848 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



actual count, two hundred families; or, count- 

 ing five to a family, 1000 persons living in one 

 house. 



For the past ten years I have daily gone in 

 and out of these homes. I have seen enough 

 sin and misery to make my heart sick. I have 

 also found in these homes a good deal of sun- 

 shine. On the slopes of the high mountains in 

 .Switzerland I have found beautiful flowers 

 growing right On the edge of perpetual snow- 

 fields, and in these great tenement houses I 

 have found some of the rarest and choicest 

 virtues. 



The ordinary tenement house contains five 

 stories. Four families live on a floor. Each 

 occupant usually has a kitchen and two dark 

 bedrooms. For the three rooms they pay from 

 $10 to S12 per month. So far as the exterior is 

 concerned, the tenements are often as much 

 alike as the bee-hives in a large apiary; but 

 when you leave the hall and enter the apart- 

 ments the difference is very great. In one room 

 you may find dirt and dinginess, and bad odors 

 enough to sicken you; while right across the 

 hall you may find a little home which is a 

 model of neatness. A great many of these 

 people live in tenement houses from necessity 

 rather than choice. 



New York is hemmed in on all sides by water. 

 Manhattan Island is long and narrow. There 

 is no room to spread as in Philadelphia and 

 Chicago. The only direction in which men can 

 build is heavenward, and each year the houses 

 are built higher. If there were no law to pre- 

 vent it, the tenement houses would be fifteen or 

 twenty stories high, instead of five and a base- 

 ment. A vast number of workingmen prefer to 

 travel au hour every morning and evening on 

 the ferry-boats, street-cars, and elevated trains, 

 to living in this crowded condition; but where 

 there are two or three children working for 

 small wages, they can not afford the necessary 

 traveling expenses. 



It is literally true, that there are thousands 

 of poor children in lower New York who have 

 never seen a tree or a blade of green grass. The 

 only possible way to get a sight of nature is by 

 going to The parks. 



When poor widow women are sewing shirts 

 and overalls for 39 cents per dozen, and are 

 obliged .to work ten or twelve hours for 2.5 cents, 

 it is impossible to pay street-car fare so as to 

 reach the parks. Through the Tribune Fresh- 

 air Fund several thousand children are each 

 year sent into the country; but a far larger 

 number do not leave the dark courts and alleys 

 during the entire year. The average earnings 

 of unskilled laborers are from ten to twelve 

 dollars per week. This may seem like big 

 wages to men in the country: but at least one- 

 fourth of a workingman's wages goes for rent. 

 Every thing the family eats must be bought — 

 no one has a little garden; and if occasionally 

 some lover of poultry tries to keep a few chick- 

 ens in the back yard, he will first have to kill 

 chanticleer; and although no neighbors are 

 awakenend by the prophet of the morning, if 

 the Board of Health should hear that a quiet 

 flock of biddies live in some secluded back vard. 

 a veto is soon put on such proceedings. There 

 are so many expenses that it is utterly impossi- 

 ble for an unskilled laborer to get ahead in a 

 large city. I know several good, faithful, sober, 

 hard-working men who are just as poor as they 

 were ten years ago. When the ordinary income 

 is cut off. through sickness or want of work, 

 hunger and an urgent landlord stare the work- 

 ingman in the face. 



The only hope for poor but thrifty working 

 people lies in their children. The boys, who 

 are educated in the public schools, and who 

 often get places in stores and offices, sometimes 



have fine opportunities to rise in the world. 

 The girls are at a decided disadvantage. Shop 

 life is the curse of many a poor young woman. 

 Our city girls would rather work in a box or 

 tobacco factory, or even in a rag-shop, than 

 take places as domestic servants in good fami- 

 lies. The balls and theaters are generally run- 

 ning full blast, and there the shop-girl often 

 meets her company. I have seen girls leave 

 the shop the day before their marriage, bright, 

 pretty, and full of life. They took up the care 

 of a house without knowing even the first prin- 

 ciples of housekeeping, and in three or four 

 years they degenerated into slatternly, slovenly, 

 middle-aged women. 



The efforts now being made to give industrial 

 training, and to teach the art of housekeeping, 

 in the public schools, will confer vast benefits 

 on the homes of the future. 



The evils of life in a great city are so numer- 

 ous that a host of organizations are constantly 

 at work among the densely populated tenement 

 hous-s to elevate, civilize, and Christianize, or 

 humanity would fester and rot in the densely 

 crowded parts of the town. The saloons, the 

 gambling-houses, the policy-shops, the dens of 

 vice, the low theater and dance-hall, are drag- 

 ging thousands down to destruction every year. 

 The churches, Sunday-schools, city missions, 

 children's aid societies, girls' friendly societies, 

 young men's Christian associations, college 

 settlements, free reading-rooms and libraries, 

 are saving thousands. The work of destruction 

 and salvation are prosecuted with equal intens- 

 ity. In the city you have the worst and the 

 best men. The most hellish and most heavenly 

 work constantly, going side by side. 



One remarkable peculiarity about life in New 

 York is the way in which various nationalities 

 flock together. We have Italian. Chinese, 

 Syrian, French, Jewish. Irish, and Bohemian 

 quarters. In the neighborhood of my church 

 we have a vast multitude of Jews. The Jewish 

 invasion is quite recent. Ten years ago we 

 saw a Jewish sign or Jewish face occcasionally: 

 but now we see almost nothing bat Jews. I 

 opened a service for Jews in my church four 

 years ago, and every Saturday afternoon we 

 have from four to five hundred men present. 

 We usually have to close the doors, because we 

 can not accommodate all who come. 



The distress in New York at present is fright- 

 ful. In ordinary times the poor help each 

 other, and in ten years a case of starvation has 

 not come under my observation. This fall, 

 however, it is different. A few days aeo one of 

 our missionaries found a poor Italian family in 

 an awful condition. The children were lying 

 on the floor, moaning for food. The poor father, 

 in despair, was crying. He was unable to 

 speak English. He had sought in vain for 

 work, and was longing for death to end his 

 misery. Our beef tea and provisions worked 

 wonders for three of the children ; but o)ie poor 

 little child was so exhausted that it could take 

 no nourishment, and died two days after the 

 food came. I sent an Italian doctor To the 

 home, and he said the child had died of starva- 

 tion. 



A short time aeo I called at the home of a 

 widow. I was afraid she was suffering, and 

 said. " I do not want to be curious, but I should 

 like to know what you are going To have for 

 dinner. Will you let me see what you are cook- 

 ing?" 



She took the lid from a small dish which con- 

 tained one .solitary pototo! She said, "I was 

 afraid I might have to go hungry to-day; but 

 God is good To me. and my neighbor has just 

 brought me this potato." 



To relieve The present distress, a few workers 

 in the tenement-house district organized a 



