The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-04-09

raj injunction: $50 out into the high
ways and hedges, and compel them to
come in"
Similar scenes to those described
above were witnessed in Goat alley,
lie Droit court, Chinch Bug row, Soap
alley, Clicks alley, Purdys court,
Louise alley. Cabbage alley and other
densely populated quarters of the city
TOO numerous to describe in detail. In
to all of these places the oyster dealer
and fresh fish monger go with their
goods to sell by the pennyworth or
nickelworth. Some venturesome ped
dlers, carrying packs upon their backs
containing shoe strings, collar buttons,
thimbles, etc., traffic in these courts.
Inquiry developed the fact that these
peddlers are known by the inhabitants
and also by the police. After they be-
come acquainted they can make their
rounds with impunity, because the in
habitants Of these cesspools of crime,
poverty and filth know that the life of
a well-known peddler could not be
taken without detection, discovery and
arrest by the policemen, who are thor
oughly familiar with everything around
these byways. Indeed ii may be said
that a majority of the inhabitants of
these places have records which can be
found in the police court. Rattlebang
frame buildings are the rule in most Of
these places, but occasionally small
brick row can be found. All of the
houses are cellarless and therefore
damp and unhealthful, many of them
containing cesspools under their riclzety
floors, from which all kinds of fatal
miasmatic germs ascend, to be breathed
into the lungs and disseminated through
the system.
Poverty and crime dwell together all
too frequently. Poverty is no doubt
many times the cause Of crime, while
crime is almost always the precedent Of
poverty. Down by the oyster wharves,
described in recent letter, there are
many of these alleys and courts in
which the poor are huddled, and from
these places emanate the criminals Of
this city in great numbers. They know
and help each other with all the ma
sorry and fraternity of their kind.
and slash their victims upon the slight
est provocation with that most deadly
of all weapons. The highway robberies
committed south of Pennsylvania ave-
nue., with which our daily papers TEEN,
are the work Of the people of these
alleys near the whnrves. They pass
their booty from man TO man until it is
almost impossible to trace the watch or
purse which has been stolen, sometimes
in broad daylight. The beautiful min
iature forest known as the Arsenal,
National Museum, Smithsonian, Agri-
cultural, and Washington Monument
park, is surrounded with a criminal
population. To the north of it, extend
ing from the Center market on Seventh
street to the treasury department build
ing on Fifteenth street, there is a
Gordon of crime, 1asciviousness, lewd-
ness and prohigacy through which the
respectable people of the national cap
ital do not care, nor dare, to go. 1t is
densely populated with wicked women
as well as criminal men. South of the
great park are the alleys adjoining and
contiguous to the wharves, extending
clear across to the eastern branch of
the Potomac It is into this section of
the city that the investigator, the home
missionary and the agents of our char
liable societies should go to find the
poor and relieve the pangs of poverty.
SMITH D. Fry.