Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-03

be beautiful, heavenly, and the keen
edges of distress, which everywhere
appeared before me seemed lessened by
the sweet charity of the methods em-
ployed to alleviate 1t.
1 walked on back of the chapel to
door, where / saw a number OF men
peeling potatoes and stacking groceries.
1t was a great storeroom, almost filled
with second hand furniture, carpets,
rugs stoves, stacks of flour, bacon,
sugar, coffee, soda, cornmeal, blankets,
coats, vests, shirts and every conceiv-
able object which anyone could think
of donating to such an institute.
Say" 1 said, approaching one OF
the men reluctantly, who is this fell
low you see to get some groceries?
I've got a family and I'm dead broke
and out of work 1 need provisions"
Sure" replied the man, you just
go and talk to Mr.. Bartlett. He'll
give you an order and we'll fill it,"
Wont he charge for the groceries?"
mot if you really need them, partner.
We give away a wagon load or more
every day."
l continued talking. Finally he took
me into his confidence and told me
what he knew. He had come to the
institute broke and was now an en-
ploye there. He was overly enthusias-
tic in his praise of the management,
and showed me a list of forty-nine
names of destitute families for which
the men who were now stacking the
-four were to provide provisions. Every
cne of these families, the man told me,
was to be given a sack of flour, pound
of coffee, some eggs and whatever other
provisions were on hand.
Orders Filled Daily
10
the man said quietly. "There's on an
average of about forty or fifty families
to be provided for. Work is awfully
scarce now and they have to eat. As
fast as one family gets on it's feet
another seems to get off,"
I promised to see Mr.. Bartlett, and
then went on to the restaurant in the
front. A square counter temptingly
set with cakes and pies greeted me,
and I walked through the reading
rooms to the man in charge of that
department.
'sWhat's the chance for something to
eat" 1 asked, a bit nervously. I'm
broke"
There was no question, and as though
had been but one Of a thousand |
was told to sit down. 1 had good
meal of roast beef, coffee, soup, bread
butter and potatoes, and then went TO
one Of the tables in the office and sat
down among a lot of laboring men VINO
were stopping there. I read awhile,
and then lapsed into conversation with
several of the men near me.
All of them were enthusiastic in their
praise of the Bethlehem. There was
not a word against it.
"Talk about your good work. one
Of the men finally said to me, II don't
know any place that's doing better
When all the beds are gone at all the
other places and there amt nothin' left
for a fellow to do but sleep in a box
car and get run in for vagrancy, IL he
knows about it-as most of 'em do
he sure comes to this place. There's
always a place for him to sleep here
money or not. That isn't all, either
He can get Shoes shirts, clothing and
| food for his family-if he has one
and there's few other places where you
can do that without money. But ol
course Mr.. Bartlett amt a greenhorr
| in the business. He can spot bar
nacle. or one of the professional char
ity leeches, as far as he can seen him.
end a fellow has to be pretty smooth
to get anything out O. Mr. Bartlett un-
less he really deserves it,"
I yawned little, agreed with the
fellow that Mr.. Bartlett was "sure the
real thing" and strolled on upstairs
I met an old man making up the beds
and as I passed the room in which he
was working looked in, as If seeking
someone. A white bed clean and neat
a freshly scrubbed floor, a wash stand
pitcher, bowl, mirror, clothes press and
several neat pictures on the wall greet
ed my eyes. 1t was small room, but
I have paid so cents a night for many
worse ones, and it was clean and COM
fcrtable.
Vermin Not Found There
"slayin' the bedbugs?" I asked joe
ularly.
"Bedbugs?"
The man gazed at me bit angrily
"Say, my friend, I've been making beds
II. this institute for over six months
and I'VE got tho first bedbug or 'crumb
of any kind to run across yet. No, sir;
there amt no vermin in this place!"
| And the man gave the pillow hard
punch and resumed his work with g
| contempt for my question that made
me move on to more congenia1 quar-
| ters. Later / had longer talk will
him and personally examined the beds
My investigation confirmed what he
| told me.
| After spending about two hours in &
personal tour and inspection of The
| institute, during which time l had be-
| gun to be looked upon with perhaps {
| little suspicion, I went boldly to Dana
Bartlett and made known my identity
Him I found very busy man, but no
too busy to explain to me. betwee1
other tasks and in sentences frequently
broken by replies to all manners o
questions asked by visiting needy
ones, the object and system of th'
| Bethlehem institute.
Dana Bartlett is considerably beyond