sed by the great thickness of
their walls, conduce greatly to this freedom from contagion.

The third and last of the Model Lodging-Houses we visited was even more
interesting, in that it was designed and constructed expressly to be
occupied by Families, of which it accommodates forty-eight, and has
never a vacant room. The building is of course a large one, very
substantially constructed on three sides of an open court paved with
asphaltum and used for drying clothes and as a children's play-ground.
All the suits of apartments on each floor are connected by a corridor
running around the inside (or back) of the building, and the several
suits consist of two rooms or three with entry, closets, &c., according
to the needs of the applicant. That which we more particularly examined
consisted of three apartments (two of them bed-rooms) with the
appendages already indicated. Here lived a workman with his wife and six
young children from two to twelve years of age. Their rent is 6s. ($1.50
per week, or $78 per annum); and I am confident that equal
accommodations in the old way cannot be obtained in an equally central
and commodious portion of London or New York for double the money. Suits
of two rooms only, for smaller families, cost but $1 to $1.25 per week,
according to size and eligibility. The concern is provided with a
Bath-Room, Wash-Room, Oven, &c., for the use of which no extra charge is
made. The building is very substantial and well constructed, is
fire-proof, and cost about $40,000. The ground for it was leased of the
Duke of Bedford for 99 years at $250 per annum. The money to construct
it was mostly raised by subscription--the Queen leading off with $1,500;
which the Queen Dowager and two Royal Duchesses doubled; then came
sundry Dukes, Earls, and other notables with $500 each, followed by a
long list of smaller and smaller subscriptions. But this money was given
to the "Society for Bettering the Condition of the Laboring Classes," to
enable them to try an experiment; and that experiment has triumphantly
succeeded. All those I have described, as well as one for single women
only near Hatton Garden, and one for families and for aged women near
Bagnigge Wells, which I have not yet found time to visit, are constantly
and thoroughly filled, and hundreds are eager for admittance who cannot
be accommodated; the inmates are comparatively cleanly, healthy and
comfortable; and _the plan pays_. This is the great point. It is