Connecticut western news., 1876-01-28

ihropist to COnsider---Scenes Among the
 Very Destitute.
 As general rule, two-thirds of the community, or at least that portion who have comfortable bed to sleep in and three square meals 8 day, are not fla miiar with the fearful pictures of pov- erty, in every shape and form, which the journalist or those whose business takes them almost everywhere, daily en- counter. It would seem startling to tell the average New Yorker that as many as seventy persons, of both sexes, oc- cupy alone double tenement garret on Mulberry street. And when one is told that thirty-two families, averaging four to each, reside in a four story tenement on Bayard street, he is apt to be sur prised. Such, however, is the fact. In Cherry, Park, Water, Oak, Roosevelt, Baxter, Vandewater, Mulberry, Mott, Thompson, Sullivan, Greenwich, Wash ington, and hundreds of other streets, the reader, if he chooses to investigate the matter, will find every building crowded, while small, damp cellars over flow with tenants, all of them unfit .or even pig. In garret on Thompson street a reporter found poor woman, with sick child in her arms, lying upon bed of rags. Her husband went out seven months ago in search of employ ment and has not returned yet. Save the rags, which are unclean, she has no bed clothing, and the first thing noticed on entering were crust of bread and 8 fragment of dried fish, half hidden in the recesses of an otherwise empty closet. No other food had been in the house in four days. Neither in all that time had fire been lighted there. All alone with her sick child, cold and hun gry, and perhaps praying for death as 8 relief from tortures almost uncomfortable, she had kept her vigil, dreading the ap- proach of day and fearing the coming of night.
 On Vandewater street, in front base ment, were found family without food, without furniture, sleeping on the floor with such articles of covering as their neighbors can spare them. Such ar engagements have certain disaavantages. On warm nights their neighbors smother them with kindness, and on cold nights their offerings are very. scanty. The united ages of the younger half of this family give 8 sum total of four years. In the back basement woman has been sick in her bed for the past twelve months. With death from starvation as well as from disease staring her in the face she cannot move, and has to be helped in and out of bed by passers by, whom she can call to her aid.
 As the reporter was passing by an alley-way on Mulberry street, leading back to number of filthy tenements, he saw woman-a ragpicker, perhaps bending over a wee mite of shivering humanity that stood half hidden in the shadow. A little girl, foully clad, whose pale face took more ghastly hue from the quivering gaslight across the pave ment.
 "Cheer up, cushla; sure yer dada may be alive an doin' well hrndthred years from now; Lord save his sowl. Oh, darlint, don't ye cry, sure; it's only the long fastin' he have been goin' through wid, that wakeued him outright. The Guild docther Il be here soon, and yell see how bowld and sthrong he'll be wid Whist, now; here's a pinny; it's livery frighthen the divil out of me pocket"
 "Is there sickness here2" inquired the reporter, as he caught the old woman's words.
 "Sure there is, sir; this child's father, MT. Murphy, sir, is we'll nigh gone. Sure, eff ye'd see the cellar they live in ye'd not wonder; it's no more nol the bre'th of yer across. an three or four yards long, an the wet creeps in."
 "Have they no fre3"
 els it fire, yer honor9 No; nather fire nor food, an they sleep on the bare boords for want of bed. We'll mind them comin' here-a nice, dacent, re- spectable family-but the sickness come, an when he couldn't work he had to lave his rooms an sell their furniture an crawl in here to the cellar. It's a pity to see thim here; but, more's the shame, they're not the only vans in Park sthreet. An! here comes the docthur an man wid basket" and, gathering up the weeping child, the old woman led the way through an alley, down few steps into dingy subterranean abode, heavy with fetid gases and with moist ure, and she pushed open crcaking door, revealing 8 fearful picture of poverty. There was no fire in the place, and the only light came from tallow candle. Not vestige of furniture was anywhere to be seen, and lying in g. corner, covered by tattered quilt, lay the father of the child. The hand of death was already upon him, disease having beaten down one by one every brrrier that naturally vigorous consti- tuition had presented to it's encroach- ments. Driven at last to this dark cor ner of wretched underground abode, the wreck and skeleton of man was giving up the ghost. York Paper.