Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-19
MANS INHUMANITY TO MAN.
rwR1rrrN ron r1IE p1sPATcH.I

7
| houses filter for the occupancy of pigs and
| cows than of men and women. Across the
| narrow alley stands IN obtruslVe row OIL
| pestilentiaI outhouscs. And the people who
live in this house pay for this privi lege the
sum of over 81, 900 annual rental.
For that amount OF money they ought to
be'suppled with all the comforts ana con-
veniences of life. They ought to have cleo
trio light, and natural gas. and water hot
and cold, and bathrooms, and hardwood
floors, and tiled hearths, and furnaces.
None of these accessories to respectable
existence were visible. Indeed. observed
some of the women who live there going out
with buckets to the hyurant at the corner.
The stajrcases are dark and perpenolcular.
The rooms arc small and uncomfortable.
The house looks from n little distance like
ad old abandoned brick barn. You would
not thin orit as human habitation. Yet
it rents for 81, OOOI
One Hundred Futurs Citizens.
THE house is occupied by more than 20
families. with the usual number of chill
dren. Say hundred children. One hun
dred citizens OF Pfttsburs are growing up
within this expensive lodging, making mud
pies in the adjacent alleys, and learning
patriotism, good citiz enship, virtue and all
the decencies and graces of life in the
language, they are taking daily lesson 8 in
iniquity, and are making ready to become
both dangerous and expensive citizens.
Presently we will be paying out for law
yers' fees, for policemen's wages, for board
and clothes at the workhouse and the peni-
tentiary, almost as extraor dinary an
amount of mo ney as the parents of these
children are expendins for their miserable
rooms. He is not to be envied who has the
responsibility upon his soul or taking $1,000
out OF the pockets OF his poorer brothers
and sisters, and giving back in return such
place to live in as is certain to degrade
them physically and spiritually.
One of the meanest things that man can
do is to take advantage of his neighbor's
misfortune. Human nature has got down
about as low as it can get when it breeds a
race OF wreckers. Here is brother Of ours
cast up by the sea. The wind and the
waves have torn his ship to pieces, and have
barely spared his life. Somehow he has
made his way to the cold shore. He has got
within the reach of help. There he lies half
drowned, half-frozen, gasping for breath,
half-dead. Let us pick his pockets! Let Us
steal his watch and his purse! We have
him ut disadvantage. He cannot help
himself nor harm us. Let US enrich our
selves at his expense!
THAT, it seems to me, is but fair de-
scription of every landlord in this town
who is making 100 or 200 per cent upon his
money by exorbitant rentals.
1t is not the amount of the rent that makes
it eIorbitant and iniquitous. 1t is the dis
proportion between what is given and what
is received. 1 wish that the Point" were
full of houses worth $1,000 year. 1t would
be different place to live in. As it is both
the "Point" and all other similar districts
in this town are crowded with tenements in
which slum accommodations are provided
at prices fit for palaces. hold that any
man who takes SO rom his brother and de-
l1vers him 50 worth of goods in return has
broken one OF the comma ndments. And If
by his theft his fellow man is forced into
such environment Of degradation that
crimes are committed in consequence, l
maintain that for such further breach of the
eternal laws of God the initial dishonesty is
actually responsible.
A great many people in this city are pay
ing SO for 81 rooms, and the 81 which ought
to be spent in making til ese rooms decent
habitations Tor human beings jingle in the
pockets of reputable citizens. Men and
women and little children 20 hungry and
unclean in body and soul in order that other
people who already have more money than
they know what to do with may have more.
A Pilgrimage to the Point.
Il MADE a pilgrimage, the other day, to
the Point" 1t was one or those days last
week in which earth and sky were in con-
spiracy to make the waylarer uncomfort-
able. The Point reeked with mud. But
mud is better than bad SMELL And the sun,
1 am Informed, is not so kind to the Point as
the clouds. So that saw the place at an ad-
vantage. There are streets there which are
lined on both sides with entrances to the
bottomless pit. Corner after corner shines
with lights that are kindled at the neither
fires. At temples of Venus and Bacchus hu-
man sacrifices are offered every day. Con-
spirators against tho good of the city, cor
ruptors of our youth, have here their meet
ing places.
There are two notable places in this dis.
trict which are headquarters of civilization,
OF good citizenship and of Christianity. One
is the Exposition building, which has al
ready done much by its presence at the
Point. The other is Father Sheedy's church
and school. No doubt there are other SYM
bols of progress and centers of hope. but
these 1 noticed particularly. Father
Sheedy's parochlal school superseded a
speak-easy, 1t is a busy factory where
darkness is being made into light. There is
look of the schoolrooms is IL lesson to the
children. And the copy books that 1 saw
there are proof that the lnsson is we'll
learned. Those fair pages were written
with clean fingers.
A Possible Headquarters for Inspiration.
FATHER SHEEDY's church and school
are open every day. l wish that as much
could be said of the Exposition building.
There is that great structure full OF all man.
ner of fine possibilities, unrealized, open
only for lew months in the summer. 1t
might be q great lecture room, concert
room, picture gallery, museum. 1t might
be headquarters for inspiration and encour-
agement and progress. It seems q pity,
with nll these open doors inviting into
houses which are a menace to the town,
that these wide gates should be nailed up.
The Exposition building ought to be used
all the year round.
There are streets at the Point which are
lined on each side with a dorble row OF
houses; q row along the street and another
row behind them, where the children's play
ground ought to be. And these houses are
so crowded, so ill-built, so uncared for, that
the people who live in them lose all interest
in life. Human life, to go on wholesomely
and well, needs more than bread and butter.
There is need OF decent pleasure of attrac-
tive sights and harmonious sounds. Take
the most promising boy in Pittsburg out OF
his cheerful home in the East End and set
him down in the dirt at the Point. Clothe
him in ragged breeches, serve him a scanty
dinner of a broken plate, and give him the
breeding OF the tenement: ten to one he will
90 to the devil. That is where hundreds OF
bright boys and girls are going in this town
TODAY for lack of more Christian land