Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-06-25
NEW YORK TENEMENTS.
Scenes at NIghtfalI-SOme characteristics
Groups-The ChIId-WOmRn-SundR

scenes at Ntghtfau-SOme thafactefisue
GrOups-The ChiId-wOmRn-Sunda
The interval between the close of work
ing hours and nightfall affords the best
opportunity for learning something of
the crowded condition of the tenement
district. Beginning shortly after six
o'clock, an apparently endless procession
Of laboring men and women and children
is moving along the sidewalk on either
side of every street. Making due allow
ance for those who are fastening toward
the East River ferries, it is almost inn
possible to believe that nearly all of
these persons find room in which to sleep
and take their meals without going far
ther than they can walk, going to their
work and returning; but within an hour
this flood of humanity has subsidized, and
the number of persons on the sidewalks
is no greater than at other hours of the
/ day. The vast number have found shell
ter in rooms opening from the dark halls
that lead up through four or five stories
of the great tenements. Then the win
dows, row upon row, begin to be lighted
up, and tenement house life is shown in
another aspect. A fair idea of the
swarms of persons housed in this district
may be gained by walking through the
streets, then entering one of the rear
houses and going to the roof, from which
countless rear windows may be seen
lighted, and remembering that for each
light there is household. From such a
point of view the observer looks down
upon an apparently boundless pile of
bricks, hollow within, and filled from
cellar to roof with humanity; and the
wonder grows upon him that the Initiated
air rising from the nostrils of so many
breathers does not befoul the atmosphere
to the very clouds, so that birds attempt
ing to fly across shall fall suffocated, as
they are said to fall into the sulphurous
craters of slumbering volcanoes. That
so many persons sleep, tier upon tier,
through the night, and have strength to
make their way out when morning comes,
seems almost like a perpetual contradic-
ton of the nice calculations as to the
amount of air required to sustain life in
a person for given period.
A feature of life in the tenement dis
trict is the groups that gather on the
stoops at nightfall in seasons when the
weather permits. 1t seems as though
the pressure of humanity from within
had caused those who were undermost
and nearest the spout to flow out and &C.
cupy the sidewalks, as kernels of wheat
flow from break near the bottom of the
bin. At that hour the street sends up q
continuous hum of blending notes.-the
voices of the grown persons gathered at
the doorways, on the steps, and at the
entrances to dark alleyways; the scream
ing of children at play in the street, and
the wrangling Of noisy groups at the
street corners. This feature of tenement
life is peculiar to the warmer season !;
and thus, when the jewellers in tene-
ments are enduring the least crowding
the district appears the most crowded to
the casual observer. These groups are
often picturesque, but seldom beautiful.
An understood dark-featured man, with
bushy beard, turning the crank of bar
rel-organ with one hand and holding in
the other the end of fretted cord; at
the other end of the string monkey in a
red shirt, and with a smoking cap on his
head, perched on the railing of the stoop
and seeming to regard the other members
Of the group with an interest that his
master does not affect; half dozen little
girls madly spinning around on the side
walk in vain endeavor to keep step to
the quick measure of popular air, set
in waltz time; three or four mothers
with infants in their arms, trying to per-
suade them to cease being frightened at
the man and his music, and to devote
their infantile faculties to quiet contem-
plation he monkey; asmall boy offer
ing to the monkey the butt of a cigar,
and several other small boys regarding
with deep interest the attempt; tooth
less old woman vacantly viewing the
scene from an open window at the back
of the group; a grotesque-looking little
being standing on the edge OF the side
walk, silent, motionless, holding in one
hand an iron hook, and clasping with
her other hand the neck of coarse bag.
The dancing children shout wildly as
they spin round and round on the toes of
patched shoes, their hair in tangle, and
bright color coming through their cheeks.
No ballroom belle ever entered into the
enjoyment of a waltz as do these chill
dren. The noise is increased by the
small boys yelling words of caution to
the venturesome urchin who is making
overtures to the monkey, and by the I'M
ineligible words that the mothers speak
to their babes in vain effort to pacify
those vCiceful little packages of human
ity. The form of the group is constantly
changing, and the discordant sounds
coming from it are in keeping with the
scene. Nowhere does the grinder
find more hearty appreciation, nowhere
does his red-skirted cashier find less to
do. The monkey seems to understand
f that for the time being his position is a
sinecure, and he casts at his master fire.