HN SO EXCHANGE The Furnished Room Problem IN PHILADELPHIA By Franklin Kline Fretz A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Require- ments for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM IN PHILADELPHIA By FRANKLIN KLINE FRETZ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Require- ments for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy , CONTENTS PAGES The Rooming District 5-18 The Evolution of the District 19-24 The Boarding House 25-41 The Furnished Room House 42-59 Furnished Rooms for Housekeeping 60-66 The Economic Condition of the Roomer 67-75 The Social Condition of the Roomer 76 (a) The Church 76-89 (b) The Schools 90-95 " " " (c) Amusemenfe 95-108 " " " (d) The Saloon 108-115 " " " (e) Booze Parties. ...116-119 " (f) Agencies for Up- lift 119-126 The Social Condition (g) Prostitution and Crime 126-142 The Social Condition (h) Use of Drugs 142-148 Summary 149-169 251395 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM IN PHILADELPHIA. This study deals with investigations made in the furnished room district of Philadelphia. This dis- trict is difficult to define and is constantly changing. A compact furnished room district in Philadelphia may be found in the 6th, 10th, llth, 12th, 13th and 14th ward, which comprise that section of the city bounded by Chestnut street on the south and Pop- lar street on the north, the Delaware river on the east, and Broad street on the west. For the purpose of studying the problem and reaching an historical explanation of the same we consider this large dis- trict. In our actual investigations of the roomer and his problems we have confined our researches to small typical districts. In this study we want to find out why the furnish- ed room district is here rather than elsewhere; through what evolutions it has gone; what may be its future development; and what new social prob- lems it furnishes or what old ones it accentuates. We shall consider the problem of the owner of the house as well as that of the occupant. The investi- tigations have been conducted for this purpose, and present, therefore, (1) The economic problem, (2) The social problem characterizing the district, in- cluding inquiries into the life of the lodger or room- 6 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM er, his family life, his amusements, etc. The church- es and schools in relation to the roomer; the saloon and its problem. (3) The problem of crime and vice. (4) Vital statistics. To trace the evolution of the district it would be necessary to include the whole history of the city of Philadelphia. This is impossible. Watson, in his annals of Philadelphia, and other writers as well, have given us a mass of material dealing with the social condition of the city in early times. Phila- delphia has always been famed for its comfortable homes. The lower part of the district, which forms the basis of our studjy in earlier years, contained the homes of the gentry of Philadelphia. Up to 1800 all of the best and richest merchants of Philadelphia dwelt under the same roofs with their stores on North Front street. After the merchants began to change their homes from Front street and the shores of the Delaware to the western outskirts of the city, the improvement of Philadelphia became rapid and great. "It may mark the character of the change to state, that when Mr. Miarkhoe built the large double house out High street, between Ninth and Tenth streets, in the front centre of a fenced meadow, it was so remote from all city intercourse, that it used to be a jest among his friends to say, "He lived out High street, next house but one to the Schuylkill ferry." (Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, Vol. I, p. 225.) People were surprised in the beginning of the 19th century that merchants would leave their former old THE ROOMING DISTRICT 7 dwellings in excellent condition in the neighborhood of the Delaware and move out to Ninth and Chest- nut or Arch streets, where there were no pavements and no street lights. Gradually business and com- mercial interests drove out the old inhabitants from the river front; then the retail stores had to give way to the large wholesale houses and shipping places which are found along the river front, and extending for blocks along the principal intersecting thorough- fares up from the river such as Chestnut, Market, Arch and Race streets. Arch street had no stores in any part of it sixty years ago. Today it is one of the principal streets of wholesale trade in the city. We see a gradual evolution in this district due to the great economic changes which caused the growth and development of the city. Some of the comfortable homes of old Philadel- phians now used as boarding and rooming houses were built about seventy-five years ago. Still others were erected at a much later period. The change in the district from a residential to a business sec- tion has been sure though gradual. The Hon. Jona- than Roberts wrote of the conditions existing in the city in 1836, saying : "I have been accustomed for a few years past, to make use of New Year's* day, some- what like a New-Yorker, as a special occasion' for visiting the city, and there to hunt up my earlier and least familiar acquaintances thus to keep alive early recollections and to preserve their respect and remembrance. In January, 1836, I made calls upon as many as twenty families. I pass by the 8 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM notice of themselves personally such as their own waning persons, and their new and growing proge- nies just starting out in life where I had once begun as I wish only to notice the wonderful changes of their houses in furniture and in amplitude of rooms, etc. The whole is such as to fully convince me, that I can no longer employ my pen. to illustrate the changing manners and times of our city. I