criticism. Some offend by overcrowding, others by the mode of sleeping;
others, lastly, by the absence of all ventilation, and even by a total
want of air. Overcrowding is an evil which prevails in all the lodgings
of the lowest class, and which aggravates the mischief resulting from
the other inconveniences to which they are subject. The twenty-five or
thirty thousand workmen employed in house-building, who flock to Paris
every year from certain departments, congregate in chambers, and sleep
there during the season. Many of these places are kept by countrymen of
their own, who attract them by their known probity, and the kindness
they entertain for them. These chambers abound principally in the
quarter of the Hôtel-de-Ville for the masons, and in the Faubourg
Saint-Martin for the carpenters. These excellent workmen, by an
exception more peculiar to them than to any others, look only to
economy. They bargain with the lodging-house keeper, so as to obtain for
six francs a month, besides the room, the washing of a shirt a-week, and
a mess of soup every day, for which they themselves provide the bread.
All that is not devoted to their slender wants is laid by for the
support of their family, or the increase of their little patrimony. The
police unanimously testify to the order and concord which reign in their
chambers, as well as to their good conduct abroad. Is it not mournful
that these fine fellows should sleep thus piled up in little garrets?
Accustomed to work in the open air, the smallness of their rooms is more
trying to them than to any others. Thus typhus fever is common among
them, and sometimes attacks a whole chamber.
The overcrowding and deficient ventilation are still more injurious to
workmen employed in manufactures. They pass every day from an infected
lodging into a shop which is usually as unwholesome, and they are thus
predisposed to contract readily contagious maladies.
Of all the lower orders, the chiffonniers inhabit the most infected and
disgusting lodgings. It is vain to expect to descend into the lowest
ranks of society,—inequality always appears somewhere. Even the
chiffonniers have their notables. There are some a little more
economical, a little more raised than the mass, and who enjoy a certain
comfort. Those the most elevated occupy one or two small rooms, which
they hire for themselves and their families; others possess a pallet,
which serves them to sleep on, in the chamber of which they are one
occupant among many. But this possession is more often collective than
personal; and although shared, it does not fail to excite the envy of
the poor wretches who lie in a species of trough, on rags, or on
handsful of straw, with which the room is strewed. The police charged
with the surveillance of the lodgings inhabited by the chiffonniers give
an incredible picture of them. Each occupant keeps by him his basket,
sometimes full of filth—and what filth! These savages do not hesitate to
comprise dead animals in their gleanings, and pass the night by the side
of this stinking prey. When the police go to these places, they
experience a suffocating feeling, bordering on asphyxy. They order the
windows to be opened when they can be opened, and the severe
representations they address to the lodging-house keepers on this
horrible mixture of human beings with decayed animal matter does not
move them. They answer, that their lodgers are accustomed to it as well
as themselves. A trait of manners peculiar to the chiffonniers, and
which might be called their pastime, consists in rat-catching in the
courts of the houses which they frequent. They entice the rats by the
aid of certain substances attached to the rags they gather in the
streets. With this view they put heaps of rags near the holes in the
walls, and when they think that the rats are buried in the rags, they
let loose into the court dogs trained for the purpose, and, in the
twinkling of an eye, they make themselves masters of the rats, of which
they eat the flesh and sell the skin.
The lodgings which receive at night the scum of society are thorough
pest-houses. Those even which are not frequented by chiffonniers become,
by the crowding of the inhabitants and their filthy habits, dangerous
centres of infection. There are some chambers which contain as many as
nine beds, separated by small passages hardly wide enough to get
through, and these beds are often occupied by two persons who do not
know each other, and have never seen one another. Difference of sex is
no obstacle to these nocturnal and fortuitous cohabitations, although
the police neglect nothing to prevent disorders. Among the female
apartments there is one which is famous for the picture of decrepitude
and abjectness which it presents. The women who occupy it are old
drunkards, of whom several are suspected of theft. The spectacle of
these animated mummies has something sepulchral.
One must bring to social anatomy a serious spirit of investigation, to
form a just idea of the population which lives in the concealed recesses
of society. The imagination, however fertile and daring, could never
reach, in this matter, to the height of the reality: there is a
character, a physiognomy, a strangeness, which it is necessary to have
seen in order to assume the responsibility of an historian. Let no one
tax with romance the traits of manners nor the description of places
contained in this chapter. However softened by the reserve I have
imposed on myself, they are not less true at bottom. I have sacrificed
the coarseness of the outline and colouring out of respect to decency.
