Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-22

+, ing at all. come here time after time
and get showed out Of my place by
some cheeky, brazen woman"
Till o'clock the supply officer con-
tinued to issue individual orders, not
even stopping to lunch and not once
| losing patience with the complaining
| throng without his door. But little In
road had been made on the big gather
ing and when we assembled the next
| morning we were a hundred strong,
and | still had nothing but my food
| card. That day Thursday they ar
ranged us I'm line. a saner plan than the
| crowding one and one much more
satisfactory to all. Again we made an
| all-day stand, but at II o'clock those
| who had been there since were waited
upon. and at 8, when the supply officer
closed for lunch we who had been
there since half past . were still some
| way from the door. Now, III give you
! numbers for tomorrow" declared Mr..
Chenhal, as his postponed lunch ap-
| peared q little after 3 o'clock, "and I'll
promise to tend to you in that order"
| was "a, but it looked as If my getting
an order the next day would not help
! me, for there were still no blankets or
cots in the warehouse. Announcement
was made to us waiting there that good
secondhand clothing would be issued
at the storehouse around the corner at
2 o'clock, and more than an hour be-
fore that time fully 200 had assembled
to share In this dispensation. 1t proved
| a poor assortment. Yet many were
| grateful for the things. There was q
| grandmother, such a caricature of a
grandmother with q face like one of
Zim's characters-men's shoes, a black
skirt reaching to her boot tops in front
| and almost to the ground in the back
a too-tight coat and a small jaunty,
| rusty black sailor hat with a weird
bunch of coque feathers on one side
but no elegant, perfectly gowned grand
mother ever showed more gentle ma
! ternal solicitude or more self-efface-
ment than that old soul who stood in
line for hours to get clothing for her
little people.
"Ain't they fne?" she asked me with
| glistening eyes, as she held UP some
worn old coats. They'll do the little
fellers. l have three grandchildren, all
boys, and they need so much My
daughter, poor dear. buried her hus-
band the Thursday before the fire, and
she can't get up the spirit to try to
get these things. We had a nice home
| before the fire. She kept it nicely
furnished and helped by working as a
waitress. I have rheumatism and
couldn't work, but I could see after
the boys. Those children look so bad
l am ashamed to have them go into the
| itStdulo otIIl. Hlllh! dSlldlutu u nave
them go into the "slop kitchen!")
Their clothes is a sight, and their
faces is broke out. too because their
rest is so bad. You can see them for
yourself down here in a tent together,
three poor little boys that has laid on
the bare floor since the fire first came
not a thing under them but the tent
| floor"
Sleep on Bare Boards
'Ive been here myself most three
months" declared one well-mannered
Englishwoman, "and have had neither
mattress nor cot beneath me. Recently
| / could have had a canvas cot, but
they are fiimSy affairs, which break
down after a few nights, and leave you
in as bad fix as at first, so 1 de-
clined the offer of one and 1 am wait
ing to get wire one."
Number 80 in our line was a middle
aged woman. Il had just closed up
a lodging house and settled down.
thinking could get along with the help
! of a few roomerS for the rest of my
days." said she. mine has been a
hard life, one of constant work, and
when the quake fire came it swept
away my little income. You see, am
not a strong woman. See, / have a
| doctors certificate" She showed It
and l read, Exempt from standing in
line owing to physical infirmity." Yet
she had been there just two ahead of
| me since early morning. She hadn't
| the nerve to thrust herself to the front
and chance rough setting aside by the
| more persistent sort, so had patiently
waited her turn. The next day, for the
fourth time, she took her place in line
and was granted the requisition she
wished. But when, after half a days
wait with those at the warehouse, she
finally reached the window she dis
covered that none of the things she had
patiently sought were among the
stores
'Oh, know how that warehouse is"
exclaimed young woman. I'VE have
| tried hard to get things, sometimes
successfully, other times vainly. | have
been waiting to get nightgown for
weeks, and they punched one off my
ticket, though l didn't get it, and it
was only when my husband made a
fuss about it that we were able to get
them to recognize that the punch was
void of meaning. We are only waiting
for our small insurance to be settled
and then we shall get right out of here
They might see that we had some good
cooking pans till then. l have sue
ceeded in acquiring a lot of poor tin
affairs, but only one reliable agateware
pot has fallen to me, though I've tried
again and again to get others. In no
time the tin utensils begin to leak and
then we have a bad time of it"
Il seldom come into line" apologized
a gentle gray-haired matron, for al
though we need things badly, it humili-
ates me to have to come crawling on
my knees for them l felt at first that
all this was not charity, but free will
offerings that l would make myself
if able, but lately l begin to feel like
a mendicant. Not for worlds would
have my young daughter, who is high
school girl. be seen in this procession" Z"
All Kinds in Line
To these folk l was merely a fell
low victim of dire trouble and their
talk was only their usual exchange of
personalities, the ripples on the sur
face which indicated great struggles
beneath Here they were. common and
illiterate, side by side with well-man-
nered and intelligent just the sort Of
mixture of people found in any small
town. yet almost all had one subject
in common, dissatisfaction with the
administration. "There are always
chronic kickers and l must make al
lowance," had been my starting argu-
ment, but the kicking" was too gem