The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1894-02-03
Over Forty Thousand People Out
of Work and Food.
TIDE OF POVERTY RISING
Association for Improving the Condition
of the Poor Have Sent Out an APP
peal for $4,000.


and out of work today. These are the
Figures given by men engaged in re-
lieving their necessities. The accuracy
of their statements will be learned in
about week, when a special census
now being taken by the police depart
ment will be completed.
It is not necessary to consult the au-
thorities to learn that the streets
of New York are swarming with hun
cry men and women. A walk of few
blocks in any direction will prove that
every thoroughfare is infested with
beggars. Able-bodied men of ragged
garb and unshaved faces fasten them
selves to the passers by and hang on
whining, wheedling or bullying, as
circumstances warrant, till they get a
donation or an unmistakable rebuff
Oftentimes these men are well dressed
and would not be suspected of solicit
ing aims unless taken in the act. This
is not said in criticism of the police in
New York, which your citizen of the
eastern metropolis proudly call the
finest in the world. The cells are full
of homeless, discouraged men and
women every night, and large part of
the business of the police justices is to
deal with those people without choak-
ing the work houses on Blackwells
island beyond their utmost capacity
Every day men who are sentenced for
few days pray to be kept in con6ne-
ment all winter. Yesterday Nicholas
Fish, the banker, appeared in
apolice court to testify against a des-
perate fellow of really superior APP
pearance who had laid a gloved hand
on the shoulder of the fnancier, and
after being rebuffed had used abusive
and threatening language.
At popular downtown restaurant
ago and ordered corned beef hash and
cup of coffee. Presently he asked
for second plate of hash. He ate it
all, picked up his check for IS cents the
0oANCL hdh Ll1OWh QOWA dAQ w dlhGu
over to the cashiers desk. There was
nothing in his appearance to distin-
guish him from hundreds of clerks and
bookkeepers who frequent the place.
Here's my check" he said. Il have
no money. Send for policeman"
"WhY didn't you tell me you had no
money when you came in here?" de-
manded the cashier angrily.
because had been telling that to
everybody could make listen to me
since yesterday morning." replied the
hungry man with rising voice and
flushed face. "Now am sick of it all.
would rather go to the island Send
for policeman"
The cashier threw the ticket to one
side, telling the man not to do it again,
that was all. He said afterward that
he had such experiences every day,
but that he had a good memory for
faces and did not often get caught
twice by the same man. He said that
every restaurant cashier in the city
had similar experiences daily.
But if you are interested in studying
the poor question the place to go is
where the very poor live. There is one
district in New York south of Four
teenth street and east of the Bowery
that Is worth looking at, and certain
spots in this section are crowded with
human beings more thickly than any
others of the same size on the whole
surface of the earth. Block after block
consists of four and five story tenement
houses with more than four families on
floor. Some of the lofty and more
pretentious tenements hold more than
200 souls, and where the Italians and
Russians herd every family takes
boarders enough to swell the number of
inmates of one house to over 800. In
the rear of every such building there is
an older and more unhealthy building,
less capracious, but more crowded be-
cause cheaper. Between these two
buildings there is generally a paved
court, which like the halls, stairways
and streets, are swarming with children
all day. Amy real estate agent will
tell you that these tenements are
nearly all of them property of Christian
men and women of great wealth and
that block after block belongs to certain
old and enormously rich church corpora
tfous which use the 90 per cent of in.