The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26

TGOMERY ADVE'
 
 center. where tkers Is music by the Krlpp band several times . week.
 The flats are of two. three and four rooms. The first one I entered had bed room. kitchen, living room and parlor. the use of a laundry in the basement. 1 The rent was 80 a year, or H.so month. | The man who occupied it received $so month. |
 Tn another house visited fiat of two | rooms. which rented for $26 year. the tenant gstfins only e q week. The wo- nan who showed me the flat was as clean es pin, and she took pride In her house. keeping. which was as clean as herself. The beds were neat. There were pic tures on the walls and curtains in the windows and everywhere the desire to make home beautiful, although the rent was, all told, not more than 50 cents weekly. In this colony there were 45oo people, and I was told that the apart ments were always rented.
 The Krupp Cottages. The cottages are more comfortable than the tenements. There are hundreds of them. each having its own garden about it. Each has its own style of architec- ture, not unlike that of some of our best suburban towns of the United States. Some cottages are single and some double. There arc seldom more than four families in any one cottage, and as | rule not more than one or two. One of the four-room cottages saw rented for s month. and little better one for G. Where two families occupy a cottage there are two entrances and each family has its own garden. The cottages are covered with vines. Flowers bloom about their doors. and they are really | pleasant homes. There is such demand for them that the waiting list is long and men are often months and years in get ting the apartment they desire. Club Houses for Bachelor Workmen. There are club houses here for bachelor workmen; boarding houses for single men built and furnished by the Krupps and managed by their people at as near cost as possible. Each of these buildings has about sixty rooms. which are rented out with full board to the men of the shops. Every man has his own room. The charge Is 70 cents per day. and the men who occupy them make s1.5o per day.
 As I went through one Of these houses I asked the manager what he could fur nish for 70 cents Q day. He replied:
 You have seen he rooms. Each is | aoout ci6Ht py tofl III elZes lt mas a table, chairs and a comfortable ted, In addi-
 ton there is a bath room. general read- ing or loafing room an a teup,n alley.
 We give the men bread and coffee on rising Here, for instance, Is the ration for the last two days:''
 The man here handed me paper, which have copied.
 "Monday-Breakfast: Coffee. bread, cheese and sausage. Dinner: Soup, roast beef and spinach. Supper: Coffee, steak and cucumber salad.
 fuesday-Breakfast: Coffee, ham and bread. Dinner: Soup mutton stew. veg etables. Supper: Scrambled eggs and po. tatoes." In addition to this beer is fur nisned at little over cost price.
 Homes for the Old.
 One of the most interesting of the eoi- onies is Altenhof. which might be trans. lated old Age Court" This Is for tho retired workmen who have served out their terms in tho shops and have pen- siohs. There Is a regular system of in. surance and pensions by which the men after certain term get SIS and upward per year and have these houses free of rent. The most of them have other in. comes from their sayings. This section as made up of neat one and one-haif story cottages. surrounded by gardens and filled with flowers. They are of brick and stuc. co. and have what the Germans would call all modern conveniences. Tnere is one family to the cottage and the cottages arc kept by the widows of the old men after their death. It is a beautiful village. almost every inhabi. tant of which is over 50. a town of old men and old women. fairly well dressed | and apparently contented.
 For Aged Widows and Widowers. In addition to the cottages there are club houses for old widows and old wtd. overs. These are for those Of the aged who have no families or who do not want to keep house. In one or these clubs found eight men and talked with several of them. One told me that he had worked Tor krupp twenty4fo years, and out of his savings he had now an income of about $10 month. His house rent costs him nothing and he can. he says, live quite comfortably on this amount. asked him if he did not get tired doing nothing.
 NO. worked az hard as q blacksmith Tor t"enty-tour years. am sixty-four years old now. and I am glad to stop. When I am tired sitting I take a walk. and when I am tired walking take a seat. It suits me very wefi."
 Among the widows found some quite as content as this old man. One nice old woman said she had a pension of t7.50 . month and that it kept her very we'll She cooked her own breakfast and had her dinner sent fin from the old-age eat ing house at cents per meal.
 A part of the pension fund is furnished by the government. but Krupp gave a vast amount himself every year. Indeed, in tfis respect alone his charities annual ly amounted to about a quarter of a mill Hon dollars.
 The Krupp Stores.
 The company stores of the United States are often run for the beneht of the capitalists. The Krupps have established cash stores for the benefit of the men. There are nfty-four different stores and shops great and small here, which sell only to Krupp employees. They are all managed by the establishment and are run on a cooperative principle. The Krupps take out a low interest on the capital they have invested in them and the profits beyond this are divided among the customers according to the amount of their purchases. This profit foots up Or per cent year; so that if a man spends $100 at the store he receives $7 or g back at the close of the year.
 These stores provide everything that a man needs. They embrace butchers bak- CTS and candlestick makers. They include dry goods shops. tailor shops and even un- dertaking establishments. The man who belongs to Krupp's works can have a end of the year will receive per cent on