The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-01-29
THE GREAT CITY.

Rooms Never Lighted by Gods Sunshine
Railways Which Echo Cries for Bread.
sr4~ I'M. Quad, in Detroit, Free Press.l i.tts
Within four blocks of each other at
one point are Broadway and Baxter.
Street, New York--one with its mil
lions of wealth, the other with its woe,
misery, wretchedness, poverty. filth
and crime.r., You can not realize the
change until you walk from one to 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
are spotted" by man, woman and
child Some take you for detective,
some for the +" tax-man land others for
the landlord who has come to raise the
rent on his poverty-clutched tenants.
- Say gif you four dollar for dot
oafer-coat!" called out a blear-eyed,
half blind dealer in clothing as halted
under his awning to avoid the pouring
rain.
~" Who yer lookina fur this time!'
called a boy from third story window
essay, pard, Ahain't you putin on
swell around hereii' demanded red
necked, bullet-headed man as he left the
wall and came straight at me- " ''iiE
In sixty, seconds there. were sixteen
men, women, boys and half-grown girls
around me. ON the corner was q sa-
loon, and just, as the bullet-head was
saying Gas how he couldn't be swelled
over" I asked the crowd to take a
drink I'd Is,tiaj;stn'f t7.e5flff
"a drink, is it! All! he's perfeck
gintleman, and we knew it all the
time!' Twas the chorus, and we crossed.
Some drank gin, some rum and some
beer, and there was a general groan of
disappointment when Called for cider.
I'D placedit where some one could reach
out for, it, and a girl seven years old
reached behind me and gu1ped it down.
Iuts And now what d We want in Baxter
Street?'' inquired three or four at once.
+" 1 want to see the poorest, darkest
and worst tenement +; house in the
street,
B''s"Ah! that's nlineMcome along!,'
called every soul of the sixteen, and but
for the bartender / should have been
lugged off in Sixteen different directions
all at once.di d1Eab rsli III agG Tfod
1.-The best is the worst, and the worst
is the BEST" was his philosophy, ssand
I'm thinking you'll see misery, enough
in any of them, You'd better go with
the old woman there ""o5 'As''
10 Yes, it was an Cfsold woman. Il She
had on the clothes of 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 o knife across her cheek.
leaving horrible scar. Rum and deg
radiation had worked the restAhad driv-
ZEN out of look and voice and form, all
semblance of womanhood.
Cali me- Old Maggie,'' she said, as
we crossed the street.. g and if any of
the low-lived tenants dares to give We a
word II mash them to jelly!'f ls5tie9i
:. She is 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-a girl. Further
back are--I ~ r .y,tf 20 dft:-,h
." Can't you stand the smell, me dar-
lint?'a she calls out as halt. aWell,
now, but think of all of us poor creators
who live above it AMI have this smell
twentylfour hours day!if Why, this
cellar is the playground for our chill
dren!'
'7la Have d pie, ssirAonly five cents p',
called the girl in the bakery as,I turned
to go.
"A pieEEtake that, you minx!n re-
Piled Old Maggie,as she boxed her ears. :
.Do you think that a gentleman, with
Big asle s. nose IS is going to buy pies in
Inthis den all the closets are in the
cellar. ,There-isnot~a trap in any pipe.
Livery second throughout the year the
sewer-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 IT'S place is shop
for he-sale of breadaand pies!ss'
.Eaua, 1.-THE, GRAND FLooRE."
1sThis,''; said the old woman as we
crowded up the dark and broken stair
case, 81 is what we calls thegrand floore,
and the rooms rent accordingly. This
palace of d parlor, with its two bed
rooms off, in only S12 per month";
The "parlor " was a room 12x12,, and
the bedrooms 3x6. In those three rooms
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, g,,s.. ,.-r.-5 &c..
"a snug home it is, and the rent is
very low!" remarked the old woman as
she saw me looking around.
This was a 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 |
went out:
ST can't understand for me life what
ails them two small children. The
neighborhood is very healthy, and vet
they are sick all the time!. - 4.
Up a. narrow, greasy, dirty, broken
stairway and we came to
tS1ur crra~yr nrcr