Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-09-26
Ths Hidden Sights Of New York.

L We turned into Five Points, and went
into some of the lodging houses.
Think of thirteen persons crouched
in one small room, without a wiHdow
or any hole but the door. Male and fe-
male, black and white, little children
all bundled in heap together on the
dirty straw. The air was like a pest
house. One glance was emo ugh i; one
taste of that air will last Lifetime. 1t
was cheap lodging place. Cheap, in
deed, It was-and nasty Pc unding at
one door for admission brought out a
comely looking black woman. Rouse
up your husband, l must see him." said
the detective. The husband came; he
was white man. "They have lived to :
Qether as man and wife over two years.,
he said to me afterwards, "and they get
along first-rate
Here was a place where children lived.
Two or three rooms in battered old
shanty that shook with every step across
its floors. The children were homeless
ones, fatherless and motherless, turned
out to live or die, as might be, in the
streets Of careless, needless New York
Here they come to sleep, paying the old
uhk WuO OOu1 oiA CtuL6 u
By day they trsmped the city, getting a
living in any way they could best. They
were huddled around the room in scanty,
dirty blankets, and kept warm by a
wretched stove, glowing feebly in one
corner. Most of them were boys, none
over twelve years; wedged in with them,
though, were some hungry looking girls,
in whose faces the hard lines of want and
sickness and privation were growing al
ready. 1t made me beartsick to look at
them-lonely little straysl Poor mother
less thingsl May His infinite love and
mercy forget them notl
Down in a cellar was q gang of rag
pickers. They were getting ready for
work, aud, with hook and basket, would
soon be out over the city, working at
their business. Piles of rags, bones,
offal, broken iron, filed the place, save
where a few articles of furniture stood.
They were Italians, and not disposed to
be socable. One had his bed luxu-
riously arranged on pile Of old carpet
rags, which we're damp and noisome with
the mud Of the streets. These rsg-pick
ers manage to make money 10 their
dirty way they save it too, and one Of
these years they will go home to their
country and erjoy 1t. The women work
as hard as the men, live as roughly, have
no shame or decency about sexual mat
ters, and are as strong limbed. / asked
the age Of one of the women, who
seemed rather more disposed to
talk than the others She was
thirty one. should have said fifty. She
had not one trace Of youth eft-a hard,
westher-beaten face, a body bent and
unhinged, slow, plodding step, and
wrinkles coming. She had been in New
York seven years-all the time rag
picker. Had she got rich enough to go
bsck7 Rich enough and she smiled.
II have two children in Italy that my
money is educating. They don't know
their poor mother, poor dears, but ] shall
work hard for them, and sometime will
70 back TO see them This woman car
ried a bag and 6shed in cutters and re
fuse barrels from 4 o'clock in the morn
ing till past sunrise, came home aud
sorted rags aud offal al day in close,
damp cellar; and yet there was a tender,
romantic sentiment Ia her life, which |
made her look not to herself, bat 10 Der |
little ones May she have Der wish. and
20 back to themi- Ncp York cor
rcspoHdence Of fhc Providence Press