MISERY IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 349, 9 April 1868, Page 3

MISERY IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Very few of the citizens of San Francisco have any idea of the misery and poverty that exist in the most liberal and generous city in the ■world. There are regions where the squalid poverty of New York Five Points finds its peer, and there are regions which are far worse than anything ever seen in New York. With meat at twenty cents a pound, and vegetables in proportion, they cannot afford to pay a great deal for house rent, and every one knows that householders do not let even the nastiest, narrowest, darkest room imaginable for less thau four or six dollars a month, and where two or more rooms are required, ten or fifteen dollars are demanded, not a cent less will be taken. If I some of our millionaires were philanthropists, and had a soul above gain, they could make immortal names for themselves, and be beloved of hundreds of grateful hearts, by erecting a number of tenement houses, with suitable apartments for small families, and renting them at small rates. Then again, there is another class of unfortunates — men who arrive here from the East with but a few dollars in tlieir pockets. They reach our Golden State with buoyant hearts, and high hopes of big things, but before they know it all their scanty mca'is are gone, and they find themselves without a cent or friend, and what is worse, without work. HaAin? remained here until they are " dead brok," they find it impossible to get into the country to look for work. Hotels and lodging houses long adopted the rule of paying in advance, and when the last dollar is expended the unfortunate fellows have found the " bed rock," and are in a condition bordering on frenzy. The lunch table to them is a blessing, and they have to live upon what they can pick up there and sleep God knows where. Only a few 1 night 3 ago a policeman, while searching for some escaped prisoners from the Industrial School, discovered twenty-seven men sleeping under a pile of hay ou one of the wharfs. The vigilant officer, being in the receipt of one hundred and twenty-five dollars per month, could not realise that these twenty-seven men were too poor to pay for a bed, so he routed them out, and drove them away. A gentleman upon whom we can rely informs us that lie lias many times observed poor fellows who came to him for work and failed to obtain it, go out with great tears coursing clown their cheeks, and when they supposed they were unseen, pick up a handful of wheat and devour it as some sweet morsel. At these times he would call the poor fellows back and give them a dollar or two and feel that the Recording Angel had given him a credit mark. — San Francisco Morning Call.