The critic. (Washington, D.C.) 1890-1891, 1891-02-10
A SOCIAL VOLCANO.
The Rev. DIR. Martyr Points Out That
Wealth is Being Concentrated.

From me NeD York Herald 0M.
In the First Reformed Church, New
ark. N. j., last evening, Rev. DIR. Carlos
Martyr spoke Of Poverty Gap and Dam
nation Alley before his usually large
cxxxix, s. ''If make my bed in hell
behold, thou art there"
He said substantially: "In New York
there are two distinctive localities, called
respectively Poverty Gap and .Damna-
ton Alley. Geographically as well as
morally they adioin one another. Dante
went down into hell and wrote descrip.
ton that makes the world look aghast
In imitation of the old Italian poet, let
us visit these bells on earth and sample
them.
"Scene-Poverty Gapl What of the
d,a'natis peysoaa-what Of the wretched
tenants? Enter and see. Turn in any
where--the apartments are as like as twin
cherries. Three rooms-one 10 feet
square, the two others O. by Z, mere
closets. dark and unventilated. The first
is kitcheens sitting-room, parlor and bed
room, all in one. The Others are used as
bedrooms only. How many persons do
they shelter? Ten!-father, mother and
grandmother, and seven children of all
ages and both sexes. How many beds
for these ten? Two, and sofa bed in the
larger room. How are cleanliness and
decency possible in such circumstances?
How do these folks live?
Zone person in every ten who died in
1880 on Manhattan Island was buried in
Potter's Field. Last year $4,000 families
were forcibly evicted for non-payment of
rent. More than 10000 people earn less
than sixty cents q day--multltudes of
them young girls, who thus walk ON the
slippery edge of devilish temptation.
You who have happy homes, think
what these homes mean toyou. Remem-
cessories of morality and education, to
guard and guide your children. Then
turn a plying thought toward these UNI
aYou cannot make a bright orgood man
in starved body. Take 100 criminals.
Ten per cent. will be smart the others
will be below the average in body and
mind. They. were, as Charles Lamb said,
Meyer brought SrS'nght up they were dragged up
round the corner from Poverty Gap.
Here live the thieves aud men and women,
not gong to the. devil. but gone. Here
the saloon is in its glory--the DEVILS
-Chapel-filled day and night with tipsy
worshippers, whose liturgy is vice and
whose psalms are blasphenay.
I'm New York below Fourteenth street
tucic uIt. III IIOtt1tauC cnurCueS ana
over 4, saloons. These 1900 grog shops
turn the wheel of notifies and grind the
grst which gluts the criminal courts
$1,000 arrests in a single year; one in every
seventeen of the total population.
THAT is in New York. Yes, but the
facts are only less deplorable in Newark.
Indeed, we have more saloons in proper
ton than New York has. That city has
not quite 5000 saloons, with 1, 700 900 peo-
pie; Newark has 200, with 10000 in
babitants. Here, too, is poverty as hag-
gard as any to be found in Poverty Cap
and hereare criminals as ferocious US any
that burrow in Domination alley.
mo; New York is not exceptional
Newark is not exceptional. But every
where there are symptoms of evil. One
half OF all our national wealth is held by
forty thousand families, two-thirds of Il
by two hundred and fifty Thousand fami-
lies. Wealth is rapidly stealing from the
many to the few. The great army of the
unemployed is rapidly enlarging. The
struggle for bread and butter is SO bitter
that women and children are being more
and more withdrawn from the school
and from the home to engage in IL. The
rumblings Of thasocial volcano are heard
across the continent.