must be done with that. I can only say now in general terms, that the change from the olden time is so en- tire, and that the traces of the past are so wholly effaced, that here is now scarcely a vestige left. The former was an age by itself of homely and domestic comfort, without pomp, parade or show; and this is now an entire age of luxuriy and cumbrous pomp. Now our merchants are princes, and our tradesmen are men of fortune; all dwell in palaces. The for- mer little parlors are gone; even large parlors now are not enough but two must be permanently cast into one, by double doors, this not for family use and comfort (they are too refined and delicate for use), but for admiration and for show, while the family itself, for the sake of indulgence and free- dom, seek other apartments behind, or upstairs, or in the basement story. These big rooms are neces- sary because social visits being no longer in vogue, but superseded by parties, they must have halls suf- ficiently large to hold their semi-annual gatherings. It is really astonishing to contemplate the class of citizens who hold such houses, and the annual ex- penditures they make, even in the same relations in THE ROOMING DISTRICT business wherein their fathers could live only mod- erately and frugally. One has only to walk along any given fashionable street, and read the names on the costly dwelling houses, and see how generally they comprise the class of fortunate dealers in all manners of merchandise and trades, one cannot but wonder how so many families can find means to sus- tain their freedom of expense. It is, in fact, so com- mon now to be lavish in show, that riches can scarcely confer distinction. Surely we have a won- derful country where the road to wealth is so broad and safe wherein so many travel and "go ahead." We wonder, indeed, how long it may continue." Today the glory of these stately mansions of less than two generations ago has departed. Man'y have been torn down to be replaced by immense wholesale houses, industrial establishments and factories. Here and there a few still stand, silent monuments of the glory of the past, and indicative of the great economic forces which are making all things new. There is something of melancholy sadness in the plaint of a few old residents who still linger in the district and say: "This section of the city is not what it used to be." The former glory of the dis- trict has departed forever. No one will ever know the heart-breaks, the tragedies enacted in the giving up of homes full of associations and sacred memo- ries and see them give way before the onward and resistless march of "business", or in seeing them occupied by people of foreign birth or by the "bar- barians" from the country. 10 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM This district, then, was once a city of private homes; now it is a mixture of stores, large business houses catering to a wholesale and retail trade, tene- ments and lodging-houses; while many of the small- er streets are filled with a distinct negro population. "Chinatown" is found within the boundaries of our district. Fully three-fourths of the older residences not occupied by foreigners who have settled in parts of this district are "furnished room houses." Built in the fifties, sixties and seventies, they served their purposes as the homes of Philadelphia's prominent merchants and professional men, for a generation or more, and then a transformation came which was almost startling in its suddenness. The economic forces were stronger than the sentiment of the own- ers, and consequently prevailed. Some of the older inhabitants lingered on determined to keep up the appearance of the district, but the destructive forces were too strong for them. Style changes in the character of the homes of a people just as surely as it does in matters of dress. Those who have moved from the district into the suburbs and have superintended the erection of their own homes, have, in no cases, modeled them after their former homes in the heart of the city. Whole rows of the old houses were built on the same plan. There was no individuality exercised on their construction. On the first floor were the double parlors, the dining room, the kitchen, with one or two out kitchens. The parlors are high-ceiled, with a large amount of stucco-work which characterized the houses built a THE ROOMING DISTRICT 11 generation ago. They also have large marble man- tle-pieces, and some have a stained glass window. Where there are two parlors they are usually con- nected by sliding doors. In some old houses these doors are of mahogany. On the second floor are the front bed-room with an elaborate wardrobe, the rear bed-room, the bath-room with a large tub and stationary wash-stand and a sitting-room in the rear. On the third floor are from two to four square rooms painfully alike in construction. The heat is furnished by hot air furnaces, in most instances in- adequate in winter weather. How different these houses with their marble fronts and steps from the houses in the suburbs with comfort and individu- ality characterizing every feature. There is a danger, in every investigation of this character, of having it assume too wide a scope, and becoming worthless. We will not consider, there- fore, the great business places that have sprung up in the district. Here are found some of the finest and best equipped department stores in America. Four or five of them would be a credit to any city. One store just completed has two hundred and sev- enty acres of floor space and employs an army of seventy-five hundred clerks. Here are found the great banking institutions and trust companies which have made Philadelphia famous. The leading theatres are found in the district or on its very con- fines. The Girls' Normal School of Philadelphia is almost in the center of the district. The