Page:Letters on the condition of the African race in the United States.djvu/33

Rh "These cases were principally confined to the lowest and most degraded of the colored population, whose occupations were ragging, boning, and prizing. Hundreds are engaged in those occupations, and living as others have, that have died; many of whom, unless provided for, must become victims of death, through their habits and exposure, should the coming winter be at all severe. Most of them have no home, depending chiefly upon the success of their pursuits through the day, either in earning or begging (and I may add, stealing), sufficient to pay their grog and lodging. For food, they depend mostly upon begging, or gathering from the street what is thrown from the houses or kitchens of others.

"Lodgings are obtained from a penny to sixpence a night, according to the extent of the accommodations, with or without an old stove, generally without a pipe, a furnace or fireplace, so that a fire may be had if they have means to pay for a few sticks of wood, or some coal; and were it not for the crevices and openings admitting fresh air, many would be suffocated (a few have been) by smoke and coal gas. It is no uncommon circumstance to find several sitting around on the floor with an open furnace in their midst, burning coal. Those places are mostly back from the street, not observable in passing, reached through narrow alleys, or by a back entrance, if it be a house fronting the main street, wherein each story is subdivided into numerous small rooms, ofttimes made to accommodate as many as can be stowed into them, without regard to color or sex. Such articles as an old bed, a carpet, or even straw upon the floor, are not often seen. "Notwithstanding their degraded occupation, yet it is possible for them to earn from ten to fifteen cents per day. There are numerous places for the disposal of their rags, bones, &c, but there are far more numerous places (and constantly increasing) for the disposal of their hard-earned (or ill-gotten) pennies ; namely, at small shops stocked with a few stale loaves of bread, a few potatoes, a small quantity of split wood, some candles, a few dried and stale herring, &c, exposed to view, serving too often as a cloak, whilst behind and under the counter, concealed from the eye, are kegs, jugs, bottles, and measures, containing the poison, some at four and five cents a pint, and which is the great leading cause of the misery, degradation, and death of so many. "Though I have observed much misery and distress both among blacks and whites, in different sections of the city and suburbs, yet