The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1884-04-16
OF CITY LIFE.
A GLANCE AT NEW YoRK's CHEAP
LODGING AND EATING HOUSES.

a AT NEW 4OhhS S611Af
LODGING AND EATING HOUSES.
Restaurants Where Meals a He Obs
tanned for Six Cents-Beds for Five
Gent n Night.
The Ben FranklinS who come to town
every day to make their everlasting for
tunes do not need to buy rolls and walk
about the streets eating them. They can
procure Il meal for very little more than
the price of the rolls. The n~cwsboys
arc not the only persons who get their
meals for six cents, although they get
more for their money in tho homes cstab-
li>hcd for them than can be got by other
BOYS in other businesses. Their pennies
buy regular meals, with vegetables, bread,
butter, coffee and cake or pic. In Chat
ham street. Hudson street. Ninth avenue
and down by the Battery are res
taurantS in which 4 large por-
ton of meat, accompanied by Il Sllcc
of bread and a tablespoonful
of mashed potato, costs only six cents.
For twelve cents. or fifteen cents III the
dearest o: these places, coffee and PIE
arc added. The proprietor OF a very
D~opular establishment in 4 cellar IN the
Bowcry supplies generous pieces OF beet
steak, with bread and butter, for SIX
cents. They arc cut from the round ana
are sometimes Il little tough, but they
are not broiIcd until they have been well
rounded. and they are not served until
they have been buttercd. There are
many persons, even among those VINO
can afford portcrhousc and tcndcrloin,
who insist that there is Il better flavor
and more nutrimcnt in the round OF beef
than in any other portion, so that the
Bowcrv bccfstcaks have always been III
great demand.
. The modern Ben Franklin is not
Obliged to hunt out some modest home
wherein room can be made for another
member of the household. He could not.
in our days. get Il room and bed Tor less
than 50 or So Il week in such a dwelling
as the original Franklin found. But beds
can be had in New York for five cents a
night. The brisk competition in the
clearinghouse business has been of great
advantage to the young men who are
struggling for a foothold in New York.
Not only have the prices of beds been
brought down lower and lower, but the
councillors now vic with one another in
making their houses as attractive rs pos
siblc. Ten years ago it Wal safe to say
that a cheap lodging house was a filthy
place without seeing more of it than It's
street signboard. Now, the most dainty
lady need not be afraid to make Il tour Of
he Drin cipal ones.
Look into the biggest Il Ill the Bow
cry. 1t is OH u corner below GRAND
street. The rooms are let fortwcnty-tlve
cents a night. You enter at the end OF
the building on the side street and at the
head Of the stairs come to 4 little window
at which the quarter dollars of the custo-
mcrs are exchanged for the keys of the
rooms The keys, which have numbered
bits of brass attached to them, serve as
tickets of admission at the door further
along. The lodging house consists OF two
floors, cachas big as the inside of an extra
large Broadway store. 1t presents to the
eve of the visitora number of narrow pas
sarc ways leading between partitions only
seven feet high, The ceilings are seven
or eight feet above these partitions.
Seven feet apart along these passage ways
arc doors opening into the little DoN-llkc
rooms. The wall and doors arc white and
clean. There is Il faint smell of carbollc
acid in the air. Each tiny bedroom IS
furnished with one chair, a cot, three
clothes-hooks, a bowl, pitcher, and a
thrcc-lcggcd iron washstand. The pillow
and sheet on each bed arc white, the blue
counterpart looks neat, and the walls are
white and clean. The floor is bare. Here
and there are to be seen rooms wherein
cheap chromos are pinned upon the board
walls. Their presence shows that the
room is hired by the week, but if you
look for Il trunk or satchcl belonging to
the tenant YOU are apt to be disappointed
nine times in ten.
On the first floor of this and all other
BIG lodging houses a large space in front
of the rows of bedrooms is fitted up as
a lounging and reading-room. These are
the rooms passengers on the elevated
railroads notice all along the main ave-
nucs down town, where arc always to be
seen many young men with their feet up
and their chairs tilted back, smoking,
reading. or looking out upon the street.
Each room has a big table, and the news
papers, pens, ink, and checkcrboards on
these tables show how the dodgers may
spend that spare time which most of
them possess in abundance
" 81 tI, 3n,, Jnnt 1nl1cnS fha mods
are not separated by partitions. They
are arranged in rows in big rooms, just as
hospital cots are. Each ledger hangs his
clothing on the chair by his bedside. a
Waterman stands guard ovcrthc pockets
and property of the sleepers. The big
gest tivc-ccnt clearinghouse in New York
is in the old coIorcd grammar school
building in Thompson street. 1t is an
exaggerated ships Storage, or rather
three stccragcs, one above another. The
walls of the former class rooms have been
removed, and each spacious floor is now
an immense room filed with donblc hunks
built close together. The hunks arc
heavy wooden frames, and look like one
kitchen table set OH top Of another. They
arc two feet apart. There are eighty or
ninety of these frames on the first floor,
the only one the reporter visited. No
women are admitted to any OF these
places. The floor had been scrubbed
and the walls were clean. Each lodgcr
gcts Il bed to himself under cover IN a
heated room. The place suggested a
catacomb, but the price was only five
ccnts.-Ncw IOr% SIM.