by the 1870s stepney contained many small houses with small backyards and no drainage. they were considered to be hotbeds of disease and fever. these houses, however, gave stepney much of its racy nature with its inhabitants developing strength in their inevitable struggles with life. in the late 1870s these struggles evidenced themselves in the pilfering of firewood and the subsequent use of dynamite in planted logs by the firewood owners, to exact retribution.