The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-10-19

told me they were turning IRON tweh'
ty to thirty persons away from tne'r
doors every day, but they assured me
could find a room in the northeast
or southeast section. The southwest
did not consider desirable for
Young woman in Washington alone
While some parts of the residential
section there are respectable, otners
are not-and stranger cannot al
ways tell from the outside!
If had been one of the younger
girls | saw continually searching 1or
rooms in Washington-girls from 10
to 21-hundreds and hundreds OF
them-I should have begun to feel
desperate Monday. Most of these
girls had left their small town corr
munities in the West and South with
little more than enough money to pay
their railroad fare. Most of them
know little of city life-most OF them
are not acquainted with a single soul
in Washington when they come there
to work. One of these girls told me
that she had been working for six
months in Washington at $500 a
month, that in that time she had
barely managed to save up enough
money to buy ticket back home, and
that she was going home the next
day. She had not bought any new
clothes in all that time and had hal
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 | spent seeking rooms in
Northwest Washington. walked up
East Capitol Street from First to
Ninth, then, over to Maryland Ave
|, nue., and back and forth through MI
those nine side streets. Not once did
see a single card advertising rooms
for rent. Evidently every one of
those hundreds of houses was abso-
lutely full
:, called on one old acquaintance az.
ter another. Some of them remem
bered knowing me as a child, others
had forgotten me completely. | got
!, the same answer from all except one
old lady who offered to let me sleer
in an extra folding bed in the same
room with her and her husband.
"He snores," she said, "but you car
, shut your eyes and ears and come
right in along with u.s."
l declined This old lady was put
ting cots in her dining room ovel
night. She had every couch in thu
parlor filled, and they were hare
couches, too. was more and more
. appalled, at the thought of the havo,
such uncomfortable and unsanitar,
? lodgings must be causing in tn,
health of girl and women employees.
l found one place which had hal
, a room open, but they took men lods
;. ers only. One acquaintance OF
whom called had nine girls sleepinj
a in four rooms. She was chargin,
n them 500 apiece for room alone. An,
/ none of the girls was receiving a sal
airy larger than 800 a month.
n called at the house of a dentist VIII
!. used to treat my teeth. He and hi
wife lived in an eight-room hous
I alone, but complained that they coul
n not face the discomforts of caring 70
8 a lodger-although, I'VE would hav
loved to take care of you, my dear.
il it were possible!" They pointed OF
t a still larger house across the stree
a There were only two women living |
n the house-wealthy old Washington
|. ians to whom their home had alway
d been a sacred thing. Their hous
d had twelve large rooms. A grea
=. deal of pressure is being brought t
|. bear on people such as these to one
& their houses to the homeless. eve
:. though they are far from need of tn
II money. Some have responded splel
d didly, and the churches are accop
plishing much along this line. BIZ
s. every room announced in ehurc
k Sunday morning is taken before tn
IS day is Overt
It | went back to the Union Static
k and inquired at the desk maintaine
If there for the purpose of procurin
IF rooms for girl Government employe
le The woman in charge gave me on
N address. l called there, only to |