Com- mercial High School for girls was in the district 12 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM until the completion of the new William Penn High School for Girls in 1909. The Boys' High School is on the opposite side of the street which marks the western boundary of the district. The Reading Ter- minal, which is the railroad station of the Beading system, is in the district, and the tracks of this road traverse it. It is necessary to state these facts in giving a de- scription of the district. So far as some of these institutions are of human interest, and bear upon our specific problem, we shall have occasion to men- tion them again in our discussion of the problem. We have said enough to show that this district under consideration is not a "Furnished Room Dis- trict" pure and simple. There is no such district in Philadelphia. Small typical districts might be found in other sections of the city which would be more expressive of the term "Furnished Room Dis- trict." This district has been selected because it - shows the natural evolution more satisfactorily. The problems of the "roomer" are the same everywhere. He is the product of certain definite forces which we shall consider in this study. We do not intend making a study of the old-fash- ioned boarding-house which is fast passing out of existence. Here, too, we shall have occasion to make frequent references and comparisons. Nor do we in- tend entering into a discussion of the cheap lodging houses conducted by charitable societies for the solu- r tion of the problem of vagrancy. It is the lodging house we will discuss. The lodging house, or as it THE ROOMING DISTRICT 13 is commonly known in Philadelphia, the "Furnished Room House" must be distinguished from the apart- ment house on the one hand and from the tenement house on the other. The apartment house is a fam- ily house, so is the tenement. They are intended for housekeeping. The furnished room house is cut up into small rooms and is generally intended for un- married men and women who sleep there, and get their meals at some restaurant or cafe outside the house. The "Furnished Room House" never gives board. The "Furnished Roomer" is not a boarder; he is, as the term implies, only a "roomer". He has never been the subject of much study or concern. In New York, Chicago, Boston and St. Louis, the place in which he lives is called a rooming-house; in Philadelphia, the generally applied term is a "furnished room house." It is a distinct type of itself, and is found everywhere in the district we have selected for its study. The population of this district, according to the census of 1910 was: 6th Ward 6,374 12th Ward 15,152 10th Ward 19,426 13th Ward 19,769 llth Ward 11,619 14th Ward 19,477 A comparison of the population of the district with previous years and with the growth of the whole population, will be made later. The children of school age in the district according to the school census (6 to 16 years of age), number ten thousand, two hundred and eighty-five. 14 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM We shall take up the whole matter of population under the subject of population. Suffice it at pres- ent to state that we are considering a district with a population of about one hundred thousand. To learn the economic motives that have caused the evolution of this district, and to know the social status and moral conditions found therein, is the purpose of this study. The dearth of statistical data handicaps the in- vestigator on every hand. This is especially the case in dealing with the vital statistics of any given dis- trict in our city. Great improvements in the mat- ter of preserving and tabulating records have been made in recent years, and the records of Philadel- phia today are as complete as the records of any first-class American city. The value of social statis- tics for small areas is not understood at present, or, if understood, is not possible because of the meagre appropriations for the purpose of gathering statistics. Under the general head of Vital Statis- tics we expect to deal with the subject of birth and death rates, marriage, sex-distribution, sickness and health, diseases characteristic of the district, causes of death and other social phenomena. We will now discuss the general movement of population in the city and the specific district. Population of Philadelphia, Including the Territory of the County. 1683 500 1740 24,250 1700 4,500 1760 47,191 1720 9,975 1790 82,913 THE ROOMING DISTRICT 15 1800 122,229 1830 269,259 1810 164,982 1840 351,702 1820 200,889 1850 529,838 Same area after consolidation in 1854. 1860 565,529 1890 1,046,964 1870 674,022 1900 1.293,697 1880 847,170 1910 1,549,008 Although Philadelphia is 225 years old, nearly one- third of its population has been gained during the past twenty years. The tendency of population to congregate in cities is the acknowledged feature of our modern civilization. It is a worldwide tend- ency. London is two thousand years old, and yet, it has gained four-fifths of its population in the past century. Paris multiplied its population five times in a hundred years. Odessa is one of the old- est cities in the world, yet nineteen-twentieth of its population was gathered in the last century. Cairo, typical of all that is old and degenerate, and to the superficial observer all that has ceased growing, has doubled its population in fifty years. In our own continent, Montreal in Canada, has grown in fifty years from sixty thousand to four hundred thousand ; Toronto, in the same period, from twenty-five thou- sand to two hundred and fifty thousand. A world movement of population from country to city is, therefore, proven by every known rule of evidence. Philadelphia is no exception to the cities that have been affected by this world movement. To add one- third to its population in twenty years is a record exceeded' by few cities in America as old as Phila- delphia. 