The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-05
A CITY'S 0UTCASTS.
AN ARMY OF VAGRANTS EXIST
ING IN THE METROPOLIS.
How many Of them Live-The Saloo:
different Grades Of Va
crants-Dwellers in Rocker
ies-Population Figures.

HOW many O1 IHc" AisC-AAC onioo'
"Sitters'-Different Grades Of Va
erants-Dwellers in Rocker
ies-Population Figures.
It is always easy to find interesting sta
.:istics in relation 10 the poor people of IL
country like ours. There are over 200
cheap lodging houses in New York. Most
1t them are below Fourteenth street.
The sanitary laws fix their legal shelter
ng capacity at about nine thousand lod-
gers Der night, but almost every night
from ten to twelve thousand dismal souls
are crowded into them. 1t is estimatei
that there are from four to five thousand
more Door males and females who find
shelter at the free-lunch saloons, the
stale beer dives and the pol ice stations
about Chatham Square and in the streets
which traverse the slums and sloughs o!
New York. These unfortunates have
show by working Us sitters IN
the low saloons. They cluster around!
the stove in the cold weather and ex-
cite the sympathy OF Transient customers.
During the holiday season, about election
time and when great parades are going
on this dodge of the needy worker and the
saloon keeper works to the advantage OF
both. At such times the sitters are en-
abled to keep comfortably filled up, to
the advantage of the house. In some
saloons which encourages sitters they are
let in in relays, fresh batch every hour.
By working up regular route OF such
places tramp can manage to fill up his
time all night. The way many of these
people keep clothed is a study. One that
have heard of has pretensions in this
direction. Every day be watches the
death notices in the papers, and whenever
the demise of man is announced ne
promptly calls at the house with o pite-
Gus appeal for cast-off clothing. People
are tender-heartcd, with death in the
house.. and he rarely goes away empty
handed.
A manager of the tramp question has
classified the different grades Of cheap
dodgers and sitters. He finds from long
experience that fifty per cent. of them
are victims of intemperance, twenty-five
per cent. are vagrants from sheer lazl-
ness, twenty per cent. are willing to
work, but cannot get it to do, and i've
per cent. are unable to work on account
of some mental OF physical defect. Upon
this basis of say fifteen thousand out and
out outcasts in New York city, $500 are
drunkards, $3.50 are indolent knaves,
5000 decent, poverty stricken people out
of work and ESQ inyalids and unfortu-
mates.
The next class of poor people, but lit
tie better off, are the dwellers IN the
rookeries and shanties and meanest tene'
mcnt houses. There the condition be-
comes somewhat better, but never salts
factory. The evils of the tenement
house system are apparent. THIS
huddling together of large num-
bers of men. women and children
under one roof breeds vice and dissipa-
ton. But the growth Of this system In
New York has been remarkable. Ihe
first tenement house was erected in 1885
on Cherry street. In 1865 there were
$1,000 tenements in this city. Now there
are at least 10000, including apartment
houses and flats. In "a quarter OF cen
tury the system developed and during, the
last twenty-five years has more than
doubled in extent. In 1865 the average
number of inhabitants in each tenement
house was thirty-fve. The average to-
day is fifty.
New York has double the number OF
| inmates to house of any other city IN
| the Union, Philadelphia the least. Oul
of 146, 212 houses in the Quaker cl",
there are only six inmates to each dwelllr 6.
! In the so, SS3 houses which makeup Bal
| timore. there are six and one-half people
to each residence. St. Louis, with 43,
O26 houses, has eight people to each
house. Chicago, with 1,O69 houses,
eight and quarter people. Brooklyn,
with GO, 233 houses, has nine people to I;
house. New York, with 73, GS4 houses,
has sixteen and one-half people: Tho
figures as to this city are deceptive, be-
cause there are fully 10000 tenements
proper, which accommodate fifty people
on an average. or total of million
souls. This demonstrates that more than
two-thirds of the population of New YORK
are dwellcrs of tenement houses proper,
among which flats and apartment houses
are not included. What singular study
these figures are. No city in the Union
has half as many houses as Philadelphia,
and vet Boston has nearly two-tnirds as
many as New York, and Chicago almost
as many. Truly these statistics justify
Philadelphia in its claim of being the
city of homes, and Chicago and Boston
follow very closely.-PhiIadelph" Press.