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The Back Yards

In nearly every house a passage way on the ground floor leads through the front building to the yard in the rear. Here another house would be found built in the middle of the block, and the front yard of one would be the back yard of the house fronting on the street. Sometimes a stable would occupy one side of the yard, and the manure would lie in heaps against the side of the rotten building. Nearly every house held three families, one on each floor and three rooms to the floor. Here there would be six families compelled to use the same yard and outhouses. Is it any wonder that the population overflowed into the streets?

The Stairways

The writer and his guide climbed up and down the stairways inspecting the condition of the upper floors. Generally, the passage ways were tolerably clean, but the walls were discolored with dust and age. Nearly every room was a washhouse, while the back windows were exclusively occupied by lines upon which were strong garments of all descriptions. The slops were turned into the gutter in front of the house, or, perhaps, dumped in the vault in the rear. Those were in a horrible condition. Covered with a slight building, they are to all intents and purposes open and unprotected, and but little provision exists for their proper drainage. They lie and fester in the back yards, right under the windows of the houses. What with stagnant gutters in front and open vaults and stables in the rear, it is no wonder that the undertaker does a thriving business in this locality, particularly among young children. Herod's "Slaughter of the Innocents" is the only thing that it can be compared to.

At one point half way down the street, was found an open yard over which the ashes lay to several feet in depth, and it had been used as the common dumping ground of the neighborhood. Further down where wall of the Navy Yard makes a sudden alley, is the famed locality known as "Shin Bone Alley."

It is a perfect cul de sac, as the farther cutlet has been closed up by a new storehouse built within a few years by the Government. In former times, however, it was one of the worst localities in the ward, and brawls and riots were of frequent occurrence. Now its population is somewhat decreased, and for a novel reason; with two or three exceptions, the houses forming the alley are so dilapidated that no one, not even the poorer classes, will rent them. Where poverty refuses a shelter, its condition can be better be imagined than described.

These buildings, however, have been made available by the young thieves or roughs of the locality as a fit hiding place where they can concoct mischief in security. The buildings are of wood, and more tumble-down affairs are seldom seen. The alley was filled with piles of ashes and garbage, with imperfect sewerage, while the mountain like ash heaps afforded a camping ground for goats and dirty children.

Several of the least dilapidated houses were tenanted, and in the rear was another row. Eight dollars a month per floor is the sum paid monthly for the privilege of dwelling in these delectable habitations. The walls were scaly with repeated applications of paint and whitewash, and looked fit receptacles for contagion. In response to inquiries made the women stated that the houses had been repaired (?) during the past six months. "Sure, it's a hard place, sir," said a woman who came dripping from the wash tub, "but I has five children, and can't get into every house." whence it is to be inferred that tenement landlords have the same objection to children that is found in more pretentious localities. Judging from the crowds that are seen in the streets, they must have a hard task in choosing.

Leaving the noisome precincts of Shin Bone Alley, the reporter and his guide passed through a bystreet into Greenwich street. All through this neighborhood a year ago were the haunts of the "Illicit Distillers," who complicated the evils already existing in the ward with the free manufacture and cheap sale of the most villainous whisky. In stables and lofts, basements and garrets, they had their haunts, but now, thanks to the energetic action of the reverse officers, they are wholly eradicated. Here, the houses were found in a little better condition, but the streets were still very filthy, and the gutters stagnant. The pavement is in very bad repair, and full of holes. The condition of the street in wet weather must be filthy beyond all comparison. Every block had a row of houses fronting the back yards and stables and sinks are jumbled together in noisome confusion.

Judging from the appearance of the licensed venders' carts seen in the street, the impure air and close living are aggravated by bad food. The vegetables looked like the stale refuse of the market stalls, and the "greens" had long passed the verdant and esculent stage and become withered and decayed.

Penetrating to the inner court yard, a word spoken aloud would be sufficient to fill every window with heads, and every face bore the stamp of poverty and sorrow. And the windows, mere air holes, opening out upon those fetid courts, with houses built up so close as to avoid all possibility of a free circulation of air. The yards were all paved, generally furnished with a dilapidated pump, with the sink hole in close juxtaposition. "But poor folks can't be choosers," one remarked.

Turning into Plymouth street, near Gold street, the exploring party came upon the worst tenement quarter in the whole ward. It is a row of three story, brick buildings, five or six houses long.

