The San Francisco call., 1906-07-16

dollars to destitute Dan Fran-
ciscans in order that young min
listers and young doctors should
go into their own pockets to aid
those whom poor methods have
prevented from obtaining their
evident right to decent physical
comfort. | did not want the aid
of charitable individuals. | want
ed the help that generous-hearted
brethren throughout the land had
extended to me, Margaret Jen-
nings, homeless, needy, self-re-
specting victim of one of the
worlds great disasters. All
the individual kindliness of half
dozen sub-ofhcials could not atone
for the failure of the whole great
machine to answer to the calls of
need. | wanted the bed, the mat
tress, the cot and the blankets
which the people had bought for
me, and 10 when, after subSisting
without public aid for nearly
three months, | made call upon
the relief fund for temporary
shelter their warehouses were
empty! Nor must it be under
stood for a moment that | alone
needed blankets. [ found dozens
of others who were waiting for
bedding no one seemed to know
when it would arrive.
When DR.. Booth had assigned
me to the tent between 48 and 4o
of section 6, camp 7, near the con-
servatory, Mr.. Ruess took me
over to the barracks camp in the
baseball grounds, where was the
office of d. Chenhall, who issues
the orders for supplies. l was
turned over to Mr.. ChenhalI, with
the understanding that / should
get a food card" which would
entitle me to eat in the soup
kitchen, which the experienced
called the "slop Kitchen" and a
general supply card" which
would obtain me blankets and
whatever necessaries | required.
| was given my food card, to-
gether with a formidable paper,
which | was to fill out before a
girl in the adjoining Office, giving
an outline of my history and of
my plans. / told her that / must
have blankets for the night, and
that Mr.. Ruess had said / would
get them when my food card was
given me, and that | had no bed
ding. She merely answered, Il
am very sorry, madam, but |
don't know what you can do. You
will have to get an order for
them" So out | went to hover
vainly with the motley lot about
Mr.. Chenhall's office, hoping to
get a supply card and hoping
that he might obtain covering for
me out of the skies, since there
seemed to be no chance of any
coming into the warehouse that
night.
But while Mr.. Chenhall never
tagged in his duty and attended
carefully to one after another
needy, weary lingerer, all l and
hundred others received at the
end of our siege were numbers in
dicating the order in which we
would be served the next day.
Find Food Unfit.
| Tired and hungry, this self
elected refugee sought the soup
kitchen, but soon left it, still tired
but less hungry, for the distress
ing odors and the half musty food
dispelled desire to eat, and
it was nearly an hour after |
reached my home before | felt
my appetite return. There were
prunes, beans, and by a process
of elimination, tea-tea because
it responded to the test of no
other civilized beverage. The
bread and butter were fair, but
it required courage even to sam
pie the rest. One mother next to
me confided that she could
scarcely persuade herself to eat
the food, but that having a large
family and her husbands work
being uncertain, she could not af-
ford to cook. all their meals in
camp and must fall back on the
public restaurant occasionally.
Wandering out from the
kitchen, I passed down the
streets of the barracks" and
noted the long, low sheds sepa-
rated into little cubbyhole apart
ments by rough board fences. In
most of these crude rooms there
was evident a desire to achieve
home atmosphere, touchingly
proved by odd prints on the wall
and other little marks of feminine