davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

time when the cry of the unemployed
pierced the ear of the humane, | feebly
suggested that the waste of this market
would fill many empty stomachs, where
upon was denounced as brutal pluto
crat who desired the poor to feed on gar
bage. Yet this garbage contained more
starch, which is the true staff of life, than
porterhouse steaks
Association among females who have or
who choose to earn their own living is be-
ing rapidly adopted in the East, and Will
some day be the fashion here. G1rIs lett
penniless, or girls who chafe at the re-
strants of a parental home. are clubbing
together as bachelor maids, and living
economically by dividing the expenses OF
a household. Typewriters, cashiers, clerks.
forewomen OF stores, artists, actresses,
teachers and dressmakers can hire an
apartment for two or three, and make
their in comes 60 much further than they
would if disbursed singly. 1t their means
allow, they can hire Chinaman, and en-
tertain; if their resources are more Inn
tied, they can occupy a bedroom and par
lor make their breakfast and lunch in
their own rooms and dine at a restaurant
for % or so cents. The result is equivalent
to an increase of salary, and the material
gain is sweetened by a feeling of perfect
liberty.
Time was when landlords would have
given sucn bachelor NJ aids the CLASSY eye.
A man who did so now would be seen to
be behind the age and would inspire his
acquaintance 10 put the toe of boot to a
use for which it is admirably adapted.
Economy is the lesson of the hour. The
struggle Tor existence is bound to become
more and more desperate as the years roll
over. The army OF workers all over the
world is growing faster than the volume
of work, and, though here and there
community NAV barricade itself against
the com petition of rivals, labor, like
water, will in the long run flow into every
hole that is left open. You can no more
dam it ont than Mrs. Partington could
check the flow of the Atlantic with her
broom. Demagogues and fools fancy they
can suspend the laws of nature and the
laws of trade by EN- pirical statutes, but
there never was law yet which could
maintain the rate of wages when three
men stepped forward to do the work that
had always been done by two.
All over the world. but especially in
this country, hard times and flush times
ebb and flow with monotonous regularity.
Before the war The merchant in New York
brought up a family on $4,000 year, and
had York shilling lett to put in the plate
at church. Presently the war came, and
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

with the visitors. and the keepers OF the
oens made money rapidly. Quincy street
and st. Marys place to-day are decorum
personifed compared with what these
old-time streets were.
''Then came the cutting through Of
Montgomery avenue and the expansion
OF Chinatown. Pacific street above
Kearny, Clay, Washington and Sacra-
mento streets and Waverly place were
gradually filled with the Chinese horde $,
and the white inhabitants were driven
out. residents of North Beach used
Montgomery avenue and Kearny street
on their trips up and down town, and vice
was slowly but surely thrust into the
background.
"Walk along the coast to-day and note
the change that has taken place even in
the past ten or twelve years. Ask the
special and regular officers and they will
tell you the Barbary Coast is dead and
fingers only as remem brance. Occas ION
ally dark deeds are committed there. but
not oftener than they are in other quar-
ters of the city. The tenements of Hinck-
ley alley and Pinkney street still swarm
with the poorer elements of society, but
they have lost their prominence in Police
Court reports. The Mexican houses of
ill-fame and the fandango dens have
disappeared from Broadway and
the upper end of Kearny street.
The Bull Run has been pulled
down to make way for three-stofy brick
building swarming with Chinese. 'Hells
Kitchen has been transformed into a
Chinese hospital, and might, therefore,
well retain its old name. The Pacific
Melodeon is a memory. On the ruins OF
Canterbury Hall stands the International
Hotel. The Bella Union, after making
the fortunes Of some and running others,
is now given over to the rats. Two or
three dives on Kearny street exc out a
precarious existence where there were
once five times as many in every block do
ing a rushing business. Every other
saloon bears the sign To Let. and the
owners of those still open are barely max
ing living. Down on Pacific street few
dives still remain that are patronized by
negroes and drunken sailors, and where
white and colored women of the lowest
class are employed as mattresses; but
even these places, bad as they are, no
longer bear the unsavory reputat ions that
athey did fifteen or twenty years ago. The
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

