The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1879-03-14
TENEMENT HOUSES In NEW YORK.

TENEMENT HOUSES IN NEW YORK.
Nearly every house in the tenement dis
trlct is FIVE or six stories high. The hall
ways are narrow, and at night are mostly
without lights. Many Of the bedrooms ney-
er have ray of sunlight in them. The
rooms at front and rear, which have win
dows, are used for living rooms. The bed
rooms have windows locking into the mar
row and unlighted halls. At the rear of
the hall is window, looking out to another
tenement house in the rear, whose wall is
twenty-five feet away. This distance Of
twenty-five feet is required by law, other
wise the whole ground would be built on,
and tenants might seek for light and air as
they pleased. Family privacy is out of the
reach Of these people. The scenes which
are enacted in the Railways are too abomi-
nable to put in print. The utter demorali-
cation of every boy or girl who is reared
among such surroundings is a matter Of
course. To pass along these nieghborhoods
on summer evening, when the dodgers
who have been at work have come homo, is
to see an unpleasant sight. The pavements
will not hold half the people who would
swarm out upon them. Gutter and street
are amply occupied. From almost every
window all the way up to the top men and
women, in ever style of slovenly dishabille,
lean out to get the fresh air and chat
Much of what they say is "un6t for publ
cation" IF that is the state of things IN
summer, what are these people about in
winter! A winter evening in crowded
tenement houses present possibilities too dis
gusting and too demorulizing to contemplate
with pleasure. There are hundreds of these
pest-houses where from twenty to fifty fam
lilies live and move and have their being
under one roof While some of the expen-
sive families in costly dwellings mourn the
fact that Providence has vouchsafed them
only one or two children, the tenement
house folks have little ones born to them as
plentifully as kittens, puppies or rats
The EQUALIZATION of these children is ono
Of the most terrible elements of tenement
house existence. They "go astray as soon
as they are born" and contribute ls rgely to
the ranks Of the paupers and the criminal
classes. In some of the lower and viIer
classes of tenement houses, beggars and pro-
stitutes and thieves herd like vermin. And
yet these unclean and bestialized persons
manage to prolong their wretched existence
and seem TO defy the laws of health with
some degree of impunity. 1t is q wonder
that the bad air does not kill them- AL.
most any respectable and wellfed Christian
would pronounce the diet of q tenement
house family enough to cause death in
week. Yet they manage to stand it,
They arc not healthy. They are for
the most part afflicted with consumption
and kindred diseases, whose seeds they
transmit to the offspring they 30 iher-
ally bring into the world. 1t must be ad-
ded that the denominations to which have
alluded take place in houses which are built
in accordance with the requirements of the
laws of the city and which are regularly
inspected.
1t may be asked, who are these people,
and whence do they come Many of them
are reduced people, who have seen better
days. Many of them are mechanics, who
work in factories. Some of them carry on
light work iu their rooms. Much of the
cigar-making of the city is done in the
tenement houses. 1t may not be very pleas
ant to think Of putting in ones mouth the
end Of cigar which has been rolled TO-
gether by fever.strickcn woman with six
unwashed little children playing about the
floor among the tobacco leaves. But to
those who have doubts Us to this business
many tenement-house door is open for
free observation. There are many of the
tenants who seem to have no particular trade
or profession, and whose source of income
is mystery. 1t is often asked why those
who are not yet down to the lowest degree
Of degradation do mot seek cheap homes in
the country. The answer is two-fold. In
the first place, there are no cheap homes to
which they can 60. Iu the second place,
they have lost their ambition. Satisfied
to live from hand to mouth, and having no
money with which to better themselves by
making move, they have given up any
idea they may once havo entertained of
changing. 1t may be that benefceut cap
italists will do something fer this class of
people in erecting cheap houses in the re-
gions to bereached by the elevated railroad.
Certainly, it is greatly to be hoped that
We confess our little faults only 10 per-
Suade others that we have. no great ones.
WhosnoCa. .1o,,lJ