The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-10-03
VISITING A CITY'S SLUMS.
A LONDON MANIA TRANSPORTED
TO NEW YORK.
"Slumming" Parties 10 be the Rage
this Winter-NOcturnaI Tours of
the City's worst Districts.

lulosyncrasy 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 visit to an opium
joint or Harry Hills. 1t is no secret in
certain circles that shortly before she
left Mrs. Langtry and a party of friends
made nocturnal tour of the east side
resorts in the Bowery. 1t is safe to con-
clude under the circumstances that
stunning" will become 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 q 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 ght-seeing-the more noble
ambition of alternating 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
served over his brandy and soda: "Ah,
this is a great city, but you have no
slums like we have. l have been in
rickcty condemned buildings that it was
absolutely dangerous to go through!
Found six families living in one mis-
erably ventilated cellar = twenty four
, persons, sixteen of them adults, living
in one room. No such slums herel"
There are no such slums here as de-
scribed by the young Engishman, but
Summing here has not yet become
/ 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
stones throw of the great bridge exists
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 insigniiCance of the VIC
Tins, that nothing is said about it unless
the sufferer happens to be prominent
xrrhA IL, 4 H. L.
in making a short cut through the neigh
borhood to reach the bridge or the ferry.
A ride on the green cars on the East
Side of 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.
companitd strangers to travel after dark
in the outlying districts on the river
sides. The 'boys," which is general
term including adults as we'll as youths.
constitute themselves into gangs, and woe
betide any stranger who crosses their path,
for he will be relieved of his valuabies, if
he is foolish enough to wear any on such
an occasion, and probably Invested of
his coat and vest. The "beat" is SO
large that the policeman on duty is sell
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 CoItlandt 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. comparatively small environ
ment on the west side may be called the
microcosm of the "slummer," 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 aiiluence and
virtue. He can find gambling carried on
~
minutes walk will take the " summer
from the Oriental splendor of the Hof-
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 a little
strange that such an institution as the
Tombs should be situated in 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 good work in which
all can engage. In reform movement,
or in charity, even a child can help,
and all who 90 Stunning" can prove
of assistance. 1t is related that fathers
heart was softened toward has tenants in