HOW THE CASE STANDS.
What, then, are the bald facts with which we have to deal in New York?
I. That we have a tremendous, ever swelling crowd of wage-earners which
it is our business to house decently.
II. That it is not housed decently.
III. That it must be so housed _here_ for the present, and for a long
time to come, all schemes of suburban relief being as yet utopian,
impracticable.
IV. That it pays high enough rents to entitle it to be so housed, as a
right.
V. That nothing but our own slothfulness is in the way of so housing
it, since "the condition of the tenants is in advance of the condition
of the houses which they occupy" (Report of Tenement-house Commission).
VI. That the security of the one no less than of the other half
demands, on sanitary, moral, and economic grounds, that it be decently
housed.
VII. That it will pay to do it. As an investment, I mean, and in hard
cash. This I shall immediately proceed to prove.
VIII. That the tenement has come to stay, and must itself be the
solution of the problem with which it confronts us.
This is the fact from which we cannot get away, however we may deplore
it. Doubtless the best would be to get rid of it altogether; but as
we cannot, all argument on that score may at this time be dismissed as
idle. The practical question is what to do with the tenement. I watched
a Mott Street landlord, the owner of a row of barracks that have
made no end of trouble for the health authorities for twenty years,
solve that question for himself the other day. His way was to give
the wretched pile a coat of paint, and put a gorgeous tin cornice on
with the year 1890 in letters a yard long. From where I stood watching
the operation, I looked down upon the same dirty crowds camping on
the roof, foremost among them an Italian mother with two stark-naked
children who had apparently never made the acquaintance of a wash-tub.
That was a landlord's way, and will not get us out of the mire.
The "flat" is another way that does not solve the problem. Rather, it
extends it. The flat is not a model, though it is a modern, tenement.
It gets rid of some of the nuisances of the low tenement, and of the
worst of them, the overcrowding--if it gets rid of them at all--at
a cost that takes it at once out of the catalogue of "homes for the
poor," while imposing some of the evils from which they suffer upon
those who ought to escape from them.
There are three effective ways of dealing with the tenements in New
York:
I. By law.
II. By remodelling and making the most out of the old houses.
III. By building new, model tenements.
Private enterprise--conscience, to put it in the category of duties,
where it belongs--must do the lion's share under these last two
heads. Of what the law has effected I have spoken already. The
drastic measures adopted in Paris, in Glasgow, and in London are not
practicable here on anything like as large a scale. Still it can, under
strong pressure of public opinion, rid us of the worst plague-spots.
The Mulberry Street Bend will go the way of the Five Points when all
the red tape that binds the hands of municipal effort has been unwound.
Prizes were offered in public competition, some years ago, for the best
plans of modern tenement-houses. It may be that we shall see the day
when the building of model tenements will be encouraged by subsidies
in the way of a rebate of taxes. Meanwhile the arrest and summary
punishment of landlords, or their agents, who persistently violate
law and decency, will have a salutary effect. If a few of the wealthy
absentee landlords, who are the worst offenders, could be got within
the jurisdiction of the city, and by arrest be compelled to employ
proper overseers, it would be a proud day for New York. To remedy the
overcrowding, with which the night inspections of the sanitary police
cannot keep step, tenements may eventually have to be licensed, as now
the lodging-houses, to hold so many tenants, and no more; or the State
may have to bring down the rents that cause the crowding, by assuming
the right to regulate them as it regulates the fares on the elevated
roads. I throw out the suggestion, knowing quite well that it is open
to attack. It emanated originally from one of the brightest minds that
have had to struggle officially with this tenement-house question in
the last ten years. In any event, to succeed, reform by law must aim
at making it unprofitable to own a bad tenement. At best, it is apt to
travel at a snail's pace, while the enemy it pursues is putting the
best foot foremost.
