The Arena, Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891 — John Shaqi
The Arena, Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891Various
General
The Arena, Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891
Various
American literature -- Periodicals
Among the places we visited were a number of cellars or burrows. We
descended several steps into dark, narrow passage-ways,[4] leading to
cold, damp rooms, in many of which no direct ray of sunshine ever
creeps. We entered a room filled with a bed, cooking stove, rack of
dirty clothes and numerous chairs, of which the most one could say was
that their backs were still sound and which probably had been donated by
persons who could no longer use them. On the bed lay a man who has been
ill for three months with rheumatism. This family consists of father,
mother, and a large daughter, all of whom are compelled to occupy one
bed. They eat, cook, live, and sleep in this wretched cellar and pay
over fifty dollars a year rent. This is a typical illustration of life
in this underground world.
[4] NOTE ON ILLUSTRATION OF CELLARWAY LEADING INTO PARTIALLY
UNDERGROUND APARTMENT. This passage-way is several steps
down from the court or alley-way, and leads to the
apartment seen in accompanying picture. There are many of
these dark cellarways leading to underground tenements.
NOTE ON PICTURE OF A SICK MAN IN UNDERGROUND TENEMENT.
Leading off the cellar-way shown above, is a tenement shown
in this illustration. It consists of one room, over the bed
the ceiling slants toward the street, and above the ceiling
are the steps leading to the tenements above. In this one
room lives the sick man, who for a long time, has been
confined to his bed with rheumatism; his wife and a
daughter are compelled to occupy the one bed with him,
while the small sunless room is their only kitchen,
laundry, living room, parlor, and bedroom.
NOTE ON PORTUGUESE FAMILY, WIDOW, TWO DAUGHTERS, AND LITTLE
BOY. This illustration is a fair type of a number of
lodgings. The photograph does not begin to reveal the
extent of the wretchedness of the tenement. A little
cubby-hole leads off from this room, large enough for a
three quarters bed, in which the entire family of four
sleep. The girls are remarkably bright and lady-like in
their behavior, carrying with them an air of refinement one
would not expect to find in such a place. They make their
living by sewing; their rent is two dollars a week.
NOTE ON WIDOW AND TWO CHILDREN IN UNDERGROUND TENEMENT.
This picture of a squalid underground apartment is typical
of numbers of tenements in this part of the city. The widow
sews and does any other kind of work she can to meet rent
and living expenses; the children sew on pants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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