Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1883-10-17
NEW YORK GHETTO.
urious Features of New York Tenement Life
The Habits of the Poorer Glasses of Jews.
New York Cor. Troy Times.l

New York Cor. Troy Times.I
One of the first features Of life In this
New York Ghetto is the rent charged
these unfortunate people. 1 noted down
the rents paid in one building, and find
that the iucome derived from the mis-
cradle rookeries of this neighborhood is
greater than that produced by first class
brown stone houses uptown near Fifth
Avenue. For instance, in my note book
1 find the statistics concerning the
house No. So, Forsyth Street. The lot
is % feet wide by 100 feet deep, the
regulation city lot. Fronting on the
street is tenement % feet wide by so
feet deep and six stories high; then
comes a yard IS feet square, and then
rear tenement facing on the yard, five
stories high, % feet wide and % feet
deep. The front tenement has quarters
for four families on each floor, two on
the trent and two on the rear, each
apartment consisting of one light room,
II by Is feet, and one dark room In the
rear, about By 10 feet. The only ven
tiIation of this dark room, or big closet,
called bedroom, comes from the living
room through the open door, or from
the hallway through little window In
the partition. In the rear tenement
each floor contains two families, the
apartments" consisting again Of liv-
ing room and dark room IN the rear.
Both these tenemeDts were, upon the
occasion of my visit, dilapidated and
filthy beyond description, the plaster
down, the stairs rickety, the woodwork
giving, the glass broken in many WIN
dows, the yard filed with rotting garb-
age and pools of water from the closets,
IL which pools swarms of haf-naked
children were playing. There was run
ming water only IN the basement, the
other tenants having to pump it up into
a dark sink upon each landing. The
stencil from the yard was overpowerIDg,
the rear tenants of the front building
having no other air to breathe. The
rents paid for these departments" was
So a month on the first floor, So on the
second, $3.50 on the third, 81 on the
fourth, Sc. so on the fifth, and Sc on the
sixth. Any one who takes the trouble
to make the calculation will find that
the monthly income from the property
must be about $3.50. After paying all
expenses of collecting rents, repairs and
taxes, the owner must receive about
81, 500 year for the houses, through
which persons not accustomed to such
sights could not walk without shudder-
ing.
This system of covering every foot of
ground, except a narrow yard, half filed
with closets, has been condemned by the
board of health, and Is not allowed now;
but before any real reform can be effect
ed In our down town tenements these
rear r0Okeries must be torn down, and
some light and air allowed to penetrate
the interior Of the blocks. Nine-tenths
Of the tenements IN the most populous
parts of the city, extending over, at
least, ten square miles, are built upon
this plan, which brings the most money
to the landlord s pocket at the expense
of the tenants health. Any one going
through these rear tenements on warm
day, and stumbling over the children
playing III the yards, or the babies
asleep on the tumble-dOwn stairs, won
ders, not that so many of the little ones
die, but that so many live. Another vari-
alton Id the style of building which is
rather common IN our tenement districts
is to leave an alley way five feet wide
the whole length of the lot, build
ing five little six-story houses each twen-
ty feet square, facing on the alley. This
is a better plan for the tenants, because
fewer families are crowded upon one lot
of land. With the front and rear tene-
ments already mentioned, thirty-four
families are quartered on a lot twenty
five by 100 feet; with the alley running
from the street to the end of the lot only
thirty families are accommodated. In
most of these alleys the rents are about
the same. In fact it may be taken as a
standard of rent that In any part of our
worst tenement-house districts below
Sixth Street, that the price of two rooms,
one twelve by fifteen and a dark closet
eight feet square, will vary from SO to So
q month, according to the floor. At the
same rate of space, a small twO-story
country cottage. such as farm hands live
IN. would be worth about 81 900 year.
It will occur at once to most people to
ask why these people do not move else
where, and how they are able to pay
such rents? In the first place the Pc
lish Jew who has invaded this neighbor-
hood by the thousand within the last
ten years, Is clannish and hates to leave
his people. He and his are SO repul-
siveIy filthy that IN a better class of
tenements uptown, where less money is
asked Tor DeJCeE ACCOMMODATIONS, Une
landlord will not take the Polish Jews.
q Give them palace, said one land
lord to me, and they will make a pig
sly of it within month" Respectable
Irish families do not like them, and will
not tolerate their ways. The one idea
of the Polish Jew, be he tailor, peddler,
shoemaker, or cigar roller, is to save
money. To that end he will sacrifice
ANYTHING but his religion. He will
work from early dawn till late at night,
when, exhausted, he falls upon heap
of rags and sleeps until the morning
light enables him to go ut it again. He
will live en- the refuse of the markets