In this matter of profit the law ought to have its strongest ally in
the landlord himself, though the reverse is the case. This condition
of things I believe to rest on a monstrous error. It cannot be that
tenement property that is worth preserving at all can continue to yield
larger returns, if allowed to run down, than if properly cared for
and kept in good repair. The point must be reached, and soon, where
the cost of repairs, necessary with a house full of the lowest, most
ignorant tenants, must overbalance the saving of the first few years
of neglect; for this class is everywhere the most destructive, as well
as the poorest paying. I have the experience of owners, who have found
this out to their cost, to back me up in the assertion, even if it
were not the statement of a plain business fact that proves itself. I
do not include tenement property that is deliberately allowed to fall
into decay because at some future time the ground will be valuable
for business or other purposes. There is unfortunately enough of that
kind in New York, often leasehold property owned by wealthy estates or
soul-less corporations that oppose all their great influence to the
efforts of the law in behalf of their tenants.
There is abundant evidence, on the other hand, that it can be made to
pay to improve and make the most of the worst tenement property, even
in the most wretched locality. The example set by Miss Ellen Collins
in her Water Street houses will always stand as a decisive answer to
all doubts on this point. It is quite ten years since she bought three
old tenements at the corner of Water and Roosevelt Streets, then as now
one of the lowest localities in the city. Since then she has leased
three more adjoining her purchase, and so much of Water Street has at
all events been purified. Her first effort was to let in the light
in the hallways, and with the darkness disappeared, as if by magic,
the heaps of refuse that used to be piled up beside the sinks. A
few of the most refractory tenants disappeared with them, but a very
considerable proportion stayed, conforming readily to the new rules,
and are there yet. It should here be stated that Miss Collins's tenants
are distinctly of the poorest. Her purpose was to experiment with this
class, and her experiment has been more than satisfactory. Her plan
was, as she puts it herself, fair play between tenant and landlord.
To this end the rents were put as low as consistent with the idea of
a business investment that must return a reasonable interest to be
successful. The houses were thoroughly refitted with proper plumbing. A
competent janitor was put in charge to see that the rules were observed
by the tenants, when Miss Collins herself was not there. Of late years
she has had to give very little time to personal superintendence, and
the care-taker told me only the other day that very little was needed.
The houses seemed to run themselves in the groove once laid down. Once
the reputed haunt of thieves, they have become the most orderly in the
neighborhood. Clothes are left hanging on the lines all night with
impunity, and the pretty flower-beds in the yard where the children
not only from the six houses, but of the whole block, play, skip, and
swing, are undisturbed. The tenants, by the way, provide the flowers
themselves in the spring, and take all the more pride in them because
they are their own. The six houses contain forty-five families, and
there "has never been any need of putting up a bill." As to the income
from the property, Miss Collins said to me last August: "I have had six
and even six and three-quarters per cent. on the capital invested; on
the whole, you may safely say five and a half per cent. This I regard
as entirely satisfactory." It should be added that she has persistently
refused to let the corner-store, now occupied by a butcher, as a
saloon; or her income from it might have been considerably increased.
Miss Collins's experience is of value chiefly as showing what can be
accomplished with the worst possible material, by the sort of personal
interest in the poor that alone will meet their real needs. All the
charity in the world, scattered with the most lavish hand, will not
take its place. "Fair play" between landlord and tenant is the key, too
long mislaid, that unlocks the door to success everywhere as it did
for Miss Collins. She has not lacked imitators whose experience has
been akin to her own. The case of Gotham Court has been already cited.
On the other hand, instances are not wanting of landlords who have
undertaken the task, but have tired of it or sold their property before
it had been fully redeemed, with the result that it relapsed into its
former bad condition faster than it had improved, and the tenants with
it. I am inclined to think that such houses are liable to fall even
below the average level. Backsliding in brick and mortar does not
greatly differ from similar performances in flesh and blood.
Backed by a strong and steady sentiment, such as these pioneers have
evinced, that would make it the personal business of wealthy owners
with time to spare to look after their tenants, the law would be
able in a very short time to work a salutary transformation in the
worst quarters, to the lasting advantage, I am well persuaded, of the
landlord no less than the tenant. Unfortunately, it is in this quality
of personal effort that the sentiment of interest in the poor, upon
which we have to depend, is too often lacking. People who are willing
to give money feel that that ought to be enough. It is not. The money
thus given is too apt to be wasted along with the sentiment that
prompted the gift.
