Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1907-09-10
THOUSANDS Toll LIKE
SLAVES BUT ARE
STARVING
High Prices Add Gdunt Hun.
ger to Already Manifold
MiSerieS of Great
East Side.
TRUST GREtDiNESS
CAUSE OF FAMINE
Children Lack Even COmm0neSt
Necessities and Forage in
Streets For Food. Which
Their Parents Are In
able to obtain.

New York, Sept 10.-One of the
agents of the bureau of statistics of
the United States government in Sc
curing facts as to how people live,
made a trip to New York's most pow
erty stricken section. He says:
Here to the unhappy East side,
teeming with the very poorest peo-
pie in this country of prosperity,
came to see how they in their pur-
suit of mere life were affected by the
40 per cent increase in the price of
the things they must have.
81 am shocked and Mortified by the
facts 1 heard and the sights l saw.
Human beings-heaven help them!-
you meet at every step, who have the
imprint of deprivation on their
cheeks and the hunger for food-food
that Notwithstanding out of their
eyes. Not ten, nor a hundred, but
thousands!
Blood Money Instead OF Rent.
Thus / walked In the midst of
hunger and rags in the vicinity OF
Broom and Rivington and Hester
streets. until l came to the office OF
DR.. Fleischmann, who is in charge
OF the ghetto settlement work and
who has been a sympathetic laborer
for Is years among the East side
poor"
God knows how they llve," said
DR.. Fleischmann. "They never had
such a narrow margin between them
and direst want. and thst increased
cost of everything makes their pow
erty more acute"
Tell me what you know about
poverty" l said.
1T is a year-round struggle to ex-
ist The worst of it is the increased
I.
lump. These horrible tenements, pay
ing their owners from 20 to 40 per
cents profits, have all raised prices
Apartments formerly 81 a month are
now $12; others that were $14 are
now $25. The poor can't get away
from them. They simply must pay
and what they pay is blood money
Haven't these people earned more
with the good times?"
mo. They are not skilled work.
ers. Their employments are monde
script They peddle, trade, work a
anything. But they earn no more
than formerly. SO they must ea
less-very much less.
Fruit Now Out of Reach.
What do they do without?"
Fruit, for one thing, Formerly
it was plentiful and cheap, and it,
cheapness made apple, pears, plums
etc, common diet. A pear, for in.
stance, was l cent. Today ii is
cents. Ask the dealer why l ask.
ed and he said that the crop was
good but that all fruit has gone VI
in price-gone up until it is out Of
the reach of the very poor. The
hungry children gaze at pears and
peaches and other fruits on tn,
stands and do not taste such fooC
from one years end to another
The very poor are eating less oi
the nourishing foods-less beef, poul.
try and other nourishing meats
During the past five years poultry
has gone up from IA to l6 cents tC
22 and 26 cents a pound beef has
gone up from 16 to IS cents to 2.
and 26 cents a pound. Even the
scrap meat-the soup bones-have
advanced.
what these people eat in great.
est quantities is fish. On every stree
corner you will see stands with bar
rels of picked herring which are
constantly patronized. A woman
walks up, puts down a penny. The
dealer plunges his hand into the
brine, fishes out a herring, slaps Il
INTO bit Of newspaper and the wo'
man walks off with it under her arm
That is her family dinner.
Children Forage for Food.
Another thing. 1t is a small thing
but it shows the pinch of poverty. j
remember when soup greens sold for
cents. That was customary. Oh
often the butcher threw in greens
with the meat bought for soup. BuI
now IL is cents for greens.
Eggs and milk are quite beyond
the reach Of the East side poor
MIX has advanced from TO cents
pint and is used only when nee
essary for small children. Eggs are
practically never bought by the dozen
and they are never fresh
But let the story be made a bit
more specific. Take a walk up this
| ramshackle tenement, teeming with
life, and look I'm on the quarters OF
the family on the next to the tot
floor 1t Is the abode Of simon Sire,
vonskae, a porter with a good job al
80 a week. He Is sick I'm a hospital
now. An old man, Simon's father, 4;
! lying on mattress on the fire es-
cape. He Is feeble and cannot work
Mrs. Strevonskae Is ill I'm bed. The
two rooms for which they pay 81
month are grimy dark and forlorr
beyond words 10 describe.
where are the children?" the in,
terpreted asked. The woman on the
bed mOtioned toward the street.
Somewhere. Don't know" saiC
she I'm Yiddish.
Did they have breakfast?"
Il guess so. There were three rOlli
on the table They are gone"
How about lunch?"
The woman waived aside the
question Of lunch. The children were
in the street and would forage foi
lunch"