Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-01-15
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q rfi GRAr k1rT,s
MAJ 80 w %
ways ON Which Children Never Laugh
Rooms Never Lighted by Gods Sunshine
Railways Which sEcho Cries for Bread.
M. Quad, in Detroit Free Press
Within four blocks of each other at
a 81 Hs III i iSs a Sns R d 3ai ar
misery, wretchedness, poverty. filth
and crime. You can not realize the,
change until you walk from aue 10 the
other-until your eyes turn from mar
Bile fronts and costly carriages to pens
built for the use Of human pigs and the
grab-bags of the lowest ragpickers.
When you enter Baxter Street you
Hre ssKpoHat1 kY pans w0man and
child. Some take you for a detective,
some for the /" taxsnan y land others for
the landlord who has come to raise the
rent on his poverty clutched tenants.
gSays gif youe fYu1 dollar for dot
oaferSpat!" called out blear-eyed,
half-AiRd dealer in dathing as halted
Irnder his awning teFsEpid the p0ering
aWho yer lookih' 1ur this tiine.n
called 2 boy frpn third story window
! "sas. pard, fhaih- + you puttins:on
Fswell around here !'*~yiemanded afed-
rnecked, bullet headedman as he left the
swdn and came straight-at me- - -
7. In sixty seconds there were. sixteen
men ,swomen, boys and halfrgrewn girls
| aroundame.~ On the corner wasqa sa-
loon, and just as the bullet-head&wa
saying !" as how he couldn't be swelled
Over, |" I asked the crowd to take
! "A drink, is,it! kh. he's a perfeck
tgintleman, and we.-khewr IL all the
[ time!" was the chorus, and We crossed.
Some drank gin, some rum and some
beer, md there was a~general groan of
when4-called for cider.
Il PLACED it where some one could reach
fbut fQExit, and girl Seven years old
reached behind me and gulped it down.
E And now what dye want in Baxter
lStreet21 inquired three or four at once.
L IT want to see the poorest, darkest
and worst tenement house in~ the
| streetsst - a
." "Ahi that's mine-come along!"
called every soul of the sixteen, and but
for the bartender should have been
logged off in sixteen different directions
all at once.
Z 5seThe.best is the worst and the worst
is the best,'' was his philosophy, sand
I'm thinking you'll see misery enough
| in any of them. You'd better go with
the old woman there. -
Yes, it was an cold woman She
had on the clothes of a woman, and her
hair was gray. Some one had broken
her nose in years gone by; some one
had closed one of her eyes; some one
had drawn knife across her cheek.
leaving horrible scar. Rum and deg
radiation had worked the rest-had driv-
en- out of look and voice and form all
semblance of womanhood. "a
| IS Call me Old Maggie,'' she said, as
we crossed the street, "and if any of
the low-lived tenants dares to give we a
word I II mash them to jellyi'
sSlieis the janitress of this four-story
tenement, and her first dive is down
cellar. In the front is bake-shop kept
| by an old woman and girl. Further
| back are ..-,
Cant you stand the smell, me dar-
lint?'' she calls out as halt. "Well,
now, but think of all of us poor creators
who live above it ami have this smell
twenty-fo hours a day! Why, this
cellar is the play aground for our chill
dren!n ...,..t.,1. T.. r.
"Have a pie, sir-only. five cents?'
called the girl in the bakery as turned
to go. r' 9H
"a pie-take that, you mink" re-
piled Old Maggie, las she boxed her ears.
"De you think that a gentleman with
his delicate nose is going to buy pies in
Baxter Street?''
In this den all the closets are in the
cellar. There is not trap in any pipe.
Every second throughout the year the
scwer-gas creeps up and up and up, I'M
til it becomes the atmosphere of every
room, and, is taken into every pair of
lungs. A wagon-load of lime would not
deaden the odor for more than half an
hour, but there is no lime-no disinfect-
ant of any sort. In its place is shop
for the sale of bread and pies!
s'THE GRAND FLOORE.''
IS This," said the old woman as we
crowded up the dark and broken stair
case, 90 is what we calls the grand floore,
and the rooms rent accordingly. This
palace of a parlor, with its two bed
rooms off, in only $12 per month. -
The "parlor" was a room 12x12, and
the bedrooms 3x6. In those three rooms
a family of eight cooked ate, lodged,
lived and called the place home. The
floors had not been mopped in IS
months; there was hardly any plaster
left on the partitions the ceilings were
black with smoke and dirt, and they |
raised the windows to look out rather |
than wash them.
"a snug home it is, and the rent is
very low!n remarked the old woman as |
she saw me looking around.
This was fair sample of the first |
floor. The sewer-gas poured up to
meet and fight a thousand odors, and |
yet the mother of the children said as l |
went out - $40 ~
81 can't understand for me life what
ails them two small children. The |
neighborhood is very healthy, and yet
they are sick all the time.'' .r.af /
Up narrow, greasy, dirty, broken
stairway and we came to
1.-THE sECOND-BEsT FLOoRE,"
as Old Maggie calls it. Here, for SO or
80 per month, one can get 10x12 room
with 3x6 bedroom off.
81 don't like to let these rooms to a
family of over six, explained the old
woman, sc but them Spanish and Ital-
yuns sometimes crowd in a dozen per-
sons. Gurus creeters them folks air.
The walls and floors were black with
dirt, the doors broken, glass out, and the
furniture for family of five could have
been carried on ones back. The chill
dren looked up with wild and haggard
faces, and when tossed them an apple
they rolled over the floor in bunch and
fought for it like wolves. Down below
them was the crooked, dark and muddy
street and its awful smells-above them
misery worse than theirs. l.
1.-THE COMMON FLooRE.'
This floore,' said the old woman,
as we gained another story, sis for
them as don't want to put on too much
style, and pay too much rent. l can't
always be sure of the character of the
tenants ON this floore, and l never asso-
ciatac yvIth ,an, ~ s+3f