174 The Life Worth Living 



charitable societies to induce some of the very 

 poorest inhabitants of our most squalid neigh- 

 borhoods to get into the country. For nearly 

 twenty years the district lying between the 

 Bowery and the East River in New York City 

 has been crowded with very poor people, who 

 make a business of sewing upon ready-made 

 clothing. They are largely Polish Jews of 

 small intelligence, and apparently no instinct 

 beyond self-preservation. They live, or rather 

 herd, together in vile holes, for which they pay 

 exorbitant rents, and their life is one long 

 struggle and incessant work. According to 

 credible reports, work begins soon after day- 

 break and lasts far into night, when the poor 

 wretches sink down exhausted upon the piles 

 of clothing which they are making for the cheap 

 shops of the country. Whole families live and 

 die in this wretchedness, the children knowing 

 no childhood, as we understand it, and old age 

 being out of the question in this atmosphere of 

 foul air and incessant toil. It is not the work 

 of healthy people, but a nervous strain to 

 accomplish two days' work in one. In many 

 visits which I have made to such homes, I have 



