New-York tribune., 1901-12-08
TRIALS OF A BOARDING HOUSE
SCHEMES OF THE BOARDERS AND A SIMPLE
REMEDY SUGGESTED BY PRAC-
TTCAL MAN.

.arhere has been a good deal Of trouble at our
boarding house since the guests came back
about getting meals" said the Tammany
politician who was out Of job to his friend. the
bank teller who lived the street. THE
andlady appears to be willing TO give enough
to eat and at stated times in the day, but when
the time comes somewfow the food doesn't appear.
The house has filed up to the roof since the horse
show, but things have gone from had TO worse as
the crowd increased.
Now as food constitutes more impor
tant feature in a boarding house than the density
of the mattresses the boarders held conference.
and appointed chairman of a committee
plan and scope to see If we could get more food
We got the name for the committee from that
was organized lately by the Citizens Union You
see, they wanted to make their organization per-
manent and did In other words. wanted
to prevent such catastrophe starving to death.
"wen held a meeting of the committee up in
nv room on the top floor, and of the members
recommended that should petition the Mer
chants Association. In backing up this recon-
rnendation my fellow boarder and most esteemed
compatrot said that this association had always
been prompt in bringing relief TO suffering COM
munities. and he mentioned the relief expeditions
that had been sent o't by this organization to
Galveston and to Jacksonville. The recommended
ton might gone through had it not been for
the objection which raised. 1 said that it would
not be wise to ask help from the Merchants As
socfation, for the reason that knew good many
Of the in 1t, and thought too much of them
to down them that way L said that If 1t
came out in the newspapers that our boarding
house had been relieved there would be general
uprising in all the boarding houses in the city, and
the organization would be confronted with such
appeal that II might be forced to go of busi-
ness.
Another member of the committee then advised
that we lay the situation before Mayor-elect Low
in order that he might appoint Health Commits
sfoner who had had more years experience
as a boarder and who might introduce reforms into
hts department which would compel landlades to
give enough food fortify their boarders against
disease. This member of the committee said that
he had read a Doctors book somewhere which said
that If a persons system gets run down from lack
of nourishment he is likely to fall the victim OF
some disease, such typhoid fever consump-
ton something else.
This suggestion struck practical that
I was going to urge such plan, when another
member of the committee recalled the fact that it
was Tuesday, and that all recommendations had to
be in the hands of Mr.. Low by the preceding Satur
day.
:. Then 1t is no use' said I. Even if send a
petition to Mr.. Low he would not act on 1t at this
late hour
"The thought then happened to strike me that
there might be some society or other Tor tne pur-
pose of preventing the kind of evil of which we
had fallen the victims. I remembered that there
were lot of societies with prevention idea In
them so got a. city directory and looked through
the index. found Society for the Prevention OF
Children and Society for the Prevention OF Cruelty
to- Animals. but society for the prevention OK