16 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM This remarkable growth of the city is due to many causes, the chief of which is that of trans- portation. To understand the problem of the city's growth it is well to bear in mind that the original boundaries of Philadelphia were the Delaware River on the east and the Schuylkill on the west, including all the territory between Vine and South streets. Today we find outside of the old city, popu- larly supposed to include the city's financial and business district, fourteen national banks with capi- tal and surplus amounting to $10,500,000 supple- mented by twenty-four trust companies, with an aggregate capital and surplus in excess of $11,000,- 000, making thirty-eight banking institutions employing capital of $21,500,000 situated outside of the supposed financial and business centre of the city. The area of the old original city today contains lees than two per cent of Philadelphia's total area and eight per cent of the city's population. The old city, moreover, contains only seventy-five miles of highways, or five per cent of the total paved streets within the city limits. The area of the so- called "outlying districts" is one hundred and twenty-seven and one-half square miles, as opposed to one hundred and twenty-nine and one-fourth square miles for the whole city. The population of the "outlying" wards is 1,400,000 as compared with the 1,500,000 of the entire city. To realize the ex- tent of Philadelphia let us assume City Hall as the centre or heart of Philadelphia. The eastern bound- THE ROOMING DISTRICT 17 ary is settled for all time by the Delaware River about one and one-fourth miles distant, and the western boundary line is fixed by the boundary line of the adjoining county about four and one-half miles distant, making an east and west range at City Hall of five and three-fourths miles. This east and west range is very narrow in contrast with the extreme northeastern and southwestern boundaries of the city. It is about sixteen miles as the crow flies, to the northeastern boundary of Philadelphia above Somerton while the extreme southwestern boundary in the fortieth ward on Darby Creek is more than se^ they must have recourse either to the benches of a public park, which are filled early, or, if the weather is unfavorable, they are compelled to seek the warmth and light of the back-room of a saloon. Some divines still hold that marriages are made in heaven, when the real facts of the case show that many are made in the back-room of a saloon. If the Church wants to engage in real uplift, a be- ginning might be made by setting aside warm, cozy and comfortable rooms where young couples could meet every evening and spoon under chaperonage that would not be too exacting or inquisitive. It might be a step forward in bringing about that gol- den age when marriages are made in heaven. Such a public parlor in our churches would be welcomed and would be of inestimable benefit as- an uplifting 50 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM and regenerative farce with those for whom it would be designed. A public parlor in a "rooming house" is more necessary than a dainty bed-room, or even a luxurious table. The lack of a common parlor is universally ascribed to the economic pressures under which the landlady is laboring. Almost without exception she avers she cannot afford it, just as she often says she cannot know too much about her lodgers. There is no doubt that under existing conditions the first con- tention is true. In the same investigation we found that of the one hundred houses, eighty-nine were conducted by women and eleven by men. In most cases these men are the heads of the family, but the management of the house falls upon the wife. Of the eighty-nine women, seventeen were married, forty-two single, nine were divorced and twenty-two were widows. Ninety- two were native born and eight were foreign born. Of the foreign born six were Germans, one Irish and one Scotch. The number of "roomers" were nine hundred sixty-two. Of these six hundred twenty-five were males and three hundred thirty- seven females. Thus exactly sixty-five per cent, of the population were males. The number of houses filled was fifty-nine and forty-one were partly filled. The highest number of "roomers" occupying a sin- gle house was twenty-nine and the lowest, one. All statistics, of course, may be modified by a continually shifting population. But the statistics THE FURNISHED ROOM HOUSE 51 will give some indication of the present evils to be avoided and growing dangers to be combated. Side by side throughout this whole district are conditions altogether different. In the same block of houses there are communities which differ widely in charac- ter. The difficulties in the way of researches of thisi kind are enormous. In matters which affect personal affairs, one's private income, as well as private char- acter, truthful reports are hard to obtain. These statistics on the "rooming-house" have been gathered from several different sources. Many proprietors of "furnished-room houses'" and "boarding houses" freely volunteered the necessary information, and gave a full account of their business. But, in the majority of cases there were important details- lack- ing. The greater number of women in this business do not keep itemized accounts- of their income or ex- penses. Few differentiate between private expenses and those incurred in the management of their busi- ness. Furnished room proprietors do not always re- member how long their rooms have been vacant in summer time, and consequently are not able to state their annual loss from this source. For most of this detailed investigation we are indebted to young men who have lived in the houses investigated, and