wretchedness and bestial depravity.
Their board fences, and in some instances
parts Of the floors, have been burned fer
fuel. There they are, in houses without
windows, lying on rags, and eating what
they can steal or beg. There you see little
girls from seven to twelve trained in all
sorts OF vice and immortality Daily they
are sent to the city to beg for bread. And
thus they are situated. These people must
either beg, steal, or starve. And what does
this argue? Clearly that We need an aims
house, WneTe the NOFthy lDuigenI and
enfeebled could be furnished protection,
and that for the vicious aud more depraved
We need lhouse of refuge, where this class
Of unprotected and uncared for children
could be sent, and learned habits Of dis
cipIine and industry that would rescue
them from lives OF crime and shame, and
prevent society from being Preyed upon
by the worst class Of criminals. Devoutly
may We hope for return Of prosperous
times, when these indispensable wants can
be appropriately considered and supplied.