Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-08
LHEE OF TNE room IN new TOEE

of the Poor Of New York, in the sum
! naer of 1865. It needs no comment. Il
! is the case of FREEDOM VS.. DOMESTIC
] sLAvEBY. Gentlemen Of the jury, we
T submit the case:
A TOUR AMONG THE TENEMENTs.
Several gentlemen connected with the
public press accompanied the weIl-known
city missionary, Mr. Sam'l. B. Halliday,
, through few Of the tenement houses
inhabited by the poor. AS he well says,
single visit of half an hour will bq
more effective than columns Of explana-
ton. The exhibit regarded in 8 sanitary
light is fTightfui, and in q social aspect
is mournful enough. Even now the pol
luting odors seem 10 cling around one.
imbibed in the foul recesses where
hundreds and thousands Of human
beings are doomed TO pass their
lives, Few persons who see New
York as strangers usually see it, from
Broadway, would imagine that within q
thousand yards from its goI geous equip
ages, its crowds of rosy beauties with
their splendid adornments, and its lofty
palaces, exist squalid and wretched how
els. crowded with humanity and preg-
nant with haleful pestilenee IL is diff
cult to find language with which to p0r-
tray the shocking, indecent and mur-
derous places il which large proper
tiou of our population is doomed to live.
Everything must fall short of the truth,
and yet anything will sound like the
exaggerations of fertile pen. We would
urge upon all persons interested in this
subject land, indeed, who is not p per-
sonal inspection.
AN IMPROVED DWELLING.
Right in the center of the city, in the
middle of countless millions Of wealth,
are hundreds of buildings of the follow
ing description The first we visited is
labelled d" Improved Tenement Build
ing.u and true to its title it is an i'm
provement upon many. It is on Park
Street, and is isix stories high. Each
story contains two rooms of about ten by
fourteen feet, with a small, dark, win
dowless bedroom off Of about half that
size. A narrow, dark staircase winds
from top to bottom. In each is
a family OF several persons. All
the cooking is done in the same apart
ment. Ventilation Is impossible from
| the construction of the house. But the
saddest feature of ali Is at the basement.
]
/ name of water closets for the men, wo-
men and children, battles all description,
and would disgrace the worse camp or
prison in the south. This reeking cess
pool situated at the bottom of the chasm
( between two hdge buildings, polsOns all
/ the air that ever passes by the windows.
| They must, of necessity, inhale these
pestiferous odOrs continually. For this
/ privilege these tenants pay from five to
1 six dollars month. Mostly Italians,
they are cleaner and more orderly than
most of their neighb0rs. or course,
/ there is more or less vermin, vice, and
violence, always gravitating to such vile
/ abodes.
THE ABoDEs OF THE POOREST.
/ A second group of frame buildings our
deputation visited contained several Irish
I families Of still lower grade. To reach
I their dwelling it is necessary to pass
under an old stable, and wade over a
I hidden through little open court, when
we climb some riekety stairs. One of
these tenants of single room takes
I dodgers, which she spreads round on the
floor prOmiscuOUsly. The average rent
of these rooms is 81 a month, and in
them may be found sickly, pale, rheumy,
sOre-eyed children, withered old crones,
and occasionally brutal locking man
! We noticed that nearly all had some
attempt at cleanliness inside, but the
overwhelming and surrounding filth out
side made their efforts seem useless and
insignificant.
There is for this whole district, az for
others in the city, absolutely no drain
age. Many of them are without eOnve-
nienees for defecation, or, what is worse,
hauo y7oef1y aaacnool and fi,,r,
of filth, whose Odor permeates every re-
cess. There are 10 sewers to carry off
debris, and the streets are turned into
permanent oloa0a, where every sort of
fecal and putrid matter Is deposited.
Even at-this time df year, the stencil is
overpOwering and ndlOng-enduring. What
it must be in the dog-days is something
too appalling and too horrible to eOntem-
plate. ! asked one of these old women,
Why do you not go TO the country,
where you could live purer and cheaper ?''
