pon the court, and a large
fireplace filled with a cooking stove. In the way of additional
furniture, it had a common deal table, three broken wooden chairs, a few
dishes and cooking utensils, and two 'shakedowns,' as the piles of straw
stuffed into bed-ticks are called; but it had nothing whatever beyond
these articles. There was not even the remnant of a bedstead; not a
cheap print, so common in the hovels of the poor, to relieve the
blankness of the rough, whitewashed walls. The bedroom, which was little
more than half the size of the other, was that outrage of capital upon
poverty known as a 'dark room,' by which is meant that it had no window
opening to the outer air; and this closet had no furniture whatever
except two 'shakedowns.'

"In the contracted space of these two rooms, and supplied with these
scanty appliances for comfort, nine human beings were stowed. First
there was the 'Pensioner,' a man of about thirty-five years, next his
wife, then their three children, a woman lodger with two children, and
the 'Buster,' the latter paying fifteen cents per night for his shelter;
but I did not learn the amount paid by the woman for the accommodation of
herself and children. The Buster, having been indignant at my inquiry as
to the light upon the stairs, was now made merry by Finn supposing he had
a regular bed and bedstead for the money. 'Indade, he has not, but a
"shakedown" like the rest of us,' said the woman; but the Buster rebuked
this assumption of an impossible prosperity by promptly exclaiming,
'Whist! ye knows I stretch on the boords without any shakedown
whatsumdever.'

"Finn was of opinion the bed was hard but healthy, and fixing his eyes on
the Buster's flabby face thought it possible he had any desirable number
of 'square meals' per day; but that individual limited his acquirements
in that way for the day then closed to four. Finn then touching on the
number of drinks, the Buster, being driven into conjecture and a corner
by the problem, was thrust out of the foreground of our investigations.

"By various wily tricks of his trade, Detective Finn managed to get a
deal of information out of the Pensioner without seeming to be either
inquisitive or intrusive, or even without rubbing the coat of his poverty
the wrong way. From this source I learned that five dollars per month
was paid as rent for these two third-floor rooms, and that everybody
concerned deemed them dirt cheap at the price. Light