3-077-752 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

America revisited by our Special Artist, 1890. 'Sketches in Shanty Town New York; pigeon houses; a back yard; her portrait; a Shanty Town matron; an annexe; the goats of Shanty Town...Shanty Town is a relic of New York's earliest days, and may be said to be more or less migratory...With the Irish characteristic of careless indifference to broken windows, damaged roofs, and dilapidated palings, Shanty Town has, nevertheless, many artistic attractions. The settlement is mixed up with rocks and hills, which provide quaint nooks and corners for ramshackle shanties, pigsties, cow-sheds, goat-pens, pigeon-cotes, and poultry-runs. The goat...may be said to have almost taken the place of the pig in this eminently Irish-American district. Of an inquiring nature, the goat of this region takes a deep interest in the refuse of the city...and...has become accustomed to the peculiar food which seems to underlie some of the local dust-heaps. Anyhow, this lively animal is continually foraging among the debris of the past and present which mark the frontier between the city and No Man's Land...The natives of Shanty Town, who have brought to America the chief characteristics of the Emerald Isle, are generally a civil-spoken and cheerful people'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.