Poor -- New York (State) -- New York; Social settlements
Not far away from these tenements is another in which are sixteen families.
The rents in this house range from $5 to $9.50 per month for two to three
rooms. The house is dirty, neglected; violations of the sanitary laws are
evident from the front door to the roof, on which tenants occupying the
front rooms must dry their clothes. The water is in the dark halls; in
winter, for days at a time, the pipes, both water and drain, are frozen and
burst; yet the tenants stay year after year. One woman, the mother of four
children, was born, married, her four children were born, and her husband,
mother and father died in this house. She has never moved, except across
the hall, up and downstairs, as she has been able to pay more or has been
forced to reduce her rent. The women in this house know almost nothing of
housekeeping. The men are employed only about half the time. The number of
children in the house averages three to each family. It is a New England
hamlet under one roof in this particular. If there is sickness in any
family, it is the concern of every tenant; if a man is out of work, it is a
community misfortune, and to be shared. A new hat for man or woman is the
cause of rejoicing, for it is the badge of respectability for any in the
house who may need it in an emergency. The whole household, for such it
seems to be, are poor, very poor; thriftless, unambitious; the men somewhat
given to drink to excess; yet the spirit of neighborliness shames
criticism. A woman in this house ill four months was nursed by her
neighbors night and day. Her house and children were cared for, food
provided when necessary. Comment on their loyalty and devotion was met with
the response: "God knows how soon she may be doing it for one of us." Yet
when that woman, whom most of them had known all her life, gave evidence of
pregnancy a few months after her husband's death, not a woman crossed her
doorsill until the birth of twin babies within the period of time redeemed
her character. Whether from remorse or love, ample return for this cruelty
has been made many times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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