intact, but it does bring with it many ad-
ditionai responsibilities and worries, and
the hardest thing which he has had to
encounter, so far, has been the standing
OFF, of the swarms of aspirants for "jobs"
under his administration.
To the uninitiated it would seem that
the position of dog-catcher, or deputy
poundman," as it is more euphoniously
difficult to fill, even when there was a
scarcity of work in all other lines.
The person who makes a business OF
gathering in unlicensed animals is kind
of pariah in the eyes of the general public
who really owe him a debt of gratitude
for the disagreeable but necessary labor
which be performs for the benefit of the
municipality. We had an object lesson
as to what the city would be without him
and We ou ght. to appreciate him-but we
don't.
Men, women and children fairly hate
the sight of HIM as he pursues his daily
rounds; dogs who are secure in the
possession of up-to-da tags bark def
ance at him, and in sections of the town
where conventionalities are at discount,
and the residents believe in simple but
direct outward expression OF inward feel
ing, he is made a target for any old thing
in the way of missiles, verbal or mater ial,
that comes handy.
He occupies much the same place in the
estimation of the community as the EN-.
balmers did in ancient Egypt; but thev
were born to their bus lness and could not
escape from it. while dog-catching is not,
hereditary. No one is obliged TO 'go on
the wagon" as the professional phrase is
unless he wants to, but l received one of
the surprises of my life when visit TO
the po und, before matters were quite SET
tied there showed me how many persons
there are who are wildly eager 20 occupy
such places in spite o f the aggressive un-
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

1t is a great thing to be a dispenser OF
atronage, even If there is very little pat
nnage to dispense.
Some people who arrive. either by the
ecree of fate, a happy accident or their
>wn exertions, at the proud position OF
beirg able 10 give a. Iaces" to a favored
selection of their felIow-mortals, become
at once haughiIy arrogant of manner,
dictatoriai of speech and unpleasngly
cZariike in their genera characters les.
There is. however, a man whose place Of
business is down on The corner of Six
teenth and Alabama streets who has
managed, so far at least. 10 remain un-
spoiled by his sudden elevation TO a posi-
ton OF authority, where he has the un-
diputed power OF appointing no less than
six subordinates. And that mana rara
avis of his kinds the recently installed
Poundmaster of our town.
Many reputable persons who were we'll
acquainted with Mr.. Holbrook when he
was just the P ain, unpretentious, ap-
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals are willing TO depose that he has
not put on one single extra frill during
the whole week that has elapsed since he
received his commission from our truly
good Supervisors. And L mvself am will
ing 10 testify that he has preserved his
courteous and amiab.e manner and his
cherubic smile throughout an ordeal
which could be no less than trying to the
bravest soul.
Dog-days, be it known. are just over in
this locality. According to well regu-
la ed almanacs, OF course, the reign of
Sirius begins in the latter part of July and
ends in the early part OF Septem Der in
the rest of the United States. Our glo-
Tious climate, however, has its eccentrici-
lies, and majority of our cily fathers
have theirs likewise; therefore it came
about this year that the dog-star was
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28
)LBR00K THE NEW P0UNDNHN BEGINS HIS Dulles

the Jobs sake won't have any show with
the present 'poss' He will employ such
men as the society employed formerly
decent fellows, who will obey orders and
treat people civilly under all circum-
stances, and he will look after every detail
OF the business personally. The pound is
to be a shelter and refuge and a release
from suffering, instead OF a place or
torture
When [ took my departure there was
small crowd of men leaning against the
fences and squatting about on convenient
protuberances in the immediate vicinity
of the home, waiting patiently for the re-
turn of the "head man"
Thay looked at me curiously as
passed, possibly thinking that l was T
''new woman" who, being anxious
open another avenue of employment II
my sisters, had put in an application ft
one Of the positions which they coveted.
One of them, a rodent-faced youth with
a crafty smile, being bolder and more
business-like than the rest, followed ma
for little distance down the street and
then accosted ME with humble Differences:
Begging yer pardin, lady," he said,
thave yer got pull wild de bossP"
l hesitated. Here was chance to shine
by reflected glory if my conscience would
only allow it-but 1t wouldn't.
No" | answered truthfully, Il
haven't" And then he squirmed insinu-
atingly, looking up at me sid ewise under
his sandy eyelashes.
'I'm a poor young felly, lady, n I've
got mudder ter look out fer, n I'm just
dead stuck on animels. I'd do EN- up in
pink cotton and feed 'em on porter
houses if I had nv way n | wouldn't
even hurt dere feelins if you'd pay me ter.
l wish you'd just speak a good word fer
me amy way.
He gave me his name and address and
extorted promise that l would think
about it.
l am thinking about it yet.
FLORENCE MATHEsoN.
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

