The Washington herald., 1918-10-14
By RUTH GILBERT COCHRAN.
In the New York Times

care to pay $50 month for the
privilege of sharing one poorly fur
nished bedroom with three strange
girls? Or would you care to sleep In
the same room with an old woman
and her husband? Those were two
of the alternatives offered me In q
recent three days search for lodg-
ing in Washington. and conditions
are daily growing worse.
went down TO Washington from
New York City last Saturday night
! to attend a conference concerning
war work. / was summoned sud
denly. and was told that might be
required TO take up my residence
in Washington Immediately. had
no great difficulty in procuring q
berth on the Pullman. In fact, trav-
cling conditions, though crowded.
were better than had been led TO
believe. Conditions in Washington
itself were immeasurably worse
than / could have believed possible.
] went to Washington with a sur
plus of S25 and thought that amount
would be sufficient TO live on COM
fortably for a week at least. By
Tuesday afternoon I was left with
just $1.25 in my pocketbookI
Although 1 had had no time to re-
serve a hotel room / was fortunate
enough to arrive early Sunday morn
ing, and with the aid OF a personal
card to the manager OF one Of the
best hotels was able TO procure the
promise OF a room But there was
no room empty then. l was taken
temporarily into a double room. The
bed had not been made. There were
all the evidences Of a hasty flight
trainward. When my baggage was
later transferred to a single room
received a pink slip neglige and
pair OF mems slippers which had been
gathered up with Il. / had a hard
time TO persuade the hotel clerk that
they did not belong to me.
Although 1 had formerly lived in
Washington. had not been there,
even on a visit, for four years. I
spent several hours Sunday trying TO
get in touch with old friends by tele-
phone and found in more than one
case that telephone numbers given in
the book were actually five years out
Of date! OF the few friends whom
was able to reach, all told me the
same story-there were no rooms to
be had in Washington! /, remember
ing Washington as it used to be,
laughed at them and started blithely
out on q search for a permanent
lodging. My hotel room was COM
Portable, to be sure, but ], like most
OF the governments war employees.
expected TO receive only a moderate
salary-and 81 a night for room
alone is not compatible with the poor
working girls means.
Sunday afternoon / spent in the
northwest section of Washington
with a friend who has an apart
ment there-very small and very
crowded. She offered to share her
own room with me IL / could not
find accommodations elsewhere. but
1 hesitated. naturally. to inconveni-
ence her. 1 little dreamed how
gladly / was to accept her hospi-
tality only two days later.
Sunday evening ] visited several
| old acquaintances in Washington.
| Not one OF them had q room or half
a room to spare, and not one OF
them could tell me Of any one who
I had. And these were women who
had lived in Washington all their
lives, and had hundreds Of friends
I living in the city.
/ Sunday night I spent at the hotel
I Already my bill for Sundays break
| fast and supper. Sunday nights
( lodging and Mondays breakfast was
over IS. third Of my S25 had dis
! appeared in a single day and night
J Monday morning, after a short
/ business conference. I started out
I to seek among strangers the ac-
| commods tions / could not find
among friends. First l went again
| through the phone book and city
| directory for the names Of any &C
! Quaintances could remember from
my grade school days. The resi-
| dents of the northwest section told
me they were turning from twenty
/ to thirty persons away from theil
. doors every day, but they assured
me could find a room in the north
east or southeast section. The
southwest 1 did not consider desir-
abe for a young woman in Wash
! ington alone. While some parts OF
the residential section there are re.
/ spectacle. others are nOt-and q
| stranger cannot always tell from
( the outside.
If had been one OF the younger
girls saw continually searching fol
rooms in Washington-Eirls from II
to 21-hundreds and hundreds Of
| them-I should have begun TO fee
| desperate Monday. Most Of these
girls had left their small town com.
munities in the West and South will
| little more than enough money q
pay their railroad fare. Most o,
! them know little of city life-mos'
/ Of them are not acquainted with {
single soul in Washington wher
they come there to work! One o.
these girls told me that she haC
| been working for six months il
! Washington at 800 a month, tha'
in that time she had barely managed
to save up enough money to buy /;
ticket back home, and that she wa
| going home the next day. She had
/ not bought any new clothes in al
that time and had had no money
for amusements or any OF the LITTLE
/ extras that girls Of her age value
| above the necessities OF life. She
is but one OF hundreds.
Monday I spent seeking rooms In
Northeast Washington, I walked W
East Capitol street from First tc
Ninth. then over to Maryland ave-
nue., and back and forth through ali
| those nine side streets. Not once
/ did I see q single card advertising
rooms for rent. Evidently every
one Of those hundreds OF houses was
absolutely full.
1 called on one old acquaintance
| after another. Some Of them remem-
] bered knowing me as a child. others
had forgotten me completely. I got
| the same answer from all excep,
one old lady who offered to let me
sleep in an extra folding bed in the
same room with her and her hus.
| band.
He snores," she said, but yoJ
can shut your eyes and ears and
/ come right in along with US"
| I declined. This old lady was put.