The Sisters of the Poor of St. . Francis, who conduct St. Francis's Hospital, at 609 Fifth street, have bought from Mr. Edwin A. Bradley and Mr. George C. Currier the plot of thirty-two lots on the east side of Brook avenue, from One Hundred and Forty-second to One Hundred and Fortythird street, comprising eight lots on the avenue and twelve on the street. The property will eventually be improved with a hospital building. The block above, on Brook avenue, is occupied by St. Joseph's Hospital. * Commissioner John W. Keller has recommended to the board of estimate and apportionment the purchase of a site on Lenox avenue, between One Hundred and Thirtysixth and One Hundred and Thirtyseventh streets, for a new Harlem Hospital. The Lenox avenue site was favored under the Strong administration and rejected by the present administration because the city owns a site and because the Lenox avenue place is in a residential district. The need for a new hospital in Harlem is approaching the condition accurately described as long-felt and urgent. ** The new wing of the hospital for private patients, which will be a part of New York Hospital, in Sixteenth street, near Fifth avenue, was opened for inspection November 22. The board of governors gave an informal reception. The wing will be ready for occupancy in two weeks, and will have accommodations for sixty patients. PUBLIC HEARINGS OF THE TENEMENT-HOUSE COMMISSION. The Tenement-House Commission continued its hearings in the assembly hall of the United Charities. Building, Friday afternoon, November 23. Mr. Robert W. de Forest presided and the subject under discussion was, "The Existing Evils of the Tenement-House System." Among those who testified were Mr. Jacob A. Riis, Mr. Ernest Flagg, architect of many model tenement houses; Dr. E. R. L. Gould, who has made a special study of the housing conditions in the leading cities of Europe; Miss Lillian D. Wald, head worker of the Nurses' Settlement, 265 Henry street; and the Rev. W. T. Elsing, of the De Witt Memorial Church, in Rivington street, and many others. Dr. E. R. L. Gould told of the operations of the City and Suburban Homes Company which is earning for its stockholders four per cent dividends on an investment of $2,000,000 in model tenement and suburban houses. He said that it was essential in the building of healthful tenements to include sufficiently large courts, and that it was almost impossible to plan tenements which contained sufficiently large ventilation and light space on 25-foot front lots. For this reason the building of the best tenement houses was to be most expeditiously done on a large scale. Mr. Jacob A. Riis testified that the airshaft in the beginning was an advantage over the old style of building in that it was a tacit admission on the part of the owner that the tenant had a right to air and light, but that per se it was not a good thing. He stated that in tenement houses to-day there is less dirt but more over-crowding than thirty years ago; that at present there is no possibility of privacy, and true family life is nearly impossible. The rooms have grown smaller in the past few years and there are more Occupants in a room. Mr. Riis stated that in his opinion stairs were preferable to ladders, as fire-escapes, for without the assistance of firemen it was impossible for women and children to use ladders, especially in winter when they are covered with snow and ice. He would require fire-escapes on both front and rear and believes that outside stairs will solve the problem. Referring to the plan for licensing tenement houses, he stated that this. plan would secure the registration of the owners of tenements and could be so administered as to prevent overcrowding, by making the landlord responsible when more tenants were found in the house than the license permitted. Miss Lillian D. Wald spoke at length upon the prevalence of tuberculosis in tenement houses, saying: "It is almost an epidemic." She became very earnest in describing the dark and unventilated apartments in the over-crowded districts. "In eight years' experience, visiting tenements each day," said she, "I have seen gas lighted in dark halls in the daytime only four or five times. These halls are very foul as well as dark. A person using the stairs is in constant danger of stumbling over children." Referring to the airshaft, she said: "I asked a group of women, who have lived all of their lives in tenement houses, if the tenement were to be improved in one specific way, to name the one thing they would prefer, and their unanimous answer was, 'Get rid of the airshaft.' It conveys nothing but foul odors and disturbing noises from neighboring windows, and is a menace to health!" Mr. Ernest Flagg stated that the airshaft was not only a menace to health but an actual waste of room. In his opinion abolishing the twentyfive-foot lot would remedy the whol difficulty. Mr. Flagg presente ures to show that fireproof construction is actually cheaper than nonfireproof construction. The third public hearing before the Tenement-House Commission was held on Monday evening, November 26. The constantly cumulative testimony regarding the evil effects of the existing type of building with its narrow airshaft, its common waterclosets, its lack of decency and of proper safeguards against fire and disease, was greatly increased by the evidence given by people who live in tenement houses and in settlements, and by the testimony of those who work in charitable societies. Mrs. Florence Kelley who has lived in Hull House, Chicago, who has been a factory inspector in Illinois, and who is now connected with the Consumers' League, protested that the recommendations of previous witnesses were not sufficiently radical. She would prevent She would prevent the erection of tenement houses of anything like the present type in sections where they do not now exist. The physical injuries from climbing tenement house stairs make the erection of any six and seven story tenements entirely inadvisable. Mr. Frank Tucker, general agent of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, spoke in favor of public baths, which he thought much preferable to common baths in the tenement house, and dealt comprehensively with the general subject. Rev. Gaylor S. White described the exceedingly bad conditions in a section of Brooklyn, near the Navy Yard, where he resides; and Mrs. J. A. Miller and Mr. Henry Moscovitz testified from long residence in tenement houses to the conditions which need to be utterly abolished by legislation, and made numerous practical suggestions of value. Miss Agnes Daly also testified in a vein similar to that of an article which will be printed in the next number of CHARITIES. Mr. Edward T. Devine, general secretary of the Charity Organization Society, called attention to the high rents paid by tenants and the consequent narrow margin for saving when income is cut off. While the commission might not be able to devise laws that