The Bowery and the eastern section of the city are full of cheap
lodging-houses, which are a grade lower than the lowest hotels, and
several grades above the cellars. One or two of these are immense
establishments, five and six stories in height. Some of them provide
their lodgers with beds and covering, others supply pallets laid down on
the floor of a cheerless room, and others again give merely the pallets
and no sheets or coverings. The rooms, the beds, and the bedding in all
these establishments are horribly dirty, and are badly ventilated. Bed
bugs abound in the summer, and in the winter the lodger is nearly frozen,
the covering, when furnished, being utterly inadequate to the task of
keeping out the cold. From six to ten persons are put in a room
together. The price varies from ten to twenty-five cents, according to
the accommodations furnished. Each of these houses is provided with a
bar, at which the vilest liquors are sold at ten cents a drink. The
profits of the business are very great, not counting the receipts of the
bar, which are in proportion. The expense of fitting up and conducting
such an establishment is trifling. One of them accommodates nearly two
hundred lodgers per night, which at ten cents per head, would be a net
receipt of twenty dollars.
The persons who patronize these establishments are mainly vagrants, men
who live from hand to mouth, and who will not be received by the humblest
boarding-house. Some are doubtless unfortunate, but the majority are
vagrants from choice. Some have irregular occupations, others get the
price of their lodgings by begging.
The business of a lodging-house seldom commences before ten o'clock, and
its greatest rush is just after the closing of the theatres; but all
through the night, till three o'clock in the morning, they are receiving
such of the outcast population as can offer the price of a bed. To any
one interested in the misery of the city, the array presented on such an
occasion is very striking. One sees every variety of character, runaway
boys, truant apprentices, drunken mechanics, and broken-down mankind
generally. Among these are men who have seen better days. They are
decayed gentlemen who appear regularly in Wall street, and eke out the
day by such petty business as they may get hold of; and are lucky if they
can make enough to carry them through the night. In all lodging-houses
the rule holds good, "First come, first served," and the last man in the
room gets the worst spot. Each one sleeps with his clothes on, and his
hat under his head, to keep it from being stolen. At eight o'clock in
the morning all oversleepers are awakened, and the rooms got ready for
the coming night. No one is allowed to take anything away, and if the
lodger has a parcel, he is required to leave it at the bar. This
prevents the theft of bedclothes.