New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-11-03
AN IMPRESSIVE MAP.

temperance, the organ Of the Church Temper
Society, has in its last issue the first OF a
series Of maps intended to show the number and
situation Of all the saloons in the twenty-four
wards in this city. The first map Is that Of the
First Ward. and the most careless inspection
shows that the exhibit is an interesting one. In
this ward, covering about one hundred and fifty
acres, and having present population of some
90, 900, there are 1886 saloons The black marks
which indicate them on the map are SO thick that
the sale of drink might at first be thought almost
the sole business of the ward. There are several
blocks in which every other house on both sides
Of the street seems to be saloon On a single
block twenty-six Of these establishments can be
counted. They are, was to be expected, es
pecially thick on the water front, where sailors
and stevedOres and loneshoremen con2rcgate and
cherish chronic thirst
There is one saloon to every SO SO people
in the First Ward. There is one school to every
$500 people in the same ward. There is one
church for the entire population Of 10000. What
makes this the interesting and significant is
that the First Ward of NewYork is that part Of
the city in which all the European immigration
first touches American soil. and through which
the said immigration percOlaes or Is filtered. be-
fore reaching the rest OF the country. Castle
Garden occupies the apex Of the irregular cone
immigrants must make their way through a per-
feet phalanx OF drinking Shops before they can
get UP town. At first sight it would seem scarce
" possible that so many saloons could live in so
narrow an area, but experience shows that they
manage to make both ends meet and 1t may be
concluded fairly that the steady stream Of imm
grants contributes almost as much to this result
as the trade of the people who work about the
docks The fact that last year $4,000 immigrants
lodged in the licensed boarding houses situated in
the district spoken Of, may be regarded as giving
demonstration to this inference.
Another consideration of o suggestive character
is the multiplication OF saloons in proportion to
the descent in poverty. The poorer district
the more drinking places it will have as rule
Since the money spent on drink by the very poor
must be taken from the sustenance fund, what
ever it be, it follows that the destructive effects
OF intemperance in such regions are greater and
more rapid than elsewhere. The very poor, how
ever move in vicious circle in this matter.
Their poverty drives them to drink in the first
place and drink renders escape from their poverty
hopeless. Yet remembering that New-lo,lS has
between 1000 and 6, 900 drinking places, all told.
il must be realized that the proportions which
the saloon provision takes in the First Ward are
probably only peculiarly striking because we arc
introduced TO that small part Of the city first and
by itself. 1t IL possible that drinking shops are
nowhere else thickly clustered, and 1t
may well be that the smaller and more sordid kind
are nowhere so strongly represented But no in
habitant OF this city requires to be told that far
uptown the saloons are frequent enough to make
il impossible for O thirsty man with coin in his
pocket to suffer more than few moments. Up
town, it is true, there more churches and
schools than in the First Ward. The latter, we
fear it must be admitted, cuts but sorry figure
as the antc-room Of the American Republic, and
its prevailing business is liable to give foreigners
strange ideas concerning the true character Of our
civilization