rs, forced to herd among them, and to adopt
a mode of life which is utterly destructive of the characteristics which
should distinguish them. It is no wonder that crime is so common in the
Metropolis. The real wonder is that it does not defy all restraint.

The tenement houses are afflicted with a terrible mortality. Says Dr.
Harris, "Consumption and all the inflammatory diseases of the lungs vie
with the infectious and other zymotic disorders, in wasting the health
and destroying the life of the tenement population." Of late years a new
disease, the relapsing fever, which, though rarely fatal, destroys the
health and vigor of its victims, has made havoc among the tenement
population. The mortality among children is very great, and perhaps this
is fortunate for them, for it would seem that death in their first flush
of innocence is far better than a life of wretchedness and perhaps of
infamy. Small pox and all the contagious and infectious diseases would
make short work with the tenement-house population, were any of them to
become epidemic in the city. There would be nothing to check them, and
the unfortunate people living in these sections would find no means of
escaping from them.

LXI. CHATHAM STREET.

The oldest inhabitant cannot remember when Chatham street did not exist.
It still contains many half decayed houses which bear witness to its
antiquity. It begins at City Hall Place, and ends at Chatham Square. It
is not over a quarter of a mile in length, and is narrow and dirty. The
inhabitants are principally Jews and low class foreigners. Near the
lower end are one or two good restaurants, and several cheap hotels, but
the remainder of the street is taken up with establishments into which
respectable buyers do not care to venture. Cheap lodging houses abound,
pawnbrokers are numerous, several fence stores are to be found here, and
some twenty or twenty-five cellars are occupied as dance houses and
concert saloons. These are among the lowest and vilest of their kind in
New York.

Chatham street is the paradise of dealers in mock jewelry and old
clothes. Some of the shops sell new clothing of an inferior quality, but
old clothes do most abound. Here you may find the cast-off finery of the
wife of a millionaire--the most of it stolen--or the discarded rags of a
pauper. It seems as if all New York had placed its cast-off clothing
here for sale, and that the stock had accumulated for generat