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[Illustration: WEST CARSON STREET AT TIME OF FIRST INSPECTION.
Tenements of Painter's Row at left; nine families on first and second
floors without toilet accommodations. One-family houses at right.]
[Illustration: WHERE THE TENEMENTS WERE TORN DOWN.
Present site of row shown in picture on opposite page. Closets and
sinks installed in topmost row, tenants of which formerly had to go 360
steps to get water.]
Dirt and noise are inseparable adjuncts to life in a mill district,
deplorable, but unavoidable; but workers in the mills need not
necessarily be deprived of sufficient light and air such as it is,
and water, and the common decencies of life. In the winter of 1908, I
spent several days in Painter's Row. I watched grimy little children at
play. I talked with the women, the home-makers; I saw men who had been
working on the night shift lying like fallen logs, huddled together
in small, dark, stuffy rooms, sleeping the sleep of exhaustion that
follows in the wake of heavy physical labor. Above all, I sought to
learn how the tenants fared in these three things: ventilation and
water and sanitary conveniences.
[Illustration: CELLAR BED ROOM.
Windows entirely below passage level, showing how some households
maintain standards against difficulties.]
[Illustration: PASSAGE AND AREA.