Even when it comes to the third of the ways I spoke of as effective
in dealing with the tenement-house problem, the building of model
structures, the personal interest in the matter must form a large share
of the capital invested, if it is to yield full returns. Where that
is the case, there is even less doubt about its paying, with ordinary
business management, than in the case of reclaiming an old building,
which is, like putting life into a defunct newspaper, pretty apt to
be up-hill work. Model tenement building has not been attempted in
New York on anything like as large a scale as in many other great
cities, and it is perhaps owing to this, in a measure, that a belief
prevails that it cannot succeed here. This is a wrong notion entirely.
The various undertakings of that sort that have been made here under
intelligent management have, as far as I know, all been successful.
From the managers of the two best-known experiments in model tenement
building in the city, the Improved Dwellings Association and the
Tenement-house Building Company, I have letters dated last August,
declaring their enterprises eminently successful. There is no reason
why their experience should not be conclusive. That the Philadelphia
plan is not practicable in New York is not a good reason why our own
plan, which is precisely the reverse of our neighbor's, should not
be. In fact it is an argument for its success. The very reason why
we cannot house our working masses in cottages, as has been done in
Philadelphia--viz., that they must live on Manhattan Island, where
the land is too costly for small houses--is the best guarantee of the
success of the model tenement house, properly located and managed.
The drift in tenement building, as in everything else, is toward
concentration, and helps smooth the way. Four families on the floor,
twenty in the house, is the rule of to-day. As the crowds increase,
the need of guiding this drift into safe channels becomes more urgent.
The larger the scale upon which the model tenement is planned, the
more certain the promise of success. The utmost ingenuity cannot
build a house for sixteen or twenty families on a lot 25 × 100 feet
in the middle of a block like it, that shall give them the amount
of air and sunlight to be had by the erection of a dozen or twenty
houses on a common plan around a central yard. This was the view
of the committee that awarded the prizes for the best plan for the
conventional tenement, ten years ago. It coupled its verdict with the
emphatic declaration that, in its view, it was "impossible to secure
the requirements of physical and moral health within these narrow and
arbitrary limits." Houses have been built since on better plans than
any the committee saw, but its judgment stands unimpaired. A point,
too, that is not to be overlooked, is the reduced cost of expert
superintendence--the first condition of successful management--in the
larger buildings.
The Improved Dwellings Association put up its block of thirteen houses
in East Seventy-second Street nine years ago. Their cost, estimated at
about $240,000 with the land, was increased to $285,000 by troubles
with the contractor engaged to build them. Thus the Association's task
did not begin under the happiest auspices. Unexpected expenses came
to deplete its treasury. The neighborhood was new and not crowded at
the start. No expense was spared, and the benefit of all the best and
most recent experience in tenement building was given to the tenants.
The families were provided with from two to four rooms, all "outer"
rooms, of course, at rents ranging from $14 per month for the four
on the ground floor, to $6.25 for two rooms on the top floor. Coal
lifts, ash-chutes, common laundries in the basement, and free baths,
are features of these buildings that were then new enough to be looked
upon with suspicion by the doubting Thomases who predicted disaster.
There are rooms in the block for 218 families, and when I looked in
recently all but nine of the apartments were let. One of the nine was
rented while I was in the building. The superintendent told me that
he had little trouble with disorderly tenants, though the buildings
shelter all sorts of people. Mr. W. Bayard Cutting, the President of
the Association, writes to me:
"By the terms of subscription to the stock before incorporation,
dividends were limited to five per cent. on the stock of the Improved
Dwellings Association. These dividends have been paid (two per cent.
