The morning news., 1889-05-20

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Fact
Copyright 1892
New YORR May 1S-People who write
about the poor of New York should no
longer use the stereotyped descriptions OF
rags'and wretcledness which have been hand
cd down from iormer years. Nowadays it
does not follow at all that a poor person,
even a very poo- one, is necessarily ragged
and unkempt.
The people who live in the poorest quart
ers of New York city spend enough money
every year on thsi' clothes to rig out in ac-
custoned grandeu, five times their number
of farmers wives and daughters out in
Iowa. or Nebraska, or Kansas.
The Tenth ward contains within its
boundaries the mass of the worst poverty
in the city. Its Inhabitants are nearly all
of that wretched, hard-worksd, undsrpaid
class who by the hardest and most unre-
Ynitting labor can barely earn enough to
keep themselves and their families alive.
Its streets are barrow and dirty and ILL
smelling, and are filled with romping chill
dreu who swarm about like flies. They
are lined by tall, bare, ugly tenement
houses, in which whole families, number
ing anywhere ffom six to a dozen. are
often found living in a single room. These
families are ariStD ratio, Indeed, no matter
how large they are, which can afford more
than two rooms. Tae whole regi n is dirty
and wretched and poverty-stricken; but
vou would neverguess how wretchedly poor
It is if you didn't go inside the hsuses and
see lust how the people live, for the street
crowds look as if they had come from the
comfortable dwellings, OF well-to-do people
people with Incomes of $4,000 or S., 200 a
year.
Take a walk on a Sunday or holiday
through Rivingion, Allen, Forsyth, Cherry
and the neighboilng strests-the region that
contains the mott and the worst poverty in
the city-and the display of fine clothes is
simply astounding. It almost seems as if
the poorer and more wrstched the street the
more extravagant the dressing.
Here is a little l0-Year-old girl jumping O
rope. She is clad in gown of changeable
silk, neatly and stylishly made There
woman with two children comes down the
steps Of a tenement house and walks slowly
around the corner to candy store. She
has on French-heeled slippers of tan-col-
ored undre,sed kid, with big buckles, and
tan cloth dress that does not look at all
cheap or tawdry. The two babies are as
trim as can be il white wool coats and silk
caps.
Another child that goes past in a baby
carriage is asleep under maroon velvet rug,
its face shaded by a lace covered canopy.
There goes woman in dress of navy
blue velvet with hat to match, and there
is another one of those useless little wraps
Of silk and lace and beads. There are doz-
ems of them glittering in the sun, and they
are almost always worn over costumes that
are not at all charmed by their presence.
Two little girls, eight or ten years old,
come out of a tenement house. One of
them is drawing on kid gloves, aud the
other looks very bright and pleasing in a
dress of scarlet wool with velvet trimmings.
Here are two young women, Cns of them
smoothing down her slX-butt3n kid gloves
aud the other smiling and happy in a dark
wool dress that fits her as if it had been
nodded to her form.
Now and then a woman in slovenly, un-
kempt dress sits on G. doorstep surrounded
by pale-faced, dirty children; but she is the
exception, and when she is seen her face,
her manners, and her speech all prove her
TO be a recent arrival. She usually ap-
pears to be Polish, or Italian, OF, very
rarely, German, and she looks at you va.
cantly if you speak to her in English, or
tells you in her own language that she
doesn't understand. A few months more
and she will begin to spruce up, and a
year hence she will come out in q lace hat
with red roses, and beaded wrap, a silk
dress and kid gloves and join the street
throng with the best of them.
The boys and young men are as trim and
as pro porous looking as the women. They
all wear light spring trousers, neat cravats,
modish shoes, and thin coats and hats and
waistcosts that would put those Of Russell
Sage to shame.
Last winter a college-bred young woman
was investigating this region to see what
good she could do, and formed the acquaint-
anCe Of tenement house girl who works in
a store for SIS week. One day she found
the shop girl arrayed in a new cloak for
which she paid $50. With another college,
bred Young woman she visited a club Of ten
emenu house girls through which pbllan-
throplc person was trying to give them en-
tertalnment and instruction. The two col
lege women found themselves the poorest
dressed people there. In fact, they almost
lett shabby by the side of the fine clothes
the others wore.
1t has been the fashion in times past to
explain eXtravagant--and even decent
clothes upon working girls with the sweep
ing charge OF immortality. But that must
pe lalu aside now, along with the rags and
"TeJcAednesS that formerly went with pow
HJy. these girls are decent, respectable,
working women. 1t would not be possible
lGr nlne women out of every ten, young and
GA through all the Tenth ward, and every
oIner iaborlug part of the city as well, to
IITallc their virtue for fine clothes New
/ 1oIk Is wicked, but not as wicked as that.
mo, this extravagant dressing is hon
estly earned and paid for.
hew do they do it?
Inc question is a poser.
A. Hpuzzies everybody who has paid even
eide. ''A0 0A VIZ 0"''
a IN, me people pay their reut-they would be
Husyieu ont on the sidewalk in short order
sAeg ulun't-they eat at least enough to
~, ngso ULem alive, they go to balls in the
y; 9'@n1eI @ hHa 70 plcnics aud chowder parties
me IL vue summer, but the main part of their
IorD1t IlCoule Is put upon their backs. Every mem
Se, Sei VI Ihe iamlly who can earn even 25 cents
o"5,'. o'5 IS se1 TO work. They live in wrstcaed
pos..I3 they occupy just as little space as
sor-,.o'e' III order to reduce their rent; they
tba,- ana save IL their table expenses, and
ei5 economize at every opportunity, and
yia loF Ons SAKE Of making a stunning dis
boSy VI clothes. Then the installm lment plan
Ir.1a ma unnamed the desire for display and
cboa' chez 9Htravagance easy. 1t is the era of
6r.alp' ,Hlhgs toe, when not only imitation
NJ ~, uuJ really good fabrics can be bought
nrlYaD '0es SO tempting, that these meager
|GTfee3' cannot withstand
least .l'o tHu0vegance is increasing too. At
80 50 say those who have known the
or f,',r ,,rs pretty we'll during the last three
8p6.GI years. They say that this wish for
q'.yl3' y'3'Aes and the discrimination to have
o',ia. % growing SO rapidly that they can
,,,,. aus Increase from year to wear. AL