popularity, present and future-for to
have been dog-catcher is scarcely first
class recommendation when in search of
other employment-which it's occupancy
entails upon them.
l went over to the home because an
Eastern visitor, who is an authority on
such subiects-by the way, our visitors
always find out more about US than we
know ourselves-told me that it was the
best arranged place for the detention and
disposal of vagrant amin ais in the whole
country, and l wanted to view it for my
self before it was inhabited by pathetic
eyed creatures sorrowing over present
captivity, or dropping under the shadow
OF coming tragedy.
All that my Eastern informant had
said | found TO be strictly true. | found
commodious yards and comfortable shell
ters provided for the larger animals. and
the dog pens of wire netting in the inte-
rior OF light, well-ventilated building,
where every possible arrangement is made
for the we'll being of the innocent prison
ers while they are awaiting extradition or
execution. l saw the BEDS which are
folded against the wall during the day
and let down and filled with clean straw
at night, the big cans in which their food,
regularly contractedfor scraps from
downtown restaurants, is brought and the
troughs in which it is served. l saw the
lethal cham Der and the gigantic butterfly
nets and the gray circus wagon which are
the scepter and throne OF the catcher"
and l saw the $500 ambulance for sick
and disabled animals, which is, as it de-
serves to be, the soclety's pride.
All these l beheld, and more-the dor
mitories for the employees, their lockers,
and the well-furnished kitchen, where, if
they choose to bach il" they may cook
their own food and eat it in peace andIquiet.
And through all that long morning which
l spent in investigation and admiration
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

Borough of Bronx is 10 be set apart for
the working class. and vast edifices, like
the Mills Hotel, are to be constructed
especially for clubs or communities of
working women; the elevated railroads
have agreed to carry them back and forth
from the borough to the hives of industry,
morning and evening, for nominal sum.
We have no such buildings here. In
parts OF the Mission and South San Fran
cisco rooms can be hired for 81 a month;
but they are small, ii-lighted, ill-venti-
lated and in a miserable neighborhood.
A well-situated room, with a ray of sun
light for an hour or two, few sticks OF
furniture and large enough for two girls,
costs about $5 month. To this must be
added carfare, which will amount for
each lodger to 81 so a month and will
swell the rent, if there are two girls in the
room, to $40 month. Thus one-tourth
of the income of the two girls is con-
sumed by rent, leaving not much over
$26 or $27 for food. washing, clothing,
light and fire for two persons.
The case would be different if ten girls
associated themselves together to hire a
cottage or small four-room house, which
can be obtained in the Mission for $40 or
$12 so month. Such houses are not
being frequently built now, but the new
houses with modern Improvements are
causing the old houses to be vacated, and
very snug cottages can be got for $12 So
By alternating, each girl taking her turn
in kitchen and laundry, the whole party
would be independent of the restaurant
and could live we'll on moderate sum.
The essential articles of food - milk,
bread, mush, macaroni, beans, the fore
quarter of mutton and stewing pieces of
beef-can be bought cheaply by one who
knows how TO market, and can be made
palatable and nutritious by one who knows
how to cook. In France. where dietetics
have been carried to perfection, the main
article of food is soup, made of beef and
vegetables, often without the beef. A
French soldier speaks of dining as manger
la soupe. In B 3ston restaurants have
lately been started where they serve moth
ing but soup at cents plate-a plate is
dinner for a bricklayer. Here, where
some kinds of fish and almost all veget-
ables are very cheap, chowder is made
by cooks who possess the art. A bowl of
it would have satisfied the hunger of Gar
gantua.
Being blessed with a superhuity of
vegetables, San Franciscans regard them
with contempt. There are more vegetables
thrown away out of the great Italian
market than the city OF Chemnitz con-
sumes. l remember that once upon q
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

