, 1884-11-03

The Democratic Leader.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1884.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT.
How the Miserable Sleep in the City
During the Hot season
Conditions OF CaIorie Utterly Tn.
bearabIe-Asissp In the Gutter
New York mud-HOw
Children Herd.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER ;, 1884.
MIDSUMMER NIGHT.



utterly foreign to the understanding Of peo-
pie who live In comfortable homes. and
known to the denizens OF the roofs only by
hearsey. Twenty thousand people on the hot
niKhts Of last week snored upon the stoops,
sw-ifered in ash-bins, slept in the CUTTERS Of
New YOrk's streets. Within an eighth Of "A
mile el The city hall are many huge buildings
called tenements, in which scores Of families
live, bresd and die. Dirt and squalor ane
their normal conditions. untidiness, foul
Odors, and indecency are things familiar to
young eyes and the everyday surroundings
OF old age. In winter time it Is possible for
the degraded creatures who burrow in the
kennels " exist, becanse the more crowded
they art tine warmer they are, and In the
winter the two things most needed are
shelter and heat Utterly reckless as TO APP
pearance, careless OF what may happen TO
one another in the way Of immortality, with
no preiudices ia favor OF clean faces or
tidy linen, these families hive together AZ
bugs do, literally rolling one over the other,
content 20 long ns their lowest physical ne
o~essities are even partially met. In the sum
mer all this IL changed. Shelter, 10 be sure,
IL desirable, hut there are conditions OF
calOric utterly unbearable. which even these
people. unaccustomed 70 ease or comfort Of
any sort or kind, insist upon so far as they
are able to control Attain. It requires no
very great stretch Of imnginations TO under
.tand that the close. unvendlatsd houses In
which these people burrow, where children
are born, the sick are cared for, the dead lie
waiting burial, where cooking and washing
and d thousand and one domestic economies
uscessury to every household, however
humble. are carried on, canno be
very desirable places for anyone TO
sleep Ia during the frightful nights OF
turridity. What, then, must they be when
not only one. but a dozen, are expected to
find natures sweet ~restorer, balmy sleep, in
the contracted, foul-Sme1ling. almost loath-
some places in which these people stayi
They can not go to the roof, it is already
occupied: 50 they swarm upon the streets
First come ArSt served is their motto. As
soon Us the evening shades prevail these
creatures emerge half-clothed, dirty, com
FORTRESS to The last degree, and wind their
way through the crooked passages. down the
stalrways to The narrow street, The steps
are soon taken possession Of. Every point
where n person can rest his weary head IL
occupied. Far In the evening hours, when
children VI people In moderate circumstances
are asleep, these streets are noisy, echoing
with the cries and sports, the fights, the
broils, the romps OF wretched little children.
whose dirty faces are stained with tears, to
whom a crust isa bouquet, aud a pillow an
unheard Of luxury. There Is something
about New York mud which deies analysis
It has q peculiar, pungent, sickening odor to
which the frightful smells from Hunter
point and Barren island are like the PERFUMES
from n ladyis boudoir. There are streets in
which this mud has grown gray In the ser
vice. II nestles in the CUTTERS, It hides
beneath the stones, II rises in foul vapors
from the roadway and Is as familiar to every
one Of the boys and girls and babies on the
block ~ the rap Of a policeman club or the
yell OF a vender OF fish.
A walk through one OF these Streets at /.
O'Clock Of a frightful September night would
do much to allAy the discontinued fovei
which eats the very hearts OF so many oi
New Works well-to-do people. Children art
seen there by the hundreds who haven't
been in bed for weeks, who haven't changed
their clothing in months, to whom a cool
vast would be a revelation more absolute
than the most startling sentence in the
apocalypse. Curly headed boys and girls.
with bright eyes and sturdy figures, literally
rump In the street and pelt each other with
It's dirt. Miserable, big headed, weak eyed.
pallid faced, wasting babies lie upon the
laps Of siatternly women and roll their
heads from side 10 side In pitiable weakness.
All manner OF costume can there be seen
Barefooted men and women, haif-grown
boys and girls, with but a single garment be-
tween them and the outer air, disappointed
looking men and MISUNDERSTANDING
women form the motley groups of every
possible age and every imaginable condition
Of trouble and distress. Recently the very
acme and zenith OF physical discomfort and
distress was reAc he'd.
During the late days, OF excessive heat,
with no let up Of any consequence az night,
the CUTTERS OF New York's tenement districts
presented a sad and doleful sight. On nearly
every corner an attractive glare shone from
u gin-mil. Men VII annot afford an extra
dollar a week for a home, apparently found
no difficulty in raising a nickel every half
hour or 10 FOR a pot Of beer. Old men and
women, fathers and mothers, children and
babies, one and all, partook OF the foaming
leverage from time to time. Little by little
the weary children, tired with crying, recog-
nizing the utter uselessness OF asking for
comfort, spread themselves upon the side
walk. curled up in cutters, rested where best
they could, and fell asleep in positions as
comfortable as il was possible 70 get Groups
upon the stoops followed suit Now and
then, with n cry OF Here comes the copi"
the children. startled from a feverish, sluni-
her, would rise and run. but knowing by ex-
perience that they had done nothing 10 de-
Serve more than a gentle tap or d rough
reprimand, they soon returned and resumed
their sleep
There WAS no air stirring anywhere those
nights, save on the roofs Of some very pala-
tiul warehouses. IL was n terrible night for
people who could 90 To the seashore, but
were compelled by STRESS Of business TO re-
turn by the last boat or train. aud ssek re-
freshing rest In their own comfortable homes.
Many a rich man sighed for air
while he sat the sole occupant OF a spacious
chamber How, then, was IL in tho streets
running from ferry to ferry, how in the mar
row highways and byways called places, -
how in these enormous human hives where
the poor Of every name and nation arr
crowded morv closely than MI, Bergh per-
mits hogs to b herded on their way to the
slaughter bouses Tha heat is no rospectsr II
persons. lt starts the fever In Every vein,
Mhether that vein be In the body Of the rich