New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-28


windows looking into the open air.
There are iualy houses Of less than fifteen feet
Wide, To which men, WAC anywhere else in the world
""u'd 90 La comfortable circumstances, obliged
To condemn their families. 4 gentleman of rare
aitannenis and IN every way a most valuable addi-
uon 10 anv community. whose private professional
library and collections must have cost him 100000,
nas been obliged 10 compress his family into i've
noored crack, the party walls OF which are lut
twelve feet apart.
I'm none of those older towns in which domestic
convenience has been Systematically sacrificed 10
considerations of military expediency is man of
IKE value condemned 10 such "a prcpO>terOus form
OF habl anon. Its plan IL nearly that of light
house Dullt upon wave-ashed rock, than of a civ
ilized family home. New-York has need of great
attractions 20 draw people nrO quarters Of this kind
from such houses as they could better afford in any
other American city,
THE SAME DEFICITS UPTOWN.
But what Is worst in the lookout for New-Y0rk
Is that the elevated roads and the uptown move
nent lead yet 10 nothing better; for even at
Yorkyilie Harlem and Manhattanville, five or SIX
miles away from the centre of population. there
new houses of the ridiculous ammed-up pattern. as
dark and noisone in their middle parts and as in
convenient throughout as If they were parts of
beseged fortress.
Nay. there Is a prospect of even worse TO come,
for on the slopes south of Manhattanve there are
new streets. somc Of them paved and Jagged. which,
out of respect to the popular prejudice in favor Of
continuing the regular system, laid out just
the worst course posi- BILE that in passing through
them you must mount an inclination of one IN SIX,
eight cI ten. What this means may be guessed DN
thinking Of the sleeper grades N the lower part OF the
city, That Of Fithave.n 1T Ihirtv-iOuTthst, Tor
instance. is in twenty-five and II brings every
omnibus ana most hackney coaches from trOt 10
4 walk Every ten Of coal dragged up such street,
every load of garbage gathered and taken from II,
j. 10 cost three or four times as much IN horse
power as 10 would in the lower part OF the town,
aud yet la tie lower part OF the town we cannot
afford to prevent Great mounds of garbage from
lying before onr doors for weeks ut a time. Its
daily removal IS found to be too costly.
Small families " no do not wish TO entertain many
friends may find some r lief IN the better OF the
new apartment houses. But still what these offer,
as compared with what is offered in other cities -
of most extravagaut cost. They are no places Tor
children. and to any really good arrangement OF
apartments the 2OO-fOot block still bars the way.
Apartment hOuses in the old countries of corre-
spending luxury in other respects, have much more
spacious courts The court instead OF beng re-
garded as backyard ami every men gwen 70 II
and every dollar laid ont upon II bcgrudged, often
gives the noblesl and usually the pleasantst fronts
10 the house. What are advertised apartment
houses for people in New-York of more moderate
means such rs must be looked 10 by teachers artists
artisans. writers, and nearly all the rank and hle
OF the superior life of metropolis, are az yet only
a decent sort of tenement house nearly nan
their rooms being without direct hight aud ventlla-
ton. The same classes that are compelled 10 1--we
IN them in Ncw-NOrk would regard heln as lntolef-
able in philadelphia. or in London. Paris or Jenna.
Many attempts have been made TO subdlvide the
block 50 that comfortable small houses when would
come in competition with the tenement-houses
ght be built The result in the best cases Is that
family privacy and general decency IN fact and APP
pearance are attained NJ an outlay which In any
other large city would be thought preDosterous.
better arrangement than any which mas been tred
is probably that proposed by Mr.; Potter which con-
siss essentially in suhdviding the block BY series
of lanes running from street street but capitalists
Us yet draw back from IT,
ORIGIN OF THE EVIL.
How did the city come 10 be saddled with TINS
mIsfortunei Probably by process OF degenera-
ton In the old city of Amsterdam, after which 1t
was first named. many houses are still 20 he found
which approach in proportions the fashionable New
York house. But from the beginning these had one
great advantage. At their back, running engthwise
through the middle of the block, there was canal.
Into this the closet and kitchen drains had direct dis
charge Dust ashes and garbage could be shot
down 10 the lower floor and then passed directly into
boats and oated off to farms in the suburbs. At the
hase Of the house. on the street there was narrow
brick terrace. and outside the 'front.' door mile
open-air sittn groom, and everything on that side
was kept as neat as a pin. The streets OF old Am
sreram were, indeed as much celebrated IN tne sew
enteenth century for their cleanliness as those OF
New-AmsteTdam have since ever Deen iOr thelr
NeWYors is in short Dutch town with its canals
and cleanliness omitted and its streets Strengthened
end magn,fied. Long after the present street plan
vas adOpted ID was the custom OF Its cltiZens 10
throw their slops and garbage ont Of the 'front.' door
and droves of hogs got their living IN the cutters
ont of this state of things New ork streets nave
been slowly improved 70 their present condition.
and New-YOrk houses have come 70 be more lnc0n-
veniept uncomfortable and unhealthy, Tor the
money and labor spent upon them. than those OF
any other American city.
York "a metropolis must not think or II as con-
fined By arbitrary political boundaries As
metropolis Newark. Newport and bridgeport, as
welIas Brooklyn YOnkers and jersey CITY, are essen
ta paris of it, For all scholarly and scientific pur-
poses Yale College with ITS thousand students Is
already annexed 10 New-YOrk. and Is possibly To-
dav a more actively important element Of its ntel-
ectuai life than either all of the four colleges
which stand within Its political limits.
In fact the railway. the telegraph and the teie-
Lons make few miles less OF so little con-
sequence that o large part OF the ideas OF CITY,
wien have been transmitted to us from the period
when q Tics walled about ana necessarily COM
uact and crowded. must be put away.
CONCENTRATION AND DISPERSION
There IS now a marked tendency, N most large
and thriving towns IN two opposite d'rections-one
IN concentration for business and social purposes
the other TO dispersion for domestic purposes. The
first leads toward more compact and higher build
inU in business quarters the other toward broader
lower aud more open building in residence quarters
The old-fashioned country houses of city people
are growing more aud more out OF vogue, but resi-
dcnres in greater or less degree combining urban
and rural advantages neither solitary on the one
hand nor q mere slice of a block on the other,
"hera,1cr they can be he'd in healthy and pleasing
localities vii quick and frequent transit to busi-
ness social artistic, literary and scholarly centres
ora Gaming favor. They are springing up " hun
dreds of charming neighborhoods about London
and Paris Boston and our western cites are
iargeIy formed OF them. They are as yet less used
hV New Workers than by the people of any other
large town. The reason Is simply that hitherto
ure,gbborboods sufficiently accessible about New
York. In time such neighborhoods will be formed;
Whenever they are. the metropolitan advantageso OF
NJ Work and the profits of its local trade must be
greatly increascd by constantly increasing aces
SONS to its population of men who have accumu-
Lied means elsewhere, and who wish 70 engage IN
ether than pUrely moncy-maklng occupations.
S,ich ner living under favorable circumstances
- ,,,th canitsl and energies economically