Connecticut western news., 1879-09-03
In a Tenement House.
WHAT THE INVESTIGATION AMONG THESE
 HOUSES IN NEW YORK DEVELOPS.

WHAT THE INVESTIGATION AMONG THESE
 HOUSES IN NEW YORK DEVELOPS.
 About twenty-five thousand houses come within the range of the observa- tions now being made by the recently appointed tenement house inspectors in New York city. They are gathering information which will be made the basis of many needed sanitary reforms, and which, it is believed, will in time give more wholesome and comfortable quar- ters to tenement dwellers who now live in wretched places. A few facts clipped from the informal reports of tho inspec- tions which have been made speak for themselves
 The air of the front rooms was almost unbearable to the visitors, but that Of the rear apartment was foul beyond be- lief. In the latter were several women, each with @ pale, wan-looking babe in her arms. One of them said that hers was "not long for this world" and 1t was found that three children had died in the room within year. In two dark alcoyes, where the stench was most to be observed, stood the beds. Inquiry into the source of the odors revealed the fact that beneath the boards of the floor, which bent and creaked with the weight of the foot, was a dark sub-cellar, through which a leaking sewer ran, loading the heavy air with noxious gases. On the ground floor was found a middle aged woman, with half dozen sickly- looking children. She showed the bed room, ventilated only by small win dow opening against an oblique wall, which almost precluded the entrance of light. When this window was open, 8 horrible smell from adjoining closets filled the room. "We can't sleep with it open," said the woman, "and we cant sleep vita it shut, so we have to spend our nights on the pavementin the yard. v
 The saddest cases are those which re- veal how poverty and vice have extin' euished all natural affection and all wholesome ambition
 The floor was covered with rags anc filth of every description. Two ole mattresses, foul with age and dirt, lay in a corner of the room. In another corner the only occupant of the room was found. In cradle, on dirty pallet
 little girl, apparently about thlrteer
 months old, lay asleep, with her body
 literally black with swarms of flies. A
 first she appeared to be dead, but thu
 reporter detected @ sign of life ln
 slipht pulsation at the wrist. He brushed
 away the flies, and then lifted the httl'
 one. who was but 0 feather-weight, a her body was almost worn to skeleton It was evident that she was slowly dylnt
 of starvation. She looked up in tn
 face of the doctor with @ puzzled ex pression, but the sight of cup of mill
 brought a very hungry look into he large brown eyes. She had very prett. face, and with proper food and car would be fine child. Several neighbor came into the room, and they said tha the mother was habitual gossip, wh' neplected her children and home entire ly. A comparatively young woman wal found lying in drunken stupor upol
 the floor, while upon e dirty bed Ia.
 three babes and girl of about eigh
 years, clad in filthy rags. The glr
 avoke, and advancing with an air whlcl showed that she was used to the busl
 ness, began a pitiful tale of father cruelty and @ mothers drunkenness When the required measurements ha' been taken, the wretched mother wa
 aroused. She was one of the few wh' 7 were found unwilling to receive assist , ance. She was perfectly satisfied wit her miserable life as 0 rag-picker. Sh and her husband managed to "ge , along, and she had no further ambition
 The swarms of flies which covered every thing in the room, and caused tho sleep , ing children to kick and moan, did nc :, trouble her, and the hot foul air wa , what she had always been used to. U , learning that the visitor was doctor . however, she asked for some tickets t T the sick children's excursions. The |, were given, and she contently rolle J over upon the floor and went to slee | aopiO