Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1876-03-03
New YORK, Feb. 90, 1876

HOW THE POOR LIVE.
A friend lately had a delinquent washer
woman, and not finding excuses as satls-
factory as shirts, set ou. with me to hunt
the clothes, than to see for ourselves how
the poor i've. Her address was narrow
street Of dozen blocks, in the heart OF
down town, and there was not decent
building in it. The pavements were strewn
with garbage, and the houses stained with
slops thrown from the windows. The
woman was in crazy old wooden teue-
ment in the rear Of the one fronting on the
street, aud in consequence had just as lit
tie air and light as it would do to live.
We found her in a room ten by twelve,
with bed, washtub, cook-stO and boil
er in the corners, leaving just room to
worm ones way between them. Her
grown son and little girl sal on the bed ;
there was DO chair, aud string OF wet
clothes hung above their heads. For this
room and closet for the boy to sleep in,
she paid eight dollars month rent, her
whole means Of living being her sons wa
ges as boy in grocery store, at four dol
lars a week, the washing from one family,
and trife of help from her daughter, who
got two dollars and fifty cents q week as
waitress in an uptown house. Instead OF
making way with the clothes, as we sup
posed, we found her husband had been
sick with fever, and the doctor had forbid
den her 10 send any clothes out OF the
house. The air could not get through the
house, the drains were out OF order, and
the stencil in the entries was So sickeDing
that We were not surprised to hear that
there was dipht he ria and small-p0x in the
block. The man had been sent to the hos
pital to die, and the house cleaned and
disenfected by the board of health, but it
could hardly be kept clean by mortal
hands, and never healthy. Comfort
These people never expect that. All they
Can hope tor is the barest possible liie-so
bare and naked that a full meal is some
thing TO be dated from, and the possession
oI:a dollar a matter TO be remembered.
And the end of that life: The hospita!
first, and Potter's field atterward. That's
all there is about it,
THE PROFITS OF TENEMENT PROPERTY.
Passing block Of ruinous buildings on
in street by the river, | asked the owner
why he didn't tear it down, and build
something decent. lie told me, laughing
the notion to scOru, that such property
was the most profitable in tho city. 1t
cost nothing TO keep it in repair, for he
never made any repairs, and it was divided
into lodgings, twelve feet square, or. few
twelve by eighteen, and they we're always
full There was no loss of rent, for the
money was always demanded in advance,
and if by the next month the tenant was
unable to pay, the agent bundled HIM out
in the street, and there were always plenty
fam tltDS N
Fifth avenue who have incomes sixty
thousand year, from just such property,
and they want no better. What a horrld
contrast between the fastidiOus member OF
a fashionable club who rolls down TO his
Office in his coupe, OF a morning, from his
luxurious, picture hung home in the bright
wide uptown street, and the fever scented
dens where poverty y-stIicken wretches toll
their lives away, to earn the price OF his
luxuries When will Moody and Sankey
labor, that mems hearts may be soltened
toward their kind and take for their text,
Your gold is corrupted, and your riches
are moth-eaten.'
JAY GOULD AND THE TRIBUNE.
That Jay Gould did get n controlling in
terest in the New York Tribune. everybody
believes, and that he is sick of his bargain
every body also believes. Jay Gould ls n
tremendous man, but he is not altogether
infalliable. He wanted big paper in his
control that he might manipulate the stack
market, and he took advantage of tn tr u
BILE that followed the death of Mr.. Greeley
to gobbIe the Tribune, or enough oi its stock
to have an influence in it, the idea being
that he could have this stock written up,
or that one written down, and thereby put
money IN his purse. But the thing didn't
work Mr.. Reid did not yield to the be-
hests of the stock king, and the Tribune did
not become mere instrument in his hands
And now Gould wants to get out. The
speculation did not pay as well as Wall
Street-in fact it did not pay at all, for him
He did not want newspaper stock unless
he could use it to help other stocks, and
when the Tribune would not do that, his
interest was at an end. Therefor Reid
gets rid of his stencil, and the Tribune,
freed from the odium that attaches to the
very name of Gould, will get back its place
in the hearts of the people. The Tribune
was a great power, and now that it is to