New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-03

whose decaying shacks forty-One human beings
are congested This is a fair sample of one
story whitewashed shanties in which neither
sanitary accommodations nor even the least de-
gree of comfort exist. Now, the location of this
row of shacks is only block and half from
Farragut Square, and stones throw from
Connecticut-ave.; the apartment house that
Secretary John Hay is building looks down on
this wretched mass of buildings. If one can
imagine six eight one story wooden Sheds
half tumbIed down and in a state of awful sanI-
tation block west Of the Vanderbilt man.
sion of Fifth-ave. and not more than one block
from Central Park, a notion Of the contrasts Of
Washington will be gathered
The above mentioned alley is q few blocks
from the British Embassy, but the one referred
to by Mr. Meakin in his comments is even
nearer Queens Alley, block from Con-
necticut-ave. and not more than two from the
embassy, was the one mentioned by the visitor.
Here is another rCokery closely resembling Will
low Tree Alley in conditions-wOrse, perhaps, in
some respects One little interior alley in this
block claims the Illuminating name OF Chnch
Alley a reference to variety OF predatory YER
min which infests it. 1t the sight OF the
tumbledown shanties here, the wretched dens,
the mass of children who were confined in single
rooms the lack of running water, the nolsoIne
filth and verrnin of the place, which called forth
is maintained by the head of the Associated
Charities of Washington. under whose guidance
in fact, Mr.. Meakin made his tour.
Visits to various other quarters of Washington
revealed the fact that the alleys adjoining the
Capitol and around the British Embassy were
by no means the worst in the city On Fac
tory Hill number Of places were Indicated by
the agents of the Associated Charities Of the
CITY as infinitely worse. Houses in the last
stages of decay held UP by poles Wedged
against trees; windows stuffed with sacks-these
were samples of the condition. One hovel was
found in which there was no chimney even, and
out of heap of sand in one corner an oven
and stove for cooking had been improvised, the
smoke escaping through a convenient hole in
the wall In a collection of photographs taken
by the charity workers of the city a room is
shown which visited by Senator Gallinger
and an Associated Charities agent The Senate
was at that time Investigating the conditions
under which COWS were kept in the District OF
Columbia and this place shown to Senator
GaIIinger as d contrast between the require
ments for cows and those for human beings. In
this wretched hovel mother and five little
children were found living in conditions of filth
and bad sanitation indescribabIe. After sur
yev of the place Senator GaIlinger remarked:
such q place for keeping cows would be i'm
possible The law would not permit it. Public
health could not suffer it."
But five hundred beings lived there.
Heaps Of rags and old coats thrown on the
bare floor are sometimes the only bed on Factory
Hill and it was concerning this condition that
Mr.. Mcal-in said
ION Factory Hill and in other holes around
the canal in Georgetown there are frightful
places full Of fifth and the drest poverty where
disease and crime must breed rapidly
Now, the statistics of the city health REIN
force this assertion. Disease does breed rapidly.
The health report for 1901 shows that out OK