The morning call., 1893-05-24
NO SLUMS HERE.
SO Declares Special Agent
Bernard.
WE LEAD ALL OTHER CITIES.
We Have Oar Vice and Virtue Sand
wiched, But We Have 10 Quarters
of Degraded Paupers.
What Ia a "slnn 2"

What is "slum2"
San Francisco may we'll ask. for o. A
Bernard, spec al agent OF the Department
of Labor at Washington. says there is no
slun in this city.
Webster doesn't conde scend to allude to
the word at all, but the Century dction-
ary defines slum as follows: "a dirty
back street of city. especially such street
inhanited by squa!id and criminal popu-
la,iou," and adds that it is chiefly used in
the plural. quoting as authority descrir-
tions of English slums.
San Francisco may feel rather proud.
London. New York. Paris. Vienna. Ber-
lin. Boston, ST. Louis, Chicago, Cincin-
nati-in fact all the large cities of The ''ciY-
ilized" world. have their sums or quarters
given over to the criminal pauper class.
We have not.
OF course, we have Chinatown, but even
Chinatown, according to this critic, Is ran
idly craving smaller and may finally reach
the vanishing point.
Mr.. Bernard says we can also claim
unlqueness IN another respect, viz : that " e
sandwich our vice and virtue incompar-
ably.
In other cities, says he, you can draw a
red ink line clearly dividing the goats
from the sheep. But In this city light and
shade are cariously blended. Dlsreput-
able sections (as nearly slums as he could
tind) rub elbows with fashionable business
houses-stOres freQuented by the Four
Hundred.
This astonished the expert. He could
not understand the natural but often un-
expectcdIy directed spread of the city,
whereby many elegant residences have
been left stranded high and dry, and GER
tain other less desirable haunts have been
entangled in the rapid flood of handsome
esta blishmenis.
Mr.. Bernard has had to report on scores
Of cities here and in Europe. but his favor
ite red-ink-and- method would not
work in San Francisco. He had to make a
special map and go over each inch with
slow and careful haud.
BY this method he has been enabled to
gain very fair birdseye view Of the city.
to some extent answering the poets
prayer:
Oh. wad some god the giftie gle US
To see ourselS as timers see us!
For Instance, his map defines the limits
of Chinatown, the Barbary Coast, the
Latin Quarter and the district below Mar
ket street. sometimes called Tar Fiat.
Many people have heard of these dis
trcts In vague kind Of a way, and won
dered where some of them began or left off.
Mr.. Bernard tells us.
bis map shows Chinatown to extend
from Broadway TO California street, and
from Kearny TO Prospect place.
The Latin Quarter is officially stated TO
lie from Broadway TO Green street, and
from Battery TO Stockton.
The Barbary Coast extends from Wash
iHgton street. On :! heaTny, to Broadway,
and down Broadway, Pacific street ana
Jackson TO the water front.
Among these celebrated quarters Mr..
Bernard found much that was hopeful
True. in Chinatown the 6rt and filth he
remembered years ago is unchanged, but
then there is a falling off in the Chinese
ponulation.
He did not stumble on any gaudv opium
Joints" although lie has good reason to
believe that such exist there.
Hanging around this unsavory, un-
slightly quarter he found many degraded
Outcasts Of society. Among those tina,
cocaine and morphine fends. who use
their slavery as means of making money
wherewith to buy the seductive chains.
In one of his last trips Mr.. Bernard was
accompanied by doctor, who, suspecting q
that these men played a ruse upon visitors
by injecting water or other harmless
liquid, examined several subjects
The doctor took their temperature, noted
their nervous disorder, ascertain-d that
the fluid used was really morphine and
cocaine. saw the drugs pumped under the
skin and observed The immediate tranquil
iZing effect. But the doctnr noted also that
the dose was infintesimal, the effects
speedily passing off. enabling the "fend"
to repeat his performance " hen the next
band of curious tourists came along.
Mr.. Bernard and his medical friends had
the interest to actually watch this unique
method of making a living AMI conclu-
svely detected the repeater ac:" in sew
eral cases.
There Is one little section which is given
the doubtful credit Of bearing off the ban
Ber OF dirt championship next to China
town. This is the small territory lying
between kearnv. Dupont, Vallejo and
Broadway. 1t is occupied by Mexicaus.
and may almost be called "sium''
according to Mr.. Bernard.
The late winter he finds was a very bad
one for the poor, aud in this connection
his report commrnGs the good work done
by the Christian Mission Union and also
bv the Salvation Army The former
opened n home on Market street and the
latter launched the Lifeboat on the corner
of kearny and Sacramento streets. Both
did a large amount of good in the hard
winter months and are still main tanning
their labcrs.
these facts are crushing blow To agita-
tors of the WILEY stamp, who were re-
Gently exposed by Mayor Ellert for notify
ing cities and other States of San Fran.
cisco's deStituton and its alleged army OF
unemployed.
Mr.. Bernard says that, comnaratively
speaking. we have no pauper class and
that positively we have no slums.
Mr.. Bernard has been here several
weeks. but is completing his labors. Iii,
"Slum re port" is In and now he is working
on the local building and loan associa tions
He will run up to Napa and down to san
Mateo to investigate things there in the
next day or two. and az the end of the
week leaves for the southern part of the
State. When he has completed his iabors
there he will return to this city ard 90 nm
To Oregon and WaShinpinn