The evening world., 1894-02-09
Ev|CTING THE POOR.
Families of Bohemian Cigar-Ma-
kers Turned Into the Street.
They Are Tenement House Workers
and Have Been Striking.
Hundreds Of Persons VIII he Made
Homeless in a Few Days.

A bitter struggle ia In progress be-
tween the anufaCturcrg OF cigars and
their employers. VINO I've and work In the
tenement house factories In the blocks
bounded by First venue and Ayenu A..
SEVENTEEN and Scventy.third streets.
Just at preser; the poor tenemcnt-house
W~age-earners seem to have the worst of
the fight, for nearly a score OF families
have been eviCted and dispossess war
rants have been issued for a dozen or
fifteen more families who will he driven
Into the street on Monday next.
Schwnrzkopf & CO., OF 1895. 1887 and
1883 Avenue A. Pepper & Weigner. Of
:O2 Fast Seventy-third street. and Bon
dy u Lederer. OF FIRST venue and
SEVENTEEN street, are the principal firms
at war with their employees.
Schwarzkopf 4 Co. and Pepper &
Weigner employ chiefly tenement-house
labor. Schwarzkopf & Co. are landlords
OF the three fve-story 1885,
1887 and 1889 Avenue A., and nfty or
sixty families occupy the different apart
ments. all Of whom make cigars In their
homes. 10 A. NJ. and 3 p. NJ.
yesterday fourteen families were evicted
and thei" household effects tumbled on the
sidewalk In haste and confusion. The
families averaged four persons, and
those fifty-hve or sixty persons shtvered
in the street beside thelr few pieces OF
furniture until late In the day.
These families were but "a portion OF
the strikers In SChwarzkopf u cos en-
ploy. and they were picked out by the
heartening The others and breaking the
backbone of the strike.
The plan failed. To-day the strikers
are Is determined AS ever. and they
calmly await eviction.
The tenement laborers say their cause
Ia a just one. Fol nearly "A year what
ever work has been, given to them has
been %infrequent and for brief periods.
World reporter:
These men who use tenement labor
all lease or own the houses. n they get
us to rent their apartments, dirty. dark
rooms. three to each family. for which
we are obliged to pay from $40 to $4 a
busy all the. time. you'll have plenty
Of work to do and you will earn good
wages Now, We haven't had the work,
ut the landlord gets his rent every
month. Whatever we earn a month
making cigars the landlord. who ls II
boss as well. is given to US only after
the months rent In taken out.
Such rooms as we occupy we could
rent elsewhere or In this %neighbor-
nOOu, IOT ~ ana ~ n month. NHcn we
complain that We haven't work enough.
the boss says: i can't afford to give YOU
work at the rates. II you will work for
50 cents. 60 cents Of 81 Il thousand less
course. We have to accept, II we want a
roof above US. The boss doesn't say
he'll cut down the rent. Oh! no. He
isn't cutting anything but wages. That
so. when another reduction Of wages
was forced on us Jan. ! We all struck.
and we haven't gone back yet"
fr sshT"n,Ao pTe q @0' a sSaY 1 b"sins stock has !.
been so bad they couldn't help cutting
down wages. They say they. will only
cut wages rs cents a thousand now. but
hemians. demand an increase OF 30 and
10 cents over the Old rates. This the
firm refuses to grant.
Pepper & Weigner say they will give
up the tenement-house manufacturing
business. They have had summopses L.
sued on dlspossess warrants for thirteen
families in their big ,double-decker at
Monday next out Will go those unfortu-
ate Bohemians. Welgner says he has
continued to give work to his tenement
laborers long after It was profitable.
down they refuse to work.
At Bondy Il l.ederer's there Is no tene-
ment labor employed. This firm has Il
factory, and, the strike there Is IA real
old fashioned one. with n picket patroll-
Ing his post In front OF the building to
warn workmen away, and n couple OF
policemen at hand to protect those who
are working. Squads Of police escort
the men to and from work.
Last evening. when the thirty or forty
men now employed were under police es-
cort to the IL" station. they We're
hooter and Kissed by a mob on First
avenue and from n roof near the fac
tory was thrown n big can OF paint,
which besmeared a number OF the cigar
makers.
Brady & Lederer own a big tenement
house adjoining their factory. in First
avenue and they have secured dispos-
sess warrants ON eleven families occupy
put II to-day. ''sympathizing with the