St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-12

drink. AS rule. these houses do not
attract the honest, hard working, but
they are the great trusting place for the
''hobo" and the "wayhO, "who in every
day English are described as cramps
and buns" A tour of the cheap lodg-
ing houses shows them to be the merest
apologies for "a hOme," although in one
of these alleged hOStelries on Bridge
square the motto. God Bless Our
Home" stands out in bold relief on the
blackened and SmOke-begrimmed walls
procured for the modest sum of
10 cents, or single room for Is cents
per night. During the warm weather
these places are deserted, for the
gentlemen of the road'' who patrOniZe
the cheap lodging houses find it more
congenlal to their natures to bunk in
hay stack or an empty freight car than
in the small, stutfy, foul smelling and
vermin-ridden room which the host has
to offer them, provided. of course. they
have the requisite amount of the coin of
the realm to exchange for the favor.
With but few exceptions these places
reek with foul Odors, and fresh air is an
unknown quantity. The winter is the
lodging house keepers harvest, and
instead of making hay while
money" while the snow Is on the ground,
and the mercury in the thermometer is
trying hard 10 settle in the bottom of
the glass. A recent visit u some of the
lodging houses by a GLOBE reporter
showed they were even worse than they
have been pictured. On the top floor of
one of the large buildings Oh Hennepin
avenue one of these rookeries is in full
blast. Here bed can be had for the
modest sum of 10 cents, and the luxury
of a private room. which con-
sists of thin board partition
about eight feet high. can be
enjoyed upon the payment of
25 cents. Unlike the hotels, the bed
ding is not changed after every transient
guest, but it is made to do duty for
weeks at time; but the patrons of the
place are not over fastidious in their
tastes, and should one of them be sud-
denly transferred to a clean bed it is
dollars TO d0ughnuts that he would not
enjoy his rest half as much as he would
was he given his regular shake-down in
his favorite ''house." In one room lSX2O
feet there was row of beds, or hunks,
made of heavy timber around the four
sides of the room, and these were
supposed to afford accommodation
for from thirty to forty dodgers each
night. A big stove stood in the center
of the room. around which the dodgers
were gathered. The heat was oppres-
Sive and the air almost sitting, but the
ten tOugh-louking customers puffed
away at their pipes. and apparently
were not at all affected by the odors
which would make an ordinary man
sick. 1t was early in the evening when
the reporter visited the place. and the
regular crowd had not wandered in vet
from the saloons which cater to their
desires, but if the gang who were seat
ed on the rough benches and hunks
aronnd the stove were anything like
fair sample of the crowd which was to
follow later on, it showed plainly that
there is plenty of work left for the po-
lce yet, although Capt. Dan Day de-
clares the people in the world are get
ting better.
Another place on Bridge square was
visited. Here a man who tries to Sc
cure nights lodging for less than 25
cents will find himself unceremoniOuS-
ly hustled into the street by the muscu-
lar proprietor, who only wants "gentle-
men" as his patrons. The police keep a
sharp lockout for the ''gentlemen" who
patrOniZe this place, and the records of
The municipal court show that in more
than one instance the vigilance of the
officers has been rewarded, and now
some of the guests are either the guests
of the city. and are exercising their
muscles breaking stone, or they have
left this part of the country upon the
suggestion of Judges Emery or Ma
honey. Down on Washington avenue
several signs inform the pedestrians that
lodging can be obtained up stairs.
While some of them are just what they
profess to be. others are nothing more
nor less than designation houses, which
the police have called ''chippie nests"
From time to time raids have been
made upon these places and the pro-
prietors and inmates have been sent to
the workhouse or fined. No questions
are asked and everything is taken for
granted, and men and women are al
lowed to go and come in these places as
long as they have the money to pay for
room. A tour through these places
would furnish food for considerable
thought, and is apt to make over-sensi-
tive people exclaim, "Can such things
be?''