Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-18
A DAWES HOTEL FOR PHILADELPHIA
First Year of Chcagos Famous Five and Ten Cent Hotel Has
Proved So Successful That One Like 1t May
Be Built in This City.
Bv WILLIAM L. CHENERY

about the room in small groups are scattered
hundred or so guests. Others sit in m,
lounge in the basement. Men of sundry yo.
cations are assembled, but almost to the man
they are workers. 1t Is a pleasant place 10
pass an evening. You are certain to meet
some fellow full of the taste Of strange
places and of rare adventures.
The Bill of Fare.
At certain seasons certain of the guests Of
the hotel earn large wages and others Of them
have seen times of affluence. From lack
of foresight sometimes and more often from
the necessities of seasonal work, the men run
very low in money during dull times. The
Rufus f. Dawes Hotel enables them to
live without accepting charity. But even so
the bill of fare is attractive Here it is;
Roll or doughnut. Observation-Disclosures. cent
Bowl of soup and coffee with milk and
sugar Observation-Disclosures. cents
Meat hash. hamburger, spaghetti. i...... cents
Meat and bread soup and Coffee. cents
Pie OF all varieties. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. cents
The food is all well cooked, and 1t is made
of good materials. The soup or stew is made
of vegetables on a meat foundation and 10
exceedingly nutritious.
After an evening passed in the lobby or
in the lounging room in the basement, smok-
ing, reading, playing cards and swapping
yarns, the guests of the hotel make ready
for bed. Then and then only do the rules
of the Dawes Hotel vary from the ordinary
customs of inns. Every man must take
shower bath, and every one may have hs
free use OF sterile shaving materials. Ihs
shower room is handsomely fitted out and
provided with so many baths that 500 men
can use it's privileges within four hours
time.
Just off the shower room in the base
ment are the lockers. Every guest has
locker, in which he finds towel, bathns
slippers and fresh sleeping garments his
clothes must be put in the locker. AS sOon
as the men have all retired the locker room
is closed tightly and sulphur fumes are hDsl.
ated. Ten pounds of sulphur are Durnea
every night. This is an essential II the ho'e'
is to be maintained in the safe and sanitaf'
condition necessary to it's continued success
After the baths the men ascend to tine uo,-
mitories. If there is the occasion lor eain
rising a note may be left with the cie'A'
Breakfast is served from $3.50 until S'SV at'''
which the hotel is soon closed for the us'.
Beds and rooms are rented for one ihsn.
only, and while man may come pacA =
often as he pleases the management mAA''
no effort to keep boarders" M
A Surprising Financial Success
Operating on this basis the hotel mas naD
a surprising success. According to charl''
G. Dawes, "instead of a deficit of 'SOO0 :.
$4,000 per year. as we expected the osne''
of the first years operation, when about 10
900 men were lodged and $1,000 fed ana GU,
ployment found for 1870, amounts 10 ~,
$500, including a liberal estimated uep.s
alton at the rate of 1 cent per man
does not, of course, include any return q.
the cost of the hotel which was erec'''
my sons memory
"The fact the operation of the ho'ei y
suits in a small deficit is not made the eAsu,- s,
by the management for any different -
ment than is customary in other nrs'-.,ss, -,
hotels. 1t is no different from any w.
hotel except it's charges are lower ~.
The employment bureau run In cohnse.s ss4-srs
with the hotel is quite informal Elnpio'-.r -,
who want men phone their needs to man.s ~.
Taylor, and entirely incidentally he ups ~
the Jobs to any one who seems to nj '"' =
portunity