New-York tribune., 1901-10-20

money TO help pay expenses. Such n family will
make ends meet comfortably and have chicken
for dinner once week. There are two bed
rooms. and at night cots appear from all cor
ners and the parlor and the kitchen are used
for sleeping rooms; in fact. the kitchen is very
attractive in winter. The whole apartment is
warmed by the big stove that does the cooking
as well. For this reason the kitchen is as near
the centre possible and forms the entrance
to the tenement. EN en- when the kitchen is not
exactly in the centre. it is arranged that IL
shall be the entrance. 1t to have been
a point of etiquette with tenement house archi-
tects. 1t is usually the living room of the fam
lily. might be expected. Coal and gas are
alike saved by this arrangement SO the kitchen
is k pit neat and bright. and is Il costy enough
place
In such fashion lives the average middle
class" of the poor. ana IT is not 50 bad that il
could not be easily much The unplras-
ant feature Of this existence is that there is
bathroom. and not room enough to give much
privacy for baths in portable tubs As a rule.
the family must all arise the same time and
hasten away to business There is not leisure
for much in the way OF toict. and if the whole
family had to wait its turn nj tub
venirnt basin there would be- lost jobs all round.
Baths may be had outside for the payment of
10 cents so and it would be easy to afford
this a week if all the members of the
family earned money; but. unhappiiy. the need
of personal cleanliness is not deeply impressed
and the lack Of convenicncc5 in the home fos-
ters Indifference to it, These people are hardly
to blame. The veneer of civilization is not very
deep on any one, and it is hard to say how soon
the daily bath would lose its Significance were
it made absolute impossibility.
This lack of is hard the mother if
she has n large family, for she must BE-
tinually shut in with noise which wears on her
nerves and makes her snappish she must
send the whole crowd of little ones into the
street. where they instantly accumulate in
credible amount of dirt face and clothes.
which she has little time to wash off. The chill
dren thus brought up to disregard dirty hands
not likely to max, vigorous use of soap
and water even should such chance present
Itself. AS they reach the ag- when dress as
sumcs great Importance in their eyes they will
more for their appearance. but it is largely
a superficial care. and when the girls are ''wooed
and married and "a" both man and woman
sink into bad habits only too often. 1t should
not he forgotten however. that many tenement
dwellers are scrupulously clean, that even
those who neglect their persons are very fire.
quently perfectly tidy about their homes.
From the fairly comfortable folk who live In
four rooms, one may pass upward or downward
as one pleases. Upward bright light well
finished apartments of seven eight rooms
which boast dining rooms. The fine otd fash
iCned houses which were mansions of the
rich have not all been swept away from the
tenement district, and these rented to pros
porous people, mostly families of professional
men. The spacious rooms, with their lofty cell
ings are to he equalled outside of the tene-
ment district only in the homes of the very
rich. These rented two floors at a
time; but the people who live in them are far
from poor Downward from the middle class
one comes to rear rooms in doubledeckers and
the like. There are many three room tene-