Mariner's Row

Is the title given to this lovely quarter, and its crowded and filthy condition rivals Five Points in its palmiest days. As before stated, the houses are three stories in height. Each floor contains four rooms and two families. Could any crowding be worse than this? Entering the doorway and ascending the narrow stairs, the olfactory were saluted with odors to which the "seven stinks of Cologne" are nothing in comparison. Dirty and ragged children thronged at every step, and tagged at the heels of the reporter and his companion. A narrow window in the rear let in a little light and less air. The smell grew worse as the ascent went up. On the third floor it was almost unbearable. How human beings manage to dwell in such a stench is a mystery. Dirty stairways and stale cooking odors combined did not seem sufficient to furnish forth such a combination of odors. A slatternly woman peered out of one of the upper doorways, and of her the reporter inquired as to what was the cause of the poisoned air. "Wait till I git a light and I'll show ye," was the answer. "Come down into the cellar and ye will wonder no more," and the explorers followed the conductress to the ground floor. At the head of the cellar stairway they paused, far up from the dark entrance there came an effluvia that fairly staggered them. The officer reached the bottom first, and, inured as he was to noisome sights and smells, he was forced to exclaim at the condition of the vault.

A Hotbed of Disease

A narrow passageway led to the rear, where a narrow grating admitted light. On either side was a row of cells used for storing coal and wood. The ceiling was scarcely high enough to allow a full sized man to stand erect. The doors of the wood vaults were obstructed with piles of ashes, and the floor was a yielding, sticky compound, which gave out at each pressure of the foot the most sickening odors.

The interior of the vaults were even worse. The walls were stained and discolored with the leadings of the water closet vaults, and the condition of the floors was due to the same cause. No wonder the house was full of pestilent odors. A longing for fresh air hastened the departure of the party, while the loud complaints of the woman showed that even the denizens of the house, accustomed as they are to such things, had been affected by it. In the yards in the rear of the house were the water closets. These were utterly destitute of any provision for drainage, and the rotten and dilapidated condition of the buildings left them open to the outer air, and free to give off unrestrained their poisonous exhalations. They had not been emptied in years, and were daily growing worse. The yards were littered with rags and refuse, and sloppy from the overflowing of the drains. A worse condition of affairs as regards health could hardly be imagined. Every division of the old barrack was in a like condition. It is always full, and the notice "to let" is seldom seen upon its doorways. Nearly forty families were herded together in these buildings. The rooms were dark, with scarcely an apology for ventilation, except that afforded by the narrow windows. The officer expressed his astonishment at the condition of affairs, and declared that he had no idea that things were so bad. It could not well be worse. No wonder the children were sickly and puny, and bore in an exaggerated degree all the characteristics of the progeny of poverty. A neighborhood like that is enough to poison the district for blocks around. And when the hot weather of the approaching Summer fairly sets in an increase in the death rate of that locality may be looked for. Cholera and typhoid fever will find ready victims.

The street in front was in the same filthy condition that was noticed in Little street. Pools of dirty water in the gutters and piles of garbage in the roadway. Disease lurked in every nook and cranny, and the heat of the sun is only needed to bring it forth in full power. Desolation brooded over everything like a shadow and death stands ready to pick off the victims which poverty and man's cupidity have exposed.

An Improvement

In the other streets of the Ward the condition of affairs is better than it was last year. Less filth is seen, and the houses are in better condition. In most of the houses the inmates said that repairs had been made within the last six months. Public opinion and the exposures of the press have done much to remedy the condition of the Ward but there is still a vast deal of room for improvement.

It is a curious incident that small pox seldom appears in this locality. This is due to the neighborhood of the works of the Brooklyn Gas Company. However poisonous their exhalations may be in other directions they effectually prevent the spread of smallpox, and that dread disease is not added tot he category of evils already existing.

What Needs Attention

The streets and the cellars are the places that particularly need the attention of the Health Officers, for in these the greatest offenses are found. A more effective sewerage is also needed. Where it exists, the inmates stated that it was in a fair condition, if some of the old wooden rookeries were pulled down, it would help matters, for at present they only serve to shelter rogues and breed disease.

The time will soon some, when the old two and three story wooden houses will have to give place to tall brick edifices. That will be the time when a lasting improvement can be made and the evils that now exist effectually prevented; if a due regard for health is held, when they are built, they can be constructed with facilities for ventilation and drainage, that will do much toward making the Fifth Ward a healthier location.

Age has dried the old buildings until they are perfect tinder boxes, and each succeeding family of occupants leaves them in a more filthy condition. The street sewers and gutters are in a dilapidated condition, and are in urgent need of repairs. The slops from the houses are turned into the gutters, where a portion runs off and the remainder lies in noisome pools until dried up by the sun. The poisonous condition of the atmosphere, is indicated by the funerals that are of almost daily occurrence. Should cholera visit Brooklyn this season, it will find in the Fifth Ward an abundance of victims ready to its hand.

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