Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-09
LONDON LODGINGS.
PLACES WHERE MANY OF THE GREAT
 clTY'S POOR FIND SHELTER,

The Common LoUSpS muse or Today
 Clean and Fairly Comfortable The
 Various Classes of Patrons-yiew of an
 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 ill this respect may be judged from the fact that in one common lodging house with which am acquainted a room now licensed te- 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- ishments, where all overworked housemaid Hicks the furniture with duster, tickles the carpet with 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 8 consequence the class of lodgers differs also. One proprietor, by keeping his house as dirty as he dares, se- cures the patronage of one class, while an- other, by making his house as comfortable as possible, attracts men of a 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 as though it were a double fronted shop with the shutters still up. That is common lodging bouse The door in the center is a swing door. Outside it @ 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 fxedly at nothing. Over the doorway at which the gentleman stands is the inscription in white letters on 8 black board, Registered Lodging House. Beds, 3111d. and 4d. a Night"
 Let us push the swing door open and walk in. It is broad daylight outside, but directly we have passed the swing door we find our selves almost in darkness. The room we are in is the ''kitchen," or common room, in which all the guests sit and take their meals, and amuse themselves until it is time to go up stairs to bed. cannot say how one of these kitchens would look in the glare of day.
 
 would be hospitably 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 are coy- cred with coat of some dirty looking prep aration.
 The light in these kitchens, then, is gener- ally of the dim, religious order It 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 o'clock. There will not be many ill this house because it is low house-that is to say, it is 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 @ night, arc largely patronized by workmen in regu- lar employment may astonish people who are not behind the scenes. But know in some of these houses workingmen who have lived there for twelve and sixteen years.
 These men are single men and widowers, and the houses which are for linen 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 a 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 pal to take hand 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 A."
 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 cludes chance customers and ''roughs," and his house becomes regular workingman's home.
 One great advantage that a man with regu- lar wages finds in these places is that he is able to keep valet. Yes, 8 valet. In all of these common lodging houses there are men who, for copper or so a week, "valet' for the aristocrats. For twopence 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 a dis cussion on any matter the faithful valet chimes in with his master and is always H. choose to make.-George R. Sims in Phila- delphia Times.
 Why the Boy Goes Wrong.
 The very wealth is at the root of it all Tho boy is indulged in money and the dis position of his time. He plays billiards and cards all night, smokes cigarettes immoder-