The New York herald., 1879-02-24

fail to breed moral and physical contaSion.
lf builders and property holders were even TO con-
suit their interests they would find it far more
profitable i'll the end 10 provide better accommoda-
tions for their tenants. 1t is high time that check
should be placed to the monstrous evils of this un
natural tenement house system. They have grown j
to such dimensions that nothing short of vigorous
uncompromsing action can remove this foul stain
from the metropolis. When the loathsome secrets
Of these charne houses are exposed to view public
indignation cannot fail to strike landlord and agent
with dismay and bring around reform. They are
fruitful nurseries of crime, and supply our prisons
Every is interested in the abatement of such
nusances and in the securing to our working popu-
aton of decent houses where health and not disease
may prevail.
WAINWRIGHT MEMORIAL CHURCH.
"a Terrible Tenement House Story the sub
ject Of sermon by the Rev. John ". Kramer in the
Wainwright Memorial Church, corner OF West
Eleventh street and waverley place. The preacher
regarded the tenement system as q fostering
sore eating into the vitals of our society.
II but one tenement house were in existence
the first that erected forty years lit would
be gross wrong, but not the gigantic evil to which
it has grown. In ten years $50 900. he said
been invested in tenement property. The subject
invited into ncighborhoods of filth and squalor,
and the tenement house told its own story. II am
modern edihce and institution" it said. ''though
look old aud dirty and filled with foul air and
the germs Of disease. am venerable because of my
premature BIRTH but have made lots of money for
my owner and have helped to make my agent rich.
My origin in greed and cunning. Thin
walls poor tinbers and the smallest possible total
cost were the means by which cunning took the
earliest profits from me. and unskiled and lazy me-
now. No architect stood sponsor for at my
birth made no pretence to such high connections.
An inspector from the Department OF Buildings
to and drank my health with the contractor.
Next came the insurance agent who likewise took my
sponsors hand and drank success to me in my
mi
for my owner, and have made plenty of it.
When was scarce week old twenty families We're
crowded within me, and many have come and gone
since then. Some elected, with their miserable look
ing. broken furniture thrown upon the sidewalk,
while crying children listened to The profanity of
drunken parents. Then the people have seen die
in me and Carried out in cheap cofins
SCENE.
II remember hot night in July when foul
smells hiled every room and the heat was almost
intense enough to burst my fragile walls. Most
of the inmates had sought refuge on
the roof and there drinking. dancing and
carousing were being carried on. In
come q mother. Down in the cellar the old lead
pipes that had done service before We're emitting
foul odor. decayed refuse was adding to the fuel
deadly flow of sewer gas was coming
from it, Oh. the contractor made money on me. but
he killed my pet that night while there riot
that housetop and sin in its Railways. That night
the young wife became mother. Daylight
came and She was poisoned. but no one
knew of it. The owner at his country
sea the contractor had gone down to the seaside
visit his family and the agent had but just returned
from an excursion to collect his rents; but OF
them knew Of the poor one who was dying just
when she most desired to live. Dead and killed,
Mr.. Owner by your greed; killed, Mr.. Contractor.
by your cunning, when, to make money, you used
unfit materials; killed, Mr. Agent, when you entced
away proper inspection; killed by you my leaders
not making laws which would prohibit such state
OF things. But this is not all have done. l have
lots. contain multitude OF infants, many Of
whom sicken and die, while the puny ones who sur
vive do 80 to become but orphans and paupers.''
Such, continued the reverend gentleman was the
story the tenement house seemed to tell me, and it
average ALI hail to the philanthropic
and pure ana brave women who shall look into them
and say that the outrage must stop!
MADISON SQUARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
At the Madison Square Presbyterian Church in the
evening largely attended meeting held presided
over by the pastor Of the church, Rev. DR.. Tucker
On the platform were Mr.. Pellew, DIR. Derby Mr..
Brace, Dr. Harris, Dr. Roose and DIR. Potter.
DIR. Tucker made some preliminary remarks on the
Importance of the question In the various philan-
thropic efforts toward accomplishing different pur-
poses they had now reached the tenement house
problem. This was not an attack property
owners, who suffered no doubt as much as
others from the depreciation of real estate
but was step toward securing improved homes for
the working classes. 1t sought to train and
teach the people correct habits of daily fe apd thus
to reach homes by patient philanthropic work. 1t
was not religious movement. but effort to ele-
vate the dwellers in tenement houses by improving
their homes.
Mr. Pelew was then introduced and he gave some
facts showing the terrible condition of the system
as it now existed. The children under five years of
age who lived in the tenement houses were esti-
mated at 125,OOo. The mortality among them
was frightful-12.41o, forty-sx per cent
of the whole number of deaths, and nearly
ten per cent of the children of the city! Within the
last ten years 7.o41 tenement houses were erected
and during last year s5s put up. To recognize
tho evil was to effert half the cure The
magnitude of the work of ameioration was
sufficient in itself to suggest several ways by which
to reach the evil. There discon;en among the
danger wherever there was discomfort. As a layman.
he thanked the clergy for coming to this work and
seeking to abatc the evil.
MISERY AND sQUALLoR
Dr. Derby spoke next and gave an account of visits
of the health inspectors to some tenement houses
of the houses being visited by himself. In one
of these, although it daylight. 1t was imposs
bic to see in the four middle rooms without the
light OF lamp. In another ive-story
received daylight In this house there were ifty
one children, only twenty-five of whom went to
school In another house. l0x14 feet utterly with
out furniture except an old stove. five and four
women found in one room during the day, and
and at night, ipi the same room, there were six
kept by young man who charged i've
cents for nights lodging. and sold
stale beer Mt two cents pint. In another room
two Italians and three women. and overhead on
q loft were ten settees, for which charge OF ten
couts each nightly was made. IN the build !
ing a widow and her six children resided
In only four i'm the entire house
was there anything like family orcaniza-
tion, aud there were seventy-two persons in
the house. m another tenement house of the same
class. 10xi6 occupied by ragpckers. there was Grim
inal neglect OF tho entire building, and in every part
of the house there utter abandonment of the
decences of lite. After giving further instances
of visits to tenements the speaker said that II
surely right to blot out such these. to be
witnessed daily and nightly in these places.
4. Mr.. Charles l.. Brace spoke of the fame of New
York for its wealth. and culture, but the
city famous still for it's crime and misery.
There was fruitful of crime as tho. |
condition of the tenement houses II could scarcely
be understood how young girls grew up in
purity and honesty amid such surroundings. but