The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1892-07-14
BREAD FOR The POOR
STARVING MEN WAIT NEARLY ALL
NIGHT FOR A HALF LOAF.

] Saves Hundreds of Men from Crime.
Gaunt and ungainly are the shadows
which stretch out over part of East Tenth
| street between the hour of midnight and
the 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 as far as the eye can reach.
A 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 little street lamp
which sheds it's 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 long line close
against the buildings walls, almost buried
into oblivion by the deeper shadows at it's
base. Watch closely from the distance
and your eyes do not deceive you-this big
black mass moves about quietly, intermit-
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-almost 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 congregation of these rough,
poor, destitute individuals at such an I'M
timely hour. You are uncertain whether
it is strike, lockout, or only group Of
sleepy laborers waiting for orders to begin
their daily toll.
If 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 Jumps some white
material and throwing them into man.
moth basket which takes up nearly all of
the door space. Behind them stands a 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 230 o'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 pos
sibly alone can keep them from starving.
The loaves are all cut up into halves OF
thirds, and the doing out begins. 1t is
first come, first served. Every one knows
it, and there is ne 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 huge mouthful and walks
away into the deserted streets, continuing
the first operation till every crumb of his
chunk of bread has been safely stored
away. He has no questions to answer, nc
of misery or of misfortune to unfold, for
the proprietcrs of the great baking com
pany, which thus disposes of it's 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-
6s-indee6, the only one of any size. or ex-
sent 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
tmany years before that the baking COM
.pany began it's practice of distributing its
left over bread of the day before among
the poor. In 1877, the number of starving
men and women who flocked to it's doors
became 60 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 savedfor 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 the gathering of men who
stand in the dark street every morning
'scarceiyeeyer 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 of the dole and other inciden-
tai expenses, the cost of keeping these 1870
or 200 individuals from starving, possibly,
amount to about 500 per month, or be.
stween three and four cents a7day for each.
This includes the cost of the coffee, cup
of which is given to each man,every morn
ing duringHhe cold winter months.
Touching are the tales of gratitude which
occasionally reach the ears of the men who
dele 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 and babies sick and
dying, brothers and sisters 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 and
go at the dea of night, while the well fed
eli 4 .t.Iz