each six months) ever since the expiration of the first six months
of the buildings operation. All surplus has been expended upon the
buildings. New and expensive roofs have been put on for the comfort
of such tenants as might choose to use them. The buildings have been
completely painted inside and out in a manner not contemplated at
the outset. An expensive set of fire-escapes has been put on at the
command of the Fire Department, and a considerable number of other
improvements made. _I regard the experiment as eminently successful and
satisfactory_, particularly when it is considered that the buildings
were the first erected in this city upon anything like a large scale,
where it was proposed to meet the architectural difficulties that
present themselves in the tenement-house problem. I have no doubt
that the experiment could be tried to-day with the improved knowledge
which has come with time, and a much larger return be shown upon the
investment. The results referred to have been attained in spite of the
provision which prevents the selling of liquor upon the Association's
premises. You are aware, of course, how much larger rent can be
obtained for a liquor saloon than for an ordinary store. An investment
at five per cent. net upon real estate security worth more than the
principal sum, ought to be considered desirable."
The Tenement House Building Company made its "experiment" in a much
more difficult neighborhood, Cherry Street, some six years later.
Its houses shelter many Russian Jews, and the difficulty of keeping
them in order is correspondingly increased, particularly as there are
no ash-chutes in the houses. It has been necessary even to shut the
children out of the yards upon which the kitchen windows give, lest
they be struck by something thrown out by the tenants, and killed.
It is the Cherry Street style, not easily got rid of. Nevertheless,
the houses are well kept. Of the one hundred and six "apartments,"
only four were vacant in August. Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman,
the secretary of the company, writes to me: "The tenements are now
a decided success." In the three years since they were built, they
have returned an interest of from five to five and a half per cent.
on the capital invested. The original intention of making the tenants
profit-sharers on a plan of rent insurance, under which all earnings
above four per cent. would be put to the credit of the tenants, has not
yet been carried out.
[Illustration: GENERAL PLAN OF THE RIVERSIDE BUILDINGS
(A. T. WHITE'S) IN BROOKLYN.]
[Illustration: FLOOR PLAN OF ONE DIVISION IN THE RIVERSIDE
BUILDINGS, SHOWING SIX "APARTMENTS."]
A scheme of dividends to tenants on a somewhat similar plan has
been carried out by a Brooklyn builder, Mr. A. T. White, who has
devoted a life of beneficent activity to tenement building, and whose
experience, though it has been altogether across the East River, I
regard as justly applying to New York as well. He so regards it
himself. Discussing the cost of building, he says: "There is not the
slightest reason to doubt that the financial result of a similar
undertaking in any tenement-house district of New York City would be
equally good.... High cost of land is no detriment, provided the value
is made by the pressure of people seeking residence there. Rents in
New York City bear a higher ratio to Brooklyn rents than would the
cost of land and building in the one city to that in the other." The
assertion that Brooklyn furnishes a better class of tenants than the
tenement districts in New York would not be worth discussing seriously,
even if Mr. White did not meet it himself with the statement that the
proportion of day-laborers and sewing-women in his houses is greater
than in any of the London model tenements, showing that they reach the
humblest classes.
Mr. White has built homes for five hundred poor families since he began
his work, and has made it pay well enough to allow good tenants a share
in the profits, averaging nearly one month's rent out of the twelve, as
a premium upon promptness and order. The plan of his last tenements,
reproduced on p. 292, may be justly regarded as the _beau ideal_ of
the model tenement for a great city like New York. It embodies all the
good features of Sir Sydney Waterlow's London plan, with improvements
suggested by the builder's own experience. Its chief merit is that it
gathers three hundred real homes, not simply three hundred families,
under one roof. Three tenants, it will be seen, everywhere live
together. Of the rest of the three hundred they may never know, rarely
see, one. Each has his private front-door. The common hall, with all
that it stands for, has disappeared. The fire-proof stairs are outside
the house, a perfect fire-escape. Each tenant has his own scullery and
ash-flue. There are no air-shafts, for they are not needed. Every room,
under the admirable arrangement of the plan, looks out either upon
the street or the yard, that is nothing less than a great park with a
play-ground set apart for the children, where they may dig in the sand
to their heart's content. Weekly concerts are given in the park by a
brass band. The drying of clothes is done on the roof, where racks
are fitted up for the purpose. The outside stairways end in turrets
that give the buildings a very smart appearance. Mr. White never has
any trouble with his tenants, though he gathers in the poorest; nor
do his tenements have anything of the "institution character" that
occasionally attaches to ventures of this sort, to their damage. They
are like a big village of contented people, who live in peace with one
another because they have elbow-room even under one big roof.
