The Washington times., 1906-12-16
Shocking Con on of
Moraland Phys deg
radiation BrOJ 1t to
Light.
Disease Infected Children
Reared Amid Most DebaS-
ing Surroundings.

Fhe frightfm conditions under which
the other half lives in the Capital were
disclosed to a reporter Tor The Times
an a tour of a few Washington slums.
The facts discovered are not features
of any report. They are not recohec-
tions of any older day. They are the
revelations of the morning of Friday,
December Il. 1906: and they are of the
sort which has moved James b. Key
noIds. special investigator for the Presi-
dent, 20 characterize our Washington
alleys as worse than the slums OF New
York
on conditions such as are here de-
scribed, Mr.. Reynolds has based his
report to the President. and the latter
viii base the recommendations he IS
soon to make to Congress on this sub
ject.
The quarters visited were o Street
aIev. Goat alley, l. street southwest
between Third and -Four and-a-haH
streets, Snow court, ard Phillip 5
court. The first is between Fourth and
Fifth. n and o streets northwest. The
second is between Sixth and Seventh.
NJ and y streets northwest. Snow
court is between Twenty-fourth and
Twenty-fifth. 1 and X streets northwest
Philips court is between Twenty-fourth
and Twenty-ffth. NJ and n streets
Dorthw st. All five districts are with
in easy reach of the car lines. and two
of them. Snow court and Goat alley.
arc passed by thousands Of weil-tn-df'
KVashfngtonians every day on their way
Hastgs
exist in an alley just OF Connecticut
avenue between L and III streets IN
another only two blocks south OF the
CAPITOL. and in perhaps a score OF
others. Practically ali the denizens OF
these courts are colOred people.
Alley Pest Center.
O street alley is one of the pest centers
of the Capital. Il is entirely cut on
from the street except for an entrance
from n street. 1t has the form OF a
wide H Proceedings now pend IN court
looking to the extension or the cross
bar of the II through to Fourth and
Fifth streets. which will leave the four
legs of the alley still blind"
Beside the entrance is a thTee-stOry
building called THE National Flats II
covers an entire building lot OF - by 10
feet. and has a church and eight rooms
on the first floor. with twelve rooms on
each Of The other floors Eighteen fa-n--
lies Of coloTed people are housed IN
these thirty-two rooms.
The police census Of 1897 gave .
street alley a population Of 2St per
sons Not counting The National
Flats" there are about forty-five
dwellings Some are shacks which
ought to be torn down Some are fair
" respectable wooden buildings. Most
are substantial brick houses.
Dipped Water From Floor.
Diagonally across from the en-
trance lives a bed-ridden old woman.
alone through most of the day. Her
house Is not one Of the worst shacks
OF the court. but it is in such eondi-
tiOn that she says her friends dipped
Ave tubfuls Of water from the floor
during a recent rain. Though unable
10 move without help, the woman has
a perfectly clear mind and talks with
more than the average Intelligence or
persons in her station. What she said
to the reporter, shorn Of its dialect
and much abridged, follows:
They have torn down TWO bad houses
at the end of the alley, But they have
left a dozen that are worse. I don't
mean the houses are worse, I mean
that worse people live in them. No
body around here knows where the bad
women went. Wen, they left enough
behind.
Right here in the middle of the alley
are half dozen bad houses. They are
on the north side of the alley. right
near the lamppost. Everyone knows
what they are, The police and everybody
else
About 9 o'clock every night the peO-
pie begin 10 go in there and they raise
such racket that sometimes we can't
sleep until or o'clock in the morning
Entice Boys and Girls.
That isn't all. either. They take the
little boys and girls IN there whenever
the boys have enough money. Yes. 1
mean little boys and girls. Some of the
boys don't seem to be fourteen or ff-
teen years old and some of the girls
aren't so old as that"
Three other houses were visited. In
one a young women lay sleeping in a
cold room. naked and without anv cover
save dirty, torn, and ragged comfort
apparently picked up from an ash aeap.
There was no furniture in the roont
save a cot and a broken chair. On the
mantel was a bottle labeled Gin" il
was about half fuH. Around the win
dows and door were wide cracks. The
old woman who admitted the reporter
said simply; shes sick
Goat alley is almost as secluded as O
street alley. One walking up and down
there can hear the cats in Seventh
street plainly, bat he might as well be a
mile away for actual contact with-the
life led in Sixth Seventh, NJ and y
Et.ests. The conditions there correspond
"
ffnr4irttna o.. sn,nra EarnA