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Not quite the third world but southern and eastern Europe were awful places. Italy was a poor country with a corrupt government and a disinterested king. Russia and Poland could be a deathtrap for Jews. Unlike today's immigrants who spit on America as soon as they slither under our border, the European immigrants of the Ellis Island era appreciated America until the day they died.
When you go to Ellis Island and see the bathrooms there they look so plain, stark and utilitarian. Then you realize that most of the immigrants probably were coming from homes with outhouses and wells. Even a tenement with a tub in the kitchen, running water they didn't have to pump or fetch and a toilet in the hall was an improvement in many ways.
We'll never know but it could have been a staged photo -
It sure looks to me like the tenant themself who has created the conditions. The Apartment itself doesn't look bad. But it's perfect for those looking to blame others for their own choices. Most likely this is a picture from after a tenant moved out. Yes, some will leave a mess like this for the landlord to deal with.
It sure looks to me like the tenant themself who has created the conditions. The Apartment itself doesn't look bad. But it's perfect for those looking to blame others for their own choices. Most likely this is a picture from after a tenant moved out. Yes, some will leave a mess like this for the landlord to deal with.
Then someone should have told the tenant that they forgot their baby?
Then someone should have told the tenant that they forgot their baby?
Bwhahaha. Lord, have mercy.
I believe some people really do live in that level of squalor. Years ago, I went to a book lecture at the Mid Manhattan Library where this man was highlighting his experiences as a NYPD cop & one of his duties was patrolling the projects up in Harlem. The photos he took and describing how some of the residents lived. And the conditions of the stairway and hallways. Wow.
And it's not only "ghetto" people. That photo actually reminded me of the documentary and film "Grey Gardens". They were directly related to Jacqueline Kennedy. Old money, high society but how those two women lived... It makes one think how someone can actually live that way but they did until Jackie stepped in & cleaned it out.
A while ago, I read "How the Other Half Lives," a series of observations and photographs of New York City documented by Jacob Riis, a photojournalist, in 1890. He notes the lamentable living conditions immigrants experienced. It's a book written at a time in history when people from different nationalities formed their own enclaves, and stereotypes were the norm. In his book, Riis demonstrates the freedom to express his impressions candidly and, sometimes, harshly.
Below is an excerpt from my review on Goodreads as an example of Riis' opinions of some of the immigrants' dwellings:
Quote:
He defends the black families, noting their peaceful dispositions as well as their dedication to keeping clean homes, despite the often deplorable housing conditions most of them faced. He seems to place the Czech immigrant on a slightly higher character plane, as well, giving the impression that Riis' admiration largely flows from the newly-minted Americans' abilities to somehow adapt - with dignity - to their lamentable habitations, while working to carve out a living for their families.
When observing any immigrant group taking advantage of others, Riis barely conceals his contempt. He reserves most of his negative criticisms for the Jewish textile merchants whom he wryly observes, with a mixture of disapproval and awe, as possessing inherent calculators in their brains.
By equal measure, he sees the large Irish families as almost too hopeless to contemplate for very long, their plight seeming to enervate Riis' perspective to a dribbling sense of doom.
Can you imagine a journalist today logging his perspective this way?
Their homes of very simple means were spotless.
They were religious and Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
FINI
We say that too. Growing up poor made us even more proud and determined to keep our surroundings spotless. As all we had was our pride. To this day I will not eat from people who keep a messy house.
We kept our house spotless. We cleaned it with brooms made from twigs and shined the floors on our knees with old cloths.
It would be embarrassing for you to have visitors and your house wasn't anything but spotlessly clean.
We say that too. Growing up poor made us even more proud and determined to keep our surroundings spotless. As all we had was our pride. To this day I will not eat from people who keep a messy house.
We kept our house spotless. We cleaned it with brooms made from twigs and shined the floors on our knees with old cloths.
It would be embarrassing for you to have visitors and your house wasn't anything but spotlessly clean.
God Bless you. You brought back wonderful memories...........
That doesn't look like it was an occupied apartment. For one thing, the stove doesn't look like it's connected to the fireplace (which would be the exhaust.) The baby looks like it was stuck in the picture by an early form of photoshop (retouching.) As commenters on the article said, said there are many pictures of tenement apartments that were kept as neat and clean as possible.
The stove wasn't vented and it does look as though it was abandoned. I have no idea why there was a toddler in that picture. Maybe the photographer paid the neighbor a small sum to borrow a child for five minutes. If you lived in that building you could certainly use the money.
I don't believe the photo is really where someone actually lived, I think it was staged because even the dirtiest and slopiest of people wouldn't live in that. I think it was staged.
I also read Jacoob Riis, Hoe the other half lives, many years ago, and not everyone that lived in tenements were slobs.
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