Enough has been said to show that model tenements can be built
successfully and made to pay in New York, if the owner will be content
with the five or six per cent. he does not even dream of when investing
his funds in "governments" at three or four. It is true that in the
latter case he has only to cut off his coupons and cash them. But the
extra trouble of looking after his tenement property, that is the
condition of his highest and lasting success, is the penalty exacted
for the sins of our fathers that "shall be visited upon the children,
unto the third and fourth generation." We shall indeed be well off, if
it stop there. I fear there is too much reason to believe that our own
iniquities must be added to transmit the curse still further. And yet,
such is the leavening influence of a good deed in that dreary desert
of sin and suffering, that the erection of a single good tenement has
the power to change, gradually but surely, the character of a whole bad
block. It sets up a standard to which the neighborhood must rise, if it
cannot succeed in dragging it down to its own low level.
* * * * *
And so this task, too, has come to an end. Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. I have aimed to tell the truth as I saw it.
If this book shall have borne ever so feeble a hand in garnering a
harvest of justice, it has served its purpose. While I was writing
these lines I went down to the sea, where thousands from the city were
enjoying their summer rest. The ocean slumbered under a cloudless sky.
Gentle waves washed lazily over the white sand, where children fled
before them with screams of laughter. Standing there and watching their
play, I was told that during the fierce storms of winter it happened
that this sea, now so calm, rose in rage and beat down, broke over the
bluff, sweeping all before it. No barrier built by human hands had
power to stay it then. The sea of a mighty population, held in galling
fetters, heaves uneasily in the tenements. Once already our city,
to which have come the duties and responsibilities of metropolitan
greatness before it was able to fairly measure its task, has felt the
swell of its resistless flood. If it rise once more, no human power
may avail to check it. The gap between the classes in which it surges,
unseen, unsuspected by the thoughtless, is widening day by day. No
tardy enactment of law, no political expedient, can close it. Against
all other dangers our system of government may offer defence and
shelter; against this not. I know of but one bridge that will carry us
over safe, a bridge founded upon justice and built of human hearts.
I believe that the danger of such conditions as are fast growing up
around us is greater for the very freedom which they mock. The words of
the poet, with whose lines I prefaced this book, are truer to-day, have
far deeper meaning to us, than when they were penned forty years ago:
"--Think ye that building shall endure
Which shelters the noble and crushes the poor?"
APPENDIX.
STATISTICS BEARING ON THE TENEMENT PROBLEM.
Statistics of population were left out of the text in the hope that
the results of this year's census would be available as a basis for
calculation before the book went to press. They are now at hand,
but their correctness is disputed. The statisticians of the Health
Department claim that New York's population has been underestimated
a hundred thousand at least, and they appear to have the best of the
argument. A re-count is called for, and the printer will not wait.
Such statistics as follow have been based on the Health Department
estimates, except where the census source is given. The extent of the
quarrel of official figures may be judged from this one fact, that the
ordinarily conservative and careful calculations of the Sanitary Bureau
make the death-rate of New York, in 1889, 25.19 for the thousand of
a population of 1,575,073, while the census would make it 26.76 in a
population of 1,482,273.
