New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-03-13

the tenement walls, you will see angels OF purity
ascending and descending with buckets df dew 10
sprinkle the fUul stains and savGrs and make them
harmless.
The tenement-house was the baronial hall of the
host of u.s. Whereve r man strong and arttH, aud
irives his looms foFges or furnaces. behold hun
swarm in teneneutsi Look at his home Id Ee-
nhHrh the seat of Scottish letters where, IN houses
zen stories high bailt hike hollow wells and apPro-
priateIy called CLOSES" he sets the songs OF Burns
On the system of Adam Smith. or thinkers at toy en-
rines with james Watt singing the poetry OF cities
with Alexander Smith
IdweI within Il gloomy court,
Wherein did never sum- beam sport;
Yet there nv heart was stirred
My very blood did dance and thrill
When my narrow wlnd1w-siH
Spring lighted Ike bird
In thee, y city discern
Another beauty, sad and stern.
The beautiful socabiIity of France IS gotten al
most wholly in towns where the tail gypsum houses
seldom entertain less than the population Of ham
let; and the exquisite silks of Lyons have been made
from early times by hives of separate splnners and
weavers in high abodes the laces Of Northern Eu-
rope were often made in city cellars TO let the art-
hcer sitting back ia the dark his slender thread
defining the design against the pale peep OF day.
Our Dutch and Franco-Germanic forefathers from
Erasmus said, hike crows on the tree tops, their
many-eeIled houses raised piles driven into the
mnd and SO beneath AmsseTc&m and Rotterdam are
tens of thousands Of piles sd there housed, among
his brethren jews, SplnOzG shot his bow at Jewish
Noses the Que theologian OF a tenement, the other
of tent. Where Ghent aud BFuges poured ont their
thousand guiIdsmeu at the stroke of the bell,
tenement life abounded, and in the old republics OF
Italy thu palaces Of nobility are the tenements OF
the million.
Our American increase, until within hFty years,
has been from farm and peasant life and small towns
Of tradesmen. and therefore those Long streets of
tenements have chiefly arisen IN our time. We did
act feel in it's period the artisan prt Of the exodus
from France, after the Catholic ediet, which gave
weavers to SptaEfeds and metal workers to Berlin,
but the essential feature Of NewYOrk Citys spirit,
differing from that of every other Atlantic city, Is
the gregariousness of its elements.
They came from the tonementhOuses-hrst from
the packed cities of Holland from the eloses
of Scotland finally from the alleys and hives of
tenement-built DRbIin. They are now reinforced
by Inavers from the lofty dwellings of StFasbourg
and from the ghettos Of Bohemian Prague. That IL
why NeW-YOrk deJains SO many foreigners who land
here; it is the tenement life, 50 like their OVID,
where lodging plays bat an ineanSderabe part Of
expense and very little roOhl is better than no
his own Language here, finds his cOmpatTiot quar-
tiers, knows nothing of farms and prarries, and
hEesses Col Tor great packed city, artisan oeeuPa
tIon and short distances. We strain the teuemeut-
house element Of Europe from the field and helot
eIement that continues Westward; and no man
knows New-YoEk who only knows the broadway
side Of town.
The European mechanic "a always a generation
ahead Of the peasant in worldly nature and sbaeFva-
tpou Of events. The Broadway side of hev-YoRk Is
mainly walked by people from the country or BY
rieh men, c0uHtry-bred; over yOnder toward Tomp-
kfns Square lives the citizen of ctses the netrOpoh
tan by hereditary descent He il unaware that you
pity him. He woald as much pity bee laboFnG Ia
the pleasant hive instead Of the lonely bee smelling
Of pasture daudelionAL What looks cramped in his
surroundings 60 you, to him seems o waste
Of space. His Individuality is as good as
his torefatheTa who rose with Jacques Ar
teveIde, stormed the palace with MassaniellO.
manned the walls Of Leyden, or swaEmed to the
tOcsn of the Faubourg Saint Antoine- The very
smells are coneenFaI and hereditary. His mind
would have occupation II taken from his fermens-
ing associations and shut into whole house alone.
go to the ant, thou siugEaTd," Is his motto, and
where is the ant but in the busy aDthill. regard
ing the hlisbandman and his labor as a tumble
bneS
The problem Of high rents en- here be solved IN
no other way than by dividing the rent among
many. Heavy is many heart lying down at night
CARRYING the burden of whole house for appear
ances sake while snug behind his door, toward the
stars over-peOpling heaven. too, the happy money
saver in the tenement thsnks God for much
room.
We reason from our sensitive selves on millions Of
people we never knew. These people are
specially housed and associated as the hunter and
pioneer fathers and mothers proud TO date
FROM who lived in q hut of one room, where parents
and children, guests and strangers slept tho life
call Independence without q vindOw-pane or a
cOunterpane and whose 'fTdlics" and weddings.
as recorded in Breckenridge and other euOgists,
were made inspiring by Sighting aud whiskeY.
Virtue is not simply in the conventual life, but
I'm the ehaste eouventual heart pat IN wOmer of
tepements is freque ntly as in women of vigSsTs-
Strong and equal are they who find ea3n others
love in sueh exposure and estimate il tie more for
the newborn sense of privacy it brings! Nor are
the wants Of great cities bounded by the few rea-
ties of country life Here are the camp and
the camp followers. and there are better and worse
necessities inevitable from this social maelstTom.
Tho tenement house plays its part not wholly for
ILL., when Ill If protecting the better side Of society
from violenee. In cities hike this tho problem Of
womaHs equality is partly solved. Tens OF thou
sands of laboring girls sefreliSnt, selfsolictous,
sud with heart Tor any fate. mako the panorama
of these streets and Of these great shops reh with
ther uaseuIiufty vet softness Doubtless this tene-
meat civilization could be reformed. and Ii ought to
be- for there resides the overwhelming moral power
Of New-Yorsk arsd the only quafns Individuality ws
n -. ~ 90 ~.