New-York tribune., 1902-12-02
IN THE SLUMS.
JACOB A. RIIs ON CONDITIONS IN THE
TENEMENT HOUSE DISTRICTS
OF NEw-YORK

TIE BATTLE WITH THE SLUM- By Jacob A
Riis Illustrated. octave, PIP xi, 4sS. The
Macmillan Company.
Mr.. Riis has revised his papers. published
three years ago under the title Of "A Ten
Years War" and. adding to them some account
of the progress made since that time, ne has
produced this book It affords a wide survey
of the whole field Of municipal improvement in
the congested parts of the city, the tearing down
of unfit tenenents, the creation of good tene-
ments and hotels business basis, the open
ing of parks and the building Of schools, ana
Il exhibits the course OF various reforms
from earlier years to the present He tells
stories Of boy offenders and studies the growth
OF the gang" with the attempts and failures
of the churches to cope with the problem IL
constitutes As for politics, he finds the pros
pect encouraging, the mere fact that the ola
Tammany attitude is coming TO be Influenced
by a desire to appear in a better light indicating
a considerable advance. OF the system of poll
tics which has developed in our cities he says:
The boss is like the measles, distemper OF
a seff-governing peoples infancy when We
shall have come Of age politically ne VIII hdNs
no terrors for us. Meanwhile, being charged
with the business of governing, which We left
10 him because we were too busy making money.
he fc lows the track laid out for him, ana
makes the business pan out sl tnat is III IL
. Abiding to the congestion in the tenement
more some years ago than it does now, Mr.
Riis is almost disposed to agree with those
who. when the Civil War was over thought
that z big fire would be q, good thing for New
York If il could have burned sense in mems
minds as il burned UP the evidence OF their
lack Of it, he adds. The long fight against the
landlord interests. and the crime breeding.
huddled, unhealthy, homeless dwellings in which
they were vested, forms a noteworthy chapter
n the history Of this city. Mr. Riis celebrates
the success won in the case of Mulberry Bend,
and of those particular barracks of i'll onened
degradation he writes:
What was IT like? says man at my elbow.
who never saw it Like nothing ever saw be-
fore or hope TO see again A crooked three
acre lot built over with rotten structures that
ha-bored the very dregs OF humanity. Ordinary
enough 10 look at from the street, but pierced
by a maze Of foul alleys in the depths Of which
skulked the tramp and the outcast thief with
loathsone wrecks that had once laid claim to
the name of woman. Every foot of il reeked
with incest and murder. Bandits Roost- Bottle
Alley, were names synonymous with robbery
and redhanded outrage By night. IN Its worst
days. I have gone poking about their shudoer-
ing haunts with a policeman on the beat and
come away in d ferment Of anger and disgust
that would keep me awake far into the morning
hours planning means Of its destruction That
was what it like Thank God, we shall
never see another such!
The double-decler tenement one of the
most difficult problems of Improvement in
housing The Tenement House Commission
called ii the ''one hopeless form of tenement
construction incapable of proper ventilation.
lighting fire safeguards. In one case Mr.
Riis tells of, the home Of Warsaw family was
entered by the direct rays of the sun during
part of June only. Even the requirement Of
proper lighting in the balls at night was over
looked For the guidance Of inspecting police
men an order was issued defining proper light;
If the sink in the hall could be seen, for one
thing the hall was held to be lighted One po-
liceman was brought to account for reporting
a hall well lighted when, q matter Of fact,
ii was plunged in utter gloom. Did you see
the sink in that hal?" asked the president of
the Board OF Health. The policeman said he
did. But it is pitch dark How did you see
it, was asked Il lit MATCH said the police
man These conditions have led to the erection
of such structures as the Alfred Corning Clark
and the Riverside tenements. The Mills hotels
have similarly given resource TO those
hitherto driven by necessity to the poorer board
ing places Piers parks and better schools are
giving the children room, pleasure and benefit |
The work goes slowly, but in Mr.. Riis's opin-
ion. surely. We win perish he says
There is middle way. We shall win, for
are not letting things be the way fathers |
did" The conditions Of the slum are at the
bottom Of all municipal ills.
This account is written from long knowledge
and study, with intense earnestness that is
at times moving and almost eloquent The
illustrations from photographs which have
been well selected, with view to giving added |
point TO the text Pictures show the slum in |
all its squalid misery, and they show what
has been done in the erection of commodious
and healthy buildings ameorate the con-
dition Of the poor. For frontispiece there is a
portrait of President Roosevelt bearing the
legend. A Valiant Battler with the Slum"