The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-09-03
1T is absolute fact. tested by the writer.
| had nccaSinn To naSs thrnuph ColCate

had occasion to pass through Colgate
or Merseles street, not long ago. by way
of making short cut to the railroad,
but the stencil was so utterly horrible
that was glad to get back and make a
detour through Brunswick street. 1t
was a warm, wet night, and the fog
seemed to press the steuchesx back to
earth as they sought to rise arm offend
heaven by their foul smelling savors. IL
seemed to be concentrated essence OF all
rotting vegetables and flesh that nature
ever invented, combined with reeklng
mud and stagnant water made up my
mind then that some day l would go back
and take look at the place by daylight.
and yesterday 1 did so.
sQUALoR AND MISERY.
found the stencbes less assertive than
they were, and there did not seem to be
so many Of them. Perhaps the warm,
dry weather OF the past month or two
had permitted some of them to ascend
high enough to catch, the breeze and blow
away. There was squalid misery every
where. Among the denizens of the dis
trict are many Italian ragpickers. Whole
families are engaged in the business
father, mother and two or three children.
These live in Two or three small rooms,
and the rags they gather by their daily
labor are brought to their homes to be as
sorted and stored until needed. Thus to
tAC tAAS1Oub AItu Va bhC pluSC - dNioOA
other filth brought from the ash binns of
every other section. What these people
eat can only be guessed at without actu
ally invading their hovels and watching
them-and that might not be safe. The
stores in this section are wretched, as
might be expected, and the food that is
sold in them is neither fresh
nor of good quality. but bad
as it is, innuGritious and dangerous to
health, the habits of those who eat it rem
der It more dangerous still. Poverty
may compel people to purchase cheap
food, but 1t cannot compel them to wal
low in mire. Even if they can't buy soap,
water is plenty. Still. 1t must be ad-
mitted that the city has helped the deni-
zens of this district. None of the streets
west of Brunswick are paved. They
debris has been piled in the middle of the
street until the unpaved roadways are
from TWO to three feet higher than the
sidewalks. The city made q feint of paw
ing First and Second streets by running
the pavement about seventy-hve feet
west of Brunswick. but that is all.
Neither Colgate nor Merseles street in
this section ever saw cobble stone or
Belgian block. Occasionally one strikes
a f1agstone, but it looks lonesome, as If it
bad q desire to get up and go elsewhere in
search OF it's fellows. Not a street
In this section was ever swept. The
debris Is thrown everywhere, and the
only scavengers are the goats. They ear
all that is eatable, and some things,
evidence that they don't eat tin cans or
pals. or glass bottles. Still tn ey do
tolerably well. They don't leave much.
1t isn't likely that an ash cart ever in
vaded this district, yet there were no
signs of ashes anywhere. Perhaps the
people do not use coal at this time of
year, and last winters ashes were used
up in filling stagnant water holes. There
are no sewers here, OF course. Sewers
would be a useless luxury in such a
place.
UTTERLY DESOLATE.
Altogeter it is the most utterly for
saken district that human eyes ever
rested upon.
One thing noticeable was the fact that
there isn't a garbage box on the premises.
The people evidently have no use for
them, and rs the ash carts never go there,
they would simply slop over. The excess
couldn't run into the cutters, simply be-
cause there are no cutters. When a cat
or dog dies the carcass Is left in the
roadway until nature sees fit to make an
end of 1t.
Amid all this filth groups of children
were seen playing and seemed happy.
ca ndpS Uu0J u0Q uGNGE D0Gu III aQp
other part OF the city and knew no better.
Their clothes were not wholly bad or
wholly dirty.
Perhaps it Will be useless to ask the
city authorities to mend these matters.
They might clean the streets, but they
cannot we'll sewer and pave them unless
the property owners ask for it. And they
won't, Of course, for they are getting the
best rents. probably, in the city. There
isn't a in 70 Nrfo hot iva
be dear at $500 and some of them bring
their owners more than that year. Two
rooms rent for S. or Sc month, and there
are always two and sometimes four fami-
lies 10 floor. That is more for floor
than some decent fats cost in respectable
parts of the city.
HOME WORK FOR CHRISTIANS.
II the various mission and Christian So
cieties want to do good work they can
find the chance right here. They needn't
go afleld for it. The African jungle can
only beat Little Italy" in the wild beast
line.
The city might also look after that sec
tfon lying south of Railroad avenue and
extending to Montgomery street. Rail
road avenue is not paved west of Bruins
wick street, and the roadway is as bad as
the streets of "Little Italy" Wayne
street and Mercer are in fair condition.
But the sewers here empty into what is
left of Mill Greek, and the creek is a
fostering pool. The city authorizes of u
past regime were responsible for this
originally. The present authorities are
responsible for the continuance Of so foul
blot. Mill Creek should be filed up in
its entire length. Certainly that portion
of it lying north of Montgomery
street should be filed at once.
1t could be done cheaper than the
proposed bridges at Colgate and Merseles
streets could be built. The so-called
sewer in the section north of Montgom-
cry street has probably cost more already
than it would have cost to fill that sec
tion of the creek. Happily for Little
Italy" Mill Greek in that section of the
city has been blotted out by the PennsyI-
vania and junction Railroads. 1t will be
good thing for the rest of the town
when these and other companies blot out
all that section of the city from Bruins
wick street to the Hill. from Newark
avenue to Montgomery street.
But If cholera ever gets foothold here,
look to Little Italy" The much talked
of condition OF the other Italian section
Railroad avenue, from Warren street te
Henderson-"isn't patch to it."