Smyrna times., 1888-06-13

InteriOr-A Valet.
The common lodging house of today is
clean and fairly comfortable. Each house is
licensed to receive a certain number only;
every man must have bed to himself, and
each bed must have SO much space given to
it. The difference in this respect may be
judged from the fact that in one common
lodging house with which am acquainted a
room now licensed to- eleven beds formerly
contained twenty-eight. Moreover, the law
compels frequent sCrubbings of floors and
whitewashing Of walls, and the slightest case
OF illness must be at once reported to the
nearest police station. Seeing the class of
customers the proprietor has to accommO-
date, you may imagine that the floors of the
dormitories get a terrific amount of scrub
bing, with the result that they are far
cleaner and more wholesome than the car
peted rooms of many more pretentious estab-
hshments, where an overworked housemaid
hicks the furniture with duster tickles the
carpet with a brown and sweeps the fluff
under the bed.
There is very keen competition in the
trade, and some houses are naturally much
better than others As a consequence the
class of dodgers differs also One proprietor,
by keeping his house as dirty as he dares, Sc
other, by making his house as comfortableas
possible, attracts men of superior grade
But to thoroughly understand what the
common lodging houses are you must see
one. Come down this narrow, unswept and
under the weather looking street. You see
that house which looks IS though it were a
double fronted shop with the shutters still
up That is a commoa lodging bouse The
door in the center is a swing door. Outside
1t gentleman in the unpicturesQue tatters
OF our national costume is smoking a clay
pipe, and with his hands thrust in his trou-
sers pockets is looking fixedly at nothing.
Over the doorway at which the gentleman
stands is the inscription in white letters on a
black board, Registered Lodging House.
Beds, sgd and 4d a Night"
Let US push the swing door open and walk
in. 1t is broad daylight outside, but directly
we have passed the swing door we find our
selves almost in darkness The room we arc
in is the "kitchen," OF common room, in
which all the guests sit and take their meals,
and amuse themselves until it is time to 20
up stairs to bed. l cannot say how one of
these kitchens would look in the glare of day.
There is nothing TO show sunbeams that they
would be Hospitality received, and so they re-
main outside. And even there they are
snubbed, for, lest they should be inquisitive
and try and peep in at the lodging house
windows, the said windows are kept as grimy
as possible outside, and inside they arc COW
cred with a coat of some dirty looking prep
aration
The light in these Kitchens, then, is gener-
ally of the dim, religious order. 1t suits the
scene. The people who are sitting on the long
forms at the table, or crouching together
before the dull red fire, would, some of them,
look hideOus in the full light Of day. In the
red glow that the fire throws on them, as
they sit in the darkened room, they look al
most picturesque.
The workmen who live in these lodging
houses are not home yet. They will come in
about 6 o'clock There will not be many in
this house because it is a low house-that is
to say, it is a house frequented by tramps
and lOafers and shady customers, and more
over it is a "family house." and that means
women and children to disturb the harmony
of the evening In the common kitchen The
fact that these common lodging houses.
where beds are let out at fourpence a night,
are largely patronized by workmen in regu-
lar employment may astonish people who are
not behind the scenes. But I know in some
of these houses workngmen who have lived
there for twelve and sixteen years
These men are single men and widowers,
and the houses which are for 'men only''
suit them much better than private lodgings
would. First Of all the house is open night
and day; all day and all night the red fire
glows and is ready for man to cook his late
supper or his early breakfast at. Then there
is the society Of the other men, pipes and
conversation, and always a pal to take a
kand at cribbage, which is the fashionable
common lodging house game. Moreover,
each man has bed to himself, which in pri-
vate lodgings for workingmen is not always
obtainable. And there is always some one
to call him early in the morning, in order
that he may get up and go to his work, with
out having to pay the policeman on duty to
throw stones at his window and yell out that
it is "half-past f."
The common lodging house is to these men
home and club combined, and the proprietor
who gets this class of men-men in steady
employment tries to please them, and
gradually they I'LL his house, and then he ex-
cludes chance customers and ''roughs,n and
| his house becomes a regular workingman's
| home.
Ono great advantage that man with regu-
lar wages finds in these places is that he is
able to keep a valet. Yes, a valet In all of
these common lodging houses there are men
who, for copper or so a week, ''valet" for
the aristocrats For twopence a week paid
to poorer fellow lodger the aristocrat has
his boots blacked and his supper cooked. In
addition to this, the valet runs his masters
errands and keeps his favorite seat by the
fire till he wants it, and when there is dis
cussion on any matter the faithful valet
chimes in with his master and is always
ready to back him in any assertion he may
choose to make.-George r. Sims in Phila-
delphia Times.