mains, it is not probable that
he will tear down the wretched old and erect a commodious
new building, on which he would be compelled to pay double
or triple the present taxes, merely for the comfort and
moral and physical health of his tenants.

[Illustration: UNDER-GROUND TENEMENT WITH TWO BEDS (SEE NOTE).]

In another similar cellar or burrow[5] we found a mother and seven boys
and girls, some of them quite large, all sleeping in two medium-sized
beds in one room; this room is also their kitchen. The other room is a
storehouse for kindling wood the children gather and sell, a little
store and living room combined. Their rent is two dollars a week. The
cellar was damp and cold; the air stifling. Nothing can be imagined more
favorable to contagion both physical and moral than such dens as these.
Ethical exaltation or spiritual growth is impossible with such
environment. It is not strange that the slums breed criminals, which
require vast sums yearly to punish after evil has been accomplished; but
to me it is an ever-increasing source of wonder that society should be
so short-sighted and neglectful of the condition of its exiles, when an
outlay of a much smaller sum would ensure a prevention of a large
proportion of the crime that emenates from the slums; while at the same
time it would mean a new world of life, happiness, and measureless
possibilities for the thousands who now exist in hopeless gloom.

[5] NOTE ON ILLUSTRATION OF UNDERGROUND TENEMENT WITH TWO BEDS.
These miserable quarters are four steps down from the
street. There are two small rooms, one a shop in which
kindling wood is stowed, which is gathered up by the
children, split and tied in bundles. The mother also sells
peanuts and candy. The back room contains a range and two
beds which take almost the entire area of the room. In
these two rooms several people sleep. One can readily see
how unfortunate such a life is from an ethical, no less
than social point of view.

[Illustration: OUT OF WORK (SEE NOTE).]

In a small room fronting an interior court we found a man[6] whose face
bore the stamp of that "hope long deferred which maketh the heart sick."
He is, I am informed, a strictly temperate, honest, and industrious
workman. Up to the time of his wife's illness and death, which occurred
last summer, the family lived in a reasonab