The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-02-01
POOR OF NEW YORK
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 Ap-
peal for $4,000.


600 persons in this city are destitute
and out of work today. These are the
Figures given by men engaged in re-
lievlng their necessities. The accuracy
of their statements will be learned In
about week, when a special census
uow being taken by the police depart
ment will be completed.
1t is not necessary to consult the au-
thorities to learn that the streets
o. New York are swarming with hun
CRY men and women. A walk of a 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 unmlstakable rebuff.
Oftentimes these men are we'll 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 Blackwell's
island beyond their utmost capacity.
Every day men who are sentenced for
few days pray to be kept in. confine-
ment all winter. Yesterday Nicholas
Fish, the banker, appeared In
police court to testify against a des-
perate fellow of really superior ap-
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 a
young man came in couple of nights
ago and ordered corned beef hash and
a cup of coffee. Presently he asked
for second plate of hash. He ate 1t
all, picked up his check for 35 cents the
waiter had thrown down and walked
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. al have
no money. Send for policeman"
"Why didn't you tell me you had no
money when you came in herel" 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. SNOW | am sick OF it all.
l would rather 60 to the island. Send
for policeman"
The cashier threw the ticket to one
side, telling the man not to do 1t 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 bloch
consists of four and five story tenement
houses with more than four families OIL
a floor Some of the lofty and more
pretentions tenements hold more than
200 souls, and where the Italians and
Russians herd every family takes
boarders enough to swell the number o.
inmates of one house TO over 300. II
tine rear of every snch building there !,
au older and more unhealthy building
less capracions, but more crowded be
cause cheaper. Between these two
buildings there is generally a payet
court, which like the halls, stai rway
and streets, are swarming with cbildrei
all day. Any real estate agent will
tell you that. these tenements are
nearly all of them property OF Christian
men and women of great wealth an
that block after block belongs TO certai
old and enormously rich church corpora
lions which use the 90 per cent of in
Income on their investment to bull
churches uptown in the fashionabl
sections of the city.
So great demand has been mad
upon the New York association for In
proving the condition of the poor tina
they have sent out an appeal for $50
600 for an emergency fund. Tn
society provides sewing for womei
and it has opened supply depots
various parts of the city where groce
$ les and provisions are doled out in T
a turn for tickets distributed by agen
$ of the society who visit the poor
:. their homes. The idea of the socIe
d is to search out the poor If possib
}. with out waiting to be called on, al