who are acquainted with the true state of affairs. They have given us many suggestions! and have pointed out to us new lines of investigation which have been very helpful in a consideration of this subject. We have absolute confidence in the figures: that we have given on the one hundred houses. More detailed sta- 52 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM tistics are on hand for a smaller number of houses in the district. Ridge avenue traverses a part of this district, run- ning northwest from Twelfth and Spring Garden to Broad and Fairmount avenue. The houses on this street are mostly comprised of stores, restaurants and business places of various kinds on the first floor, while many of the second and third floors are rented out to "roomers." We give some of the re- suite of the investigations in the district separately. Ridge Avenue. Three story house. The first floor is used as a meat store. There is a side entrance to the second and third floors by means of a narrow hall and stair- way. The second floor is occupied by the man and wife who run the meat store and their three children. They are native Americans, born in the country. The rental of the whole house, including the store, is $45.00 per month. The third floor is occupied by three "roomers." It is furnished by the butcher. The roomers are a trained nurse, a book-keeper and a milliner. They are all native Americans, single and never heretofore married. The nurse is about forty years old, the bookkeeper, thirty- two, and the milliner about twenty-five years old. There isi no parlor in the place, and visitors, male and female, go directly to the rooms of the occupants, where they are entertained. The income from the three rooms is: THE FURNISHED ROOM HOUSE 53 Trained Nurse $3.00 per week, $13.50 per mo. Bookkeeper 2.50 per week, 10.75 per mo. Milliner 2.00 per week, 8.50 per mo. Total . . $32.75 Here is a property that rents for $45.00 per month and the monthly income the tenant receives by sub- letting the third floor is $32.75. The amount of fur- niture in the three rooms is not worth over $75.00, and would not bring: more than $25.00 at a second- hand sale. Ridge Avenue. The first floor is a hardware store. The second and third floors are subletted to a widow at $20.00 a month. She is a native American, about fifty years old, without any other means of support. She has no male relative in the house. She sublets the rooms for light housekeeping to individuals or to married couples without children. The furnishings are very scant. Enough dishes only are supplied to set the table for the number in each room. The income in this place is: Per month. Second floor, young married couple, husband a plumber. $16. 00 Second floor, young man, 26, single, relative of plumber 10.00 Third floor, married couple, husband out of work, wife working in laundry, born in Philadelphia 12.00 Third floor, single girl, 30, works in laundry 10.00 Total ..$48.00 Expenses Per month. Rent ,. .$20.00 Coal 4.00 Gas 2.00 Refurnishing 2.00 Total $28.00 54 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM This leaves a balance of $20.00 per month, which supports the old lady very comfortably. There are no parlors or sitting rooms in this house, and only one toilet. The different families cook their meals and wasih their dishes in the same room. N. Twelfth Street. A young married couple rented this house for $45.00 per month. They have sublet the second floor throughout to another young married; couple for $25.00 per month, unfurnished. They rent the two third floor rooms in the rear to three young men at $25.00 per month. Their income, therefore, is $5.00 a month more than the rental of the entire house. They must, however, supply heat and gas for the whole house, which costs $120.00 per annum. In this way they have a comfortable home for themselves, with heat and gas at a cost of $60.00 a year. Spring Garden Street. Fraternity Furnished Koom House. Conducted by Miss R . She is a native American, born in the rural district of Pennsylvania, 29 years of age, and never married. She has no male relatives in the house; twenty-eight fraternity men, all of whom are dental students, room with her. They are all native Americans, averaging 25 years of age. They are there about eight months in a year. During the summer months she averages a dozen. She hae fur- nished us with an itemized account of income and expenses : THE FURNISHED ROOM HOUSE 55 Income. Room rent, 28 men, $2.00 per week, $56.00; 33 weeks. $1828. 00 Room rent, 12 men, $2.00 per week, $24.00; 19 weeks 456.00 Total annual income $2284.00 Expenses Rent, per month $70.00 Help, per month 25.00 Laundry, per month 15.00 Coal, per month 15.00 Gas, per month 6.00 Incidentals, per month 5.00 Total, per month $136.00 Or, $1.632 per year 'For refurnishing she adds $200.00 per year. Total annual expenses $1832.00 Annual income 2284.00 Annual expenses 1832.00 Balance $450.00 The proprietress of this house doea not do any of the work herself. She pays a woman* $25.00 a month to keep the house in good condition. This woman employs other help occasionally to assist in the cleaning. A man is employed to look after the heaters during the winter. There are days that the woman who contracts to do the cleaning is through with her work by nine o'clock in the morning. The work on such days consists only of making the beds and tidying up the rooms. Neither the proprietress, nor the woman who does the cleaning eat or sleep in the house. The proprietress rune another "rooming house'' in the neighborhood in which she lives. Four hundred and fifty-two dollars seems a small amount for a year's effort, when one considers the magnitude of the undertaking, and the possibilities of "roomers" leaving in the midst of the season. However, if she conducted five or six houses on the same plane with 56 