The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-27
BUNS GAN LIVE ON
 VERY SMALL SUMS
Frisco the Mecca They Al
 Want to Reach
FAMED FOR FREE LUNCH
Clothes Can be Bought for Song and a Man Who Knows the Ropes Can Live on Dol
 lar a Week.
rrom the LouisvilIe courler-Journal.

From the Louisville Courier-Journal.
 Any police officer or charity worker in a northern city will tell you that while so many buns begin to tramp south in the fall, the city is always fuller of buns in winter than at any other time. The reason is simple enough-winter adds to their ranks many men who have not hitherto been buns.
 How do the buns live in the cities in winter? It ; one of those questions like What becomes of all the pins? which nobody can answer.
 God only knowsl' exclaimed an old put to him.
 Well, of course, theer are cheap lodging houses and free midnight suppers. but they are quite inadequate. don't know how they do manage to drag along" was the reply of a Salvation Army officer in charge of slum work in one of the larg- est cities in the country.
 How do we live? We don't all live, boss. terrible lot of us die!' So said a bum as he swallowed down glass of flve-cent whisky in a sllm saloon and de- clared that it warmed him better thar one Q lHeIH dStly hdh ONSAtodAs.
 Drink Most Responsible.
 Drink, of course, has made most buns what they are and it is a remarkable fact that they can always manage to tank up even when they have no money for food or clothing. When bum is found dead in the streets, as So many are every bad winter, the verdict of the doctor is almost invariably "exposure and alcohol ism'
 Thousands of buns never dream of paying for a meal, even if they happen to have the price. Money-real money must go for "booze." In Snost of the sa looms in the poor quarters of the city the free lunch. though coarse, is sub stantial and satisfying meal.
 There is at least one city in this country where the bum is not expected to put up a nickel for drink as the price of Init ting the free lunch" That city is San Francisco. Frisco is the paradise of bums-the Mecca to which they all hope to make a pilgrimage some day. There are no free lunch counters like those of Frisco. The bum who has been there speaks of them as reincarnated Roman patrican might speak of the banquets of Lucu,lus.
 At the time of the Klondilxe rush many of the Frisco buns who had no love
 
 against their will. Ship after ship came into port and was deserted by her crew. All the men wanted to try their fortune in the gold fields. and sailors could not be got for love or money. But lots of the Frisco buns have habit of sleeping along the water front It was easy work to kidnap them, knocking them on the head if necessary, and to take them aboard When they came to the ship. was l- useless. This was done in scores of cases.
 Cannot Get to Frisco.
 But the average bum cannot get tc Frisco. and has to spend the winter in colder-heartei. colder weathered cities like New York. Chicago. Boston. Phila- delphia, St. Louis and. Buffalo Even in those places, however. he can manage to drag through the winter somehow if he has an average of from fifteen to twenty five cents a day.
 Even if the bum lacks the nickel for the saloon he can still get a good hot lunch" around midnight. Half a dozen charitable organiza ions generally com pete in this field, and there is not night in winter when it is not distributed at several points. The bum who knows the ropes" is sure e. at least one good meal a day. even if he has not got cent.
 The lodging question Is much more serious one None of the buns lodging houses offer shelter for less than dime. and the pric is usually fifteen or twenty cents. Even the lodging houses run by the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations usually make charge-in work, If not in money. That is why the night-worker in great city. when he goes home at ? in the morning, sees so many poor devils wooing sleep and finding warmth m tfe cratines of the enrine room of skyscraper office building, for