Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-25
POVERTY AND sOUALOR.
some sr the nIiseries Of Close Tsnsment LiEs
in Plrtsburg-oId John Briusn's sad

Some sf the nLIseries Of Close Tsnsment LiEs
in PIrtsBurs-oId John Brinon's Sad
Case.
The duties Of Superintendent Dean, ofthe
Anti Cruelty Society, in looking into com
plants of harsh usage of children or old
persons, compel him to 60 into the lowest
haunts Of poverty, misery and vice. The
things he sees there would move the com
passion of the most careless man. Could the
rich owners Of many Of the squalid tenements
see the filth and disease-breeding conditions
in which their tenants are forced to live,
they would surely be moved to perform re-
pairs or even to rebuild. There are rows Of
houses in this city which are even worse
than a public nuisance; they are public
pests; and ought to be eradicated as the
authorities would seek to wipe out q plague.
The worst OF these seats of disease are on
Second avenue, east Of the Panhandle Rail-
road tracks, in what is called the Yellow
Row.
Complaint was made to Superintendent
Dean By neighbors that John Britton, an old
and paralyzed man, was being neglected at
No. 265 Second avenue. The Superintendent
and two other men visited the place yester-
day afternoon. The number given is ina
long tenement row on the north side Of the
street. The row is Of frame, is three stories
high. with a basement, and is old. dilapi-
dated and black with age. It shelters about
30families, perhaps more. Each family has
two or three small rooms. The doors are
rickety, the windows broken and dirty, and
the many stairways are broken, worn with
the tramping Of many tired feet and loath-
some with filth Of all kinds.
The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2r1 liz 4. --o-o
told that Britton lived on the top floor, the
entrance to which was from the rear. The
row is built against the hill, and in the rear
the top floor Is on level with the narrow
back yard. To reach that yard the visitors
had to climb long stairway at the west end
of the building. Under this stairway was
collection Of all sorts Of garbage. There
were old shoes, bones, feathers, deeayed
vegetables and other reeking mixtures. The
smell was revolving. The stairway was un-
certain as to safety, and had not been swept
or scrubbed for at least q week, but the
visitors climbed it to the back yard. There
there was as mu0h dirt as anywhere else. A
NANCY dog skulked away into straw lit
tered barrel. A dirty, stockingless child
showed the door where John Britton lived
Several unwashed women thrust their heads
out of doors and windows, and stared with
John Britton's door was open. and the
Superintendent entered an uncarpeted and
gloomy hall. A knocking on the frst room
door brought a plump girl to the second
door, at the end Of the hall. She admitted |
the visitors to the kitchen. There the sick |
man lay upon filthy bed. He is so wears
old, emaciated and salloW. His face was
bearded with q growth Of three or
four weeks. His thin, nervous hands |
lay outside of the cover His cotton |
shirt was gray with dirt. There were no
sheets on the bed, and il was decidedly un- |
clean. The smell in the room was sicken- !
ing. The chubby daughter, who was badly |
dressed but rosy checked, had a kettle boil |
ing on the Goals in the little CRATE. There |
was another bed in the small room, and one |
dirty window admitted the light.
In answering questions, the old man said |
that he was paralyzed from the waist down. |
but that from his chest upward he was |
sound as dollar" He had been in that |
way for FIVE months. He had two doctors
at different tlmes, and they gave him treat
ment with an electric battery. He didn't /
know that it had done him very much good, |
but thought it kept the paralysis from ex- |
tending up to his heart. He was asked If /
he was well cared for. He replied: "Well, |
reckon about as good as can be under the |
circumstances. Or course, We haven't got /
much here, but We make the best of what We /
have. Ny two boys support me, but it's a |
bad neighborhood here, very bad. Things
will have to get worse before can say any
thing"
The old gentleman said he did not care
to 60 to a hospital yet. He thought he
would try it little longer where he was.
His sons, be said, were trying to raise
money to take him to q hospital He
thought he would send for DR.. W. r. Dick
SON, on Ninth street; and see il he could not
do something. He was surprised when told
that the Dickson Of whom he spoke had
been arrested for practicing quackery.
The daughter was angry when she learned
that neighbor had complained that she
her father. She insisted on being
told who the complainant was and when
refused, declared that she would find out
anyway. Superintendent Dean was CON-
pelled to leave the old man in his wretched
quarters, but viii keep an eye on him. and
& he desires, will have him removed to q
better place. The Superintendent said he
hought that such q bed as that in which
John Britton lay would make well man
lick in one day. The place is only sample l.
# what may be seen any day in this city.