Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-11
THE POOR OF BERLIN.
=R,cHTFUL cRoWDlNo AMONG THE
GERMAN WORKING PEOPLE.

Distressing stase - Things Be.e.th /.
Surface Of Seeming Prosperity-Dveil-
ines of the Poor Of Berlin-Tro1blss Of
Tenants and Landlords.
Since the bitter cry of outcast London
made 80 much stir In 166S1Ss and 3slum-
ming" became a pastime Of the gilded
youth of the West End. the idea has been
pretty generally accepted that the horrors
Of London were unequaled In the civilized
world Yet Dr. Miguel Oberburger-
meister, of Frankfort Main, asserts
and quotes authorities enough amply to
prove) that the housing Of the poor il
worse in Germany than in England and
adds: 1Such holes as the so-called clappers
Of Berlin and its night lodgings are scarcely
20 be found in England to-day, and it is in
| perfect harmony with this that we find in
London lower average Of house rents
and a death rate of e per 1000. whereas
the death rate in Berlin is % per 1000"
Fancy $50 patients i'll with spotted fever
| in one house! Yet such q case actually
occurred in Berlin in No. 81 Miller strasse
six years before my sanguine guide
pointed out the advantages of the Berlin
poor in the dwelling question
Moreover, in 1851, when the first syste-
matte survey Of the housing of the poor in
Berlin was scientifically carried out, there
lived $4,000 human beings in dwellings
with but one room each that could be
heated, and besides these there were q, 900
others in dwellings with no opportunity
for heating whatsoever. In the nineteen
years that have interviewed the population
Of Berlin has increased enormously and it
is probably safe to assume that to-day
these numbers are too small rather than
too large, while in 1875 1912 per cent. Of the
whole population lived in dwellings below
ground, in cellars
STRIKING CONTRASTS OF LIFE
In proportion to the crying nature OF
these evils is the activity with which the
dwelling question has been studied for
nearly generation. Since the year 1861
there have been minute registries of dwell
ings and their relation to population every
time the census has been taken, and the
results have been deliberately worked up
by Neumann, Schwab and BOckh down to
1880. Moreover, this example has been fol
lowed by other cities, and Hamburg, ORES
den, Leipsic, Breslau, Konigsberg have all
followed Berlin in the publication of elab-
orate statistics Of dwellings in relation to
population.
In Frankfort-on-the-Ma the contrasts
Of life present themselves to the American
traveller almost as strikingly rs in London
The superb beauty of the Opera, standing
alone in its splendor, the long avenue Of
villas where every third one seems to he
the home of member of the Rothschild
family, the splendid shops as tasteful as in
Paris, all tell the traveller the story Of this
nest Of millionaires. Yet in this same city
the number Of families living upon the
fourth and still higher floors almost
doubled from 1875 to 1850, rising in five
years from $40 to ,2Oi, and this especial
deterioration in the dwelling arrangements
Of the poor is said to be but one of many
forms of deterioration which are manifest
ing themselves in the present architectu-
raj development Of Frankfort-on- the Main
Thus % per cent. of all the dwellings in
Frankfort have either one room which can
be heated or none at all, and more than
5000 have no kitchen.
LANDLORDS AND TENANTS TROUBLES.
Oddly enough, the poorest and most I'M
wholesome quarter Of Frankfort, the
butchers quarter and the now Isolated
Judengasse, were formerly the seat of the
most prosperous and long lived class Of
the whole population, the Jewish mer
chants, the butchers of the guild, etc. But
of late years the standard Of comfort has
so risen, the requirements, modern con-
veniences, flowing water, parquetry floors,
high ceilings, etc, have grown SO far be-
yond the substantial simplicity of Frank
fort Old Town that the prosperous families
of the middle class have moved out bodily
into the more modern, less closely built
portions and their abandoned dwellings,
wholly unfit for workingmen's homes.
swarm with the poorest Of the poor, who
pay rents for their singls rooms out Of all
proportion to the accommodation fur
nished
Moreover, IL the tenant fails single
time, perhaps for want Of work, to pay
the rent on the specified day the landlord
may take possession OF everything save
the clothing actually worn by the family
and may drive man and wife and children
out into the street. But the possessions
which he has appropriated he may not
SELL Now, man whose tools have been
taken away from him naturally can not
readily find work, and woman who has
no money with which to buy food and no
stove upon which to cook can not feed the
children So the whole party betake them
selves to the guardians OF the poor. These
officials naturally find it cheaper to re-
lease the tools Of the father and recover the |
poor little possessions Of the mother by |
paying the rent than TO support an able
bodied family outright. SO the landlord |
twho may himself he some tenants tenant |
and have nothing To do with the owner |
ship Of the property RECEIVERS his lost |
rent, but the whole portion Of the popula
ton which is subject to such outrageous |
becomes in the long run either |
or Observation-Disclosures |
Cor. Philadelphia Times.