El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-05
ALL IN ONE BLOCK.
Six Thousand. Eight Hundred and
Eighty-Eight People.

| considered the most uenSely pOpuidleu
part of America. or the whole world
But il now loses that distinction In
the shift of population northward on
Manhattan island another spot now
| claims that unenviable reputation
Them ost populous block now in New
York runs from Tenth TO Eleventh ave-
nue. and from West Sixty-first to West
Sixty-second street.
BY actual count 6SSS people live in
that one city block.
| This is more than the entire popula-
ton of many good-sized towns. Many
western cities would he glad to
claim that number.
To pack away this teeming popula-
ton on one block the double deck
err tenements are built so close to-
gether as to- look like one gigantic
house coo feet long and 200 feet wide.
There are twenty-siX houses on the
north side of Sixty-first street and the
south side of SiXty-second street and
seven double houses fronting on the
avenues on the east and west ends of
the block.
Each house contains seventy-two
families.
| You shall hear how in moment
| Economy of space and economy of
air are problems as easily learned here
as the roads to disease
| Inc social lie is interesting ana Va
ried in this most populous block.
Only one family in all the twenty-six
houses on the West SiXty-second
street side of the block has an entire
double decker"
In that family there are seven child
rem and six grown ups in the Ian
guage of the block. Three of them are
boarders. They are part of the general
! system of economy of space and econ
| omy of air.
The twenty-six houses on the north
side of Sixtyfirst street are double.
| like those on SiNty-second street.
Outside in gilt letters on black
! back ground. sign announces "One
| three-room apartment to let" There
| is no hint of irony in the sign until
! one steps inside.
1t is one of the more expensive
| apartments. and rents for 81
month, being in the front of the house
with two windows thatl ook upon the
street. fianked on the opposite side
with similar tall tenements.
1t is up two flights of pitch dark
starts. past doors worse than those of
Chinatown.
A block such as this prepared by the
Tenement House League recently show
ed air shafts averaging two feet four
inches wide. 1t was dotted thick with
little black marks that meant tuber-
culosis. typhoid. diphtheria- They We're
the actual number OF cases reported
during the year to the board of health
hundreds on every block.
However. disease provides one of the
excitements of the tenements. Ii is
constant occurrence of every
double decker but il is always new. |
because you see you never can tell how !
a fellow is going TO behave that goes |
delirious.
That's the excitement.
Some of them clean &c. guls .ndw |
Some of them goes clean ont at !
their heads an others doesn't" ex-
planned the aristocrat of Sixty-first |
street the other morning-she who |
had a whole double decker and a
family of thirteen.
She explained. because at that mo-
ment the clang of the ambulance bell
and the shout of crowd of barefooted I
urchins went up simultaneously.
It's a-comin'i It's a-comin''" you II
could hear from one end of the street II
to the ether. And little tow-haired
from across the way rolled n
over to see the sight. They wedged II
in between the elbows OF II
their colored neighbors. Everybody Il
notes. From every door II
about a corpse II
The man who came out was very II
like one in CHASTITY color and skeleton II
like thinness. He was raving in the
delirium OF typhoid
The little boys gave a howl OF de-
light.
mo wondah. honey" said one of II
the colored grown ups" in the door
way. Yer see. when Jim was took II
las week he did a pow'fuI amount OF
hollerin'. an like as not they 'spects II
the same from old Dick. But he amt Il
got the strength. Boys do be boys"
she continued. when the united efforts
Of the cop and the hospital doctor
were required to keep the excited
crowd from jumping upon the patient.
The apartment he lease, is to rent.
Dick may never come back or lie may
In this block among the 6sSS people
here are many philosophers. They
nave advised his wife and mother and
sister and six babies under ten TO clear
Dut into the rear. which is cheaper. be-
ng only S6 a month. So any one who
paying the sum of 81
month can have alook at the front
-ooms.
There are three of them. just as the
'igD reads:
There's the front room. with two
harrow windows. low ceiling. n creak
ng floor Back of ii there are two
bitch dark closets. II may accommo-
late seven DpoDle or FIVE surely never