Stephen Smith

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1,482 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 23 Jul

Stephen Smith’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Through the Looking Glass · City That Was - Stephen Smith · 23 Jul 2026 podcast

The

There are nearly two hundred slaughterhouses, many of which are in the most densely populated districts.

To these places, droves of cattle, hogs, and sheep are constantly driven, rendering the streets filthy in the extreme, and from them flow blood and refuse of the most disgusting character.

In certain populous sections are fat boiling, entrails cleaning, and tripe curing establishments, which poison the air for squares around with their stifling emanations.

To these must be added hundreds of uncleaned stables, immense manure heaps, etc, etc, but I shall not dwell further on these subjects and the evidence regarding them.

I pass from the consideration of the external to the internal domiciliary conditions.

The poorer classes of New York are found living either in cellars or in tenement houses.

It is estimated by the city inspector that eighteen thousand persons live in cellars.

This is also the estimate of the police.

The apartments of these people are not the light and airy basement rooms of the city.

of the better class houses, but their homes are, in the worst sense, cellars.

These dark, damp, and dreary abodes are seldom penetrated by a ray of sunlight, or enlivened by a breath of fresh air.

I will quote several descriptions from these reports.

In the fourth ward, many of these cellars are below tide water, says the inspector of that district,

This submarine region is not only excessively damp, but is liable to sudden inroads from the sea.

At high tide the water often wells up through the floors, submerging them to a considerable depth.

In very many cases, the vaults of privies are situated on the same or a higher level, and their contents frequently ooze through the walls into the occupied apartments beside them.

Fully one fourth of these subterranean domiciles are pervaded by a most offensive odor from this source and rendered exceedingly unwholesome as human habitations.

These are the places in which we most frequently meet with typhoid fever and dysentery during the summer months.

I estimate the amount of sickness of all kinds affecting the residents of basements and cellars compared with that of the

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