The New York herald., 1879-07-30
THE SICK POOR.

|
PopULArroN-wHAr LANDLORD CONSIDERED
AN IMPROVEMENT.
''come in here" said Dr. Silver to the HERALD re-
porter. as they paused before one of the tenement
houses in Cherry street. II want to show you the
impro vements the landlord has just made in the
| rooms"
The two had been toiling through the heat of the
day on the Doctors regular tour among the sick
poor, carrying what relief the Board of Health af
fords to those who can hardly help themselves in
health and who when sickness comes can moth
ing ahead but the poorhouse and burial by the
city. Up the long steep stairs in house after house,
where twenty thirty, forty or sixty families live
under one roof through nosome alleys. flowing
with lth piled with garbage and reekins with rot
ten odors. they had walked for two hours, finding
nothing in all the time that seemed to show care
on the part of the landlords for anything relating
to the tenants excepting the rental. and it
couraging to learn that landlord had made inn
provements
Come and see the improvements" said the Doc
| tor. and he led the way into the house Through
narrow hall. up narrow stairs. turning half way up
| the flight for economy IN space back through
another narrow hall he went and knocked at a half
| open door. There answer and he passed in
through the "living room" of the rear suite. In
| this room there two windows looking out
| what passed for the yard 1t space about 10
feet by 70. surrounded by the blank walls OF
rounding houses About one-third Of it was occu-
pied by privy and the rest was paved with stone.
by stretching the neck it could be that there
space of perhaps six inches between the house
they were in and the The next to
the Giving room served a kitchen and store
room and was lighted by window into the Giving
ROOM" Beyond this was the sleeping room.
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS.
a he md
the reporter looked he pointed to hole the
wall. 1t four inches square and about seven
feet from the floor. The view through it was of
small portion OF the wall six inches away. 1t and
the door the only of lighting and venti-
lating where four persons sleep summer
and winter In the winter the tenants will probably
plug it up.
''Is that tho improvement % exclaimed the re-
porter.
1T is" replied the Doctor. 'The landlord showed
it to me with great pride the other day. Before
had it cut there opening into the room but
the door. He considers the room ventilated now.'
"Oh! Doctor, God bless you. thin powders you
gave me the other day did my baby dale O. good"
said pale woman. standing in OF the doors of
the house No. 36 Cherry street. the Doctor
came up the alley. "An' there's poor baby up
here" she continued. 'thats mighty sick. an
its mothers dead, Goa rest soul An would
you just look at it an il you do anything?
The poor grandmother's dom all she can. but
that's mighty little, sure Would you go up?
.'Of course l would said the Doctor, cheerily,
and getting the direction by which lind the room
he plunged into the dark halfway and began climbing
the stairs.
"Now mind that said the woman admiringly.
Sure it's u wonderful dale OF good doctors does
a goin' round among the poor"
THE HARDEST POVERTY.
1t a sorry sign tnat met view Of the Doc
tor when he reached the room. A poor baby, two
weeks old. lying swaddled i'll the warmest wraps.
crying piriiully and teebly; an old watching
INN iva nf tvsa
age. ana yet touching the little tenderly from
time to time doing next to nothing because she
knew not W hat to do and had not the means to
mon u ply ysician to buy medicine.
'Yes, its my poor dead girls babby." she said
when the Doctor questioned her. 'She died, sir,
giving birth to the child. an her husbands away,
God knows where; hope he's i'll prison. where he
belongs. An Inc an my old man has TO take care O.
the little DO ye think ye can help lty'
And then came n wistful look OF appeal into her
voice betrayed 1t was her dead girls babby' and
she loved it with grandmothers love- The Doctor
inquired the sy mptons ana gave her medicine.
} ahu her thanks were painful to listen to.
"How do you live?" asked the reporter. Ger
tainly you can't work much
'On, get along, she said. 'My old mans
pretty spry anu ho gets work to do
Another sick baby was found below stairs, suffer-
ing from the summer trouble OF the children
the usual prescription given. the Doctor
shook his head as he turned away. "The child won't
| be likely to live" he said.
| 1t didu look very SICK" said the reporter
NO 1t isn't was the reply. but the mother
likely she wall take care of it,
ITALIAN SETTLEMENT.
Nos. IL and Is Roosevelt street almost entirely
occupied by Italians and attempt was made to es-
innate the number that lodge in the two houses but
adequate result obtained. No one was found
who could or would talk English excepting woman
and the barxeeper in q drinking saloon tull OF de-
Gently dressed men. III about three o clock p.
NJ And both said they did not know how many
lived i'll the two houses. There are certainly great
many.
The large courtyard was half full of men and
women. AL OF wnom were idle. excepting a few of
the women who were knitting. They swarthy
and nearly all handsome. with bold black
women were remarkably fine looking and
royalty beautiful. Nearly all the
women. and many of the men wore gold earrings
and the women had other jewelry all of gold.
Strings or gold beads, gold crosses aud bro oches
were common Nearly all i'll the yard showed their
foreign birth only by their faces but by their
costume Even those OF the men whose clothing
had apparently been made in New York wore ii IN
careless way showed some bit of briuht
color that seemed strange. The women wore short
skirts and large gay neckerchers. and their hair was
carefully dressed
Two OF the men wrestling and some were
seated on the pavement playing some incomprehen-
sibe game with their hngers The courtyard looked
as though some festival wins going excepting that
great heaps OF rags were drying in the hot and
sending out stencil that To stranger intoler
able. the Italians did not to notice it, and il
they perceived 1t at all it was probably pleasant
them. for the rags were their merchandise.
A door leading from the alleyway OF No. Is, into q
dark room stood open. and u look within showed u
room perhaps Il feet by l5, with furniture ex-
ccpting benches along the walls and a beer keg IN
one corner. a tin cup stood under the faucet. and
evidently served i'll lieu of glasses for all
1t beer saloon where the beer that sold con-
sists of the drcs collected from the discarded kegs
of saloons of higher grade aud rctailed ut cent
cuptul. IL nearly full of customers, all of whom
looked a. IL stupchcu with drink and who sat around
the room in silence when the reporter looked in. No
Hover form of the indulgence of the drunkard's |
thirst could be imagined.
In the two houses only one Of sickness could
Il be found. Room after room was visited, opening
xpto the pitch dark halls, when flights OF stairs
Nhort ana long. led in every direction without any
ayppareut plan. hut in every room half dozen
A,pu .l.x aud Nnr .Af,..
GMy it seemed. excepting to talk 1t seemed like a
~ Holiday. but DIR. Silver said he always found the
e Vanie state of affairs.
of TApLEy's RIVAL.
IN "Ah Doehor, have anither for ye, said tho
rAecond English speaking person in the place. Sho
WAS made aged irish woman, whose jollity under
circumstances would have driven Mark