Roof Sleepers of New York.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 79, 6 December 1884, Page 4

Roof Sleepers of New York.

Thk " Roof sleepers of New York " sounds like the title of a stirring melodrama, such as we sometimes see at Dairy Lane. It describes, however, what is a grim reality. The hot weather has driven the poor of New York to the loofs for slumber. But there are degrees even among roof -sleepers, for they are divided into three classes— the palatiai,thecomfortable,andthe wretched:— The families who have charge of the warehouses are what may be called the palatial roof -sleepers. They may be seen in the early evening, and indeed far into the middle of the night, sitting comfortably in chairs on the vast tin -covered roofs of these magnificent architectural succepseft, smoking, drinking beer, chatting with friends and neighbours, chaffing their neighbours on adjacent roofs, the children playing about in neglige costume, while on the very hottest of hot nights a healthful, invigoratingdelightful breeze fans their fevered brows and cools their heated blood. Extemporaneous beds arc prepared there— asim pie mattrcps, with covering ; sometimes nothing but a pillow, and oftentimes easily handled cots ; but always in excessively warm weather these people are more comfortable than tho^e who own the building on the top of -which they sleep Then come the fcccoiid-class— the comfortable— the occupants of houses divided into flats, where from live to ten families occupy one building, and each voof has from twenty to thirty of the forty or fifty peoplo in the house sleeping there night after night, with die full moon shining as their only light-

At London Police Court the other day, a woman was brought up for begging with a baby in her army. The child had a bandage over its forehead, and ifc was incessantly screiming. ~ho wonder ! When tho bandage was undone it was found that three Hvo black beetles had been placed between tho bandage and the Uesh for tho purpose of irritating the poor little fellow and making him cry.