It is the only infidelity of which I accuse myself. It is impossible not
to feel the necessity to provide an efficacious remedy for a state of
things so contrary to the rights of humanity and civilization.[57]
19.—_On the Habitations and Lodgings of the Lower Orders of Paris._
No. 2.
There exist in Paris some thousands of individuals who have no
domicile—who sleep to-day in one place, the next day in another—and who
have recourse every evening to those houses where, for a payment usually
very moderate, they can at least obtain a place to lie in, and a
covering for their heads. It is not only strangers living temporarily in
Paris who lodge in this manner; a mass of workmen, mostly single men,
who have not stirred from the capital for ten, fifteen, and twenty
years, prefer this kind of life to the occupation of a separate chamber.
It may be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that this population
comprises all that is most drunken and debased in society. It is
composed of people without foresight, and without a home, living from
day to day, and trusting to the hospitals in the case of sickness or
infirmity. It is in the lowest places in these disgusting haunts in
which a person is lodged for six, four, and even for two sous, that the
greater part of the prostitutes reside, who can scarcely, after
purchasing food, lay aside from their daily gains the trifling sum
necessary to avert sleeping in the open air. I have visited some of
these lodgings, and it was not without a feeling of pain that I have
seen human creatures reduced to live in such places, and that in the
capital of France. To give a just idea of these abodes, I will extract
some passages from the remarkable report which the inspector-general of
furnished lodgings addressed to the prefect of police at the time of the
cholera. It tells of nothing but houses in ruin, of straw for beds in a
state of putrefaction, of darkness, of infectious smells, of filth
without example. These are some of the passages:—
“Rue ——, No. —. This house is remarkable for its excessive dirt. It is a
genuine centre of infection. It is inhabited solely by thieves,
smugglers, beggars, and prostitutes. It is impossible to enter without
being suffocated.
“Rue ——, No. —. This house fixes the attention by its construction and
filth. There are no beds, except some loathsome pallets; animal remains,
intestines, and the refuse of meals, are rotting in the court; all the
chambers look on a corridor completely deprived of air and light; the
sinks and the privies of every story are loathsome from ordure and fecal
matter. It is the hideous abode of vice and misery.
“Rue ——, No. —. The court of this house is four feet square, and is full
of dung; the chambers, crowded with occupants, open on it; the privies,
dilapidated to the fifth floor, let the fecal matter fall upon the
staircase, which is covered with it to the bottom. Many of the rooms
have no other aperture than the door which opens upon this staircase.
The house is the resort of sharpers, of thieves, of the most filthy
prostitutes, and of everything that is most abject both of men and
women.
“Rue du Faubourg ——, No. —. A house occupied from top to bottom by
chiffonniers, mendicants, street-organists, street-walkers, and Italian
boys, who go about with animals. All these sleep upon rags picked from
the street, and of which there is a depôt on the ground-floor. More
complete abjectness it is impossible to witness.
“Rue ——, No. —. This house is the resort of all that is most abased. It
is exclusively inhabited by thieves, prostitutes, discharged criminals,
beggars, vagabonds, gamesters, and every species of rogues. The greatest
filth reigns everywhere; the windows are made of oiled paper instead of
glass; the rooms are infected; at each story the ordure of the privies
flows upon the staircase.”[58]
Another French writer, M. Frégier, has given the following description
of the external appearance of these abodes:—“The streets, not, at
farthest, more than eight feet wide, are dirty, and flanked by lofty
houses, four stories high, which are blackened by time. The height of
the houses renders the streets gloomy and damp, and the houses
themselves are dark, particularly on the ground-floor. Spirit shops,
beer shops, and low eating houses abound. The gloom of these shops,
joined to the repulsive physiognomy of the streets, infuse a secret
horror into the visitor who is led there by the spirit of observation,
and who knows that the greater part of the shops are the habitual resort
of the lowest prostitutes, and of rogues that live in the neighbourhood.
The lodgings and places of dissipation frequented by this part of the
population are worthy, from their filth, of the streets and quarters in
which they are situated.”[59]
20.-_Extract from the Report of the Commission appointed by the Central
Board of Public Health to ascertain the Condition of the Dwellings of
the Working Classes in Brussels, and to suggest Means for their
Improvement._
Our inquiries have led us more particularly into the most populous and
miserable districts into which the working classes are continually
crowding, in proportion as new and elegant buildings have encroached
upon the districts within the heart of the capital, formerly almost
exclusively occupied by those classes. We have visited successively, in
the district of _Minimes_, the _rue des Pignons_, and _de la
Samaritane_, the _cul-de-sac des Minimes_, the alley _des Prêtres_, _les
rues de l’Epris_, _du Bourreau_, _de la Oventail_, &c.; in the district
_de la Chapelle_, _les rues des Ménages_, _du Radro_, _de la Rasière_,
_des Rats_, _du Renard_, &c.; in the district _de la rue d’Anderlecht_,
_la rue des Navets_, and the alley _au Lait_. We entered into a great
number of the dwellings. We not only inquired, but also inspected, in
order that we might ascertain the truth of the statements which were
made to us. In now presenting the results of this inquiry, we do not
hesitate to call your attention to the very important facts which have
been gathered, at the same time that we ask your indulgence for the
imperfect manner in which we have been able to perform the duties
committed to our zeal and exertions.
