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
Red bandannas and yellow kerchiefs are everywhere; so is the Italian
tongue, infinitely sweeter than the harsh gutturals of the Russian Jew
around the corner. So are the "ristorantes" of innumerable Pasquales;
half of the people in "the Bend" are christened Pasquale, or get the
name in some other way. When the police do not know the name of an
escaped murderer, they guess at Pasquale and send the name out on
alarm; in nine cases out of ten it fits. So are the "banks" that hang
out their shingle as tempting bait on every hand. There are half a
dozen in the single block, steamship agencies, employment offices, and
savings-banks, all in one. So are the toddling youngsters, bow-legged
half of them, and so are no end of mothers, present and prospective,
some of them scarce yet in their teens. Those who are not in the street
are hanging half way out of the windows, shouting at some one below.
All "the Bend" must be, if not altogether, at least half out of doors
when the sun shines.
In the street, where the city wields the broom, there is at least an
effort at cleaning up. There has to be, or it would be swamped in
filth overrunning from the courts and alleys where the rag-pickers
live. It requires more than ordinary courage to explore these on a hot
day. The undertaker has to do it then, the police always. Right here,
in this tenement on the east side of the street, they found little
Antonia Candia, victim of fiendish cruelty, "covered," says the account
found in the records of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, "with sores, and her hair matted with dried blood." Abuse is
the normal condition of "the Bend," murder its everyday crop, with the
tenants not always the criminals. In this block between Bayard, Park,
Mulberry, and Baxter Streets, "the Bend" proper, the late Tenement
House Commission counted 155 deaths of children[8] in a specimen year
(1882). Their per centage of the total mortality in the block was
68.28, while for the whole city the proportion was only 46.20. The
infant mortality in any city or place as compared with the whole number
of deaths is justly considered a good barometer of its general sanitary
condition. Here, in this tenement, No. 59½, next to Bandits' Roost,
fourteen persons died that year, and eleven of them were children; in
No. 61 eleven, and eight of them not yet five years old. According to
the records in the Bureau of Vital Statistics only thirty-nine people
lived in No. 59½ in the year 1888, nine of them little children.
There were five baby funerals in that house the same year. Out of
the alley itself, No. 59, nine dead were carried in 1888, five in
baby coffins. Here is the record of the year for the whole block, as
furnished by the Registrar of Vital Statistics, Dr. Roger S. Tracy:
_Deaths and Death-rates in 1888 in Baxter and Mulberry Streets,
between Park and Bayard Streets._
Key
A = Five years old and over.
B = Under five years.
C = Total.
D = General.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account