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM an equal measure of success, the business would prove profitable. This is her desire. She claims, one can manage six "rooming houses" with the same expenditure of energy as it requires to run one house. N. Twelfth Street. Miss, R. Same woman who runs the Fraternity "rooming house." Uses every room in the house as a bed-room. Rents only to men or married couples without children. Had only one change from the 21st of October until the 27th of June. Had seven- teen all winter. Her roomers were: Four m&chinists, native born, single, 23, 34, 32, 36 years. Three clerks, native born, single, 24 to 27 years of age. Two bookkeepers, native born, single, 19 and 23 years old. Three collectors or agents, na- tive born, single, 23, 30 and 47 years of age. One medical student, single, 24 years old, born in New Jersey, country district. Four married people, two couples, native born. Both husbands and wives worked regularly. She never kept an itemized account of income and expenses of this house. It was her first venture, and she knew it paid from the beginning. The rent was only $38.00 per month. The coal bills were lower than in the Spring Garden house, and she judged she cleared $700.00 a year on this house. She leased two more houses in October, 1910, on North Elev- enth street, and in December she reported them well filled and expected to clear $1,000 the first season on her new ventures. There are a number of married women who keep THE FURNISHED ROOM HOUSE 57 a few lodgers to help out with the family expenses or to reduce the rent. It is possible for a couple thus to reduce their own rent expense below that of a small and uncomfortable two-story house on a side street. It is better for a young married couple to do this than to take apartments or "rooms" in some furnished room house. It gives the young wife something to do, which is a very important consider- ation in the first years of the married life of a young couple. It also furnishes a possibility of increasing their available income, to earn their own house rent in this way. In 1900 a young couple were married and rented! a house on Thirteenth street and took "roomers." The rent was $40.00 per monrth. They would have been obliged to pay this for a comfort- able home in the suburbs. They found that they could pay their rent by taking "roomers" and decid- ed! to inconvenience themselves for a time by living in this manner, and put the $40.00 a month in a building and loan association. In March, 1911, his building and loan association shares' run out, and he will receive $8,000. They have invested this whole amount in a very desirable property in the suburbs, and with the balance they have saved in the past ten years they will be able to completely re-furnish their new home. This, at least, has been a successful venture. There are many failures in the business. Inex- perienced women come from the country to the city in high hopes of making a comfortable and honest living im something that looks like an easy thing. 58 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM Unacquainted with city life, open and unsuspecting in disposition and completely unfitted for a complex environment, these people are the prey of all sorts of sharpers; if they survive and finally establish their house on a paying basis., it may be at the cost of their health and moral sensibilities. The average man or woman thus coming to the city and plunging headlong into such a struggle is not likely to let hair-splitting, conscientious scruples stand in the way of making both ends meet. It is a common say- ing that people from the country are not as careful' about the morals of their lodgers as those brought up under a city environment. When rents and other expenses must be met, conduct, which, under other circumstances might not be tolerated, must be over- looked. A woman who conducts eight "rooming houses" on Mount Vernon and Green streets, said: "I insist on a 'straight house.' " Her idea of a "straight house" was one that was outwardly quiet, and one where rooms were not rented by the hour or night to couples that had picked' up a chance ac- quaintance on the street. She had often rented "rooms" to couples who lived together as man and wife for weeks or months, and afterwards separated. "Of course," she remarked, "I can't ask them to show their marriage certificates when they come to me to rent a room, and there is no way of telling whether a couple is man and wife by looking at them." Of course, it is possible for men and women to live to- gether in this district without being married. No one is over particular here, and the landladies can- THE FURNISHED ROOM HOUSE 59 not afford to be too inquisitive. With the landlady it isi an economic problem, a continual source of anxiety of how to make both ends meet, The life of the landlady is not a pleasant one. It is full of monotony and troubles. She very often lives in a email room or in cramped quarters in the base- ment. She gets her meals on a small gas stove in the same room in which she sleeps. Her "roomers" annoy her. Sometimes they cheat her. A dozen agents a day bother her trying to dispose of their wares or interest her in some scheme of insurance. No time is left to attend a place of amusement or engage in any recreation. At night she must be at home to watch her roomers. During the day she is busy getting things about the house straightened out. If she has women in the house they are a con- stant source of annoyance. They are continually using the bath-room or doing light cooking or laun- dry work in their rooms, which is against the rules of the house. She must overlook many things, and go about with an unruffled temper. FURNISHED ROOMS FOR HOUSEKEEP- ING. Between the furnished room district we have had under consideration, on the one side, and the district devoted to business