Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-04-10
The Problem Of
the ROOIleT.

size the roOmer is every seventh or
eighth man or woman you meet. He
may be a day laborer or a city edi-
tor, but he represents the ambition.
hopefulness, hndividuaiism, energy.
and persistence of the younger pro-
ductive ranks of mercantile and me-
chanic employees. With 10000 room
ers in Boston, one for every 723 in
Chicago, one for every 463 In st.
Louis. and before the earthquake one
for every 233 persons in San Fran
cisco, what the rooming- house resem.
bles is an interesting topic for discus
sion.
Professor Albert B. Wolfe, of OBJ
erlin College, accordingly outlines
the roomer's problem in Charities
and the Commons for November 2.
The growth of cities and the move
ments of population within the same
city explain the rooming,house dis
tricts in our cities. The roomers nave
come to the city for employment, and
the "landladies," for the most part,
widows thrown on their own re-
sources, who turn to the roomer as
last resort. Old four-story family
residences are rented,-in New York
"brownstone fronts" in Boston swell
fronts" in st. Louis old style South
ern mansions, which have been va
Gated through business changes or
the fickleness of residential fashion.
At one time nearly all roomers were
boarders. To-day the boarding house
has largely disappeared. The ef-
fects of this transition are deplora,
BILE.
The reader must not fail to under.
stand the difference between the
rooming-house and the boarding
house. The boarder sleeps and eats
in the same house; the rocmer takes
his meals at a restaurant. Twenty
years ago twofifths of the "boarders
and dodgers" enumerated in the GEN.
sus of Boston were boarders. In
1895 less than one-ffth OLA per
cent?, were boarders. The percent
age of dodgers increased from 60.4 in
1885 to S2.6 in 1895. The further in
crease which has undoubtedly taken
place since 1895 has virtually wiped
out the clearinghouse This is true
not only of Boston but of several
other Massachusetts, towns. Stats
tics are lacking for cities outside
Massachusetts,, but the probabilities
are that the rooming- house is every
where displacing the old-time board
ing-house. The causes of this lie in
the competition of the cafes and
"dining-rooms," the fact that it takes
less business ability to manage a
rooming-house than a clearinghouse,
and most of all, that the rooming and
cafe habit of life offers much more
freedom than did the clearinghouse.
In the latter one must be on time for
meals and must pay whether he eats
or not. Moreover, lax as were board
ing-house conventionalities, they at
forded far more restraints than can
be found in the rooming-house. A
clearinghouse without public par
lor would be an anomaly, while
rooming-house with one Is rarity.
With the passing Of the boarding
house went the last vestige OF
home" life, for a clearinghouse
without a public parlor would be an
anomaly, while a rooming-house with
one is rarity. The common table
with its friendly, IL aimless, prattle
being removed, the isolation OF the
roomer followed, which is real So
and these not intimately. He rarely
enters a family circle, and becomes a
more or less nomadic character,-es-
sentially a floater. The absence OF
the public parlor is responsible for
damming the well-springs of healthy,
social intercourse, and for throwing
the lodger upon his own resources. A
girl receives her visitors,-men and
women,-either in her room or In the
street.-The moral effect of which can
easily be deduced.
Landladies cannot afford a parlor,
and this is the basis of this draw
back. The moral results of such
a situation, the writer believes, are
a peculiar attitude of mind toward
marriage and family; temporary
unions and prostitution as substitutes;
poignant loneliness; blind. self-seek'
ing individualism striking at altruistic
impulses and moulding existence too
closely ON lines of the competitive
business world. They have no cub
stitute for home life, no opportunity
for real recreation or cultural asso-
citation, and are exposed to conditions
which would try the most stable
moral consciousness.
The whole situation should be much
more thoroughly studied than 1t has
been as yet. Public statistical BY.
rsags should gather details of the
roominglhouse districts. Public opin-
ion should be aroused. The rQomer
must be given a social anchorage;
the furniture sharks that prey upon
the landlady should receive attention.
The connection between lodging and
prostitution should be studied more
carefully. A public parlor should be
demanded, even II it be made a pre-
requisite fJr a rooming-house license.
The clearinghouse should be brought
back, and the cafe life resisted IN
every possible way. Fundamentally,
at the bottom of these things are, Of
course, better education and better