The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-06

- you and not us"
 In the Alleys of the National Capital.
 The Associated Charities of Washing ton has taken a leading part in urging better conditions in Washington
 through special committees on housing,
 tuberculosis and playgrounds. Its sec | retary, Charles F. Weller, and a special 1 agent, Miss Janet E. Kemp. have spent the last ten months in Investigating | shRcks. alleys and tenements. Washing l ton was laid out in broad blocks which have long since been pierced by alleys | and sometimes by covered passages l leading to interior courts. Handsome
 residences on the avenues are often backed by dilapidated shanties, where white or coIored people live without the barest decencies of life. The plea is for i legislation that will open up these al- leys into minor streets, will give local | authorities power to condemn insani- tary building, and will provide for a commission to make a general housing and health survey of Washington, as ! adequate as was tho art commission I of several years ago.
 | The police census of 1905 showed 1 that there were 19.076 people living in | 2S6 of such alleys in Washington some straight; others tortuous with | dead ends and odd pockets harboring all sorts of ills. To learn better of
 the life in them, MT. Weller lived dur ' ing the summer in both white" and ! a ''colored' alley: No water, no sew 1 craze, and some of the west oondi- | tions of disease and dilapidation char 1 acteriZed Chlnch Row. three blocks l from Dupont Circle and seven from the White House. In Factory HILL" near | Boston" seven persons (the young ] est two weeks oId) were found living in one room 1ox12 feet Of one alley MT. Weller writes:
 70 Street Alley exemplifies the ex-
 tremes of moral degradation and af- | lords some striking instances of over ! crowding, as, for example, a six-room house containing five famiiies--on1y f twelve individuals In this case--and a
 four-room dwelling with a separate
 family In each room, one of then com
 prising man. his grown daughter with her three iliegirimate children, and an | other woman who is not married to the 1 Another house has three rooms housing l their families one of Nh n inrlnd | two adults and two children, live in | the lean to kitchen--an upholstered dilapidated wooden shell--where they drag out greasy mattresses at night to
 put between them and the cold floor , In 8 fourth house seven people sleep ! in one room. measuring SKIS by 3 feet 1 high, with only one window. North ! Court presents the worst alley condi- l lions discovered as to toilet and water | supply, although l. is located in one of | the newer sections of Wash ngton. All
 the water required for the twenty-five l two-storys fve-room wooden houses with their 139 occupants Is drawn from
 an old pump. There are twenty-five
 lid1ess wooden box privies which vio- l late the laws as to the size, condition | and cleanliness of toilet sheds, and as
 to their distance, only three to five feet. I from the house, whose tenants complain constantly of the bad odors which per-
 meate the entire neighborhood.
 "Bassett's Alley, with its hidden en- | trance only three feet wide. its one- room families and no water connections 1 at all. is especially notable for its close proximity to the Senate chamber and House Of Representatives. Its worst row is rough. unsuostantial
 set of shacks whose lines are all out i of plumb. the first floor twelve inches irregularly from a height of 1-4 to 6 1-2 feet, with the total window area
 in some rooms equal to 1-I4 or 1-1S of
 the floor area"
 A Washington Tenement House. A tenement. not far from o Street
 Alley. was found by Mir. Weller to measure 2nx1 2n feet and contain twen- l
 All the ashes and general refuse
 are dumped into the rear basement, 1 which the ianitress says is cleaned
 out twice in six months: the tenants
 say once a year. Water leaks in upon
 the accumulated mess. When the i'm
 vestigator looked into the cellar, brav-
 ing the swarm of rats which sprang
 upon every side. 1t heEgarAd Iescrip- | tion. She reported it to the health de-
 partment-which ought to have inspec-
 tors enough to discover such abuses for
 themselves--and the place was emp
 tied of many wagon-loads of filth.
 "This tenement contains twenty-two
 rooms besides the large restaurant and it's kitchen. which leaves space for on-
 ly eight living-rooms on the first
 floor. The rooms measure II 1-2 bv
 2-4 or 10 1-2 feet. They accommodate ! eighteen household groups comprising | thirty-one unrelated families or parts
 of families. and. including in all sixty
 six individuals, The probable inadequa- cy of even these large totals sugges- l ted by the fact that in one suite of
 two rooms. in which the investigator
 scheduled seven people, Mrs. Malcom | solemnly averred that eighteen lived last winter. No bath-tubs or bathing | facilities are discoverabIe among the eighteen househ olds, or thirty-one fam
 iliAs or s!xty-six individuals. who havo | r IS. 1 Crowded into small rooms. and unable
 to secure privacy. these people must
 hathe infreuuently. if at all Jnly one | toilet is provided for the thirtv-six
 people who inhabit the third floor. ' Nineteen individuals use the single wa
 ter closet on the second story. while
 the one on the ground hoor accom-
 modates eleven residents, as we'll as
 the workers and customers of the res- | taurant. The toilet-rooms look as If ! ed. but taken out subsequently to save water taxes and repairs"
 Compulsory Education.
 A recent study by William H Bald.
 win showed that 5000 Washington children of school age are not In school There Is no law to make their l parents send them. Tn one family of | five children. visited by Miss Green, an agent of the Associated Charities l the two older IS and 12, spent their
 time loafing in an alley. The three
 younger. 9. and 6. have never been | tc school
 l In another family there were two
 boys about 1T years old. both delicate,
 consumptive, and unable to do hard
 lahorious work. These boys were born
 and brought mp under the shadow Of the dome of the capitol. and vet neither of them could read nor write enough to l become messenger hovs. There was
 nothing they could do well enough to contribute to the supnort of the fami- lv. They were absolutely untrsined.
 Neither one has been in school whole year in his life.
 In one block in southeast Washing