The misery of the localities we have visited struck us immediately, from
their appearance of uniform poverty. The streets and alleys, at all
times dirty and ill-paved, in times of rain or thaw had the appearance
of a pestilential mire; the water had no means of running off, and the
smallness of the passages, the absence of courts or gardens, the
crowding of families, and the detestable modes of building, rendered all
circulation of air or ventilation quite impossible. The most
indispensable conveniences were entirely wanting in most of the houses.
They had no pumps, nor privies, nor sewers, except one in common.
Indeed, we saw seventy houses that were provided with only one pump or
one privy for the whole of that number.
If you enter the houses, the spectacle which is there presented to your
view is, if anything, still more wretched. If the arrangement and order
to be seen in some of the rooms recall the proverbial neatness of the
Flemish, on the other hand, the houses occupied by large families, the
alleys, the passages, and the stairs, are generally disgustingly filthy;
the brush of the whitewasher never passes along them, or if they are
ever cleaned, it is only to attract new tenants, who soon restore them
to their primitive dirtiness. The steepness of the stairs, which,
indeed, are often more like ladders, must be a perpetual cause of
accidents, especially to the young children. The space occupied by a
family is generally much too confined for each of the members to receive
the quantity of fresh air necessary for the preservation of health.
Hence their appearance is generally that of suffering and of bad
condition. The children are pale and emaciated, and bear all the visible
signs of premature suffering. The number of those who are rickety and
scrofulous is considerable, and the mortality amongst the children and
the aged exceeds all the most unfavourable averages. As we pass along
these receptacles of misery, we feel astonished to see so few old
people; an early death has carried them beyond their wretchedness: and
if inquiries are made of parents, there are few who have not lost one or
more children. It would be important to compare the proportion of deaths
in the families of the rich and of the indigent. There is little doubt
that this comparison would prove that misery, the want of proper air and
space, the occupations of these people, and privations of every sort,
sensibly diminish the period of life of the working classes.
In these wretched habitations everything is sacrificed generally to the
rapacity of the proprietor. Every repair which affects the health or the
comfort of the tenant merely, and that is not necessary to prevent the
total ruin of the dwelling, is entirely neglected. What is the use of
cleaning the walls for people whose habits are filthy? Why make windows
for the entrance of air and light, or repair a sewer, or cleanse an
alley covered with stagnant water, for people who are accustomed to
pestilential smells? It is what a proprietor can never understand. Do
not believe, however, that these dreadful abodes are rented at their
proper value. On the contrary, the unfortunate people obliged to live in
these houses, because all better ones are closed against them, in
reality pay a higher rent than for a wholesome room in a good house.
21. _Principles of Sanitary Police in Germany. Extracts from Professor_
MOHL.
It is one important duty of a State to provide abundant supplies of
water for its people; and this duty is based on the impossibility, in
many cases, for individuals by their own exertions to procure even the
barest necessary quantity of water, and also that it requires much skill
to distinguish that which is of a good quality from that which is
injurious. The State ought, therefore, to provide water of the best
quality in sufficient abundance, and to arrange also for its most
extensive distribution: this is often attended with great difficulties
and with much expense, if the district is naturally ill-supplied with
springs of water; or where a town, being large, requires more water than
its own surface springs, or those of the immediate neighbourhood, can
supply. Without maintaining that the example given us by ancient
nations, of munificent expenditure in the laying out of aqueducts, &c.,
is one which we, therefore, are obliged to follow, yet it may be
demanded of the State, that it should provide water, at least so far as
the absolute wants of life require, by aqueducts or pipes, or at least
by cisterns, laid down at the public expense. For the sake of the poorer
classes, it does not seem advisable that this duty should be handed over
to a private company.[60]
An injudicious economy on this point affects most injuriously the habits
of cleanliness, and consequently the health of the lower classes. Water
is properly distributed when every district is provided with an
abundance of springs or wells. Loss of time, danger of fire,
difficulties in the time of contagious diseases, are the consequences of
the wells being few in number, even though each one should furnish a
large stream of water.
