Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-06-02
may be in, there always remains tender

may 10 IL, CueIe Always remains tender
spot for woman.
thrown up, and although brisk southwest
wind brought to our nostrils the far-famed
fragrance of Bridgeport, it was as after of
roses compared with that we had lust in
hailed. I entered into conversation with the
proprietor, and found that he lodged from
thirty to seventy-fve persons nightly, the
majority being those who could pay from
five to ten cents night. The
hunks, when I visited them, were
not quite half full. What pest-houses
the rooms must be when they contain seven
ty-fve human beings can be imagined when
say it would be overcrowding them to put
more than half dozen persons in them
overnight.
OTHER QUARTERS.
| spent the night and part of the next
night in further prosecuting my researches
into the manner of conducting the cheap
lodging houses of Chicago. found a score
of places for which the above description
will answer. The proprietors were mostly of
the same stamp-rough, perhaps dissolute,
but generally kind-hearted when the right
spot is touched. ''You see,'' said one of
them. "we have 10 handle some pretty tough
cases, and mans got to be rough and hard
with them sometimes Some of the LODI
ging houses are far more pretentio.s, how
ever. At almost every turn We see the glar-
ing trasparencies of somebody's European
hotel,' and one of these places is even dig
niied with the high-sounding name of
Buckingham Palace lodging from ten to
thirty cents. In these latter places the poor
| tramp can secure much better acco1nmods-
tons than at the place have described-that
| is, there is perhaps a handful more hay in the
tick, and the sheets are not used more than a
couple of weeks without making the
acquaintance of soap and water. But as
| the style increases, am sorry to say their
moral character lowers, and they become
simply the resorts of street-walkers and their
prey. This so-called better class of lodging
houses cause the police infinitely more
trouble than the slow down. ones, and it is
these houses that may ultimately bring the
whole system into such disrepute that meas
ures for their suppression will have to be
undertaken.
In my midnight pereginations about town
I stumbled across cheap lodging house that
was not only credit to the proprietor but a
positive benefit to the city, and after looking
over it and noting its operations, was only
sorry the city had SO few like it. 1t is located
on Clark street, within stones throw of the
armory. in four story brick building, use
less, by reason of Its location, for any Other
purpose. 1t is kept by a man named Thomp
son. found him quiet, pleasant gentle.
man, with a keen eye for business. He
readily assented to my request for permission
to visit his lodging rooms, and volunteered
to accompany me. His prices range from
ten to 25 cents a night. His main lodging
room I found to be hall about eighty feet
long by twenty wide, and it was nearly filled
with sleepers, lying on rough cots
arranged in three rows down the full
length of the hall. The beds ant
pillows were of straw or hay, the blankets
although rough, were apparently clean ane
sweet, and the sheets We're about such as on
might expect in a third class hotel. Their
was good draught of fresh air, and an al
most entire absence of the foul odors tina
had characterized nearly all the other place
had visited. Another floor was devoted t,
the twenty and twenty-five cent dodgers. |
consisted of small rooms partitioned off wit
boards to a height of about ten feet, SO tina
all foul air arises and is swept away by tn
current that flows constantly overhead. TIL
: entire place was clean free from noise an
disorder, and every way creditable. lib
Young Mems Christian Association has es
tablished free reading room and a chea
eating house on the ground floor, and MI
Thompson urges his patrons to make tn
reading room their principal resort. He in
formed me that he rarely had trouble with
guest, most of those who patronized him be
| ing men of good habits temporarily in dis
tressed circumstances. He claims that he
making good living, besides laying b
something for rainy day.
The good and the evil Of cheap lodgin
, houses are mingled in such equa
proportions that it is hard to decid
whether they are a benefit c
an injury to the city. They no doubt furnis
shelter to many deserving poor who, withou
them would be driven to the streets, and pei
haps to join the ranks of the criminal arm,
But they also harbor thieves, vagabonds an
prostitutes who should be doing the count
service, and by their cheapness encourag
, habits Of sloth in the shiftless. I would lik
to draw moral from what witnessed anon
them, but feel incapacitated for the task, an
therefore leave it for my readers. WILL.