Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-10-03
VISITING A CITY'S SLUMS.
A LONDON MANIA TRANSPORTED
TO NEW YORK.
tSIummingn Parties TO be the Rage
this Winter-NOcturnaI Tours OF
the City's Worst Districts.


this Winter-NOcturnaI Tours OF
the City's Worst Districts.
"Slumming," the latest fashionable
idiosyncrasy in London. e., the visit
ing of the slums of the great city by
parties of ladies and gentlemen for sight
seeing-is mildly practiced here by our
foreign visitors by tour of the Bowery,
winding up with a visit to an opium
joint or Harry Hills. 1t is no secret in
certain circles that shortly before she
left Mrs. Langtry and party of friends
made a nocturnal tour of the east side
resorts in the Bowery. 1t is safe to con-
clude under the circumstances that
stunning" will become a form of fash
ionable dissipation this winter among
our bellies, as our foreign cousins will
always be ready to lead the way. The
London stunning" has brought to the
notice of the rich much suffering, and
led to many sanitary reforms. The old
Five Points would have proved per-
feet paradise to the Summers, but be-
cause it exists no more let it not
be supposed that the squalor and
poverty that characterized that pest spot
does not exist elsewhere in this city. So
far the mania here has assumed the sin
gle form of ight-seeing-the more noble
ambition of alleviating the condition of
the desperately poor visited has not ami
mated the adventurous parties. A quite
well-known young English noble, re-
turning from tour of the east side the
other night with some club friends, OBJ
uaruo1 h,u hro ,,lr ri coda. GIA D
this is great city, but you have no
slums like we have. l have been in
rickety condemned buildings that it was
absolutely dangerous to go through
Found six families living in one mis-
erably Rentilated cellar = twenty-four
persons, sixteen of them adults, living
in one room. No such slums herer
There are no such slums here as de-
scribed by the young Englishman, but
Summing here has not yet become a
popularity recognized custom, and the
routes have not been prepared as they
doubtless soon will be. The self-ap-
pointed guides of the present sight
seeing parties do not know that within
a stones throw of the great bridge exists
u population in the same squalor
and suffering as anything ever
seen in the English metropolis; that
the misery, multitude and vice of the
Five Points is to be found to-day in
various well-known localities on the
East Side and the outlying "shanty-
town districts" Take, for instance, the
tenement house district just back of the
stores on the river front, in the neigh
borhood of the bridge-between that and
Fulton Ferry-for squalor and suffering.
Crime in these localities is so frequent
and of so little public importance, by
reason of the insignificance of the vic
tins, that nothing is said about it unless
the sufferer happens to be prominent
person, who finds himself in the locality
in making short cut through the neigh
borhood to reach the bridge or the ferry.
A ride on the green cars on the East
Side of a warm evening will reveal some
tenements so crowded with sweltering
humanity that the surprise created will
only be equaled by the discovery that in
the center of the block, reached oy mar
row alleyways for passages through the
houses, another row of tenements equally
as crowded-indeed, over crowded is a
better word.
1t is unsafe for unprotected or unac-
companied strangers to travel after dark
in the outlying districts on the river
sides. The "boys," which is general
term including adults as well as youths,
constitute themselves into gangs, and woe
etideany stranger who crosses their path,
for he will be relieved of his valuables, if
he is foolish enough to wear any on such
an occasion, and probably Invested of
his coat and vest. The cheat" is so
large that the policeman on duty is sci.
dom on hand when wanted, for the
boys" of course, wait until their OPP
portunity, and do not appear when he is
in their vicinage. The west side, south
of Coftlandt street and west of Broad
way, is populous neighborhood, offer
ing many attractions to the sight seeking
summer, as also the line and neighbor-
hood of the elevated railroad in South
Fifth avenue. There is not as much
squalor and density of population in the
"colored" district in South Fifth
avenue as there is in the "colored'
colony between Twentieth and Thirtieth
streets. A comparatively small environ.
ment on the west side may be called the
microcosm of the Summer" for within
its boundaries he can discover all that he
can see elsewhere. He can run the Ger.
tain risk of being slugged on the river
side; he can see crowded tenements in.
Vulnerable, and he can find poverty and
crime cheek by jowl with atfluence and
virtue. He can find gambling carried or
in the shadow of church. A few
minutes walk will take the "slummer'
from the Oriental splendor of the Holf-
man House to some of the lowest beer
saloons in the city, dingy and dirty, fire..
quented by the vilest characters of both
sexes. 1t will strike him as little
strange that such an institution as the
Tombs should be situated in a slum; that
within block is the most crowded tene
ments in the city.
In London Stunning" has assumed
the guise of reform enterprise. While
the squalor and poverty of certain dis
tricts here are under better regulation
than in the English metropolis there is
much good work to be done by ''slum
ming" here. 1t is a good work in which
all can engage. Ina reform movement
or in a charity, even child can help
and all who go Stunning" can prove
of assistance. 1t is related that father
heart was softened toward his tenants il
rookery by his little daughters descrip
ton of the misery she saw little cir
like herself suffering, though the owner
the sordid and wealthy father, had neve
visited his premises, and did not dream
of the poverty of his tenants until unwit
tingly informed of the same by his cher
ished little daughter.
"Slumming," commenced in London
as it has here, with curiosity to see thu