DUBLIN'S SLUMS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1927, 9 December 1913, Page 11

DUBLIN'S SLUMS.

APPALLING CONDITIONS. A London journalist who has been making an investigation of the Dublin slums on his own account, writes to his paper: "I visited somo of the tenement buildings in the poorer quarters of the city to-day, and the conditions in which their occupants live are appalling. In one tenement ten persons, a. father and mother and eight children, whoso ages varied from eleven years to a lew months, were living in a single room. In one corner was a filthy bed, with a few rags on it for bedding, and here and on the floor the entire family slept. Other fnrnifure there was none, Bnvt; a couple of empty orange boNCS, which served both for chairs and tables, and tho entire cooking outfit was nil old tin kettle, ail iron pot, and ,n teapot. The place litrally swarmed with Hies, and the sanitary conditions were dreadful. The house in which tho room was situated consisted of twelve rooms, and in more prosperous days had been the homo of well-to-do people. Now each room is the dwelling of a family, and tho bctilding shelters nearly seventy people. Why_ such a condition of things is allowed by the sanitary authorities is incomprehensible. It explains in a large measure the prevalence of disease in Dublin. When one asks tho people why they live in such places, tho answer always is: "Sure, and what can wo do? Wo cannot pay the rent for a better place," The rent for the rooms varies from half-a-crown to 45., according to size, and the height above ' tho ground floor. In none of them was there any cupboard or place for keeping food. Indeed, there wns little food to keep. The only thing I saw was a few scraps of dry bread, on which tho flies, fresh from tho horrible receptacles on tho landing;., swarmed in hundreds."