The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-07-22

TIE Board OF HeaIsh and che Tensnsus
A number Of families have just been re-
moved from the hve-story tenement house In
Cherry street called Gotham court, in order
that 1t might undergo disinfsction and fumi "a
ton. This den surpasses In 9th and wrstched-
ness the dirtiest cellar in the Seven Dials. It
is huge towering pile, five stories high, and
every avenue or corridor running through 1t II
as foul Is vulcan's stithy and every breath Of
air to be found under its roof is tainted
and rendered thick with foul poisons. Yet
here children were being reared, and men and
women existed, and even chung to their rank
sty rs If they enjoyed happiness and health
there, when the health officers came to take
them out of 1t. This Gotham court Is probably
the most noisome tenement house In the city,
and yet to some degree, and in many instances
to degree almost Is replete with disease and
foulness, every tenement house in the city par
takes of the worst and most deadly characters
tics Of this Gotham court.
There are 10000 tenement houses 10 New
York city, and in these fully half million
people are crowded; but some of them are Of
sort that deserve some better name than that
of tenements. Some of them are inhabited BY
only three or four families-the families Of
mechanics and skilled workmen, whose in
comes permit them, by close saving, to live In
fats and take care, to some extent Of tho
health and morals Of their children by keep
ing them out of the dirtier crowds Of tenement
house families, and yet will not allow Of
their living altogether to themselves or
in the cleaner thoroughfares devoted
especially to millionnaires. These are
not, however, majority of the tenement
houses. The greater portion of them are
huge barracks, Uttered all over with dirt aua
fostering Humanity, something like the plague
spot that is called Gotham court. There arc
two hundred and ninety -four thousand persons
living in such as these in New York city,
according to the report Of the Board Of Health.
The death rate. taking the average of all these.
is seven per cent per annum, Wills the rate Of
social destruction-crime engendered by tho
pestilent associations among the mass--is be-
yond calculation. 1t is probable that seven
tenths Of all the crimes committed In New
York city-the murders and burglaries and
those other demoralizing crimes that are
Included in beggary and prostitution-spring
from the training of tenement houses. From
these also spring the foul gases that make our
epidemics, the seeds Of infection that produos
cholera and fevers, the deadly blights that
main and degrade the children Of our very
poor.
As the great evil Of the metropolis the tene.
ment house system calls for some immediate
and great remedy. The action Of the Board
Of Health will not cure the evil any more than
it will permanently cure Gotham court. 1t
will give that place slight scrubbing, which
1t will have forgotten in week. There needs
something more than partial disinfectants.
There Is required some means Of attracting the
wretches in these dens to other localities. II
ia thought that the viaduct Railway and the
numerous other rapid transit schemes, BY
which tho poorest Of our populace may con-
trive to 60 farther away from the busy marts.
may effect change for the better In the
matter, but 1t is change that will hardly DO
noticeable. Until North and East River are
bridged ct every cross street of the city, and
the great barriers of water that now circum-
scribe the limits Of the metropolis are substaa-
TALLY removed, the wretchedly poor Of the
city must herd together like wild beasts for
the bare maintenance of life.