Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-01-16
FORCED TO SEEK RECREATION
IN PUBLIC PLACES.
Crowded and Unattractive Homes
Make Such Action Necessary
Have Legitimate Title to Fun
and Agreeable Society.
BY MARGARET E. sANesrER.

6I mAhGAhEI Z. SANGS ER.
Anywhere on the east side of New
York or in similar quarter in any
large commercial city, the streets
overflow with young people in the
evenings. If there happens to be
park or a bit of open space with an
occasional tree and benches here and
there, the student of social conditions
will note that good deal of uncon-
cealed love-making is going on.
Young men sit unabashed, with
their arms around the waists of girls
who do not seem embarrassed by the
smiles or stares of spectators. Girls
and men stroll up and down, linger
on shadowy corners or in the glare of
the electric lights, as if reluctant to
leave one another's company. Cheap
theaters, circuseS, ice cream saloons
and variety shows attract these young
folk who have never heard that a
chaperone is necessary, and who
would find the presence of one super
fuous. Their friends discuss them
and their affairs in fashion not
meant to be vulgar, which yet would
cause SILVER of disgust and elicit the
adjective common in more polite and
more fastidious circles.
"Sophy is walking with her fellow"
Michel is treating his girl" are ia
miliar expressions as Michel leads the
way to table near a window and or
ders heapinS saucers of pink ice
cream, while Sophy and her particular
swain saunter slowly by.
There are not wanting severe critics
who frown on this public display of
courtship, and who regard with deep
disapproval the manner in which work
Ing girls, children of foreign parents.
or themselves foreign born, girls who
belong distinctly to the class that is
at the foot of the ladder and only be-
ginning to climb, spend their evenings
Home is the place for young women.
These girls should stay by their ia
theirs and mothers; when their work is
over they should find enjoyment with
In their own doors. So in various de-
greeS of censure the verdict is pro-
nounced by fortunate outsiders who
realize nothing whatever of the condi-
lions that obtain in the average tene-
ment home. Should these girls stay
there after long hard days work?
Would you do so in their place? Let
us see.
The ordinary abode of a thrifty
artisan, mechanic or laborer in New
York, the city with which 1 am most
familiar is either a five-room or
three-room fiat This fiat iss sand
WICKED by close squeezing and crowd
ing into house containing a number
of stories, each reached by a dark and
narrow stairway in the middle of the
house. The halls are the merest
scraps and are usually dark. Some
times light comes from an airshaft,
but not always. The windows at the
front and rear admit air and light.
but the middle rooms are dark and
are generally destitute of proper venti-
lation. The odors of tobacco, whisky,
onions and Irish stew with an indie
scribable flavor of cabbage and cheese.
mingle and linger in these homes of
poverty. If the housewife is notable,
they are decently clean; if not, grease,
dirt and vermin of all sorts have the |
right of way. A family of six or eight |
persons is often housed in a three |
room fiat. A family of the same size |
possessing themselves of a five-room
fat take in boarder or two or a |
married pair and a baby. The econ
omy of space and the closeness of
sleeping quarters battle description. |
Rents are so out of proportion to the |