The Cairo bulletin., 1908-09-30
MANY ALLEY SLUMS
NATIONAL CAPITAL WITHOUT A
PARALLEL IN THIS RESPECT.
Jacob Ris Declares City "Rotten al
the core"-2oooo Persons Liv-
ing in SquaIor--5reedin3
Ground for Disease.

The national capital, with all its
| pride OF marble and bronze, its broad
avenues and green circles. is never
| 'heless declared to be rotten at the
core" This phrase is Jacob Riis'. He
turned Washington inside out a few
years ago, and went back to New
York's East side for a breath OF
| fresh air
Things have taken turn for the
better since then, but the white
sepulchre is still likely metaphor tc
be used in connection with the ma.
tons city beautiful Last year Presi
dent Roosevelt got so stirred up ovei
some reports Of the Washington al
leys that he appointed commission
to devise a way of removing the lit
eral and moral stencil from the PEG
pies nostrils,
These alleys are without a parable
In any other city, There are 2Sb o.
them and they harbor a population o.
10000 persons. When Jacob Riis de
clared that Washington had a rotten
spot at the core he added: II NEAR
that for | have In mind the bidder
back alleys--so well hidden that
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 cnupp of uacfiTant IN, HI
might have suspected their nature
Ambush court is one. Blood alley i
another, Jonah row is another, anc
there are Pig alley, Splash alley Ca
alley and other names full of sgniti
canoe
But the name is not an unfailne
guide, Otherwise Show alley would
not be the tortuous, filthy lane which
1t really is. And as for Queens courl
not two blocks from the British EN-
bassy--it would scarcely have show,
Itself 10 the shocked investigator "a
Il did for years, a labyrinth of dirt
disease and immortality,
The alleys, says Charles r. Wei
Ter, of the Associated Charities OF
Washington, ARE hidden inner worlds
standing often in close proximity &c
the chief centers of the city's wealth
and culture, Chinch row. not seven
blocks from the White House and only
three blocks from Dupont circle, was
indescribably bad"
Chinch row was an arm OF Queens
court, and it was only recently that,
after years of war upon ii, 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 1t 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 80 largest cities In the
country.
II 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.