The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-05-25
" ANY CHILDREN 2"
Difficulties Encountered by Par
ents i'm Search of Houses.

THERE is a growing custom in every
EES large city, including San Francisco,
S1SS that should be frowned down, or the
law will have to step in to the rescue of q
certain portion of the population. This
custom is, declining to let houses or flats to
families with children.
1t is almost the first question asked, eS-
pecially If it Is a fiat that is wanted, and if
the answer is in the affirmative the appll-
cant is snubbed and insulted. till he leaves
under the impression that he is very vi
ciOus man for having dared to cucumber
hi mself with family.
1t is generally childless landlords or land
ladies who object-people who have done.
nothing for the world save to gather little
filthy lucre" by having no family to bring
up, and who think that those who have
should have saved just as much and have
homes of their own, never taking into con-
sideratiOn that 1t takes less money TO
house, dress and feed two than IL does to
do the same for seven or eight IL this Gus
tom progresses steadily with the increase of
the population the married people with
children will have to camp in the streets or
on empty lots, like gypsies but there being
so many, neither the sidewalks nor lots
could contain them all, so what are the re-
mainder going to do?
1t seems very funny to childless people,
or to some who have grown so old they
nave IOTBOlleU llaI youth Is q Necessity, DuL
to the parents it is a very serious matter.
IL takes years of steady work for a man
with several children to lay by enough to
purchase home OF his own, although some
associations have lately bravely come to his
rescue, for his children must be just as we'll
dressed as other peoples to 60 to school, or
their little lives are made miserable by the
disagreeable remarks of little incipient Cos
sips. They must have plenty of wholesome
food, too, or they could never get through
the mass of study and tyrannous home
work that they are compelled to accomplish
in the public schools, so when q man can
only save little, that perhaps is soon scat
tered by sickness or tyrannical strike,
what is he to do?
This constantly refusing to rent houses
to families is q bid for immortality, or worse
crime, because the first want Of a civilized
human being is a roof to cover him, and
when that is denied W hat will be the conse-
quences?
1t is strange that no one has written on
this subject before, condemning in scathing
terms the indignities heaped upon the only
people OF any account in the world who
rear the future Presidents, Senators,
Judges, merchants and mechanics, but for
whom this beautiful country would be, in
the course Of fifty years, as dead and desc
shares would rust in the furrow, the ships
would rot upon the ocean, the streets
would be silent and deserted, the houses
and palaces would become heaps, and the
land a bowling wilderness. And yet these
people who accomplish so much are again
denied lodging place. Is it not preposter-
Gus Surely the soured moneyed man, or
the childless house-ownerS must have lost
their senses. Is there no way to find that
lost commodity for them3
AS in every perfect tragedy there is a lit
tie comedy, so even in this serious matter
there are some funny incidents.
A gentleman trying in vain to obtain a
house finally let his wife aud children go
for holiday to the cemetery and he went
house-huntiDg alone. Finding 4 house that
suited him the first question asked was:
ANY children?"
YES" with sigh, "but they are in the
cemetery" So he rented the house and
moved in the next day.
When the landlord noticed his family
some time after he said angrily:
Il thought you told me you had no chill
dren?"
Excuse me, sir, but 1 did not. 1 said
they were in the cemetery. So they were
ON holiday with their mother"
Another gentleman replied to the cues
ton. ANY children?"-
"Yes, madam, but if you say so I'll take
them out and drown them," or something
10 that effect, but he did not get the rooms.
The following one is from Chicago: A
lady noticing a little girl living in fat ex-
claimed:
"How did you get here?"
"Oh, was born here"
And that is about the only way children
can get into houses nowadays. More anon.
A. X. q.