It is a well-known fact, that locality has a great effect on the life
and health of the inhabitants, and especially according as it offers the
means of proper circulation of air or not. Thus, elevated situations are
generally more healthy than places shut in by hills. In towns, those
parts which are traversed by broad streets, are always more healthy than
those which are so closely covered with houses as never to be properly
ventilated, or where the sun can never penetrate to dry up the moisture;
but an ill-drained situation is the most injurious to health.
The healthiness of a whole town is often essentially improved by the
formation of a single sewer or drain: in other places, it requires very
extended operations to produce the same effect. We may include amongst
the various influences, the ditches surrounding the cities filled with
stagnant water; by draining these, not only a purer air is gained, but
also a fertile piece of land. It ought to be remarked here, however,
that this work of draining water, and the removal of the mud, ought to
be done in the cold season; if not, dangerous fevers will in all
probability be the consequence.
The foul air arising from marshy land, when that is necessary, as in the
cultivation of rice, is an evil for which there is no remedy.[61]
Another means of improving the healthiness of a town, is by proper
attention to the breadth, and to the direction of the streets in all the
new quarters of the town. The streets ought to intersect, each other at
right angles, and not at too great distances: the direction of the
streets, also, should not run due north and south, as in that case the
streets lying parallel in one direction, would be scorched by the sun,
and without any shade during mid-day; whilst the streets running at
right angles to these, would never be warmed by a ray of sunshine.
The health of towns would also be much improved by the prohibition of
all cellars as dwelling-houses, by legislative enactments as to the
elevation of the ground-floor of dwelling-houses above the level of the
streets, also as to the construction of proper conveniences attached to
dwelling-houses; and by regulations with regard to the proper size of
windows: also by regulations regarding the strictest cleanliness of the
streets, as this is more important in its effects on the health
generally, than even the situation of a town, or attention to its mode
of building. By attention to it, Holland is inhabitable; by the neglect
of it, Cairo and Constantinople are the very hot-beds of the plague.
The first means to attain this cleanliness is by a proper paving of all
the streets, in order to lay the district dry. Without this, the streets
are either a stream of mud, or a sea of dust; in both cases equally
injurious to the health. It is often expensive to get a hard material
for the purpose of pavement; but when obtained, the expense of keeping
it in repair is much less. When it is possible, the streets should be
kept clean, by turning on them a stream of water,—the drains being
always kept well open to receive it afterwards. Every inhabitant should
be obliged to keep the portion of the street clean before his own door.
The refuse of the town ought to be conveyed away, at the expense of the
town, to some part of the country, removed from all dwelling-houses.
22.—_A Report on the Statements of Dr. Mauthner regarding the Cotton
Manufactures, given at the Monthly Meeting on the 2nd of November, 1841.
By_ Herr L. M. VON PACHER.
At the meeting of the 7th of June, Dr. Mauthner sent in a report on the
condition of the children employed in the cotton-works, in which he gave
an exposition of the evidence, partly of his own experience and partly
on the reports of others, of the moral and physical evils which the
various branches of manufacture bring with them, and proposals were put
into the hands of the owners of the mills for preventing the evils so
strongly denounced.
The learned meeting determined to appoint a special commission to
inquire into so grave and important a matter. This body held its first
meeting on the 29th of July, at which our much-esteemed chairman
presided, and I had the honour to be commissioned to inquire into that
part of the report of Dr. Mauthner which treats more particularly of the
effects of the cotton manufactures.
Before I enter upon the discussion on the special points of inquiry,
permit me to lay before you a few general remarks on the nature of our
inquiry, and of the condition of the people employed in the
cotton-works, more particularly of Lower Austria. It must first be
conceded that the condition of the children working in the factories is
closely connected with the condition of the rest of the working
population, and cannot be considered separately. Our president felt the
necessity of considering them in connexion throughout the various parts
of the inquiry which he had proposed to himself; and, before the
commencement of our inquiry, it was generally agreed that our attention
should extend also to the condition of the adult workpeople.
We could not conceal from ourselves that we were undertaking a subject
at once the most important and the most delicate,—an inquiry which might
disclose to the general public that the unhappy signs of the times were
to be seen in our affairs, and which also, without cause, might alarm a
very excitable class as to their own condition. English and French
journals are full of the most striking descriptions of the physical and
moral evils of the manufacturing population; and not without ground, as
we learn from the various commissions of inquiry appointed by the
respective governments. With your permission I will quote a passage from
a report which the Commission de l’Intendance Sanataire du Nord drew up
in the year 1832, and which unfortunately has not been found exaggerated
even in later periods. It is word for word as follows:—