coffee; and there are cheap eating-houses
in the side streets where they furnish
cup of coffee with bread for cents.
Even these prices are too high for the
poorest paid working girls. They buy
o-cent loaf and scent quart of milk,
which serve them for two meals making
each meal cost cents. They have not
vet reached the extreme economy of the
Paris ouvriere, who buys a 1-cent loaf
and a 1-cent mug of milk and makes
hearty breakfast for cents.
so far as the women are concerned. thi.
question OF feeding has moral as well as
physical aspects. A young girl will not
allow herself to starve to death if smile
Will procure her access to well-supplied
tables. And with her, raiment is as per-
emptory necessity as food. Several
years ago. it fell to my lot TO probe thi.
question OF female labor in San Francisco
and derived much instruction from the
wise talk of Mrs. Bacon, who had made
the subject Iife-study, and was clear
headed and sagacious woman. She said
that American born girls were too proud
to go out to service; that they would
rather accept EN- ployment in a store or
factory at $5 week than work in a pri-
va,e house for the same pay, with board
ana lodging thrown in. They wanted to
De saiesladles, not servants. "The conse-
duence" said Mrs. Bacon, twas that it
was always with them an alternative
whether 10 stint their back or their
stomach"
In TACT girls who are working for $4 or
20 week must stint both, and it is amaz-
ing under the circum stances that so few
OF them accept the helping hand which is
stretched forth to succor them. Most OF
them have found that they can fight the
battle of life to more advantage if they
share their room and their fortune with
another girl. But two girls can hardly
1--we Tor less money than twice one. The
Dement'S OF association can only be realized
when 1t embraces several-half a dozen
or dozen. Quarters which are required
TO house two girls will shelter four. Six
girls can establish mess like miners or
soldiers, and the food which would be
bought for three will satisfy the whole
party. When there are only two in the
menege, cooking is often bore, and the
girls go out to restaurant, where, for the
sake OF economy, they eat too little TO
keep them in health. Doctors say that
working girls are generally imperfectly
nuuris he'd.
When party of working girls under
take to live together the question OF lodg-
ing is always embarrassin In the
Greater New York the eastern end OF the
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

the same merchant spent his $4,000 a
year. and acted a> if he had been o the
manner born. The war ended specie
payments were resumed, wheat fell to so
cents bushel at the place of prod uction,
the supply of young men seeking employ
ment exceeded the supply of places seek
ing occupan is, and hard times came again,
with their old grim force 1t was grind.
1t is always good deal pleasan ter TO ex-
pand than to contract. A man can swell
his expenditure with a smiling face, but
when he fnds that he must cut down his
expenses he tastes the bitterness of des-
tiny, and if his head is not quite level he
is apt to impute his enforced economy to
the demonetizasion of SILVER, or some
other rot.
We in San Francisco were born with a
silver spoon in our mouths and we de-
cidedly object to taking 1t out 1t is not
so very long since the carpenters and
painters got their So day, and gentlemen
smoked 50-cent cigars, and the normal
price of drink was quarter. 1t is hard
to convince ourselves that this was an ex-
ceptional state of things; that we were
taking flight into the blue empyrean,
and that sooner or later we were bound to
come down TO the ground. Yet why
should we suppose that providence has
conferred upon US especial privileges
which it has denied to other branches of
our race?
Germany is pretty good country to
live in; but there graf or a baron thinks
himself we'll off when he has $500 year,
and he lives and smiles and struts on his
$f2 a week, as if Tor him fortune had
nothing more n his gift.
AT Berlin there are nochg borne prin ce-
lings who make a fine show in the Unter
den Linden on less money than grip
man on a cable-car gets here. OF course
in the privacy of home lie they adjust
their expenditure to their income. They
eat the beef which has been boiled in the
soup. They limit their outlay for beer to
a kreulzer. They wear suit OF clothes
Tor year or more. They lnhabt a small
cramped Hat on the third story of a house
which was built in the time Of Luther.
They smoke cheap tobacco in a chean
china pipe or those German cigars at four
Tor cent. But they are jolly and hapnv
and, ii 1t may be said without risk to life
or limb, they often know so much mora of
science and art and music and political
economy and The law of life than the aver-
aye American that when a comparison ia
instituted the latter feels like crawlinpun-
der the table. JOHN BoNNER
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

