The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-03-16
LOWLIFE IN NEW YORK.
Scenes in the alleys and Tenemefts Of iii,
S!ums The Breeding Places OF Crime.

LUW LIE ~ In NEW 1Uhhs
Scenes In the ALLEYS and Tenemeiits Of the
Slums The Breeding Places OF Crime.
| Strictly speaking the name "Oherry
Hill "applies " only to a small locality;
but usage has given to 1t wider sig.
nifcance. The main part of the Hill is
embraced by the part of Cherry street
between Roosevelt street and Pearl
street "a dingy and ill-kept block
almost in the shadow Of the bridge an
chorage- which maintains during the
greater part of the year melancholy
activity. A number of years ago, when
the number OF transatlantic sailing
craft coming into the East river was
much greater than it is now and sailors
with salt spray clinging to their clothes
were every where seen rushing ashore,
painting for the excitement and new
life of the city, this Cherry Fill
district, which includes all that is set
down upon the maps as the Fourth
police precinct, presented somewhat
striking contrast to its present aspect.
Then sailor boarding houses. with
greasy wooden benches at the doors,
swarmed with Portuguese and ether
foreign sailors, who spent their money
as freely as circumstances permitted;
stevedores, ship.carpenters, caulkers,
showers and others indigenous to the
wharves formed the greater part of the
population; the tenement houses were
crowded by a rough class diverse in
nationality and occupation; drunken
ness and crime permeated the whole
region, which the police regarded as one
of the most dangerous localities in the
city; patrolmen traversed their
posts in twos; cries of murder p
would frequently be heard, and many
parts of the district fairly reeked with
infamy. Like the once famous Five
Points, this troublesome corner of
lower New York has undergone a
change. 1t is no longer looked upon
as in any very pronounced degree a
criminal district. Petty crime is born
here. as it must necessarily be in such
a crowded district. Drunkenness is as
common, however, as of old. On o
Saturday night in summer, when every
one is out of doors, and there is no
reason for closing windows and shut.
ting in the sounds, the brawling
drunkard swells the noises of midnight
and half-dressed children run from the
clutch of drunken fathers and mothers.
Here is Mullen's alley" piercing the
vitals of the block bounded by Cherry
street, New Bowery, Oak and Roosevelt
streets, like a great rift in rock;
Connor's alley" opposite, vile, suf-
| locating place, with triangular court /;
"Murphy's alley" bewilderingly snarled
in network of clotheslines and fire
escapes; and "Single alley" and
"Double alley" adjoining each other.
| The two last named are, perhaps, as
striking in their wy as any i'll New
York. A five. story building running
back more than half the depth OF the
block, fronts on both alleys. "Single
alley" or East Gotham place, as it is
set down on some maps, is open on the
east side; the other is shut in on
the west by high gaunt building,
making the place dark and
gloomy. These differing characteristics
give the alleys their names. The large
building is divided through the middle,
parallel with the alleys, and also at
right angles, forming eight houses.
Each house has q rattling staircase,
with landings, from which the low
| ceiiinged rooms open on either hand.
Each family, however large or small,
has only two rooms in which to live and
move and have its being. On the left
one may live in comparative comfort
with wife and infant. Another on
the risht, however, who makes eight
or nine dollars week alongshore,
may have a wife-whom he thrashes
when an empty pocket leaves him in
want of other pleasurable excitement
and seven children, large OF small
but he has only two rooms, and must
stow them away as best he can when
night comes. Little, dingy apertures
in each landing, like windows in an
Italian prison, permit the passage of
air from one alley to the other. -Four
dollars and half q month is the highest
rent, and is paid for rooms on the second
floor, where the air is better than on
the first floor, access to the street easier
than from the rooms above. Ten years
ago this building is declared to have
held 800 families, or rather, that num-
ber of different rent payers.
Every alley or tenement house is in
charge of "housekeeper," a man who
keeps the place in good order, and
whose emolument comes in the shape
of free rent, with small additional
consideration" He invariably in
spires with awe the numerous ragmuf-
fins who play baseball on the sidewalk,
impale themselves on nails and ratings,
give convincing proof OF the theory of
heredity by fighting in the cutters,
squeeze themselves through small win
dows, and emit profanity with an un.
checked volubility that is almost blood
eurdling.
A frequent visitor to this region says
that he has found much to interest
him here. He has almost come to have
a nodding acquaintance with certain
queer old women who become family
visible in odd doorways; and some of
the street boys, marking his repeated
presence, have commented quietly but
profanely on the circumstance. One of
the most melancholy characteristics of
this district, and other such districts in
different parts of the metropolis, is the
forlorn and neglected condition of the
cid. With all the foul air, scanty food
and exposure, people are found here who
live too look back over fourscore years
and ten; wrinkled, yellow and stopped
old women, perhaps tottering about
with stick, holding dirty infant in
their bony arms, or heaping curses
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