Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-02-21
ROOF-SLEEPERS.
THREE CLASSES - PkLATIAL, CON-
PORTABLE, AND WRETCHEO.
Janitor and Family or the Warehouse
Top-Tenants of the Flat Divide
Their Territory-swarns from
the Tenement House.

the hot nights of the heated term. have u
very faint conception of the disCOmfOrts. 1.
ammo anCe and positive suffered endured
by scores of thousands Of people TO whom
n second room would be an extra aganCe
and an individual room a luxury. OF
New Ork 5 :, 900, 600 q large estimate
sends $500 V out Of town. leaving hi q
modest p, int |. 800. 900 in the sitting city
Cf these scores of thousands cannot sleep
at all at night and other scores of thou
sands steal their forty winks at a time ".
ing on the sidewalk sitting on the stoop,
resting against garbage boxes or utilizing
wagons b "a more unique bed chamber
than any Of these are the roofs of houses.
where. if we can credit tie police for
general estimate and a personal Obscrva
ton for incidental discoveries not less
than $1,000 men, women children seek
the repOse that is denied them in their
uverhcatcd and utterly uncomfortable
apartments.
There are three kinds of roof sleepers-
the paatial, the comfortable, and the
wrctChcd Certain sections of the me
trOpOlis are occupied almost clusively
by huge warehouses, which stand solitary
in their stupendOus proportions, their iron
doors barred their iron windows close
shut and locked, aud silence. so Op
preSSivC that it can almost be felt, reignS
from early in the evening until stirring
hour on the following morning These
warehouses. like the tremendous build
ings devoted to Oil, es for hire which are
also silent as the tomb at night are
guarded by watchmen or janitOrs. well
paid, honest men. who. with their
families. occupy the upper portions of
the buildings These families are what
may be called the palatial roof sleepers
They may be seen in the early evening,
and indeed far into the middle of the
night. sitting comfortably in chairs on
the vast tin covered roofs of these mag
nifCent arChite Iural successes, smoking
drinking beer chatting with friends and
neighbors, chatting with neighbors on al
iaCcnt roofs. Il e children playing about in
ncgige costume, while on the very hot
test of hot nights a healthful, invigorating,
delightful breeze fans their fevered brows
and cools their heated blood EXtempor
aneous beds are prepared there-a
simple mattress. with covering; some
times nothing but pillow, and often
times easily hand! ed cOts-but always in
excessively warm weather these people
are more comfortable than those who own
she buildings on the top of which they
sleep.
The second class, the comfortable
are so only bv comparison. They are the
occupants of houses divided into flats,
where from five to ten families occupy one
building. Persons living in flats are fam
iiar with the fact that while the Occu-
pant of the first floor has exclusive pos
sas>iOn Of the yard, the roof is common
property. Sometimes the roof is utilized
for drying clothes, but the better grade of
medium rats use pulley ropes, while the
more eXpensi e apartment houses have
regular drying rooms attached TO the
laundry 1t is obvious that eight or ten
families averaging tlve persons in fam
iIy. could very easily kick up gay and
festive disturbance on a roof when erery
member of each family is disgruntled. un-
comfortable. uneasy and in tOrments for
want of sleep. so that rare diplomacy and
perfect good feeling are essentials 10 this
comfortable class of roof sleepers
Oftentimes in one Of these tat houses
there will be families who cou'd not be
persuaded to 90 upon the roof under any
circumstances, but there are tens of thou,
sands of people living in that style of
house-the house not being originally in
tended for fats-who make common
cause each with the other and divide the
roof equitably, so that all can be compare
lively tObllOl tdD4t- pOAtNC lCbaiN IL
as one of the marvels of life that even in
this class of perfectly reputable and well
mean ng citizens so few accidents occur
by reason of night exposure At all events
Il ere thev are, each roof having from
twenty to thirty of the forty or fifty peo
PIE in the house sleeping there night after
night. with the full moon shining as their
own light
But the most interesting class, the most
complicated are the third-the wretChed
class Of roof sleepers The people occupy
the lowest grade of tenement houses.
where not only scores but hundreds are
hudd ed together as sheep were formerly
huGdled on cars and wagons before Mr.
Berghs interference made such outrages
to four footed animals impossible There
are tenement houses within a quarter of q
miles radius of the city hall whose every
room accommodates from one to three
families where men aud women die and
children are born; where beds are hud
died meals are cooked, clothes are
washed. dried and ironed. There the
sick toss upon their cots, the young play.
the old drink and smoEe, and the whole
Tanarama Of existence, from the first
breath of puny babyhOOd TO the final CUR.
gle of dying old age, is unveiled in the
l'lNStLNt VI SiSNSaNDAS "a NAA
fcrent ages natiOnalities and sexes
These places are bad enough in the
winter In the summer, leaving aside all
question of health. decency and morals,
the utter wretChedness physical is some
thing utterly and absolutely beyond
description or conception to those who
ha not been an eye witness TO it That
these people should swarm upon the side
walks. sit on the curbstOnes OF walk
the streets is not strange. Who. then,
can wonder that they multitudinously
rush in hot haste for choice places on the
roof The roof of tenement house in
which hundreds swarm is no larger and
can hold no more people than the roof OF
house in which one family decorOusly
lives. or half a dozen comfortably reside.
Nightly squabbles. fights and disturb
anccs occur. AID why il is the children
are not Irecipita'ed to the pavement, and
that drunken b.awlers don't hurl one or
the other over the gutter. or that brutal
assaults. more easily imagined than de-
scribed. are not nightly occurrences is one
of the mysteries of this peculiar misery.
Every night during the week these popu
lous districts were noisy with the people
in the streets and noisy with the people
ON the roofs Ii is fortunate thing for
New York that in the very Hottest nights
there are spots were some kind of breeze
can be obtained. and these roofs are those
happy places
Diligence of Stssdmsn. the Banker Poet.