MISERY IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Southland Times, Issue 949, 11 May 1868, Page 2

MISERY IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Very yew of tbe 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 any thing 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 than four or sir 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 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 their pockets. They reach our Golden State with buoyant hearts, and high hopes of big things, but before they know it all their scanty means are gone, and they find themselves without a cen| or friend, and what is worse, without work. Having 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 A ;X in advance, and when, the last dollar is. expended the unfortunate fellows, hare fbund'the" bedrock," and are vi a coindition bordering on frenzy.. Thelhnch^c table to them is a blessing, and they i*re - to live upon what they can pick up. there and sleejfG-od knows where. • Onlyifew nights ago a policeman, while searching for some escaped prisoners from the Industrial School, discovered twenty-terea men sleeping under a pile of hay on one of the wharfs. The vigilant officer, being in the receipt of one hundred andirwentyfivfc dollars per month, could not realise that these twenty-seven men were too poor to. pay for abed, so he routed tbem out, and drove them away. A gentleman upon whom we can Tely informs us . that • he has many- times observed poor fellows who came to him for work and failed to obtain it, go out with great tears coursing down : their ; cheeks, and when they sup^ posed they were unseen, pick up* handful of wheat and devour it as some sweet morsel. At t these times he would call Ac poor fellows* back and give them a dollar or two and feel that the Eecording Angel had given him a credit mark;— r" San Francisco. Morning Call/ ;^r>