Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-06-22
THICKLY POPULATED
A SPOT IN NEW YORK CITY THAT Is
VERY DENSELY SETTLED


$4,000 People Living in This Section.
One square mile of New York city's
Irea, inclusive of streets and public
squares, has population of more than
$4,000. 1t is possible to plot on the
map an irregular district covering a
territory Of a square mile which will
have population of half a million. but
to do that one would have to zigzag
over the map, picking out thicisly popu-
lated blocks. 1t is not possible to plot
an area with population Of more than
100000 living in compact and contigu-
GUS territory. That population of more
than 35O, 900 to a square mile is not ex-
ceeded anywhere else. 1t is the most
thickly populated spot on the earth.
The large population is possible be-
cause the builders and real estate own
ers of New York are more modern and
more inventive than those in European
cities. The densely populated tenements
in New York are not usually the property
of estates, handed down from generation
to generation, like the property of the
Astors and the Duke of Westminster
the largest real estate owner in London.
No man can manage a large block of
tenement property so well as several
small owners can. He will not get
much revenue from it, and he will not
see that it is filled with ten ants; neither
will he improve it so promptly.
The most thickly populated quarter
Of New York is owned by hundreds OF
men and many comparatively small es-
tates. The owners, or agents, give their
whole time to the management Of prop
erty, and whenever they can get a rate
of income l or 2 per cent. higher they
will tear down an old building and put
up the modern tenement in it's stead.
They cannot afford to let their land lie
idle and pay their taxes and ASSIGNMENTS
on 1t for its prospective profits, as do
the large landowners of Manhattan
island. Many of the owners have bought
tenements with their savings in thesame
neighborhood where they made. their
money The tax rolls show that large
share Of the tenement property is owned
by men of foreign names and birth who
came to New York as poor immigrants
and now own the property where more
recent immigrants live, and where the
owners store as many of them as they
can and charge as much rent as they
can get.
No known form of habitation will
hold more people than the lower class
lodging houses and cheap tenements on
the east side and the west side between
Ninth and Twelfth avenues. Neither
Chinatown, in San Francisco, the low
est quarters of an Asiatic city, nor the
slums of London or Paris will hold SC
many people to the acre, because three
and four story buildings are compara-
lively rare in either place, while five
story tenement is seldom known. In
the poorer quarters of London the own
ers spend little money on improvements
when they are not compelled to by the
health authorities, because any expen-
diture for improvements would have to
come out of their income at first, and
they do not want their incomes curtailed.
The most densely populated square
mile in New York does not include Five
Points and Chinatown. 1t might be
made to zigzag over to the Tombs, tax
ing in Pell and Dover streets, the Null
berry bend and Baxter bay, but Para
disc park, the Tombs, the new criminal
court house, and the numerous inter-
secting streets in that neighborhood
take up so much of the space that the
section is not SO thickly populated as
that near Stanton and Rivington streets.
where Avenue c begins, and down Pitt,
Ridge, Essex, Ludlow and the other
east side streets which stop at Houston
street. Close by Houston street and
Avenue G is the most thickly settled
block, with rate Of population of more
than a million to the mile.
The most thickly populated square
mile includes the whole of the Eighth
assembly district, all of the Twelfth ex-
cept the three election districts along the
water front, all of the Sixth west of
Lewis street, all of the Fourth except
the five districts along the East river,
and all Of the Tenth and Fourteenth ex-
cept the ten election districts between
Second avenue and the Bowery and
Third avenue. 1t includes Tompkins
square, which is as large as three avenue
blocks and has no population, the small
squares at the intersections of Canal
street and the large manufactures. The
exact boundaries are Fourteenth street,
Second avenue, Houston street, the Bow
cry, Catharine street, Cherry street,
Jackson street, Grand street for block,
Sixth street for a short block, and Ave-
nue. d back to Fourteenth street.
In that district, not counting the
squares and places at the intersections
or diagonal streets, are 226 blocks, most
of them small blocks, the whole averag-
ing less than 500 feet one way by 200
feet the other way; 81 in the Fourteenth
district, "a in the Twelfth, 80 in the
Tenth, 56 in the Eighth, 43 III the Sixth,
70 in the Fourth The population of
that area is: Fourth d..,:. 5o.SGS
Sixth. 81, 1897; Eighth, - i III. A.
493; Twelfth, "a, 148; F. -~..,... aS.0O6
making total of more it,. -. .00O.
The Twelfth and Eigl.:i. ... .,:y,s aver
age 1900 people to the Bio, < while the
highest average populat.on s. 'i'y block
is in the Fourteenth ci.iyi,.t hr0end
Tompktns square. The !..r..sr .,.!uber
Of people around Tomplzi:I. -. III ID ac-
counted for by the larger ~. oi the
blocks, as they are all / i-eiiAe blocks
from $50 to 700 feet in len. III, Mill, fur
ther down town the blocks aie not TWO
thirds that size. The most jensoly popu-
lated neighborhood is at tl.@ upper par,
of the Sixth district and tha iJ,vr part
of the Tenth district, around Rlvington,
Stanton and Houston streets.-New York
Sun.
.ne Splitting Snake.
A snake found in Africa is called the
splitting snake by the Beers, 1t is be-
tween two and three feet long, and is
especially bold and active, readily at
tacking every one who approaches it. In
confinement it is very savage, opening
its mouth and erecting its fangs, from
which the poison may be often observed
to drop, and even sometimes to be forci-
bly, elected, whence the name given it
by the Boers.-Quarterly Review