and latest machinery.

It also offers the advantage of country bleaching.

No acids are used.

Work is collected and returned in New York and Westchester County by the American Express, without expense to

customers.

Special rates to Hotels and Families.

IN CHARGE OF THE SISTERS

OF THE DIVINE COMPASSION.

and Hospital for Women,

19 WEST 101st STREET,

Between Central Park West and Manhattan Avenue,

MAINTAINS:

(1.)-The only college in the State exclusively for the education of women in medicine. Dr. M. BELLE BROWN, Dean.

(2.)-A hospital (medical and surgical) for women and children. Patients charged according to ability to pay, or free if necessary; supported by board of patients and voluntary contributions.

(3.) Dispensary for women and children; open from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. Women physicians only in

attendance.

(4)-Obstetrical out department; staff of 20 women physicians attend the needy poor women in their own homes during confinement. Cards for free attendance may be obtained from the resident physician.

Mary Knox Robinson, President.

My Experience of Life in a Second-Class Tenement-Flat House.

[The writer of the following article is the wife of a stationary engineer occupying a position which enables them now to live in better quarters than the average tenement provides. Before marriage she was a nurse and governess, and it is obvious that she is a competent observer. During the time of which she writes her husband was a fireman with irregular work, and they lived in a tenement, paying $11 per month for three rooms. It must not be inferred that the writer

No. 4.

First class, in which you pay high rent for location and appearance of house and hallways. Generally the rooms are small, but you have bath room, range, and improvements.

Second class, in which you pay reasonable rent and get good sized rooms, but no improvements and poor location. It is this class I have seen the most of, because I have lived in them, and, of course, they are the homes of the respectable (or supposed to be) working class; although the classes of people get all mixed together according to circumstances. If you put on your thinking cap, you need not lack work for the brain, and if you are observing you need not lack amusement. But you must have no nerves, or you live a life of excitement and nervousness. Before I was married I had never lived in a tenement flat. My first experience I felt like a prisoner. I knew I was free, but I felt as if some power was keeping me there against my will.

After I got used to the life, I began to look around and study things up, and to wonder why I should feel like that. I began to study my

tenement-house dwellers as drunkards and brawlers, but she evidently desires to show how easily the quiet, respectable tenants are affected and disturbed by unpleasant neighbors. The article is published as written, without editing.-Editor's Note.]

Why I say second is there are three classes, first, second, and third.

to live in peace, you must keep to yourself. I saw some gossiping and drinking together to-day, and tomorrow fighting; and not content with fighting among themselves, they draw their husbands into it, when they come home from work. Then there are some who want to borrow all the time from everyone. Then you see men and women, too, going for drink as early as 5 o'clock

A. M. The women will neglect their homes, children, husbands, and everything for drink; they never seem sober.

That is where the danger of fire comes, with such people; for they are not responsible for their actions, or able to control their children. I have seen children playing, running to and fro with blazing paper. One night we were preparing for rest when there was a smell of fire. I opened the room door and saw the hallways full of smoke and all the people out on the stairs. Two or three of us ran down to the janitor, and we saw black smoke coming from the front rooms on the ground floor. We knocked and knocked till at last an old woman opened the door. She was just rags and dirt, and too drunk to speak. The wash tubs were full of clothes, colored and white, all mixed together; she said she was washing. There was no fire, but a small lamp stood on the stove burning; coal was scattered all over the floor; the place was upside down, and whisky bottles were all over the window-sill. The place had such a close smell, no bed made, and it past 10 P. M. The place was a pic ture of filth and dirt, and yet the furniture and other things were good. She said there was nothing burning there, and we could not find where the smoke came from, although the room kept filling with black smoke. We searched the cellar but no smoke was there. So we had to retire at that. Lovely sensation to go to rest with not knowing what hour you may be awakened by fire!

to

Another time it was Sunday noontime; we had just set down dinner when I saw smoke up the air shaft. I thought at first it was fog, then it grew blacker, and I ran into the hallway, and looking over the banister I saw the smoke thick and I heard voices; so I called out, "what is the matter down there?"

and a voice said in scared whisper, "the house is on fire." I ran into the room, and slipping on my best shoes I snatched up my clothes that I had laid on the bed ready to go out after dinner. I took a towel and wound it round my head and face, telling my husband to do the same quickly. I groped my way down stairs and out into the street just as the flames were bursting through under the stairs. I ran up the street a few houses to where the agent's office was, and left my things, thinking my husband was following me with his things, but no. Then I ran back to find him; he was looking for me, and had nothing. He said I was so quick that he did not know what was happening, and when he saw the flames he came down to see if I was out safe; then he wanted to go back, but the firemen would not let him, for the house was cleared of every one. The smoke was dense.

Well, after it was all over we went back. We lived on the third floor, and the fire had just begun to come through under the wash tubs and in the bedroom. All the lower stairs and ground floor, and first floor back was destroyed. It appears that two weeks before they had let the back. basement to a man and his wife with two children; they had very little furniture, and four days before the fire they had the furniture insured, and on Sunday had filled the ash cans full of rags and set fire to it. The fire marshal had the man arrested. Had it been night no one would have escaped. That is one reason why landlords should have tenements fireproof.

Another delightful thing is the smell of cooking; you get sniffs of all kinds, sometimes not very fresh, so that by the time you are ready for your own dinner you have no appetite.