4" Sure" was her answer, we wants 10
live with our neigbbors.'' =" Yes" 1 re-
piled, " and die with them"
A REvOLTING SPECTACLE.
Following the lantern of the guide
through dark, damp, noisome and mel
phitic side alleys and passages, we were
successfully led up riekety stairs to more
Of these eheer8cs dwellings, where the
rays Of the sun~cannOt penetrate, where
at MONDAY the fantest streaks of light
enter not, and where no breath of pure
air can possibly reach, we found other
p7Or wretches huddled. Significantly
enough, q coffin warehouse stands at the
entrance of one of the alleys. In one of
these close rooms, where the atmosphere /
was positively sitting, and where the I
lights turned dim, We found half naked /
poor idiot boy, deformed, and with |
vacant face and CLASSY eyes, playing /
with a few chips. Child of some absent, |
lovingrhard-working mother, who sees
in hisI satures some trace of a long I
loved face, he sits summer and winter 4
gasping his few short breaths, but Is evil |
IDENTIFY near his last. There seems to be [
some strange affiliation between poverty /
and dirt. Even if the inhabitants 4
really desired TO be clean and healthy, it /
would be physically impossible SO long !
as they live in these streets and struc- 4
lures. But the great number of them I
seem only to be too contented to live thus. |
or at the best, to be staggered and dis /
heartened at the immensity of the task |
of improving their condition.
A CHERRY STREET BARRCKs.
There are certain general features in /
all this class of dwellings which will in. /
evitably breed disease, and which might ]
be remedied. One dwelling is very much /
like another of the hundreds we saw. /
No doubt we saw some bad specimens, /
but we are assured there are hundreds of 4
them all OUeT the city It ought to De /
more generally known and appreciated, 4
however, that within stones throw of 4
the Office of The Journal Of CUi2izdtion, /
is builing containing over 900 families, /
or over 100 persona, occupying rooms I
not larger tnan an ordinary close E, where .
there Is neither provision for light, I
air, or water; no hope in case of fire,
and where the sun never peers a solitary I
ray. The most astounding aud sieken- /
ing feature Of il "a, however, that the 4
basement le one vast noxious sink. The 4
open closets are unit for anything hu- 1
man, much less for honest women and /
tender children. 1t is absolutely the 1
most shameful and terrible fever breed 4
ing spot we ever saw or dreamed of. 4
The people iphshiting IL, moreover, are 4
evidently OF a class Of laboring people /
who desire 10 live honorably and eleanly /
and virtuously. The only regular vlsi- 4
tors who ever enter their apartments, If |
such they may be called, is the collector /
Vi bAS AEhtf WANA4f @ sway
manitarian, doctor, or an undertaken. |
THE PEsTILENcE CHARTS.
Many persons will be apt to read these I
lines with shrug of satisfaction, In the l
reflection that these spectacles are only /
exceptions, and that of the very worst I
character. 1t is necessary to inform I
them that nearly seventy per cent. of the I
population of this island is living Ia ten I
ement houses, nearly half of it living in I
houses where there Is no adequate pro- I
vision for light, air, health and morals. /
The following figures taken officially 1
three years since land it has not i'm
proved in the lapse) will enable the |
reader to appreciate the magnitude of |
this evil. In twenty of the twenty-five /
wards there are SO, ,532 dwellings, accom- |
modating lis, 800 families. Only 1880 |
occupied an entire house, and 7lSl were
occupied by two families, 44l6 by three I
families, the remaining II ,965 dwellings /
from four to ninety-four families each I
In the first ward s49 families live in 55 !
houses, or 20 souls to each.
In the tenth ward 1881 are dwelling in 1
73 houses, or about so souls to each.
In the eleventh ward the average of /
tenements is seven families to a house
Il3 of these rear houses contain 1858 fam /
lilies; "a contain 407 families, or over 50 |
persons to each.
In the fonrteentb ward 5I5 houses con-