and manufacture on the other, lies a district filled with amusement places, cheap lodging houses and homes in which rooms may be rented for housekeeping. This district extendsi from Eighth street to Broad, and from Arch street to Spring Garden. We do not propose to discuss the cheap lodging houses furnishing a bed at from five to thirty cents a night and patronized mostly by unmarried foreign- ers and vagrants. The moral influences in any of these houses is vicious. An observer declares that there is no doubt that a large proportion of the more serious crimes of the city is to be traced directly to the shiftless loafers in the cheap lodging houses. Such houses attract the incompetent to the city and tend to foster and increase crime. Superintendent Byrnes, of New York City, says: "In nine cases out of ten the stranger who drifts into a lodging house turns out a thief or a burglar, if indee(ji he does not sooner or later become a murderer. Thousands of instances of this kind occur every year." These deni- zens of the cheap lodging-houses do not exert a con- siderable influence on the life of the neighborhood. The furnished room for housekeeping does play a part in the life of the community. The districts in which these houses are found, have been invaded by ROOMS FOR HOUSEKEEPING 61 business and industries, but there; are still a few of the- oldi residences here in which large numbers of people live. The probabilities are that these houses will become more valuable in time, as sites for busi- ness purposes; meantime, the most profitable use to which they can be put at present is for housekeeping. No private family of means would care to live in a neighborhood surrounded by factories and cheap amusement places, nor would a high-grade roomer do so. The highest returns from the property for the owner can be had by renting rooms for house- keeping, which makes possible the most transient and irresponsible kind of family life. From three to ten families live in one house in this district. They are usually poor and shiftless. Here we find the great field of operation for the charitable societies of the city. In this district the Society for the Preven- tion of Cruelty to Children is called upon most fre- quently to exercise its functions. From these homes the children are taken by the aid societies and placed into institutions. The neighborhood has many houses used for immoral purposes, and perhaps adjoining them are houses in which the rooms furnished with the barest housekeeping necessities are rented to poor families. Kespect ability and vice often live side by side. The plumbing in these houses is usually de- fective, bath-rooms are not found in most of them, and water-closets are few in number. One closet must often suffice for three or four families. In one house there was one closet for five families. There is frequently one sink only for several families, and 62 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM consequently it is not strange that it is generally out of commission. Coal oil, gas and gasoline stoves are generally used, hence the danger from fire is a serious one. The halls are dark and never ventil- ated. The furniture is dilapidated and poor. There is no sens of ownership on the part of the occupants and consequently no incentive even to take ordinary care of the furniture. In over forty houses to which \ve gained admittance we found that less than one- half the rooms were carpeted. In some of the rooms there were coal ranges which insure cooked food oc- casionally. The coal is bought by the basket or ket- tle. In many of the families that have come under our personal notice and that have applied for help, there was a history of illness or drinking on the part of the man that caused the family to lose possession of their goods and compelled them to find shelter in "rooms." In twelve cases that have applied for help to the "poor fund" of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, seven could be traced to illness and loss of work on the part of the principal wage^earner of the family, three to drink on the part of the husband, one to drink on the part of the wife, and another to shift- lessness on the part of both parents. Lack of man- agement and foresight caused this last family to end up in two rooms. It was the path of least resistance. In addition to these typical cases of families who through illness, irregular employment, drink or other Lad habits, have lost their homes and fallen into this hand-to-mouth existence, there are a great number of miscellaneous cases. In April, 1909, our attention ROOMS FOR HOUSEKEEPING 63 was called to a case of distress in one of these houses on Spring Garden street near Tenth. We found ten families living in one large three-story house. The husband of this particular family under considera- tion was a, Cuban. While attending college in Phil- adelphia he married^ the daughter of a physician. The wedding was the result of a run-away match on the part of the young couple, the ceremony having been performed in Wilmington, Delaware. The groom was the son of a wealthy Cuban planter and the bride the daughter of a practising physician of our city. Fearing to take his bride to Cuba on ac- count of parental opposition, and the bride being too proud to take her husband to her parental home, the young couple went to housekeeping in a few rooms on Spring Garden street. In the course of a year a child was born to the couple and all had gone well until 1908, when the husband lost his position. Un- able to secure work for some mfonths, the family treasury was depleted and the young couple were in pitiable straits. Another child came. The oldest child was taken to its maternal grandparents*, who cared for it, and the young couple took one room. The husband was out of work for over a year. Each morning he spent from five to six hours