Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
STATISTICAL STUDY
Shows Wickedness Rampant in the
First Four Wards Of Pittsburg.
SOME REASONS GIVEN Why 1T is SO
Professions Count for but Little Among
Applicants For Place.
ABSTAINERs WHO FELL FROM GRACE

Will agree that the moral condition OF that
part of the city below Grant street might be
improved, but doubtless few of them have
ever considered it more wicked than all the
rest of Allegheny county combined, but
figures, generally admitted to be veracious,
attest the truth Of the assertion.
1t seems to be terribly wicked, though 1t
is supposed there must be a greater proper
tion of salvation salt in it than was in
Sodom and Gomorrah, else it would have
been destroyed before this time.
The Department of Public Safety keeps q
record of police doings which, in this age Of
reasoning by statistics, or rather by proving
or disproving by them, is an interesting
study, or might be an instructive one. This
record shows that IS per cent of all the
arrests made by the police in Pittsburg are
in the territory below Grant street, supposing
the line of that street to be carried through
to the Allegheny river. The bare sugges-
tion is enough to frIghten population away
from that haunt of the Evil One, and yet it
contains more people In proportion to area
than any other portion of the city, and a
large percentage of the religio-charitable
and humane associations are centered In it.
In brief, it is where both the evil and the
just congregate more than in any other por-
ton of either city of the same extent.
As the result found by the department is
not cause uncaused, there is, of course,
some speculation caused by the announce
ment. Some temperance people triumph
antly refer to Judge Whites assertion that
WHERE THE MOST LIoUoR IS SOLD
there is the most crime, but there are sew
eral things one may stumble over in rush.
ing to conclusion of this kind and in fall
ing smash his argument into smithereens.
In the first place, some drinkers deny that
there is much liquor sold in this district, as
they say the saloon keepers have generally
become converted to the temperance cause,
and have reduced the size of glasses in ac-
cordance with their newness of heart. Others
contend that most of the drunks which
culminate in docking Tor repairs in the Gen.
tral station are sprouted outside the district
where saloous are scarce and where the bot
tie trade fourishes. Before coming down
town it is claimed that drunk is pretty well
on the way, and an extra drink or
so finishes the work, and the victim is
gathered in where the police are most plen-
tiful, and while in easy reach by the patrol
wagon force. Then there is the fatal pro-
pensity Of boozer TO run into the Jaws of
danger just when he is least able TO take
care of himself
There is also another element calculated
to disturb the calculations OF the temper
ance people In this respect. There is no
other city in the United States to which
half million people drift to the same ex-
tent as to the territory in question. Almost
the entire travel converges in it, and il
rapid transit lines will continue to multiply
on the surface in this section old Juggernaut
will find his business so dwarfed in COM
parison that he will retire. Nearly all the
vehicle traffic and travel converges in this
territory, and has but eight outlets, Fifth,
Sixth, Seventh, Penn and Liberty avenues,
Smithfeld, Wood and Sixth streets, and it
is matter of wonder that 80 few pockets
are picked and so few other robberies COM
mitted.
CITY OF NATIoNALITIEs.
In other cities crowds have more room to
spread and where in Philadelphia, for in
stance, they can scatter over several square
miles of thoroughfare, here they are COM
pressed into half mile square, and in .
city composed of nearly all nationaIities,
creeds and colors, the wonder is that they
endure each others society with 50 little
friction on occasions when race and creed
heterogeneity is so densely massed.
Another thing brought out BY the depart
mental system OF doing business has been
the demonstration Of the unreliability of
professions and certificates Of character.
Men addicted to the flowing bowl to an ex-
tent denominated habitual cannot get posi-
tions, at least in theory they can
not. Well, during certain period,
and not very long one either.
there were well on toward 200 cases Of
discipline for ofenses charged. By the de-
partment the applicants aresreuuired in ad-
dition to furnishing REF lamentations to
state their intercourse bon-intercourse
with the ardentph be ioy1-L Some admit
occasional use, others admit that they use
spirits daily in moderation. but large pro-
portion registered themselves as total ab-
stainers. Now statistics show that Of the
cases tried for drunkenness thirteen-four-
teenths were of the total abstinent class.
The conviction has grown in consequence
that they were largely total abstainers from
truth.