Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-01-10
THE DARK SIDE OF CITY LIFE.


The Number and Condition Of the Poe
: in Cineinnati-Neglected Children
The Children's Home and its WOr
Among the POOr-A Touching Inei
dent-Pr0Tidential Care and Al
prOTal Of the WOrk-What th
Country May Do for the Poor OF tn
| City.
/ To the Editor Of the Chronicle -
cannot doubt that many of you
readers will be deeply interested il
learning something Of the numbe
and circumstances of the poor of thi
city. Cincinnati has a very larg
class of poor people; more, probably
than any other city in the country il
proportion to its population; certainl.
more, If We except New York. Dur
ing q residence OF nearly ten years il
Chicago / made il constant habit I,
| observe the condition OF the poor, anC
since my sojourn in Cincinnati havt
been particularly impressed with thu
difference between the number anC
circumstances of this class OF peopl;
in the two cities. Not but there arr
persons in Chicago whose condition
IS very miserable; wherever there art
three thousand liquor saloons in
active operation in the midst of s
population Of three hundred thousand
people, as in Chicago before the fire
there is sure to be much want, suffer
ing and vice.
The difference, however, in the
character and situation Of the two
places has much to do with the con-
dition Of the poor, who cannot deter
mine for themselves how and where
they will live, but are obliged to take
up with such accommodations as they
can find. In Chicago there were very
few tenement houses, but the greater
part of the poor were scattered widely
over the city in small houses, many
of them in cottages Of their own,
erected at small expense on leased
ground; while in Cincinnati nearly
all of the poor people are quartered in
small, close rooms in some one of the
third, fourth, or even fifth, stories or
cellars Of our large tenement houses.
Chicago has infinite room to spread
out in on three sides, the street car
placing a cheap home within the
reach of all. Cincinnati is more cir
cumscribed by natural barriers, and
it is thus obliged to build more COM
pactly and into the air.
1t may not generally be known that
Cincinnati is more densely populated
than any city in the country. the
population here being about thirty
six thousand to othe square mile. New
VnrI- IL ahouf fIfrfv fu-o fN,,,c,,,d
while Chicago, before the fire, could
not have exceeded half of that num-
ber, or only about sixteen thousand
to the square mile.
There are in Cincinnati about
fourteen hundred tenement houses,
containing about sixteen thousand
rooms, in which are domiciIed ten
thousand families, aggregating be-
tween forty and fifty thousand persons.
There are between four and five
thousand families in this city occupy
ing only one room each, and aggregat-
ing from sixteen to twenty thousand
persons. In few extreme cases, two
and sometimes three families are
crowded into one small room, and
there, as may be imagined, the
and misery are utterly
lndescribable.
1t is impossible in such a state of
things as this, but that there should
be great poverty and suffering. No
mere description can do justice to the
wreschedness of these dwellings.
They must be experienced to be
There is always in the
growing cities of this country q sort OF
border land between business and
residence property, which, owing to
the near encroachment of business,
has become undesirable as place of
abode for the rich, and is not yet
required by the demands Of trade, and
is consequently surrendered to the
poor OF all classes. This is particularly
true of Cincinnati. The line is dis
tinctly marked, and forms a perfect
moral slough, as easily traceable as
those low, marshy streaks which are
an eyesore and annoyance to many
farmers. Dwellings which were once
the homes of the rich and respectable,
and graeed with all that taste and
culture could suggest to render them
are now the filthy abOdes
IF thieves and harlots and resOund
with midnight orgies and drunken
revels.
By far the saddest feature of the
condition of the poor is the presence
Of neglected children, who fairly
swarm everywhere.
Our late esteemed friend, Mr.. CIV.
who was so prominently
engaged in connection with the Relief
Union Of this city, says .o
"At one tenement house l made an
Effort to count the children at play in
he yard, but after reaching as high
Is rs missed count, and gave 1t up
Is too difficult task. In conversation (
With one of the mothers, she said she
hougkt there were about 225 children |
belonging to the premises"
To rescue and shelter some OF these /
he practical hberality Of our age I
las established different institutions, /
prominent among which may he /
THE CHILDREN'S HOME,
low located at $50 West Third street. /
This Institution is chartered under
he laws Of the State Of Ohio, and is
eeking to carry out those beneficent
provisions of the statute which look
Oward the rescue and reformation OF
hildren who would otherwise become
ubjeets for the expensive and degrad-
ng discipline 0f our jails and the
Notwithstanding the
loble efforts of our Board of State
Iharities to rescue those institutions
rom their purely penal character,
nd give them more the character of
1t gathers up such
hildren Us have no suitable care
akers, and adopts them rs its own,
D that they become thereafter the
YaTds of The HONE. 1t does not look
oward keeping them altogether in
be institution, however, for any great
sngth of time; but, acting on the
elief that home presided over by
'hristian woman is the most natural
nd healthful condition in which q
hild can be placed, they are taken,
5 soon as practicable, to good country {
ONES, among Christian people. An
Is entered into between
Ulcers Of The HOME and the person
children requiring that they
nall be properly cared for in every
-ay, body, mind, and spirit, and
Ilowed, on attaining their majority,
Ich sum OF money as the circum- !
snces of the case may seem to i
arrant, varying from one hundred {
I'D fifty to two hundred and fifty
pillars. The rules of THE HOME {
.quire that reports shall be received
ON all children at least four times |
ear, and that every child shall be
ISifad I'm ifs home at least Onpa a 7