trict bounded by Stockton, Keerny,
Broadway and Washington streets and
down Pacific street TO the city front were
to be found all the dancehouses, dives,
underground melodeons and cutthroat
drinking houses in the city. Now they
are scattered all over San Francisco and
Market street can boast OF a much larger
proportion of them than can the coast
Speaking on this SUBJECT the other day
a veteran police officer remarked: The
palmy days of the Barbary Coast, II such
they can be called, were in the early
sixties. Then every officer who patrolled
a beat In that quarter carried his life In
bis hand. Pacific street. from Stockton to
the front, and Kearny street, from Broad
way to Washington, were crowded with
dives that were patronized by the lowest
OF the low, and woe betide the drunken
sailor or even the sober civilian who pene-
trated its borders if he were known to
have money in his possession. On the
corner OF Pacific street and Sullivan alley
was Aliens Bull Run saloon, with a
saloon IN the basement, another on the
ground floor a few steps above the street,
and rooming- house on the upper floor.
That was undou btedly the worst place in
the city. Then there were others nearly
as bad, bearing such names as 'Helrs
Kitchen Cock of the Walk and the
louisiana On Kearny street the old
Bella Union Qhe entrance was then on
Washington street), the Pacific Melodeon,
the olympic, Canterbury Hall and other
alleged theaters were to be found. The
performances for some time were the
vilest of the vile. Innuendo was not in
dulged in. and language and action left
nothing to the imagination.
Murders in this delectable locality
were OF frequent occurrence, and assaults
to murder, robberies and kindred crimes
were OF every night occurrence. The
streets were after dark filled with the
lowest OF drunken men and women, and
serious crimes were of such common oc-
curfence that the police had little time to
bother with simple drunks. Broadway,
opposite the County Jail, was lined with
Mexican fandango houses, and Waverly
place, Clay and Sacramento streets were
given up 10 houses of i'll repute, where
painted women displayed themselves to
the passers- by. Women in short dresses
and others in full tightS danced and drank
in the basement saloons of these houses
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28
BARBARY COAST FAST BECOMING A RELIC OF THE PA

Coast-the Barbary Coast OF Captain Dun
levy, OF Officers Mcnamara, McDonough,
Parrott, Alden and Suilivan-ex SITS only
as a rene III brance."
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

Is the Barbary Coast as black as 1t is
painted? An unprejudiced investigator
vo1ld be compelled to answer the ques-
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

That it once was the foulest. most wicked !
spot on the peninsula of San Francisco
none who know it will deny. In the dis
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

ton in the negative. In fact, like many
other institutions, its reputation is based
not on what it is, but on what it was.
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

Greater mum Der of arrests in all that Sec
lion now are made for drunkenness and
vagrancy. II fact, the true Barbary
The San Francisco call., 1897-11-28

Railway travelling In Hungary costs
about Id 1or three miles.
The Forrest City times., 1897-06-18
Rep Iblican Meeting.

The Republican County Central com mittee met at the court house Saturday afternoon and dealt out lot of pie in the way of endorsements for the post masterships of line county.
 ]. II. Blount was chairman and H. $. Davis secreEary.
 The following named parties received the recommendations of that august body. which was forwarded to II. Nj. Cooper. chairman State Republican Executive commitree. and NJ. W. Gibb. secretary nt that body, Little Rock They will there run the gauntlet and be forwarded to the fourth assistant postmaster-gen Washington, to receive the finishing louches.
 $. r. Sllcer. dem. palestine; C. F.. Iiemenway, natl, rep. Whcatley; H. <. Dawsou. natl. rep, Goodwin; c. C. Smith, col. rep. Widener; W. A. IIiggs. rep, Colt; Bonner Terry. pop, Cald- well.