438' [Ass^MBLr 



and scarcely civil. Some benevolent person calls to inquire as to » 

 poor family needing aid — the landlord says nothing that will help 

 them, and the room appears (in the estimation of some short sighted 

 philanthropists) too good for a family receiving charity, and besides 

 there are several articles of decent furniture — the visitor is dissatis- 

 fied, and leaves, but leaves no aid behind. The broken down spirit 

 is prostrated — hope is blasted — in a little while the few decent 

 articles are gone that food may be obtained, and the poor, dispirited 

 castaway seeks a refuge where all, being poor, will sympathize with 

 each other, and where the landlord, even if he charge higher rent, 

 than they gave before, will speak soothingly, and though he advise 

 them to drown their cares in whiskey, will be very faithful in giving 

 them an excellent character to all enquirers. Lodgings for such 

 persons, on such terms, may be found in the houses I have described. 

 These houses, contain, I say, to a large extent, their own customers; 

 for they are the pauper's rendezvous, and offer lodgings to beggars of 

 every grade. They seem to be always open for new comers, and in 

 some way or other they can accommodate them. There are various 

 neighborhoods of this kind in this city, and I have called your atten- 

 tion to the one named, that I may give you an illustration of the 

 remarks I have made. In one of these houses, in a garret, with 

 sloping roof and low ceiling, one small, broken window, no bed- 

 stead, nor other bedding than a few bundles of rags upon the floor, 

 I have found three families of men, women and children: there they 

 lived, and there they all slept. Now, if a woman accustomed to 

 humble life, or decent poverty, be constrained to remove to such a 

 place, what must be the effect on her mind, her morals, and her 

 habits? At first she will recoil from undressing in the presence of 

 a strange man, but soon she will do it without a blush. Is she a 

 wife? There are other waves and their husbands in the room, with- 

 out even a curtain to hide the most private transactions. That 

 which transpires cannot be unobserved, though seeking the darkest 

 recess, and it will soon be imitated without secrecy and without 

 scruple. Children, too, will see them, and think and imitate — and 

 thus become depraved in their thoughts, desires, and practices. Can 

 any one doubt that there must be a rapid declension in morals, in 

 both parents and children? or that a bar is here opposed to moral or 

 religious instruction? or that this state of things was consequent on 

 the circumstances and condition of life? Besides this, persons living 

 thus, are almost necessarily drunkards, whether men or women. 

 Drunkenness, probably, reduced them to this state, but if it did not, 

 the landlord would hardly allow them to remain in the house, or 

 their fellow lodgers in the room, unless they became such. If ques- 



