Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-12-17
"IIow do We cit up ?n 1 asked

GLOW do ye git up ?" asked
AT this junctu-e | was unexpectedly ask
ed to sit down and warm myself, which |
did, and, while the question of Mike and the
attic was under discussion, looked about
me.
The room was small, and was crowded
with men and women, oil of whom, includ-
ing the women, were smoking pipes, whose
yillainous fumes, mingled with those of a
tin pail of gin that stood upon the table,
filled the apartment. There was another
small opening from this, In which could
see a bed. Five other beds were in the
room where sat. In one corner was an
idiotic boy, busiy sucking the fingers of a
| filthy hand. Exerting myself to be agreea-
bic, soon succeeded in getting into con-
yersation with an old man of seventy or
eighty, who jocularly assured me that all
| these women here were his wives.
San who is this Mike yer wantin I"
'Why don't ye know yer neighbors n
said l.
"Ah! ye're blatherin,' sure. Thin boys
| as shapes up in the attic, comes wan day an
goes off the next. How would know EN- ?"
The attic Of Binker's Hole is occupied
every night by 'gonlffs, (young thieves)
who sleep on the floor in lieu Of better
place. 1t is also favorite hiding -place for
| thieves whom the police are after. Often
while the officer is coming up the stairway,
| the thief will lift board in the floor and
drop down to the apartment underneath,
the occupant of which, be he man or woman,
is sure to aid the criminal to escape. In
desperate cases the offender has been known
to jump from the open windows to the
ground below, at the risk of being killed by
the fall.
Notwithstanding the GOODNESS of my re-
cepti0n when entered, the company, for
some reason, manifested reluctance to have
| me leave the room But got away finally
and found my companion, who had remain
ed outside, was just on the point of getting
| a policeman TO come and look after me. We
| proceeded to the entrance nearer the street
where is the stairway leading into the attic.
| This entrance is little else than ragged
hole in the wall, the bricks having crumbled
| away on either side of the original doorway.
| Near by ii | observed window looking on
the court, in which there were few bits Of
sash remaining, but not single pane of
glass. An old copy of the New York Ledg-
| or was stretched over this window, which
was so small that the newspaper could
doubly cover it, The door was with but
one hinge, and could no. be shut tight, so
that the wind and snow skurrried in upon
the wretchcd occupants. Occupants? Yes,
IN the darkness there sat n man and
/
table coal hole-and we could hear them
talking in low tones, sitting by a feeble fire,
without lamp or candle
| But In the attic there is a parallel case of
| sQnalor The attic is not wholly occupied
by those city nomads the "gonills
are here to-day and there to-mofrow-have
plenty of money on one day, when they
dine sumptuc usly at q cheap restaurant,
visit tn. Bowerv theatre at night, and sleep
in gorgeous thirty cent lodging house, on
the next day go hungry for the want of a
dime to huy '.coilee and cakes" with, and
''bunk down" in some dry goods box, or
upon the attic floor Of Bilker's role! They
have no monopoly of these premises, it
| seems.
Here is family of four persons-a man,
his mother, his wife and his child-who ac-
tually dt0el in this attic. There is no pro-
lection at the hole where the window should
be, except an old shawl, that flutters and
shakes in the fierce wind to night. There
is no stovepipe hole either, but there is a
small cook k-stove, the pipe of which belches
out it's smoke into the attic, to wander where
II will. There are no chars, no bedsteads,
no "luxuries" of any sort. What is there,
then?
There are, besides the stove, straw mat
trass, without sheet or pillow; small
array of Clipped and cracked dishes on n
rude shelf; miserable table -and the occu-
pants. They have u light, at least A fire
sheds cheerful blaze upon the wretched
group. Their pipes outsmoke that OF the
stove. They are conversing, unconscious of
our gaze and never shall forget the pecu-
liar feeling that ran through me as the older
woman removed her pipe from her lips,
knocked out its ashes against the stove, and
said, with most expressive shiver;
"Ah. pities them as has to be out in the
storm such a night as this!
O, wonderful humanity! where is the
heart in which 1t is ever crushed out utterly
This hag, from whose lips oaths dropped as
if she had been born to them, whose hideous
face was Scared with the lines of vice, could
look gu, of such utter squalor as this with q
plying thought upon the homeless night
| Wardprpr!