The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-07-20

STRANGE AND SAD PHASES OF LIFE
SEEN on EAST SIDE.
Interesting observations and Exper-
fences of "a Relief Worker in
New YOrk's SIums.

BY a tenement IS meant "a composite
city dwelling house occupied by anywhere
from ten TO thirty families living indie
pendently, but all under one roof, each
family cooking. eating. sleeping and living
in one or. at the most, pair OF rooms.
BY a tragedy is meant "a composition
where the theme is tender, solemn or pa
thetic and involves the fatal issue of
hopeless struggle" For five years past 1
happen 10 have lived in five different quar-
tiers OF the tenement-house district Of New
York city and TO have been engaged in
five different forms of relief work among
its habitues Acting as 1 have during that
time as an agent Of the Charity Organiza-
ton Society, as superintendent Of a mis-
sion Sunday school, as preacher III an East
Side mission, as resident in a settlement
house and as one Of the clergy at present
in a great parish house, 1 have witnessed
my share of typical tenement tragedies.
In these days OF descriptive realism and
illustrated narrative it is a popular pro-
ceeding TO portray such scenes Of discom-
fort. No one has any right, however TO
rehearse mere painful incidents and TO
portray such scenes OF suffering unless at
the same time he has motive. In this
case, then, there Is a motive; it is this:
To illustrate the principle that human ma
ture, after all, is all alike, and to prove
the thesis of that crude sage, David
Harun, that there's much human ma
ture in some people as there IS in others
IL not a little more.
the world does not know how the other
half lives" Ii would be a statement even
more true and very much more Pertl YeI,t
to say one-haf the residents of New YORK
do not know how the other half live. How
many readers Of the Independent, Tor IN
stance know anything about that life
where the normal habitation is the double
decker" two houses deep, four families 10
q floor, five hours high and often, by the
aid OF a high stoop and basement Tor SHOPS,
six or even seven; where from twenty 10
thirty families enter by one doorway from
the street and where sixty odd children
fight scratch and scramble up and down
a single stairway Yet in just such houses
there reside more than enough people 10
form the population of the second largest
city in the State.
many know that the parks are called
lungs" because they are the only places
where people can breathe: that in hot
weather thousands sleep habitually on ire
escapes, because their rooms are unln-
habitable; that last summer, night after
night, multitudes Of persons thronged the
streets and fought In mObs Tor the mere
privilege of having streams OF water played
on them by members Of the fire depart
ment? or the queer places IN Whlch PEG
pie live; how many know that some OF the
great Office buildings have under them
apartments for fifty families. and that in
these families children are sometimes born
blind because their mothers Tor Nh0le
years never see daylight; or that on the
roofs OF the same there are families or
"janitors' whose six-year-old children
have never stepped upon the ground2 or
the imported elements OF foreign life; now
many ever visited one of the twenty thea
ters where plays are rendered In many
language or any of the thirty reStaur ants,
where one may have "A meal prepared &C
cOrding 10 the culinary art OF any or as
many nations? or the queer, weird insti-
tutiOns; how many have ever heard OF Elm
Tube Weis saloons, gray and tan dives or
7-Ccnt lodging houses Or, St1l again, the
strange foreign societies. now many people
know that there is in New York branch
OF the SiCilian Mana, chapter or real
Burmese thugs. an order OF the Neapol-
tan CamOrra and monastery Oh pare
footed Capuchin friars2
REAL PROVINCIALISM.
In all the world there is no other such
real provincialsm as in these very sec
tions of this very city. Every one has met
the rustic swain who never was away
from home" has talked with farmers who
have never rid on steam ka-yars.'' has
heard of residents on Long island who
never saw salt water" etc. But how
many know without being told that in each
section of the East Side there are people
who have never in their lives been out of
that one section?
One day one summer while a resident
I'm one of the settlements L conducted a
party of mothers and their children on
an outing to NIOntclair y. J. During the
day 1 noticed that one woman Of the party
acted strangely. When we crossed to HO-
boken she sat inside the ferrybOat, dazed
and bewildered; on the train she gathered
her three children close about her lest they
might fall off; and, in the grove. during
the day, she came TO me In terror half a
81. 80 EV.I L.
60 boy. The boy would turn up each time
not "A hundred feet away, playing harm
lessly behind a tree but for the moment
out of sight. At last. in answer to inqui-
ries she explained that she had never been
took TO the country before and that ev-
erything was strange to her. Her life story
was this:
She had been an only child, and all her
years OF childhood had been spent indoors
IN keeping house and waiting on an invalid
mother. When she was eighteen her
mother had died and one month later she
herself was married to man, who, in his
turn, had made slave of her. The fol-
lowing twelve years she had been kept at
home. cooking for him and Shaving for her
own three children. She told me she had
never seen the sky where 1t was round, -
had never heard live bird sing and
had never seen green grass grow where
you dared tramp on it." She had scarcely
been out of her own street-FOrty-seve
had never been far north Harlem.
once only as far south as Fourteenth
street and only once as far west as Cen
trail Park. Twice in her life she had been
on street cars. once only on a ferryboat
and never on a railroad train. When l ex-
pressed surprise she was still more sur
prised at me than 1 at her and said. why
that amt anything. Lots OF EN- ha'int,
neither"
There have always been persons who.
for reasons all their own, have chosen TO
live the life OF a hermit; the only trouble
was TO find place. It so happens that
lust at about the same rate that mountain
Businesses and desert sOlitudes have be
come populated and such life in such dis
tricts thus rendered impossible. this grow
ing city has developed into what has been
well called 1.-THE mighty solitude OF New
York" At present there many spots
within its limits ideal ones for the seclu-
sion OF refuses. The reason is that people
here pay small heed to each other and do
the very heart of the East Side l have
known at least two such cases of such
hermit life. one was a woman and the
other was a man.
one morning just day was dawning
l was called in 10 attend the deathbed OF
n woman iH a single furnished room on
East til street. For many years this
queer little old woman had been a familiar
figure in the neighDorhood and was known
TO be a strange recluse and miser. Her
COstliest gown had been a calico and her
usual apparel on the street was dress OF
this material with a sha boy hat and a
very much frayed shawl Every policeman
knew and spoke kindly 10 her as she made
her way among the stores and shops but
not one OF them suspected that she had
been member OF one of the patriCian fam
lilies OF the city or that she was worth q
hundred thousand dollars