The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1879-03-05
MiscelIaneous.
90
HOW NEW YORK LIVES.
100000 Of the Inhabitants in Tenement
Houses,

There are, says a New York
paper, according to the records OF
the department Of buildings, 1000
tenement houses in the city Of
New York in q total of 1900
buildings Of all kinds. Taken all
through the city, the new and the
old, the first and the second classes,
they average four stories in height,
and are constructed tC hold two
families and a half to each floor,
or ten families to q house. Ac-
cordingly, if all these buildings
are full, the tenement house pop
uI;ation Of New York is 100000
families, which, at five persons to
a family, would make 100000
men, women and children. This
is evidently an overestinate, but
certain experienced agents Of tene-
ment houses on the east side say
that twenty per cent. is all that
needle deducted for houses or parts
Of houses not occupied. That de-
dUctiOn leaves q net tenement
house population Of $4,000 souls.
1t has been said that the tene-
ments averaged two and half
families to a floor, or ten families
to a house, but the population is
not at all equally distributed in
some buildings there are as many
as five families on a floor, and in
others one or two. Most Of the
buildings are SO built as to effect
the greatest possible economy in
space, in ventilation and in safety.
High and narrow, with contrac-
ted Railways and walls Of the
minimum thickness allowed By
the department Of buildings, with
little or 20 open space in the rear,
and frequently a rear tenement
building instead of court, they
are hardly bearable as places Of
habitation in the winter, and still
less so in the summer. Indeed, it
has become a common sight TO
see ther inmates sleeping on sum-
mer nights on the roofs oftheir
dwellings or in carts in front Of
them rather than suffocate within
doors. 1t is their cheapness and
their cbeapness only that gives
them any attraction to the poor,
and their cheapness is due to the
possibility Of packing them with
tenants and to the practice of
building them on the most econo-
mical plan.
The tenement houses are not,
as many suppose, confined OK"
clusively to the lower districts
they are found all over the city,
and fringe the island on the ex-
treme east and the extreme west
sides all the way up town. The
most fashionable part OF New
York is ianked by them on either
side, and o straight line down
from Murray Hill to first avenue
on the one side, and from Murray
Hill to Tenth avenue on the other,
would discover some Of the very
worst Of these Dwellings. They
are constantly increasing; too;
within the past eighteen months
500 new ones have been put up,
some down town below Houston
street, and others up town as far
as Harlem. The distress Of the
time has not relieved them Of
their usual class Of tenants so
much as it has filed them with q
new c!a?s, which formerly inbab-
tied private houses. The cheaper
| tenements are better patronlzed
than ever, and land owners who
would not venture to build OF
dinary dwelling houses to stand
vacant, are willing to take ad-
vantage of the present low price
Of labor by erecting tenemcnts,
which insure a safe and steady,
though slow, return for the in
vestment.
In most of these houses there
are from fifteen to twenty families,
and in some there are moro hud.
died together, and making lite
bearabIe as best they can. The
crowding would be less tolerable
but for the fact that, BY their
maie tenants at least, the tene-
ments are used almost exclusively
as sleeping places. In the spring
and summer months the women,
too, forsake the close buildings
po IT, ,o, nonoh frasher sir OF the