Population of New York, 1880 (census) 1,206,299
" London, 1881 " 3,816,483
" Philadelphia, 1880 " 846,980
" Brooklyn, 1880 " 566,689
" Boston, 1880 " 362,535
" New York, 1889 (estimated) 1,575,073
" London, 1889 " 4,351,738
" Philadelphia, 1889 " 1,040,245
" Brooklyn, " " 814,505
" Boston, " " 420,000
" New York under five years of age, in 1880 140,327
" " " " " 1889
(estimated) 182,770
Population of tenements in New York in 1869[25] (census) 468,492
" " " " 1888[26] " 1,093,701
" " " " " under five
years of age 143,243
Population of New York in 1880 (census) 1,206,299
" Manhattan Island in 1880 (census) 1,164,673
" Tenth Ward in 1880 (census) 47,554
" Eleventh Ward " " 68,778
" Thirteenth Ward in 1880 (census) 37,797
" New York in 1890 (census) 1,513,501
" Manhattan Island in 1890 (census) 1,440,101
" Tenth Ward in 1890 (census) 57,514
" Eleventh Ward " " 75,708
" Thirteenth Ward in 1890 (census) 45,882
Number of acres in New York City 24,890
" " Manhattan Island 12,673
" " Tenth Ward 110
" " Eleventh Ward 196
" " Thirteenth Ward 107
Density of population per acre in 1880, New York City 48.4
Density of population per acre in 1880, Manhattan Island 92.6
Density of population per acre in 1880, Tenth Ward 432.3
Density of population per acre in 1880, Eleventh Ward 350.9
Density of population per acre in 1880, Thirteenth Ward 353.2
Density of population per acre in 1890, New York City (census) 60.08
Density of population per acre in 1890, Manhattan Island
(census) 114.53
Density of population per acre in 1890, Tenth Ward (census) 522.00
Density of population per acre in 1890, Eleventh Ward
(census) 386.00
Density of population per acre in 1890, Thirteenth Ward
(census) 428.8
Density of population to the square mile in 1880, New
York City (census) 30,976
Density of population to the square mile in 1880, Manhattan
Island (census) 41,264
Density of population to the square mile in 1880, Tenth
Ward (census) 276,672
Density of population to the square mile in 1880, Eleventh
Ward (census) 224,576
Density of population to the square mile in 1880, Thirteenth
Ward (census) 226,048
Density of population to the square mile in 1890, New
York City (census) 38,451
Density of population to the square mile in 1890, Manhattan
Island (census) 73,299
Density of population to the square mile in 1890, Tenth
Ward (census) 334,080
Density of population to the square mile in 1890, Eleventh
Ward (census) 246,040
Density of population to the square mile in 1890, Thirteenth
Ward (census) 274,432
Number of persons to a dwelling in New York, 1880
(census) 16.37
Number of persons to a dwelling in London, 1881 (census) 7.9
Number of persons to a dwelling in Philadelphia, 1880
(census) 5.79
Number of persons to a dwelling in Brooklyn, 1880
(census) 9.11
Number of persons to a dwelling in Boston, 1880 (census) 8.26
Number of deaths in New York, 1880 31,937
" " London, 1881 81,431
" " Philadelphia, 1880 17,711
" " Brooklyn, 1880 13,222
" " Boston, 1880 8,612
Death-rate of New York, 1880 26.47
" London, 1881 21.3
" Philadelphia, 1880 20.91
" Brooklyn, 1880 23.33
" Boston, 1880 23.75
Number of deaths in New York, 1889 39,679
Number of deaths in London, 1889 75,683
" " Philadelphia, 1889 20,536
" " Brooklyn, 1889 18,288
" " Boston, 1889 10,259
Death-rate of New York, 1889 25.19
" London, 1889 17.4
" Philadelphia, 1889 19.7
" Brooklyn, 1889 22.5
" Boston, 1889 24.42
[Footnote 25: In 1869, a tenement was a house occupied by four families
or more]
[Footnote 26: In 1888, a tenement was a house occupied by three
families or more]
For every person who dies there are always two disabled by illness, so
that there was a regular average of 79,358 New Yorkers on the sick-list
at any moment last year. It is usual to count 28 cases of sickness the
year round for every death, and this would give a total for the year
1889 of 1,111,082 of illness of all sorts.
