How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New YorkRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
History
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Poor -- New York (State) -- New York; Tenement houses -- New York (State) -- New York
We have crossed the boundary of the Seventh Ward. Penitentiary Row,
suggestive name for a block of Cherry Street tenements, is behind us.
Within recent days it has become peopled wholly with Hebrews, the
overflow from Jewtown adjoining, pedlars and tailors, all of them. It
is odd to read this legend from other days over the door: "No pedlars
allowed in this house." These thrifty people are not only crowding into
the tenements of this once exclusive district--they are buying them.
The Jew runs to real estate as soon as he can save up enough for a
deposit to clinch the bargain. As fast as the old houses are torn down,
towering structures go up in their place, and Hebrews are found to be
the builders. Here is a whole alley nicknamed after the intruder, Jews'
Alley. But abuse and ridicule are not weapons to fight the Israelite
with. He pockets them quietly with the rent and bides his time. He
knows from experience, both sweet and bitter, that all things come to
those who wait, including the houses and lands of their persecutors.
Here comes a pleasure party, as gay as any on the avenue, though the
carry-all is an ash-cart. The father is the driver and he has taken
his brown-legged boy for a ride. How proud and happy they both look
up there on their perch! The queer old building they have halted in
front of is "The Ship," famous for fifty years as a ramshackle tenement
filled with the oddest crowd. No one knows why it is called "The Ship,"
though there is a tradition that once the river came clear up here
to Hamilton Street, and boats were moored along-side it. More likely
it is because it is as bewildering inside as a crazy old ship, with
its ups and downs of ladders parading as stairs, and its unexpected
pitfalls. But Hamilton Street, like Water Street, is not what it was.
The missions drove from the latter the worst of its dives. A sailors'
mission has lately made its appearance in Hamilton Street, but there
are no dives there, nothing worse than the ubiquitous saloon and tough
tenements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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