Nice quiet life in a tenement! On

one floor you will find two families living next door to each other, very neighborly for a time, going from room to room; then they drink together day after day, night after night, until husbands and wives get all mixed up; then they all fight, tearing and biting each other like animals, and getting knives to each other. Of course at a time like that all the men, women, and children that are in the house are out on the stairs and in the hallways.

Over us lived a man and wife with two children; they were so ragged and filthy I was glad when they moved. Then came a young couple; really they looked boy and girl-he looked about twenty-one and she about eighteen; they were supposed to be married three months only. Another young man used to visit them. For two days and nights they danced, they shouted. I can not call it singing, because they were too drunk to sing. Well, it was like bedlam let loose. We could not sleep, for they kept it up early and late. We did not like to say anything, or make a complaint, for we thought they were having their honeymoon. It was summer time, and every window was open, so everything could be heard. He would become quarrelsome, and they would both swear like troopers. They were not so innocent as they looked. They kept it up two or three times a week for three months. The people began to shout at them from different houses, to keep quiet and let people sleep. The answer they got was: I am an American citizen. At last people complained to the agent. Then they began to throw furniture about and hammer on the doors. So the agent asked me if they were as bad as people said, for he said I must have the worst of it, as I lived under them. I showed him the ceiling, all broken and cracked all over, so that I expected it to come down. So they

had to move. came, with two children, a boy of about eight years, and a girl of about six years. six years. Both father and mother drank; he beat his wife, and she beat the children; they were bruised and cut all over. I heard the boy screaming, Oh, mamma, please don't hit me. With that, it sounded as if she had taken the poker or something from the stove. She must have hit him, for he screamed more, and said, Oh, mamma, mamma, my head is bleeding. I was going to report them to the Gerry society.

Then another family

Then you can watch your neighbors in other houses, and put two and two together and tell what is happening." I saw husband and wife so comfortable and happy together every morning and evening. One morning I saw the man go out early, and about ten o'clock I heard crying and moaning. I listened and thought, that is not a child; that is a woman in distress. I looked and saw people in the room. I thought, something has happened. So later on in the day I heard he was killed by the train. After the funeral she moved away. Some one moving in and out nearly every day.

The back of the house, in the next street, was empty except two floors. On one floor were two old ladies, so prim and severe looking they reminded me of New England women. On the other floor was man and wife. I think the man was a musician that played at parties or in the street; for twice a week two men would come and practise with him. One played bass fiddle, and the other a harp, while he played the violin. After they had practised a time they would play dance music, and all the girls and boys in the flats would go in the yards and dance. How the people did enjoy that music! Every one would be at their windows listening. Sometimes they would play

old song tunes, so soft, and so beautiful. Then the people would clap their hands; it was inspiring in a neighborhood like that. I was sorry when they left.

At last the top floor was let to a family with two children. One little tot about three years old would climb up and hang through the window; I expected him to fall every day. When the next floor was let to a young couple, with a baby a few weeks old, they were friends of the people over them; so they all had a jollification together in the upper rooms, drinking, music, and dancing about till late. The next night the young man was putting down the carpet and beside him was the beer can; they were drinking beer all evening. About a week after they gave, what I suppose they call, a house warming, and there were lively times till early morning. About a week after that, on Thursday night, I heard the baby crying day and night. I thought, that baby is sick; the third night I did not hear it, so I thought it was better. On Sunday my husband said to me, they are having another party over the way; they have company and they are all dressed up. I looked and saw white flowers on the fire escape. I said, "why it is a funeral party; the baby is dead." So they moved away. (Another picture in the panorama of life!)

It is a mystery to me whether drink causes poverty or poverty causes drink among the working classes. Of course, there are many things the landlord can not help. If he turns out bad tenants, he is likely to get worse, or as bad. If he wishes to keep his house quiet and respectable, he must get references with his tenants. The landlords can not always help the overcrowding, for when a person goes after rooms, they are asked how many in family; oh, three; but when they move in there

are uncles and aunts, and perhaps boarders, making double the number. Sometimes one family will rent the rooms, and two families move in.

There is much the landlords can do for the good of their tenants. For instance, it is the landlord's duty, or agent's, to see that the janitor keeps the place clean. It is dreadful to see the condition of the air-shafts; they are cleaned when it suits the janitors; they are the receptacle for everything thrown from the windows of two houses; a child naturally throws things through the windows, but grown people should know better; they are as bad as the children. Bones, skins of fruit, old tin cans, dirty paper, and all kinds of things were thrown out. It ought to be the duty of the Board of Health to see that the landlords attend to these things. I do not think the Board of Health inspectors should say when they are going around; they should take the people by surprise and they would see many things.

Then, again, spitting on stairs and in hallways should be strictly forbidden, and not only forbidden, but made punishable by law. There should be a light kept in the dark lower hallway at all times, for the hall and stairs are so narrow, a person coming down and a person going up are likely to collide, especially if they are carrying anything. Anything that is detrimental to the health of others should not be allowed. If people would people would only think of the golden rule, to do to others as they wish to be done by, and think that the world was not made for them alone. For those that are compelled to live in tenements, how they could help each other to live better and happier lives. Some one may be sick or dying, and they are disturbed. Those that are trying to better the conditions of the poor have much to