The sun., 1908-04-26
THEY LIKE TEE CROWDED LIFE
DWBLLERS AT CLOSE QUARTERS
NOT NECESSARILY WRETCHED,

Nut NECESOAhtLl NHbAbHED'
Yacts for the sOciOlOglsts which Upset
Bone Theories n tho Congestion Of
POpGlatlOn Thrifty Foreigners lave
en- $500 = Year and Save Money
Many families living in upper Fifth ave-
nue and near Fifth avenue spend $4,000 a
year. A few rev York families spend
moro than that. A far larger percentage
Of families spend between 5000 and $40 00C
q year. In more congested districts fami-
hos live on from $500 10 $500 year.
Data furnished by conscientious sociol'
oklsts would indicate that the last named
class IL wretohed-suoh unilluminatng
things are figures. but many Of the fami-
lloa themselves and their personal friends
do not hold this view at all.
When short OF material for their note
books students Of sociology always alight
on New York. What they would do with
out New York s not easy to imagine Their
pet ground ls the lower East Side, the upper
Fast Side, tho middle West Side and strip
in the section which includes Chinatown.
Sometimes they requisition the millionaire
district for contrast,
In the latter case students merely gaze
respectfully at the exterior Of houses,
whereas in the case OF the $500 year man
they do not hesitate to penetrate boldly
into the innermost dish closet particularly
II the family il new TO the country and un-
certain whether or no such attentions are
included IN American etiquette, as witness
q foreigner who thought he must submit to
sharing his fat with lively coterie Of
oroton bugs.
One day a physician called in TO attend
a sck child seeing some Of the pests sprint
ing around the kitchen asked:
why don't you get rid OF them''
'Eet ees Americana replied the tenant
with a resigned wave OF his hand.
Those who have been residents Of the
localities named for longer time ARE
lsss oomplacent than the newcomers when
their dish closets are invaded. The rank
and hle OF the respectable, hard working
ssment even go 30 far now as TO resent
being asked by strangers how often they
take bath and TO show no particular graft
tude upon hearing that families Of five
or sir children and their parents living
in four rooms Of crowded tenement in
4 populous street arc dubbed -wrotched, y
miserable by childlcss matrops and
bachelor women who reside in the fash
lonable hotel district.
II isn't nearly 80 easy as il used to be
for curiosity seekers to make free and Easy
with the dwellings Of families OF small
means and this. said a man who knows
enough about the manner OF living Of
different natlonalites to have an adjus-
table point Of view is a splendid refutation
charge that the poorest families are neces-
sarly miserable.
As persons who have travelled know
the Italian. the Russian, the German, the
Irish immigrant and his family almost
without exception love populous centres
and abhor segregation Set any one Of
them alone in a big house in a quiet. lonely
locality where there are no swarms Of
children and where camping on the side
walk and hanging out Of the windows ia
not good form, and he and his wife would
be swretched, miserable
Three boys living in Chrystie street who
had read and heard Of MrsCarnegie's wealth
and benevoIences we're taken uptown
by a we'll meaning woman to gaze at his
big Fifth avenue house and the beautiful
surrounding garden. The boys admired
the place admired il very much, as could
he learned by their comments; they ap-
proved OF the neighborhood too.
Il suppose you would like TO live up hcre.'
remarked their guide as they stood waiting
for a car to take them downtown. The
boys looked at one another and 10 her
surprise said nothing. She repeated her
remark.
Moo said one, finally, There's more
folks in Chrystie street
"We can have more fun where we live
said the second.
'Nuttin' doin up here" grlnned the
third.
A man who IN the years when his nine
children we're growing up lived in a teue-
msnt fat east Of the Bowery, and now owns
and occupies a brownstone house in the
upper West Side Of the town confessed
candldly that the tenement house days
were the happiest Of his life.
when we moved TO a house and my two
eldest married and moved away, the wife
and ! felt real lonely, said he Il was
the eldest Of eleven children myself,
and quite used 10 crowding, and / never
missed Injuries, because ] wasn't used to
having them There wasn't such a lot Of
All 4 oa bnH ta
about high wages and how much or how
little a workingman could support his
family on, and all OF us had 20 count pennies
as carefully then as workingmen count
them now We didn't pay 80 much rent
nerhaps, but we paid more for some other
things. and wages were lower too than they
are now.
'What's the use, asked an intelligent
merchant Of the East Side, of trying TO
make sons folks understand that because
there are families Of six, eight and ten
living down here In a few rooms these
families are living in the style that suits
them best and in some oases could afford
to pay for twice the number Of rooms IL
the man Of the family wanted 10 live up 10
his income; that the Pole, the Russian the
Italian is not unhappy when crowded and
that he would be wretched II placed In an
isolated place. Americans, who know
nothing whatever OF foreigners except
what they have read can't understand
that diet which seems unwhoesome 10
them 10 perfectly healthy for the Russian
and highly enjoyed by him,
we had a good laugh the other day at
a story written by some one from a college
who had visited the slums, as she called
them,gand had seen two OF three families
St dinner. II would bring tears to the eyes
TO hear the way she described the awful
food-that's what she called 1.-THE mothers
and fathers and children were eatinR and