Gilpin observer., 1908-11-12
MANY ALLEY SLUMS
NATIONAL CAPITAL WITHOUT a
. PARALLEL IN THIS RESPECT.
Jacob Riis Declares City "Rotten a.
the core"-2o,ooo Persons Liv.
ing in SquaIor-Breeding
Ground for Disease.

The national capital, with all its
pride of marble and bronze its broad
avenues and green circles, is never
theless declared to be rotten at the
core" This phrase is Jacob Riis'. He
turned Washington inside cut" few
years ago. and went back to New
Yorks East side for breath of
fresh air.
Things have taken turn for the
better since then, but the white
sepulchre is still likely metaphor to
be used in connection with the ma
tons city beautiful Last year Presi-
dent Roosevelt got so stirred up over
some reports of the Washington al
leys that he appointed a commission
TO devise way of removing the lit
eral and moral stencil from the peo-
pies nostrils.
These alleys are without a parallel
in any other city. There are 2S6 of
them, and they harbor population of
10000 persons. When Jacob Riis de-
clared that Washington had rotten
spot at the core he added: 81 mean
that, for l have in mind the hidden
D.tSh amy 81 NSli Hluucu llldt i
passed them day after day, pleased
with the fine front the block was
making and without the least suspi-
cion of what it harbored within"
Perhaps If he had known the names
of some of these pestilent byways he
might have suspected their nature
Ambush court is one, Blood alley is
another. Jonah row is another and
there are Pig alley, Splash alley, Cat
alley and other names full of signifi-
cance.
But the name is not an unfailing
guide. Otherwise Show alley would
not be the tortuous. filthy lane which
it really is And as for Queens court
not two blocks from the British en-
bassy-it would scarcely have shown
itself to the shocked Investigator, as
it did for years, a labyrinth of dirt,
disease and immortality.
''The alleys" says Charles F. Wei
Ter, of the Associated Charities of
Washington. 'are hidden inner worlds,
standing often in close proximity to
the chief centers of the city's wealth
and culture. Chinch row, not seven
uioShS liol tiic w uitS I1OuSe anu OuiN
three blocks from Dupont circle, was
indescribably bad"
Chinch row was an arm of Queens
court, and 1t was only recently that
after years of war upon it, its novels
were torn down. Some of the deplor-
able houses remain, however, so near
! the fashionable center of the city that
the contrast is startling.
The ordinary newspaper does NOT
print the sort of reading which the
descriptions Of many of these alleys
make. 1t is hardly fit for anything
but the reports of charity committees.
and even they furnish an apology
with each report. Very few of the al
ley houses have either water or sew
erage connection. and it is hardly to
be wondered at that the health au-
thorities of the city are always fight
ing typhoid.
Prior to 1908, the government bu-
reau of labor collected for several
years official statistics of cities. In
its bulletin for 1902 Washington was
shown as having the highest death
rate among the SO largest cities in the
country.
1t was particularly strong in typhoid
fever, tuberculosis. grip and malaria
Some of the causes certainly are not
far to seek, no further, in fact, than
the inside of many disappearing city
blocks