Osage Valley banner. (Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo.) 1879-1881, 1880-07-08
LIFE IN CITY TENEMENTs.

- TENEMENT, according TO tho classi-
fication adopted in New York City. is a
domicile in which four or more families
live, There are several quarters IN this
city occupied chiefly BY trnements.
Tire largest Of these In point OF popula-
tiou, and the most characteristic. is the
Great East Side Tenement District.
The inspection begun not lcng ago
under the direction OF the Health DO
partment shows that there are IN the
Tenth Ward 800 tcncmeuts, peoplod by
36,6eO persons OF these 800 teno.
ments 1873 are rear buildings, situated
on courts, and approached from the
street through alleys.
& p Perhaps the greatest number OF per-
sons living in any one tenement is not
far from l30 The figures regarding
the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Wards
have not been finished. Both are large
wards in point Of territory, The por-
ton given up TO tenemeuts in each is
about ~ large as the Tenth Ward, nc a
rough estimate; so that the number of
tonements in this district is not far from
$500, aud the number of dwellers in
tenements probably between $4,000
IaAtAA fVtNpb. = Altdt NGuItH IIt tAtlMr
sive Of the people in this district who
live under conditions that do not ontitlo
them 10 be reckoned among dwellers in
tenements, but who help to crowd this
densely-peopled tract. The reports of
the results OF the tenement house in
spectioR will show, when completed,
that there are u considerable number OF
persons living in cellars In this district,
and that the condition of large per-
centagc Of the houses Is "bad," or
"fairn as compared with the other
rating, good. The reports will
afford nm interesting and enlightening
exhibit.
Many nationahties are represented in
the tens of thousands who constitute
the vast population OF this tract The
German element is large, perhaps
: larger than any other. The irish is
also large. There are many Italians,
generally found in smallish colonies.
The northern European races are fairly
represented. Occasionally dark
featured man, wearing the red fez, in
dicative Of Eastern birth, is seen stroll
ing alcng apparently unconscious that
he Is so unlike those around him.
Those of the Eastern races who stray
this far seem to be born cosmopolitans.
Tho red sign of the Chinese laundry
man protrudes from basement stair
ways, at not very rare intervals, all
over the east side; but the Chinese can
hardly be considered part of the pop
ulatiOn. Put q solitary Chinaman in
the heart Of n great city and he would
constitute colony 10y himself. He
speaks to nobody of his poverty or his
prospects. He subssts on what he
gets whether IL be more or loss, and il
would be hard TO find In New York a
Chinainan whose resources are so small
that his needs are not brought within
them 1t would be as fruitful to seek
confidence OF the smooth-faced idol
before which he burns his taper as TO
attempt to make confidential relations
with John Chinaman IN New York.
The components of this heteroge-
neOus population retain in n marked
degree their national characteristics;
but familiarity with them causes these
characteristics to become less and less
conspicuous, till they are no longer OBJ
served, and the men and women and
, children appear clothed in human ma
ture, which is not SO different wherever
found. The whitc-haired landlady is
irish, The blue-eyed child in the next
room is born of German parents; but
that which makes childhood different
from other conditions OF life is the same
in him as in all other children. The
woman who dandles her babe in the
patch OF sunshine that falls into the
court at midday Is Bohemian; but in
her the maternal anxiety and pride and
love are the same as they are in moth
ers the world over. Familiarity with
life in this densely-crowded district
causes one TO lose sight of the national
characteristics which are at first the
most prominent features, and in writing
about it he is In danger OF ignoring
that which would first impress the
stranger.
One who has been among these people
long enough to have in a measure lost
sight OF the characteristics of national
ity sees most conspieuously of all the
poverty IN which they live. There are
depths of misery that might be ex'
plored scenes Of squalor that might be
unfoldsd, deeds done in dreadful ex