houses, on a scale that will enable a man who earns two dollars a day to occupy apartments fit for the residence of a family of human beings.  The time is ripe for it.  May we live to see in some densely populated portion of the city, a new and grander ASTOR HOUSE arise, that shall demonstrate to the capitalists of every city in America that nothing will pay better as an investment than HOUSES FOR THE PEOPLE, which snail afford to an honest laborer rooms in a clean, orderly, and commodious palace, at the price he now pays for a corner of a dirty fever-breeding barrack!

[Footnote 1:  Old Merchants of New York.  First Series.]