The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-03-06
Our BrOadb1.im Letters.

The Fourth Ward in New York and the
Creatures who Inhabit 1.-THE
Presbyterian Denomination and it's
Troubles Death Of James Lennox-
Breaches Of Promise, Suicide, etc. etc.
NEW YORK, February %, 1880.
ED1roR CHIEF:
/ wonder if the thirty nine millions
|>af people who live outside of New
York, many millions of whom rejoice
in Gods free air and sunshine and
flowers, ever reflect that in this city
of a million inhabitants, nearly thirty
thousand people live under ground,
in dark, noisosne cellars, where the
sunshine never comes, and where the
green slime cings to the walls, and
damp oozes through the ceilings and
the floors, and disease and death are
always in the air. The fourth ward
of which / spoke last week, is still one
of the great centres of crime, and one
of the worst wards, in the city. It
was here that John Allen lived far
many years, he was known as the
/" wickedest man in New York." who
taught his little son to swear the
most horrible oaths, for the amuse-
ment of the coarse and brutal crowd
who frequented his dance-house and
it was here, too, that Jerry McCauley,
a States prison bird, rescued as a
brand from the burning, reared his
Gospel tent upon the ruins of John
Alen's dance-bonse, and here he Ia
'bers for the redemption of lost ones,
like himself, trusting iii the promise
made to the sinner of old, that though
his sins be as scarlet, the blood of the
Lamb should make them white as
wool. The fourth ward is full Of dens,
called lodging houses, where the de-
PRAYED Of both sexes find promiscu-
GUS lodging. Many are drawn into
these wretched lazaretto's whose only
sin is poverty, but the great bulk Of
them are tramps and thieves Of the
lowest sort; and miserable, unsexed
women, bloated and debauched, and
lost beyond reclaim. The streets are
all dark and dingy. / don't know
mhy, but the gas appears to burn in
these streets with less brilliancy than
elsewhere. Huge heaps of dirt and
ashes have accumulated in front of
all the houses, and despite of officers
and municipal regulations, the vilest
denominations make Che air tainted
and foul throughout the region. No
missionary has yet been found bold
enough to invade this God for-eaken
place; curses and blasphemy are the
ordinary mediums Of communication,
and even the officers Of the law, un-
less driven by some terrible crime,
give it a wide berth, for with the
creatures who inhabit this region,
robbery is regular business, and
murder an ordinary pastime. 1t is a
terrible thing to say, bnt with three
thousand police and large corps oe
detective officers, in many of these
streets mans lifeis scarcely safe after
nightfall. The underground lodging
houses, of which ! spoke, are all kept
by the lowest class of Irish and Ger
mans; fifty or sixty people sleep in a
place fifteen or sixteen feet wide by
thirty or forty long. In many of them,
filthy and soddened straw mattresses
line the floor from the door to the
furthest extremity. Frequently the
door in front is the only opening in
the noisome dens, compared to which
the Black Hole of Calcntta is para
disc. These breeders of pcsti'ence
became at last so intolerable as to
awaken cry of horror even from the
wretched inhabitants of the slums,
and large body of police, on Mon-
day night, raided the ward, disclosing
such terrible condition of affairs,
that it reads more like fiction of life
in sone distant land, than a story of
suffering and crime right at our own
door, and amidst the highest civiliza-
tion. Under any circumstances, the
remedy was fearful one; the night
was bitterly cold, aud in one cellar
there were seventy men and women,
and a number Of children. Lodging
there was only five cents night, so
you may guess the style of accommo-
dation. Many of the poor wretches
were naked as they were born, and
rags to cover them had to lie procured
before they could turn them into the
street. The great body Of these men,
women and children alike, had
drowned their senses in rum, while
others were fiercely battling with
death, in the last stages of disease
but, despite their cries and prayers,
they drove them all out into the pitt
less streets, and the fonl bedding was
destroyed by the order of the officers
of the law. In one of these horrible