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Plodding through squalor and filth, sometimes climbing to an out of the way third or fourth story pen, whose only claim to being a room was its having four miserable walls; some-, times in a damp and foul smell-, mg underground basement, mouldy, ^ dark and absolutely no ventilation, the Monessen Board of Trade inspected the tenements yesterday- Several sections of town were visited and but for the evidence of their own eyes it would have been impossible to convince one member that such conditions exist.The shame of it all is that many of these vile dens are reeking with human life and filth right in the business section of town, in many instances veil table fire traps and disease incubators to grossly endanger the life and property of those nearby. Every alley shack that could boast a roof was filled with tenants and the pitiful squalor was as enforced as It was flagrant 'The Board of Health made the inspection at the suggestion of this paper and when it was over the meagre charges published in these columns, recently, paled into significance- In the party were President of the Board, Dr, D, C. Farqubar, Secretary J. E. Pittman, F. H. Shut ter ly, J, H. Farquhar, members; Health Officer A. Frazier, L. P. Carter, the garbage hauler, and a reporter. The inspection was for the purpose of getting tangible proof so that steps could he made to bring1 about a reasonable reform before winter sets in. The Board will meet one week from last night to officially con-i sider the result of the tour.Basements in the alley between Second and Third streets were first visited and were found to be so grossly overcrowded that sanitary conditions are impossible. At 273 m a dark and squalid suite of miserable rooms there was a man and wife, three children and five boarders, the kitchen being used lt;*3 a combined living, cooking and bed room, and the place is nothing better than a fire trap. Just aa the party were leaving a beer wagon drove up and left six cases, it being a general thing that the tenants made an evident effort to off* set the gloom with artificial means At 2fi9, one damp room with no ventilation was full of beds and m the kitchen a baby lSj m a cradle so unclean that its face was covered with flies. This condition existed all along the alley, foul smelling rooms, oil lamps, rickety stairways, ana the whole block at the mercy of drunken sprees whieh are frequent At 251 the woman claimed she had two rooms. She had four rooms, paid $12 rent, had six children and kept tenboarders. * Imagine how dirty theplace was. The faces of the babies^, were a. pathetic appeal for a reformation.Id the rear of some lots, particularly back of fruit stores there was i a heavy deposit of garbage and some kept stables piled high with, refuse. One basement bake shop was vis j ted which furnishes bread for the foreigners. it was reasonably clean, but J there was no ventilation. Under these!circumstances it could not be whole- ,■some. At 419 men were crowded into unsanitary rooms, made sn by their own neglect, eating from filthy fables. Upstairs they were sleeping in rooms unfit Co breathe in. Each man was | apparently his own commissary, t * In the bed r om a small shelf was) seL apart for each set of aen and on this they kept their food, uncovered ^ and exposed to the germs with which the place reeked. This seemed to be a general custom among the men..-At 449 a map was in bed with all his clothes on including his shoes. Many more such were encountered during the day. There were seven boarders, three in the family and the rent was $10. In the rear two rooms not fit for animals were occupied. This ( continued all along the alley. There j wee no empty basements- After | Eighth street was reached things began to get still woi»e. Here the basements were like vaults, over-{ crowded and in many instances inhabited only by men, and filthy as a result Eleven mon were piled in three small rooms and paid $14 rent at one place.Dozens of tncse undergr jund apart- I ments were visited Almost anyone} of them will furnish a lurid descrip-j tion of the rest At one place there i was a hord^ of men. enough for a dozen such sized apartments. The rear rooms were merely plastered vaults.Not a window, not a light and menwere in bed with their clothes on ♦and open gas stoves burning to consume what little oxygen there was Many of the men were at work yesterday. What do they do when all are at home on Sunday or on wash day or when anything unusual increases the number or disturbs the scant order they have? What will it be like when cold weather makes them shut the cold out and the dirt and filthy air in? ,Some alley sheds were found in this section that beggar description -The news would not be fit to print With absolutely no bathing facilities, lax principles in this regard anyway, and many times the rumbei of people there were accommodations for, what i 'do you imagine the conditions were? And do you think they are to be allowed to continue without interruption for the business thev make? Do you suppose that the moral standard is a high one*We will give two more instances. In one tenement on Morgan avenue which was so filthy it sickened the members of the party, there were 20 apartments. A few of them were (continued on rturth page'
Newspaper Details
Monessen Daily Independent
Monessen, Pennsylvania, US
Fri, Nov 11, 1910
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Christine K.
NJ, USA 26 May 2021
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