Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-07-11
BREAD FOR THE POOR
STARVING MEN WAIT NEARLY ALL
NIGHT Fer A HALF LOAF,

That Helps Many Hungry Wretch and
Saves Hundreds of Men from Crime,
Gaunt and ungainly are the shadows
J which stretch outover part of East Tenth
street between The hour of midnight and
DE first gray of the early dawn. Broad
way lies on one side, with its long lines of
great business buildings piling up and up
| and on and on s far as the eye can reach
block away, over on Fourth avenue
| there is more light, more life, more wan
| derers-mostly fashy boisterers from the
| Bowery resorts, little way below. Be-
tween, in the cross street, closed in by high
| massive walls on either side, there it is
| that the shadows grow dark and desolate
and forbidding.
On dark night it would appear that
way were it not for a little street lamp
| which sheds its glimmering rays out
| through the darkness until it meets and
dances merrily up on the shadowy walls
Then its light dances on down the street
| until it reveals dark, dense, suspicious
looking mass, huddled in a long line close
against the buildings walls, almost buried
into oblivion by The deeper shadows at its
base. Watch closely from the distance
and your eyes dc not deceive youths big
tently, orderly. You are not mistaken; it
is composed of men.
Curiosity may draw you nearer. You
begin to distinguish the component parts
OF the gathering. AS you See them dis
tinctly they do not inspire great deal of
confidence. There is nothing prepossessing
or reassuring about them. Indeed, as You
see how threadbare and ragged and dirty
and hungry-alnIost cadaverous-they look
you pause and debate whether it would
not be safer to retire while the opportunity
yet remains. You fail to understand what
is causing a congregation of these rough,
poor, destitute individuals at such an I'M
timely hour. You are uncertain whether
1t is strike, lockout or only a group of
sleepy laborers waiting for orders to begin
their daily toll.
II you decide to approach and investi-
gate you find that they are waiting in an
orderly line, the head Of which stands
close to wide, low little door in one OF
the big buildings There are anywhere
between 100 and 200 of them; and within
the little doorway there are two or three
lights, and two or three men busily en-
gagged in cutting into humps some white
material and tn rowing them into a man.
moth basket which takes up nearly all of
the door space. Behind them stands big
pile of the white stuff which they are so
rapidly cutting up and transferring to the
big basket
The mob OF ragged, hungry men are
waiting at 2:30o'clock in the morning. each
for one OF these hunks of bread which the
three men inside are getting ready to dis
tribute. Winter or summer, rain or clear
freezing, biting or blowing, hot, sultry or
suffocating, however the night may be,
this same hungry mob can be seen there
every morning, waiting for the three busy
men inside to dole out the mite which DOS
sibly alone can keep them from starving.
The loaves are all cut up into halves or
thirds, and the doing out begins 1t is
first come, first served. Every one knows
it, and there is no fighting, no crowding,
no pushing. no wrangling The line moves
up steadily, and as each ragged individual
grasps his quota of the white sweet bread
he bites off a huge mouthful and walks
away into the deserted streets, continuing
the first operation till every cr7lmb of his
chunk Of bread has been safely stored
away. He mas no questions to answer, no
certificates of poverty to present no tales
of misery or of misfortune to unfold, for
the proprietors of the great baking COM
pany, which thus disposes of its left over
bread, are satisfied that none but the
worthy, the destitute, the starving, would
wait in the street until or o'clock in the
morning for the humble stipend 1t is the
only private dole in all of the big metropo-
lis-indeed, the only one of any size or ex-
tent in the country
For fifteen years this same crowd of
poverty stricken and starving men has
waited patiently early every morning be-
fore the little door on Tenth street, and
-. -. -
pany began its practice of distributing its
left over bread of the day before among
the poor In 1871 the number of starving
men and women who flocked to its doors
became so large that the present system
of the early morning dole was adopted.
Women who were known to be destitute
and worthy were given cards. They call
during the day and get the quota which
is saved for them; they also are frequently
given coffee or something else to drink
The women who go regularly every day
for their share of bread number about
thirty, while he gathering of men who
stand in the dark street every morning
scarcely ever falls short of $50 An average
OF 100 loaves Of bread is the daily amount
divided among them.
With the services of the three men who
have charge O. the dole and other inciden-
tai expenses, the cost of keeping these $50
or 200 individuals from starving, possibly,
amount to about 500 per month, or be.
tween three and four cents day for each.
This includes the cost of the coffee, cup
of which is given to each man every morn
ing during the cold winter months.
Touching are the tales of gratitude which
occasionally reach the ears of the men who
dole out the bread and the superintendent
of the company, although they seldom
question the ragged recipients of the char
ity regarding their misfortunes. Mothers
with starving little ones at home, hus-
bands with wives md babies sick and
dying. brothers and si3ters whose faces are
haggard with hunger and wan with weary
watching over father. mother or loved
ones, hundreds of them find their way at
one time or another TO this quiet dole.
where they get the meager loaf which
tides them over for another days battle.
and no one is the wiser, for they come anL
go at the dead of night, while the well fed
city sleeps and no mortal ear can listen to