, 1874-02-22
Attempt to Pack 400 Persons in One
Room.
Nc Ventilation, No Bathing,
Nothing but Vermin.
Women and Hen Equally squalid and
Wretched.
The SlcK and the Sound Living Side b5
Side.

biue.
1e Vretched Meals, and How Thsy Are Eaten
It is the proud boast Of the people of the West
that, whatever may be their faults growing or
Of sudden successful growth almost immeasur.
tbls by anything in the worlds history, We
ha,e cAught no spirit Of meanness, and cannot
be charged with inhumanity or an ungenetou,
trait. There are none Of us, in fact. but would
resent. Is personal indignity, an imputatiou
ppon our common honor and generosity. It is
usual with us to believe that cur hearts and
hands arc ever open to distress, and that kind
ness, untnsed By critical or suspicious re-
qai1enent, is one Of the qualities to which we
nay Justly lay claim. Indeed, rs Chicagoaus,
"a have accepted benefact1ous freely. even
proudly, in the consciousness tl1at tho noble
sentiment that inspired the donors was ono COM
non to our own hearts, sud that we would re-
peat towards our fellow-nen when occasion
offered.
Aside from this inferential proof that charity
ahideth With Us, We also have the direct remem-
trance Of actige deeds which need not be alluded
ognized By al, that. IS we aspire to present to
tEe world civilization as vigorous rs young
manhood, We boast that it is fetterod by no small
Eice oz mesuness, and, haying,,read the 1esson Of
how the mother countries hare oppressed the
poor and INDECENT. haYc bound little children to
fTes Of underground slavery, ind have tortured
the limbs OF the insane by shackles, and penned
the poor together like herds Of cattle, It has
been the common resolve that no such blot
zhou1d mar our fair picture, or NJ Buch ah ame
be branded upon our history. The manner Of
treating the desolate and oppressed. and the
been conceded to 10 the test by 1h1ch our hn-
msoity and civilization may be measured, xnd
pride is felt that, in this particular this country
has set IN example to Ill the world.
It ls needless to say that the people Of this
city haVo shown an honorable rivalry in the
Fork Of benevoleuce alluded to, and, in giving
The particulars which follow, it is believed that
tho condition IN which our most prominent
ehazitJ-namely, the County Poor-House-is
found il due, not to n intention TO rival the
days Of the Inquisition AID throw the gloom Of
the Dark Ages over any mans life, but comes
s1ther from ignorance OF the state OF affairs
which c1ista and which need but to be exposed
sa bring Al ample reparation and improvement.
TIE FoLICE-ETAT1oN.
In other yeare, the place where the greatest
viewed, ras the South Side Police-Station. In
nocance did not often ind its unwilling WAY
there; it vas the Temporary zbode Of criminals
Ind the repulgive scenes Of tho AImory did not
excite the same horror that We would feel in
looking At the sorrows OF those who were pau
pe1s, and not aw-brecke1s. It is not pleasant
to think that the discouaforts which made
nights stay at the Armo-y 30 intolerable should
to exceeded in many respects BY those at the
Poos-Houae, and get, as the following state
men, will show, such is pnhappiy the case.
Let ua compare the two:
SCENES B1 euoHr.
After the FIRE the South Side Police
Station wag in frame addition to the Jones
S>hool, situated Oh Harrison street. near
ClAk. Through its utter xottenness and
impreenation with damp this frame
addition survived the fire. and WAS Immediately
converted into = poice-station. It was sm all
md filthy and fairly swarmed with INSECT Life.
The quarters for the men were miserable, Tor
the prisoners little better. The lookup con-
tanned fur or five celia and small corridor,
aad into this we're compact1y squeezed the ao-
eucaulation OF niscreauta captured between
Saturday st noon and Monday morning. How
shey managed to live though those wretched
hours nobody can tell but themselves. The
practice Of raiding houses of ll-fame Was then
tu1y in vogue, and sometimes ten or dozen Of
these wretcned dives would b 'tpulled," and
the inmates carried OF to the etation-house.
The special-baiI system Was not working, and
sometimes as many as sixty women aud sevontJ-
i've men we're packed away In these narrow
quarters for thirty-six hours, breathing N IT.
notphese whicn would have Killed most people.
1odesty forbade the commiDgiing Of the se1es
IN the corridor, and the miserable character OF
the accommodations prevented any very coDafor-
table arrangement. The alternative Was that
the one sex should occupy tho cells, while the
other roamed at large in the small corridor.
Hence the men, sometimes seyenty-dTe in NUM-
BEL, were densely packed in these ive cells,
HnlA the women we're left to gather W1AL