would directly lower rents, it would be possible to provide for greater decency and comfort, and for more of the conditions that make for life and health, without necessarily increasing rents. " Compulsory increase of light and air, better ventilation, safety from fire and from infection would not give the landlords an additional hold upon their tenants by which they could exact higher rents. It would not be until the new restrictions actually discouraged new buildings so that the supply of apartments is reduced, that rents would be raised, and there is ample evidence that tenements can be erected according to a reasonable standard and still yield a commercial profit on the investment. There is much destitution directly due to overcrowding, to the lack of light and air and to infected walls, ceilings and floors. The experience of the agents and visitors of the Charity Organization Society confirms what physicians have said in regard to the danger from tuberculosis and other diseases. The chances for recovery are much less because of the lack of vitality due to the unfavorable physical conditions under which people are obliged to live. The tenement houses exercise a demoralizing influence upon the character of both adults and children, and although there are as virtuous and noble people to be found in the tenement house. as anywhere else, it is a constant. struggle a struggle which is harder than necessary for such people to preserve their children from contaminating influences. Mr. A. A. Hill, who lives in a tenement house on Tenth avenue, preparatory to the organization of a new settlement, also emphasized this demoralizing influence and its disintegrating effect on family life. ANNUAL REPORT OF THE CHILDREN'S The forty-eighth annual report of the Children's Aid Society was read by the secretary, Mr. C. Loring Brace, at the annual meeting of the society, on Tuesday, November 27. From this report we glean the following statement relative to the work of the society. During the past year the daily average attendance of children in the twenty-six industrial day and evening schools of the society was 7,063, the total enrollment having been 14,615. The teachers made 17,950 visits to the homes of the children in order to know the family conditions, and to ascertain if the child could attend public school, the object being to co-operate with the public schools and to take only those children into the industrial schools who could not attend the former. Through this system of visiting. 1,043 truants were brought in, and 7,583 persons who were found to be in destitution were helped. In the eight boys' and girls' lodging houses, and at the Farm School, at Kensico, N. Y., 5,163 homeless boys and girls were given shelter, the number of daily lodgers averaging 413. Situations at wages were found for 797 of these, and 215 others were given a brief training in farm work at the Farm Shool, while 133 were restored to friends. doors of these lodging houses are open to any poor homeless boy or girl, and a constant effort is made by the superintendents to discover the reason of the helplessness of their charges and to find out the right remedy for each misfortune. The The number of children who enjoyed the benefits of the summer home at Bath Beach during the season was 6,508; of these 3,955 remained a week each. At the health home at Coney Island there were 7.385 mothers and sick infants; 3,122 of these remaining a week or longer. The number of boys from the industrial schools who spent a week at the farm school, at Kensico, N. Y., was 1,810. The Sick Children's Mission, which seeks out and aids the helpless poor living in the crowded East Side districts during the hot weather, aided with food, medicine, and medical advice, 1,157. At the request of the State Board of Charities, the society has undertaken to find good family homes for any orphan children who may be given into its charge by the commissioner of charities. During the past twelve months 581 homeless children have been placed in homes in the country. Of these, 326 were placed in families for adoption in the west and in New York state, and 255 were placed in positions at wages. Homeless and destitute families, numbering 1,013 persons, mostly children, were assisted to reach friends or employment in the country, making a total of 1,594 persons sent away from the over-crowded city. Of the 245 children transferred from institutions, 170 were placed in homes and 63 were turned to friends or relatives. "Our children," said Mr. Brace, "are scattered widely through the United States. Many have grown to manhood and womanhood, and they have done as well as the children born in more fortunate conditions, and some have been remarkably successful. Of the 22,121 placed in families, only sixty, so far as we know, have been arrested or sent to reform schools-a striking fact." re The ages of children placed in homes were as follows: Under five years of age, 1,018; over five and under ten, 3,673; over ten, 17,430; total, 22, 121. Of these, these, 17,206 were boys and 4,915 were girls. These children were ceived from the following sources: From institutions, 5,090; from the society's lodging houses, 8,243; from other sources, 8,788. They have been placed in homes in more than twenty different states. New York state received 3,380; Indiana, 2,827; Iowa, 2,606. Georgia received 52, the smallest number. THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR. Mr. Jacob A. Riis addressed the annual meeting of the Children's Aid and Protective Society of the Oranges, November 16, upon the subject, "The Children of the Poor." He said that many people imagined that the great cities had almost a monopoly of the hardened, depraved youthful offenders, but such was not the case, for he had found greater youthful depravity in some smaller places than in the slums of New York. He began with a touching anecdote about a band of tattered ragamuffins that came to his office one day and wanted "posies." He followed them to a rear alley, where a poor woman lay dead and these little fellows piled the flowers on the coffin. The speaker asserted the broad principle that no children were bad by nature, and that there was no such thing as total depravity; it was only the mud of environment. At "I can take you to the East Side," went on Mr. Riis, "and show you hordes of youthful thieves, where child-crime flourishes. For ten months I kept a record of those cases which came into the police court, for a reliable newspaper, and I had in ten months, 278 cases. that time we were engaged in a desperate effort to have a truant school. I made the charge that there were 50,000 truants five years ago. It was ridiculed, but we have been building fifty schools there in New York, and we haven't room enough yet. "I know that no thief dares take the chances that a child will. I was told by one commissioner of the board of education that child-crime consisted of the stealing of a top or a mar |