Number of deaths in tenements in New York, 1869 13,285
" " " " " " 1888 24,842
Death-rate in tenements in New York, 1869 28.35
" " " " " 1888 22.71
This is exclusive of deaths in institutions, properly referable to the
tenements in most cases. The adult death-rate is found to decrease
in the larger tenements of newer construction. The child mortality
increases, reaching 114.04 per cent. of 1,000 living in houses
containing between 60 and 80 tenants. From this point it decreases with
the adult death-rate.
Number of deaths in prisons, New York, 1889 85
" " hospitals, New York, 1889 6,102
" " lunatic asylums, New York, 1889 448
" " institutions for children, New York, 1889 522
" " homes for aged, New York, 1889 238
" " almshouse, New York, 1889 424
" " other institutions, New York, 1889 162
Number of burials in city cemetery (paupers), New York, 1889 3,815
Percentage of such burials on total 9.64
Number of tenants weeded out of overcrowded tenements,
New York, 1889 1,246
Number of tenants weeded out of overcrowded tenements,
in first half of 1890[27] 1,068
Number of sick poor visited by summer corps of doctors,
New York, 1890 16,501
[Footnote 27: These figures represent less than two hundred of the
worst tenements below Houston Street.]
POLICE STATISTICS.
Males. Females.
Arrests made by the police in 1889 62,274 19,926
Number of arrests for drunkenness and disorderly
20,253 8,981
Number of arrests for disorderly conduct 10,953 7,477
" " assault and battery 4,534 497
" " theft 4,399 721
" " robbery 247 10
" " vagrancy 1,686 947
Prisoners unable to read or write 2,399 1,281
Number of lost children found in the streets, 1889 2,968
" sick and destitute cared for, 1889 2,753
Found sick in the streets 1,211
Number of pawnshops in city, 1889 110
" cheap lodging-houses, 1889 270
" saloons, 1889 7,884
IMMIGRATION.
Immigrants landed at Castle Garden in 20 years, ending
with 1889 5,335,396
Immigrants landed at Castle Garden in 1889 349,233
Immigrants from England landed at Castle Garden in
1889 46,214
Immigrants from Scotland landed at Castle Garden in
1889 11,415
Immigrants from Ireland landed at Castle Garden in
1889 43,090
Immigrants from Germany landed at Castle Garden in
1889 75,458
--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------
| 1883. | 1884. | 1885. | 1886. | 1887. | 1888. | 1889.
--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------
Italy | 25,485 | 14,076 | 16,033 | 29,312 | 44,274 | 43,927 | 28,810
Russia} | 7,577 | 12,432 | 16,578 | 23,987 | 33,203 | 33,052 | 31,329
Poland} | | | | | | |
Hungary | 13,160 | 15,797 | 11,129 | 18,135 | 17,719 | 12,905 | 15,678
Bohemia | 4,877 | 7,093 | 6,697 | 4,222 | 6,449 | 3,982 | 5,412
--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------
TENEMENTS.
Number of tenements in New York, December 1, 1888 32,390
Number built from June 1, 1888, to August 1, 1890 3,733
Rear tenements in existence, August 1, 1890 2,630
Total number of tenements, August 1, 1890 37,316
Estimated population of tenements, August 1, 1890 1,250,000
Estimated number of children under five years in tenements,
1890 163,712
Corner tenements may cover all of the lot, except 4 feet at the rear.
Tenements in the block may only cover seventy-eight per cent. of the
lot. They must have a rear yard 10 feet wide, and air-shafts or open
courts equal to twelve per cent. of the lot.
Tenements or apartment houses must not be built over 70 feet high in
streets 60 feet wide.
Tenements or apartment houses must not be built over 80 feet high in
streets wider than 60 feet.
Transcriber's Note
Incidental inconsistencies of punctuation are resolved silently. The
following list contains other textual issues that are encountered.
If there were no other correct instances of misspelled words (in
current usage) they were allowed to stand.
p. 74 disenfecting _sic_
p. 77 loadstone _sic_
p. 82 caravanseries _sic_
p. 107 tha[t/n] Corrected.
p. 256 tantilizes _sic_
End of Project Gutenberg's How the Other Half Lives, by Jacob A. Riis