Some of the shanties were dug-outs, and most had dirt floors.

In this manner lived, in a state of loose morality, Americans, Germans, Irish, Negroes, and Indians.

Some were honest and some were not; many were roughs and crooks.

Much of their food was refuse, which they procured in the lower portion of the city, and carried along Fifth Avenue to their homes in small carts drawn by dogs.

The mongrel dogs were a remarkable feature of squatter life, and it is said that the Park area contained no less than one hundred thousand 'curs of low degree,' which, with cows, pigs, cats, goats, geese, and chickens, roamed at will, and lived upon the refuse, which was everywhere.