No. 216.] 403 



on the floor, under the window, if window there is; — all this, and 

 much more, beyond the reach of my pen, must be felt and seen, ere 

 you can appreciate in its full force the mournful and disgusting con- 

 dition, in which many thousands of the subjects of our government 

 pass their lives. 



" There vapors, with malig^iant breath 

 Rise thick, and scatter midnight death." 



Ther€ are two features of a cellar residence which more especial- 

 ly render them objectionable; 1st, the dampness, and 2d, the more 

 incomplete ventilation. In any cellar the impossibility of access for 

 the heat of the sun to the parts of the soil adjacent to the floor and 

 walls, and the absence of currents of air through the room, keep it 

 much more damp than rooms above ground, where the heat and air 

 have freer access. This is emphatically the case with inhabited cel- 

 lars, inasmuch as the inmates are careful to exclude the external air, 

 by closing all the avenues of its approach, in order to preserve the 

 temperature high in winter and low in summer. The moisture, 

 whose escape is thus prevented, is in itself a very prolific source of 

 <lisease, and combined with the darkness and impure air of these 

 places, is actually productive of a great amount of sickness. Could 

 the sun and air be made to reach them, and were it possible to es- 

 tablish a sufficient ventilation through them, much of their noxious- 

 ness would be relieved; but under no circumstances can they be made 

 fit for the residence of living beings; they are properly adapted only 

 as receptacles for the dead. 



In addition to these impediments to the drying of these places, 

 they are very often so situated, that the surface water finds its way 

 into them at every rain storm. It may be remembered that in the 

 summer of 1843, all the underground apartments in many sections 

 of the city were completely flooded by a deluge of rain. In the 

 eastern part of the city, in Delancy, Rivington, Stanton, and many 

 other of the neighboring streets, almost every cellar (and great num- 

 bers of them are inhabited,) were half filled with water. This evil 

 will not recur to so great an extent, in the neighborhood alluded to, 

 sewers having been built in some of the streets. But in other sec- 

 tions, indeed in every section, where the position of the basement is 

 unaltered, and sewers are not constructed, the nuisance must be suf- 

 fered at every rain storm- In some courts to which I can point, 

 the surface is helow the level of the street, and at every rain, the 

 water being unable to run off into the street, is all discharged down 



