Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-03-11
once plunge with him into the
GATES of He'll .,,,.
The "Gates of Helr' was the pop


1eorner rum shop, situated on th'
6rth. west corner of Paradis,
hare and Paradise Square is thu
= Anne given in riockery to the oper
space enclosed by the streets who's,
junction and crossing form the Five
Points.
This notorious den was for year;
about the worst plague spot in New
York-being even worse than th,
"Wickedest Mans" dance house
In it the most fiery fluids wer,
quafed; in it drunken and drngge,
victims were robbed and murdered
and in the rooms above it, and OF
the, sidewalks on either. front of it
and in the alley by the side of it ant
in the rear of it, such scores O
reekins vice, and red-hot wicked
ness, and putrid degradation wer'
every night enacted, as neither per
nor tongue should be permitted tt
set forth.
We remember, on one occasion n
when Judge Mclean, of the United
States Supreme Coult, with til,
Hon. Stephen A. Douglass ane
other magnates from ashlngton
being on visit to New York, ane
wishing to see the metropolitan
elephant" were taken on a tour
through the Five Points.
1--WE want TO see the very worst YOU ca,
show U.S." said Judge Mclean
YES" said Mr.. Douglas. putting mis- cigar
haunts; and if you can also show US a few
terri = el
Crossing the City Hall Park from the Astol
House. (where the sight-secrs were stopping,
We struck into City Hall Place and made oul
way to the Five Points Arriving there, VIZ
Hrst turned into the Old Brewery; then en-
tered che Den of Thieves; then strollcd thro
Murderers' Alley; then came out upon Para
dise Square, and passing around this noted
triangle (fcr the square is a trianglcD we soon
Drought up in the Gates of Hell Up to this
time nothing particularly wicked or scanda.
lous had been seen. but the Gates be ing filled
with yagabonds of both sexes, of the lowest
Five Points type, the distinguished visitors
began TO think that the elephant himself
coold not be very far of They were right
After coming out of the Gates of He'll upon
the sidewalk, on the side fronting Paradise
square, we had walked buta little way along
fark street when we came plump upon such
scenes Of de6auchery. transpirng there in
thea moonlight, as made Judge Mclean
actually sick. He paused, and putting one
hand upon his stomach, said:
tive seen enough. l can't stand this. Let
us go back to the hotel.'' a
No Que dissenting from this suggestion, we
all set out for the Astor House.
Mr.. Douglass smoked in silence, we
walked along, until we entered the City Hall
Park, when. taking the cigar from his mouth,
he said: -
Never before could 1 believe in the de-
baucheries charged upon the Romans during
the period Immediately preceding the fall of
the Empire; but from this night shall be
and degradation"
Not so horrible, but far more sad than the
vice and infamy which clustered around this
spot, were the poverty and suffering OF the
honest and virtuous, and In some cases the re-
lined people who had been stranded there by
the, storms of life. One of the most pitiful
in u room Immediately over the Gates of He'll
when the writer and Mr.. Van Meter were
showing stranger some of the haunts of
vice and abodes OF poverty which abound in
As We were fumbling along low, dark
passage, we came to a door, and opening it at
u venture, We came upon a scene which trans
hxett us in astonishment and sympathy.
We found ourselves in a room about eight
feet by ten in size. and with a ceiling SO low
thAt.w could not stand upright beneath it.
One small window opened into narrow
space between this and the adjoining build
ing, into which, from the windows on every
o
thrown, until the space had been turned into
Il reeking cesspool.
On the ledge of the open window (for it was
warm day. stood hPs1tbseg tbsrs fransrormod
" sickly rose bush. which, having no sunli ght,
could not blossom into flowers.
The husband, so close upon death with con-
sumption that he eould not even whisper an
articulate syllable was sitting bare bed.
The wife, a weak, hump p-backed little crea-
ture, with the face and the air of saint, was
sfu n a. n a coffin
lay the corpse of her babe, that day deceased.
a. the child's head diminutive candle was
burning, while its waxen, transparent hand
cIdsped sprfg of mint, placed there by the
mother. ,-~
Moved by a common impulse, as we discov-
cred this scene, We uncovered our heads and
stood silent.
The parents recognized our respectful sym
pathy; and the father, unable to speak, point
ed first to the corpse of his babe and then to-
wards heaven.
After time we drew from the woman their
story. Strangers in the city (and in the coun
ten with incurable disease, the wife feeble and
Obliged to eXpend what little strength she
had in attendance upon her husband and her
babe, and unwilling to beg, they had filtered
down through society to its very dregs, land
ing at last in that horrible room, where the
child had died, where the husband was dying
and where he did die three days afterwards.
Two nights before our visit, robbers had en-
tered their room and stripped them OF nearly
every thing, even of their bedding, which the
from under the helpless and speechless hus-
band, as he lay upon his couch Of death.
Laying some money, unperceived. upon a
shelf we turned to depart, when the wife
pIucked us each a spray from her rose bush in
the window, and gracefully presenting them
politely bowed us from the room.
The pitinble condition of this family was
mlde Known to the Ladies' Home Mission
near by; from which they received such as
sistance US their necessities required, What
became of the wife after the death of her hus-
band we never learned.
On another occasion, right on the opposite
s ide of Paradise Square in Baxter street, and
feet long; which was lighted by one small
window tw enty three persons were found on
u hot night in August. or,.
Two Of these persons were negroes, three
were negresses, and two were Cinnamon.
Then of the adults were women and seven
were men, and the children in tn. cellar num-
one little girl was lying, entirely naked, on
an old coat on the hearth. A whiteheaded old
woman, crunk. to idiocy, was hanging on the
mantel piece. Another woman, white and
III dyged, was lying on the floor drunk, with her
head in drunken negro's lap, and the negro
was sitting on the floor with his back leaning
against the wall.
An aged man had wilted down under the
influence of rum and was piled in helpless
heap in one corner. A robust woman was Sit
tingson stool, in the middle of the cellar
holding n stone jar of whisky in her lap, from
which she occasionally took sup, and at her
feet was her baby, in an old willow basket,
dying with the typhus fever
The other adult inmates of the cellar were
sitting and lying about on the floor in the
freedom and abandonment of utter demorali-
zation-sOme asleep and some awake and
nearly all OF them drunk.
Out of that room, on the morning Of that
day, three corpses had been carried of per-
sons who had died of cholera, for those were
cholera days; and we were informed that i've
cholera corpses were carried from the same
room three mornings afterwards.
" We do not expect, in this 'Bird's-eye View
of the ss5nady Side of New York Life,'' to be
able<kgiye the reader arealizing sense OF the
norr0fs which exist around us on every side
but We hope to achieve something in that line.
xnd we especially hope and pray tn at we may
be able to reach his heart and stir his sympa-
thies In behalf Of the thousands of destitute
aud outcast children who are perishing in our
midst. Is there heart that will not be touch