The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-17
Philadelphia Press. I

cussfCn OF the Qee1raDlllty OF being q free
citizen with free speech and freedom of &C.
ton IN free country, it is difficult to avoid
the conclusion that I'm q free country where
free men are permitted freedom of speech
and freedom Of action, enforced cleanliness
is sn apparent impossibility. Nothing short
of absolute monarchy, despotism depend
ent upon the within of no one save the su.
preme autocrst in control, can compel even
decent people to live in public cleanliness.
Brooklyn is the dirtiest city ever saw. It's
streets in winter are literally covered with
slush-part mud, part snow, part salt.
Three graf corporations. the Brooklyn City
Railroad, the Brooklyn Gas Company aud
Greenwood Cemetery, all in the hands of
one small clique Of reputable first citizens"
dominate that city, absolutely rule it from
years end 10 years end as they have done
for the past forty years. Brsoklyn's chief
thoroughfsres are really marvels of dirt.
Ashes. paper, all manner OF garbage, dirt in
piles make even its nicer streets uncanny at
all times and unpleasant to look at or pass
through. In some favored localities neigh
bors club together and hire a man to sweep
the street, but sweeping the street without
carrying away the sweeping amounts to bat
little, after all.
New York is so much more denssly popu-
lated. its poverty is much more conspicuous
its roost is utilized by SO many carrion crows
from beyond the seas, and corporate greed
squeezss so tightly the tbroats OF poor and
humble employees. that it not .unnaturauy
affords fertile field for alarmists, who talk
about the coming cholera and point to sew
eral fever breeding nests here as the places
where the cholera seed will soonest drop.
and wherein 1t will the mott quickly de-
velop.
When you run over from Philadelphia by
your Pennsylvania limited for q few hours
10 the metropolis. yo1 hurry up Broadway
or along the speed tracks of your Elevated
Road to your favorite st. James or Bruns.
wick, lunch in gsyly decorated apartment,
take In matinee or O picture gallery, look
at the heppy throngs upon Fifth avsnu or
the main artery of our town and whiek back
again, thinking you have seen New York"
Well, perhaps you have seen its comfort, It's
opulence, Ito ease, its jollity, but there is
darker and dlrtier side you have not seen,
about which you know nothing, its sums,
iistquslid homes Its gsunt aud haggard
poor, its filthy streets, its reeklng alleys, Its
peetilent novels, the dirt OF disease the
death which exists on tho sunless side OF
this great and glorious metropolis. The
worst parts OF London and Constsntinople
and Lisbon are concentrated here. Your
senses ache and your gorge rises at the
scenes and objects before you. Inyoluntar-
lily your handkerchief goes to your nostrils
and your feet carry you away from the 90.
cisl carrion into which you have stepped
But IL, like young student in the dissscting
room, yen have come to see aud learn, you
will stay your flying feet,
CHILDREN AND THEIR HOMES.
The irst thing that impresses you IL the
wsrm OF children In every street, before
every house aud shop aud at every corner;
children OF all sges and colors, though the
general hue inclnes 10 dirt. The offspring
of vice Is prolific "a the offspring OF poverty,
and both are there. From the coarse or cad.
averous infant in its hard.festured mothers
arms TO the hall grown girl or boy, unkempt,
unwashed, unrestrained, the period OF early
youth 10 represented. Even maternity Is
not sacred or tender there, and there Is no
soft light In the mothers face rs she gives
nourishment from The gross, all.ex posed
bosom TO the already infected babe. What
should De the innocence OF childhood Is
banished from those purieus OF impurity.
Those boys and girls have no childhood, no
youth. no fresnness. no sweetness, no inuo-
cence. They have never eaten u mouthful
OF wholesome food, inhaled n breath of IN.
tainted air, hoard the tones OF q pure aztec.
ton. They are accused from their birth,
formed to evil by association bound to vics
by chain OF necessary events they can not
break.
Look at their novels. Twelve feat souare
IL about the average size OF very many of
their rooms. Walls and ceiling are black
with the sccretions Of filth which have gath
cred upon them through long years OF neg
Iect. It's sxuding through cracks in the
boards overhead; 1t 10 running down the
nane OF window Is. half OF IL, stuffed with
rags or covered with boards to keep out the
wind and rain; the rest 10 80 begrmed aud
obscursd that scarcely can light enter or any.
thing be seen outside. AS TO com planning OF
the dilapiosted, filthy condition OF the ROOM
IL they don't like II they eau 60. There ere
dozens OF others who will Jump at tho accom-
notation, and the landlord - we'll aware OF
the fact. The streets OF certain districts are
In y frightful condition.
IL Is true the principal thoroughfares are
kept tolerably clean, but In the alleys and
smaller streets filth aud dirt are every where.
Most OF the streets are poorly graded aud
what Is intended to be the gutter is marked
by "A line OF little paddles aud pools OF stag.
pant water and refuse. In the afternoon.
when the ash barrels filed with garbage and
refuse, are placed on the sidewalk, q stencil
arises which Is sckening. Within Q stones
throw OF broadway, Aun street Is resking
with poisonous and malodorous gases arls.
ing from sccumulations Of sewage and refuse
scattered In oil directions.
SOME OF TaE HovKLs.
Some Of the cheap eating houses in the dis.
trict have courts which tho sun never pens
taies, which are never visited by . breath
of fresh air and which rarely know the vlr-
tines OF a drop of cleansing water. Years az,
We heard much Of the deep cellar lodging
houses In the ferry district. That's the dis.
trict whose streets run down 10 South street
and thence TO one OF half dozen ferries,
n n poU 81 hat