A House Fit For A Mouse
April 23, 1895; Emily Melvin
Innocent families are having to live in dreadfully small homes without the necessities they need to survive
The issue people are facing is there are over crowded and unsanitary tenements due to so many people searching for homes. Immigration is taking over America and because other people have problems, it's creating problems for us as well. Harmless people who do NOT deserve this kind of treatment are being put through torture! In these so called "homes" there is no plumbing and can you imagine a place with no water?! People are cramming together just trying to get through the day and saving every penny. If their bosses would be even the tiniest bit generous they may have a better life, but they are too selfish and greedy to help the people that do THEIR work for them. Bosses are cutting and lowering wages everyday while they work at their terrible jobs just to come home to a filthy home with a filthy life. That is no way any human being should live. Rich snobs and bosses are lathering in their money when we have nothing, they do NOT care about us so why should we act like they own us or none the less help them? The fact that they can just sit there on their throne while there are people being crammed together in a shoddy apartment with FOUR families just on a single floor! Oh no, but we apologize greatly for our waste ending up on the streets... If it bothers you that much why don't you get off your money and help people and have a heart for once. People are dying everyday and to think your one dollar could have saved somebody's life. Your money could help with the unsanitary conditions, can you imagine a little children running around one minute and the next they are on their small death bed still in a crammed location. People are being killed off due to tuberculosis and pneumonia. How do you live with yourself? While you are being able to breathe clean air the only air we get is the little air that comes in through the slum doors. I would rather die than know what I have done to these innocent, poor, deprived people.
In 1901 an act had been established known as the Tenement House Act which took place during the Progressive Era. This act banned all of the dark and poorly ventilated tenements in New York.
Citation
"Ephemeral New York." Ephemeral New York. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.