Interior of the Leonard Household (La Presse, 11 April 1903).
The interiors of these over-crowded homes were as depressing as their exteriors. Lack of light, poor ventilation, and dampness made life uncomfortable as well as unhealthy for the poor. Open-flame stoves and shoddy building practices added the danger of fires and collapsing walls to an already precarious existence. In 1903, La Presse, a French newspaper in Montreal, ran this sketch along with a story about a poor family where a boy of eighteen was working day and night to support his widowed mother and his elder brother, a deaf-mute suffering from severe eczema. The family had lost their father earlier but more recently a sister had succumbed to consumption (T.B.). They were sustained by their neighbour's charity when the boy's wages were insufficient. The article called upon the authorities to intervene in such cases.
