Source:No-thoroughfare/content
A queer transaction took place in the Fourth ward, a short time ago which is well worth having the sun light of publicity thrown upon it.
Down in that unsavory locality, the square bounded by Penn avenue, Duquesne Way, Seventh and Eighth streets, some poor people have been badly treated if the stories told by them are true. Between Seventh and Eighth streets there is an alley running parallel with them. This narrow passage way is called Maddox alley and it is claimed by a Mr. Moffat that it is a private alley which is his own peculiar property. He is very jealous of what he considers to be his rights, and he guards his alley with the care and watchfulness which a baron of the feudal period would expend upon some mountain pass between his domain and that of a powerful rival. Hay wagons and miscellaneous carts never rattle over the cobble stones of the alley. The drivers have learned by the result of many a bygone battle that it is not wise to attempt to save time and distance by making a short cut through the alley. The peregrinating vendor of milk, who supplies the families who live along the alley front, is the only person whose wagon wheels are free to pass upon this byway.
On the eastern corner of Maddox alley and Duquesne Way is a saloon. This saloon is about three feet from the edge of the alley. At the edge of the alley there is a board fence about fifteen feet high. This fence runs back about one hundred feet, and ends at a brick dwelling house, which is built flush upon the alley. Between the saloon and the fifteen-foot fence is a tiny alley, on which there is a door ten feet high, which completely shuts off communication in this dingy passage. In the rear of the saloon is an open yard, at the lower end of which is a strong board fence ten feet high, which extends east and west from the fifteen-foot fence to the rear of a high brick building. Both the ten foot fence and the door in the little alley are new and bear unmistakable evidence of having been recently erected. This is the turning point in the story. The brick dwelling house which is at the end of the fifteen foot fence and which runs along Maddox alley, is an old fashioned building with no exit opening upon the alley. This building belongs to Bishop John Tuigg and by him its use is donated to a number of families who are poverty stricken and cannot pay rent. Six families who number altogether sixteen persons reside in this house. Several of them are cripples, and there are three or four aged men and women and some very young children among them. The only manner in which these persons have been in the habit of getting out to the streets, has been to cross the yard in the rear of the saloon and come out through the little alley. The erection of the ten-foot fence and the new door has cut off all means of egress or ingress except by climbing over the fence and the door.
The saloon, as well as the row of houses, on Duquesne Way, alongside of the saloon are the property of Mrs. Emma Perry, of Allegheny, and are part of the old Perry estate. It is said that Mrs. Perry did not want to allow persons to pass over the vacant lot unless she was paid for it. It is also said that Mrs. Perry was promised payment, and when she did not receive it she got angry and ordered the erection of the fence and door. This fence was put up two weeks ago and the women and children have to climb over the fence as best they can. They are not even allowed to open the alley door, but have to climb over it also. The saloon keeper who rents from Mrs. Perry is not allowed to let the people pass through his place. The row of houses on Duquesne Way are all foul, low houses of prostitution. If they were torn down there would be room for the poor and aged to pass.
