The Florida agriculturist., 1906-04-04
Farm Hands From N. Y. City.
PART II.

one mans experience in trying to get
farm hands from New York City.
This week we find the balance of the
story in the same paper. You will
see that no part of the country is eX-
empt from this difficulty about help.
Help in Hard Luck.-I finished the
seasons work with local help, then l
thought l would get a man for the
winter. The Christian Herald had
Just opened a free labor bureau In
their Bowery Mission, so L sent money
to pay a mans fare and said L would
nav him from So to $40 per month and
board. In a few days l got a letter
stating that they had sent me a man;
they gave him a ticket to Troy and
So cents to pay his trolley fare from
there He did not get here, but after
four or five days l got postal saying:
"Dear sir. | would be very thankful if
you will send me 50 cents to pay my
fare; 1 got to Troy all right, L put my
hand in my pocket and my fare was
gone. A policeman run me in; they
would let me out if l get my fare.
Address John Callahan, Troy Jail, N.
Y" 1 got the postal Friday. l
thought 1 would go to Troy the next
day and see what he looked like, and
what he was in for, but 1 found that
he had been discharged and ordered
to leave town about two hours before
1 got there He was i'm for vagrancy.
1 wrote to the Bowery Mission about
it and they sent me another man right
along. He was a young fellow who
had not been in New York more than
h hn hn6 hnn
pretty well starved out and was foot
sore from walking. He had been here
about two weeks. and l was getting
him broken in, when he got a letter
from his mother in Ohio saying that
his sister was just alive, and she sent
tickets for him to come home. so 1
sent again to the BOwery Mission and
they sent another man right along.
Harry Miller. a German from Ham
burg. six years in this country He
appeared willing to work and earned
his wages, but he had to be shown
how to do everything. He was well
acquainted with the charities of New
York; in fact, all the men l have had
from there knew where to get free
coffee and rolls every night in winter
and sometimes free bed tickets. Lots
of men live entirely on the free lunch
they get with a glass of beer. Jim told
me that the day we came up he got
a free lunch of hash and it was so
old it was rotten. but said he. 81 did
not say anything" | asked him why
not? swell" said he. ''if l had that
waiter would have slapped it in my
face" You can get a bed for ten cents
per night: they call it pad it is an
excelsior mattress covered with oil
cloth, and some men who earn as much
as $3 per day occupy them at night,
so as to have more money to "blOw
in as they call it. In New York it is
quite necessary to have five or ten
cents. the number of lies these men
will tell and the crimes they will com
NIT to get it are simply astonishing:
for instance. it is not at all uncommon
for men who are hard up to go to
some mission or the Salvation Army
and profess to get converted. and then
tell the captain a pitiful story and try
to work him for ten cents or a quarter.
then five minutes later they will be in
a saloon drinking it up The German
stayed about two months: then he
said he had got enough of this country.
and that he would go back on the next
ship to Hamburg, but more likely he
stayed in New York. The Bowery
Mission Labor Bureau closed in the
spring, so | then sent to the Prison
Gate Mission. and got a young man