The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-01-20
THE POOR OF A CITY.

How they Live, aud Facts for the Philnn-
thropist TO Consider---Scones among the
Very Destitute.
AS a general rule, two thirds of the
community, or at least that portion who
have n comfortable bed to sleep in and
three square meals day, are not fa-
miliar with the fearful pictures of pow
erty, in every shape and form, which
the journalist or those whose business
takes them almost everywhere, daily en-
counter. 1t would seem startling to tell
the average New Yorker that as many
as seventy persons, of both sexes, oc-
cupy alone a double tenement garret on
Mulberry street. Aud when one is told
that thirty-two families, averaging four
to each, reside in 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 lor
even pig. In garret on Thompson
Oult6b ItpCIbcI pun MoLlhly
with a 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 q crust of bread and
fragment of dried fish, half hidden in
tho recesses of an otherwise empty
.1ngot al Lal l1nn,, -, +l,
house in four days. Neither in all that
time had fire been lighted there. All
alone with her sick child, cold and hun
cry, and perhaps praying for death as a
relief from tortures almost unendurable,
she had kept her vigil, dreading the ap
proach of day and fearing the coming of
night.
On Vandewater street, in a front base
ment, were found family without food,
without furniture, sleeping on the floor
with such articles of covering rs their
noighbors can spare them. Such ar
rangements have certain disadvantages.
On warm nights their neighbors smother
them with kindness, and on cold nights
their offerings are very scanty. The
family give q sum total of four years.
LII tllC DdCh IL bcCh
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 a number of filthy tenements, he
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 CHASTITY hue from
the quivering gaslight across the pave
ment.
"Cheer up, cushla; sure yer dada may
he alive an doin' well hundthred 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
wild, that wakened him outright. The
Guild docther II be here soon, and yell
see how bowld and sthrong he'll be wild
his ill of bullyyon, as they calls it.
one have, an was keepin' it jist to
frighthen the divil out of me pocket"
"Is there sickness here 2" inquired
Oile IePol1SI, uS hS cauSut WIG olu
woman's words.
"Sure there is, sir; this child's father,
Mr.. Murphy, sir, is well nigh gone.
Sure, ef ye'd see the cellar they live in
ye'd not wonder; it's no more noi the
brc'th of yer across, an three or four
yards long, an the wet creeps in"
"Have they no fire 2"
"Is it fire, yer honor! No; nather
o1, l>o,
boords for want of bed. Well 1 mind
them comm here-a nice, dacent, re-
spectacle 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 pity to
see thin here; but, mores the shame,
they're not the only vans in Park
sthreet All here comes the docthul
an man wild 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
IRE, and she pushed open a crcaking
door, revealing 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 O
corner, covered by tattered Guilt, lay
the father of the child. The hand Of
death was already upon him, disease
having beaten down one by one every
hrrrier that a naturally vigorous consti
tuition had presented to its encroach
ments. Driven at last to this dark cor
ner of a wretched underground abode,
the wreck and skeleton of a man was
giving up the ghost. t.-Neso York Paper.