The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-08

WAITING FOR BREAD TICKETS.
sutton here. There always mllst be in SO
large a city. There is good deal more
now than is commonly the case at this
time of year, but there is no immediate
danger of starvation.
The neighborhood to which most at
tention is given by the newspapers is not
of large area lis traversed by Second
avenue, Allen street, Orchard street, At
torney street, Bayard street and cross
ing parallel thoroughfares, and is not
mile from the city hall. "A very large
proportion of tho inhabitants are He
brews from the east and south of Eu-
rope, as the names on the business signs
and the appearance Of the people them
selves testify abundantly.
The Worlds free bread bureau is in
the heart of this district at i54 Allen
street. I have paid several visits to this
place. The bureau is opened daily at
about o'clock in the morning, and there
is always crowd waiting for the loaves.
Many of the hands that reach for the
food are those of children, some of them
so young that they do not yet speak
plainly. Most of the applicants are
poorly dressed, most of them are dirty.
but very few of them look as if they
were starving. Some of the children,
as soon as they get bread, start away
on run, hugging the loaves with both
hands,
In some instances which investigated
the homes to which the little ones carried
the bread were destitute beyond descrip-
ton. In some other cases reported to
me by the police and by The Worlds
employees who give the bread away the
same applicant has come bachrepeatedly
within an hour. One boy of 10 confessed
that he had taken ~ loaves and given
them for a cent apiece TO a man waiting
around the corner. The man, it is said,
exchanged the bread for beer.
There is small ''delicatessen" store
next door to The Worlds bureau. Its
proprietor doesn't like the proximity of
the bureau, for, he says, his customers
have almost stopped buying bread from
him. He says there is plenty of destitu-
tiop in the vicinity, but the right ones
do not always get help at the bureau,
while many who have money enough to
buy take advantage OF this indiscrinli-
nate charity to get bread for nothing.
From as careful an investigation as
could make one Saturday and the fol-
lowing Sunday and Monday, should
say that most Of the inhabitants of the
neighborhood still have enough to eat
o,,I Nike rhc, 7-lpfc
the street stands, the soda water foun-
tains, and above all the saloons and the
tobacco stores, We're all open and seemed
to be doing fair business.
On Saturday afternoon and Sunday
especially the familiar pitcher of beer,
yclept the ..growier, was as common a
sight as it is in the fushest times. Many
of the men and women and boys and
girls met on the streets were badly clad,
some of them not much more than half
clad. Among the babies a few were not
clad at all But at this time of year
this means nothing one way or the
other. The weather on the days of my
pilgrilnages through the east side was
s,lffocatingly hot, and too many clothes
were burden to any one. Besides, good
clothes were not at all rare, and on Sun
day they were plentiful. the young girls
affecting white kid shoes to an alarming
extent, and not few of the youni; ren
wearing patent feathers. But tho prev
alence of good apparel means NO more
than its absence. It's wearers might be
without means through loss of the en-
ployment that had furnished the money
to buy the rainent in times of plenty
not yet long past.
Concerning the bread fund and the
free meals that are being furnished by
various agencies. the persons living on
the east side with whom | talked had
most diverse views. Some could not
praise these charities enough, while 9th
ers could not find words to express their
condemnation A man who has much
to do with one of the charity organiza-
tions, who for reasons which he thought
sufficient did not want his name men.
toned. said that in his opinion all such
indiscriminate charities work great
harm. especially at such time as this.
.They remind me of soup kitchens of
other days which we hoped had been
permanently done away with, he said
ssThey encourage idleness; they foster
paupsrism. More buns than deserving