The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-16
A Wealthy Denver Man Dons Overalls and Hunts Sleep
 ing Place in City
HAS A HARD TIME AND
 TELLS EXPERIENCE
Edwin A. Brown Believes Every Cit, Should Have n Municipal Lodging House to Take Temporary
 Care of Deserving

Edwin A Brown of Denver, the man whose hobby Is free municipal lodging houses for the man without the dime, spent Tuesday night in Birmingham try ing to find a place to sleep. MT. Brown is independently wealthy, is a cousin of ! w. c. Brown, president of the New York Central lines, and for many years repre- sented these lines in Denver.
 'I first became interested in Denver in getting places for men and women to sleep who happened to be without money said Mr Brown yesterday. 1T have during the past two years been to all of the principal cities of the coun- try trying to interest people in municipal lodging houses, and I felt that my eff forts would be incomplete without a visit to the south
 Tn each city I have visited I have | gone to the best hotels and there denned my overalls and working clothes, and have started out without money to find a place to spend the night. I simply want ed to find in each city what experiences men actually without money have in get ting accommodations The conditions in | and more the need of each large city's erecting some place maintained by the municipality where a man or women tenn porary broke can find a place to sleep.
 Tries to Get Free Medicine
 Yesterday morning in Birmingham l donned my old clothes and started out. Having caught bad cold in Memphis 1 thought I would try Birmingham's free medical dispensary. A policeman told me | where the city and county charity hos | pital is located. There I was told that they did not give medicines free until 12 o'clock each day. The dispensary Is open from 12 to 1 o'clock.
 About o'clock in the afternoon I thought I would visit the Associated Charities. l found the same condition there that exists in every city The char ities maintain banking hours and close early in the afternoon. This is no partic- ular reflection on Birmingham, for all cities are alike in this.
 Late in the afternoon I stopped a carpenter I met on the street and asked him if he knew where man who had
 
 night He told me that he reached Birmingham in the same predicament a few years ago. He had no place to stay and no friends. and was taken care of at a speak easy near the Louisville and Nashville depot. Of course,' he said, | there are evil men and women there, but they will give you a place to sleep and treat you well. It Is the only place | I know of in Birmingham
 l Another Mans Hard Luck
 Last night as I stood on downtown corner well-dressed and intelligent | looking man tapped me on the shoulder and said, Beg pardon, but are you a railroad man?' I told him I was in a way for I had long been connected with railroads. Well, can you direct me to | the roundhouse?' he asked. Whats the matter, want a place to sleep?' I asked. | That's just it, he said. Here is my trainman's union card, but I happen to have hit town broke and don't know a soul and don't know where to find any of the boys. I thought I might spend the night at the roundhouse.'
 Later in the evening I asked another policeman where I could spend the night. 1 He didn't know. I asked him what | would be the chance to be taken to jail and locked up for the night. He said it was against the rules and that he could not do it. He suggested the Salvation Army. I went over there and they told me they had to make a charge of Is cents. But I was the man without the dime.
 What Every City Needs ,What Birmingham needs, and what every city needs, is free municipal lodg- ing house maintained as would be any public institution. New York has mag nihcant building for this purpose and | Chicago Is well provided. In Cleveland. | O., was forced to sleep at the rear of a saloon because it was the only place l could find. am against saloons in every form, but must say this for them, they are really the only places in every city where a man who Is down and out can be absolutely sure of being taken care of in one way or another.
 "These lodging houses are a good in- tvestment from a business standpoint By relieving the poor man of possible ex- posture they lessen the work of the char ity hospitals. That carpenter I met yes- terday is now a good, substantial citizen of Birmingham, and yet the night he reached Birmingham he was stranger and did not have cent. Each city ought to make sqpe kind of provision for such men as this. Any man is likely to meet a streak of bad luck and need help some time in his life. Don't have a condition where the only way he can get relief Is to go to the saloons and other improper places"
 MT. Brown yesterday met g number of well-known Birmingham people interested in phianthropic work. He had intended going directly to Mobile, but will prob- ably remain here during the sessions of the Alabama Federation of Women's | Clubs, as he believes it will give him an exceptional opportunity to meet the ladies of the state who are mort promi- lnently identified with wtrious philan- thropic movements.
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