New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-03

large groups Of blocks. where the tenants are the
quiet respectable workingc families who. TO uso
a phrase common In London, keep themselves TO
themselves and whose weordered quiet little houses
begin to form groups where responsible, respect
able citizens live In cleanliness and order the problem
Is virtually solved; but says Miss Hill. "What ifc
In blocks Is the less self controlled hardly any
words OF mine are strong enough TO describe ana IL
is abhorred accordingly by the tidy and strv-
ING wherever any-even small-number OF
the undkciplned are admitted to blocks, OF
where being admitted, there is not real hv-
ing rule exercised Regulations are Of no avail
no public inspection can possibly for more than an
hour or two order resident superintendent
has at once conscience. and devotion, single
handed to stem the violence the dirt. the noise the
quarrels no body of public opinion on the part OF the
tenants asserts ITSELF one by one disheartened the
tidier ones depart, the rampant remain and prevail
and often with fair show to the outsider the block
becomes a sort OF pandemoniun. No one who Is not
I'm and out day by day, better STILL night aIter
night, no one who does not watch the swift uegraof
tion of children belonging to tidy families no one who
does not know the terrorism exercised by the roush
over the tind and Industrious poor; 10 one VINO
does not know the abuse Of every appliance provided
by the benevolent speculative, but NONRESIDENT
landlord can tell what life in blocks is where the
population Is loW-claSs."
Miss Hill believes in a word, that when these low
they become distinctly worse than when they are dis
tributed over number OF small separate houses.
II is she thinks, easier TO make beginning OF
their civilization in the small houses. In the great
blocks they demorallze one another trlat this Is
true of our tenementhouses has long been KNOWN
and the general conditions very smllarl announcer
circumstance which operates mschievously Us the
nomadIc temperament OF most of the undisciplined
class They cannot settle down anywhere After
a few weeks or months In place they become rest
less Some Impulse urges them to "move on" ana
so they go, never striking root anywhere. GER
tain proportion OF this class cngs to the lodging
houses not called model" There are the places
where a bed costs about fourpence a night, where
all the guests sleep in large dormitores together
where a great kitchen is the only social centre The
lodging houses are all under police supervision but
they are the refugees Of crime NOTWITHSTANDING anu
also Of fallen gentility. In their kitchens gather ne
refuse and waste OF society; not only thieves ana
adventures but bankrupt tradesmen, dsgraced army
and navy officers, clergymen, schoolteachers, bar
risters black sheep Of good families. They also nave
some permanent lodgrs young city clerks who desire
to lodge as economically possible that they may
spend their earnings In other ways; artisans WITHOUT
families, bent on thrift; railroad hands who wish 70
be near their. work and so forth. The nomadic eie-
ment OF the lodging houses is apparently beyoh1
hope for it has nothing to look for or expect lhe
Other elements dealt with easily enough oy OK
listing me thods, laws or institutions.
II is TO be observed and Mr.. Booth is careful to
point it out that nothing be more erroneous than
to associate the depths Of misery with the depths Ci
poverty. In truth the very poor are seldom really IN
happy ard the very causes of their poverty prevent
them from feeling 1t. As rule they are the most
reckless sangune, improvident Of people. All they
care for Is the enjoyment Of the passing moment
Let the morrow look out for itself Tobacco, drink
little bread and meat, content Them and the worst
misfortune compensated by heavy spree They are
wholly without the sense Of responsibility, and be-
longing as thew do to class which has lived under
the same conditions for generations. they see nothhs
abnormal in their surroundings however wretohed they
NAV be- There are in these volumes many curious
and suggestive pictures of metropolitan life Illustrating
this and more which exhibit the fact that the really
grinding and painful forms of life to be looked for
In the trades-euch. for instance as the ta'lors con
corning which abundant facts given We note that
the recent great foreign immigration has already pro
duced a competition in this and other trades which
threatens to be disastrous to the Englh mechanics
1t has for one thing revived sweating which at one
time seemed in fair way to extinction The rise
of gre at establishments which do everything on whole
sale scale, moreover is killing even the west Emo
tailOrs, who cannot compete with the machine woTK
and the starvation prices Of the big firms This for
eign immigration presses heavily upon the means OF
subsistence and nav produce situation identical In
character with that which the Chinese on the Pacific
Coast brought about. Russian and Polish Jews, Hun
garians and others, undoubtedly underworld the
natives as they do In NewYork, as the FFench-Cana
dans do at Fall River etc. and similar causes must be
followed by the same effects On this subject upon
the peculiartes of many trades and occupations Mr.
BOOTHS CHAPTERS arc full of the most varied infOrma
tjon II IL cannot be said yet that his statistics
point to any very promising conclusions, at least they
furnish data for calculation and comparison, and must
be most helpful to the legislator and the phanthropist
alike.