a temporary relief and
satisfies the craving of the system, besides the environment invites
dissipation and human nature at best is frail. I marvel that there is
not more drunkenness exhibited in the poverty spots of our cities.

[3] NOTE ON PICTURE OF CONSTANCE AND MAGGIE. When Mr. Swaffield
first visited this little family he found them in the most
abject want; a pot of boiling water, in which the mother
was stirring a handful of meal, constituting their only
food. Their clothing was thin and worn almost to shreds;
their apartment but slightly heated; half of all they could
earn, even when all were well and work good, had to go for
their rent, leaving only one dollar and twenty-five cents a
week to feed and clothe four persons. The day we first
called they were poorly clothed, with sorry apologies for
dresses and shoes laughing at the toes. In the picture we
reproduce, they are neatly dressed and well shod from money
contributed by liberal-hearted friends to The Arena Relief
Fund.

[Illustration: CELLARWAY LEADING TO UNDER-GROUND APARTMENTS (SEE NOTE).]

[Illustration: SICK MAN IN UNDER-GROUND APARTMENT (SEE NOTE).]

[Illustration: PORTUGUESE WIDOW AND THREE CHILDREN (SEE NOTE).]

[Illustration: WIDOW AND TWO CHILDREN IN UNDER-GROUND TENEMENT (SEE NOTE).]

[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF A NORTH END TENEMENT HOUSE (SEE NOTE).]

Among the places we visited were a number of cellars or burrows. We
descended several steps into dark, narrow passage-ways,[4] leading to
cold, damp rooms, in many of which no direct ray of sunshine ever
creeps. We entered a room filled with a bed, cooking stove, rack of
dirty clothes and numerous chairs, of which the most one could say was
that their backs were still sound and which probably had been donated by
persons who could no longer use them. On the bed lay a man who has been
ill for three months with rheumatism. This family consists of father,
mother, and a large daughter, all of whom are compelled to occupy one
bed. They eat, cook, live, and sleep in this wretched cellar and pay
over fifty dollars a year rent. This is a typical illustration of life
in this underground world.

[4] NOTE ON ILLUSTRATION OF CELLARWAY LEADING INTO PARTIALLY
UNDERGROUND APARTMENT. This passage-way is several steps
down from the court or alley-way, and leads to t