In his graphic
book describing tenement life in New York Mr. Riis shows the rapid
multiplication of the saloons in the slums where the foreigners are
crowded into tenements, nine per cent. more densely packed than the most
densely populated districts of London. In the chapter, "The Reign of
Rum,"[75] he says:
[Sidenote: Testimony of Riis]
"'Where God builds a church the devil builds next door a saloon' is an
old saying that has lost its point in New York. Either the devil was on
the ground first, or he has been doing a good deal more in the way of
building. I tried once to find out how the account stood, and counted to
111 Protestant churches, chapels, and places of worship of every kind
below Fourteenth Street, 4,065 saloons. The worst half of the tenement
population lives down there, and it has to this day the worst half of
the saloons. Up town the account stands a little better, but there are
easily ten saloons to every church to-day.
[Sidenote: Hunting for an American]
"As to the motley character of the tenement population, when I asked the
agent of a notorious Fourth Ward alley how many people might be living
in it, I was told: One hundred and forty families--one hundred Irish,
thirty-eight Italian, and two that spoke the German tongue.
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