Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-01-12

mentS. TO 1oik as poor as those who live here, cleanliness, so dear to the average Japanese that it is above god Hness, is out of the question.
 The walls are decayed and full of crevices and cracks, the roof leaks, and there are moss and broken tiles. The fshoji are full of holes or patched with newspapers. The mats are ragged, dirty and moldy. There is foul water in the streets and still fouler stench in the air, whose source is often visible to the eye. Frequently one sees dead rats in the roadway, but for fear of the plague they are quickly made away with After coming from the dainti- ness and delightful artistry of well to do Tokyo, Shitaya is the abomination of deSolation.
 The most tumbledown of these abodes may be rented for from 20 to 25 pence per month, but there are houses so fine that they cost as high as a penny or even 3 halfpence a day. To afford one of these expensive resi- dences several families club together, warmth, in winter all hands crowding ttUSVluCI Ol I4C lAdLS S0t14 COoA AS HUI always to be afforded, and heat is a great luxury these cold days. A whole block will sometimes take turns in warming hands at a hibachi wherein a few chunks of charcoal smolder in bed of ashes. The pawnbrokers fatten off these wretches as in no other land It is impossible to escape them, and they never relent. Anything that cost above fivepence can be pawned.
 Until the early winter, or even until midwinter, one can exist in Shitaya without bedclothing, but when the nights get cold, with the fearful pierc- ing frost of Japanese winter, some covering must be had. Now appears another plundcrer of the poor In the guise of the capitalist, who rents quits by the night. He charges. and invari- ably collects from 1 farthing for a shred of dirty, patched old rag to a penny or even twopence for a foul but heavy covering. Then, too, there are frayed silk quilts for bridal couples, but these are too costly to be rented by many bridegrooms Rent must be paid in advance, and before the family 30 to sleep the collector comes and gets either the money or the quilt. With a refinement of cruelty he does not appear until the lessee has turned in and the loss of his covering will be doubly felt. There are heartrending scenes when penniIess mothers strive to hold the quilt to protect their babes from the chill and damp. Like the pawnbroker and the money lender, the quilt lender is dinty hearted
 Few of the inhabitants of Shitaya ever get enough money ahead to buy bedclothing, and the ghastly tragedy of renting is re-enacted again and again winter after winter. Where there are so many children having but a few cotton rags the winter means acute misery
 Nothing that was ever edible can be- come too bad for the very poor to use From this and similar quarters tho scavengers go forth daily searching for food, and they rake the city as with comb. Back they come at night laden With bad rice, decayed fish and meat, scraps from slop barrels, broken food from restaurants and all manner of queer odds and ends. This secondhand food business has an extensive lan- guage of its own, with special terms for every kind and condition of edible junk that is brought to the quarter This jargon Is wholly unintelIigible to the uninitiated, and few there are who care to learn the language of the freez- ing and starving who rent rags and dine on offal.
 Poverty has it's ultimate expression in Tokyo-its last word.