The Gilded Age was a time of severe poverty for the lower and middle class. The differences between the these two classes and the Upper class was dramatic. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with the lower classes measures the change which has come with civilization. The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also great. These words by Andrew Carnegie from, "Wealth," 1889, give a good description of the what the differences were between the wealthy and the poor.
The Gilded Age was also tough for immigrants. Mostly immigrants went to cities and sections of cities where people of their own country lived. Italians from Naples lived on Adams street in Brooklyn, in houses that were made of wood. Several of these houses had more than a couple of floors. One man named, Bartolo, had a room on the third floor and there were fifteen men in the room, all boarding with him. He did the cooking on the stove in the middle of the room and there were beds all around the stove, one bed above the other. It also got very hot during the summer and deathly cold in the winter. Eventually these immigrants living with Bartolo were able to rent their own apartments and make a decent living. Most immigrants, when they first came to America said when they made enough money to buy a farm or land in their home country, they would return. However, most immigrants made so much they decided to stay.
Most people who lived in poor neighborhoods or places where they lived with people form their own country lived in Dumbbell tenements. In the middle of this tenement their would be a public hall. One side of this hall would lead to a section with at least two bedrooms with many people living in each. Then there would be a living room and parlor where people could spread out a bit. To the other side, there would be about four more bedrooms, much smaller than the other bedrooms, but consisting of the same amount of people.
