While waiting for my knock at the door of the rear tenement to be answered, I saw a young man, a lad, saunter into the yard, read the writing, and then hurry out. As I was leaving, having seen the dog’s license, another boy sauntered in, read the writing, and hurried out.
The dog-owner, on catching sight of the second boy as he entered, drew back and out of his sight. When I asked for an explanation, she assured me that the writing was the work of a gang of young crooks. She said everybody in the two houses knew about their writing signals on that fence, but dare not interfere. When I proposed to rub off the writing, she became alarmed and implored me not to touch it, not to walk on that side of the yard, or show that I saw it.
Not being a very gullible woman, I set about questioning janitors and dog-owners in that vicinity. According to these persons that gang was only one of many infesting that section. Several of them told me that she was in hourly dread of learning that her own son or daughter was a member of such a gang, and a criminal. Always the wail was:
“I can’t keep track of ’em. We had to take a boarder in to help us pay rent. Evenin’s there ain’t room here for us all to set down, much less have company. Young folks must have company.”
The persons responsible for these conditions, the tenement-owners, were ninety-nine out of every hundred well-to-do if not hugely rich. Their claim that it was the high cost of labor and materials that forced them to raise rents, in my district at least, was a lie.
During the last nine months of my service as inspector of dog licenses I made a point of asking in every tenement-house I entered, what repairs had been made during the past six months. According to my diary I found ninety-two houses where painting or repairs had been made at the expense of the landlord—ninety-two in the thousands, and tens of thousands, of tenement-houses in my district.
The vast majority of them not only made no repairs of any sort, but they cut down expenses. One nice little trick was to discharge a janitor to whom they had been paying a few dollars above the rent of her cellar or basement flat. After forcing her out or making her pay rent for her quarters, the agent would pick out a tenant, usually one with a small family, and notify the woman that she was to do the janitor’s work, scrubbing, sweeping, and keeping track of tenants, and her husband must do the repairs. For this they would be allowed five or six dollars a month on their rent.