walking about the city looking for work. Every want "ad" in the daily papers was closely scanned, and when he applied he was always told the position was already filled. Discouraged and disheartened he returned from his daily search about noon. Then he acted as child-nurse while his wife went out with a basket to 64 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM a section of the city where she was unknown and sold shoe-strings, buttons, needles, etc. By this means they existed. On another floor of the same house lived a man who was cashier of a national bank and had luxuriant apartments. A young lady occupied a room 1 in that house and did her cooking in the room. She had no regular occupation and her source of income was always a matter of suspicion on the part of the other occupants of the house. In one house on North Eleventh street thirty-two people were found in one house. Seven families in an ordinary three-story house. A man and wife, five children and a boarder lived in. a single third story room. The man was 26 years old and had been mar- ried twelve years. He was born in Easton/ Pennsyl- vania. His wife was 35 years old and had been married twice. Her first husband had died. She was born in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. The ages of the children ranged from 5 to 11 years. The boarder had been an acquaintance of the family for some time. He was 22 years of age and was born in Phil- lipsburg, New Jersey, directly across the river from East on, thf birthplace of the husband. The head of the family was a window cleaner in department stores and the boarder was a crane operator. The children were well dressed, and the mother wore a plume on her hat that must have cost at least $25.00. These eight people lived in a single room, and appar- ently were happy and contented. It is impossible to have decent living conditions under such circum- stances. In this house there was no bath-room and ROOMS FOR HOUSEKEEPING 65 inly one water closet in the yard. With reference to the treatment of such property by the city, nothing can be added to the conservative statement of Booth in the final volume of "Life and Labor of the People of London," p. 158 : "For such homes a well-thought- out scheme of adaptation is essential, the sanitary and other difficulties being great. Moreover, the scheme ought to be of general application, as suited to the needs of the neighborhood .... and it is only a successful alteration, so that the houses, may be made into convenient and healthy homes for whatever class of occupancy may be in view that the evils of non-adaptation and mal-adaptation may be obviated." The owners of the property in many cases refuse to spend any money on repairs of any kind. The old families have been driven out by busi- ness and industry. At first these houses were used as "furnished room houses." As the neighborhood became more undesirable it was impossible to hold the roomers, and the only recourse was to rent out rooms to the shiftless and poor for housekeeping purposes. In a few years these houses will be torn down and stores or factories erected ini their stead. It is the policy of the owner to get the greatest pos- sible returns for his property, and this is possible by renting out portions of the house or single rooms for housekeeping. These houses are not adapted to the purposes to which they are put. As long as they are in existence they should be carefully inspected by the city authorities to see that fire escapes are built and that simple sanitary rules are enforced. 66 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM Frequent disinfections should bo required irrespec- tive of the fact whether there had been any outbreak of a contagious disease. Three outbreaks of small- pox occurred in houses of this character during 1910- 1911 after the city had not had a single case for nearly two years. On each occasion the Department of Public Health dealt vigorously in the matter and prevented the spread of the contagion. A great part of this district is still considered as a residential section, Families with little children live here. We shall discuss the problem of the child in the district under "Public Schools." It is true these children and their parents are poor, but that is no reason why the vicious element should not be suppressed in the district. A reasonable standard of decency should be demanded here as elsewhere. Cleanliness and sanitation should be enforced by the city and the disorderly elements expelled or suppressed by the po- lice. Charitable agencies should make more of an effort to establish an independent home life among the people in these rooming houses and, if necessary, render financial assistance to a family willing to begin life anew under a new environment. No help should be rendered a family that is> unwilling to break up the old conditions found in cheap rooming houses, if a way out is shown them. Efforts are being made in this direction by a number of settle- ment workers in the city and in many instances they have been very successful. No real family life can be fostered under the unfavorable environment of the "furnished-room for housekeeping." THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE ROOMER. A man's economic condition is measured by his income and the expenses 1 he must regularly meet. If we know a man's occupation we can estimate his income and we can also get at a fair estimate of his fixed weekly charges. We have two tables showing the occupation of 1,000 male roomers and 200 female roomers in the district we have described. Table of Occupation of 1,000 Male Boomers. Clerks 229 Salesmen 117 Collectors 98 Students 64 Foundrymen and Iron Workers 63 Walters 48 Actors 39 Teachers 34 Railroad Men 27 Chauffeurs 26 Electricians 23 Artists and Sketch ens 21 Confectioners 17 Printers and Lithographers 15 Wire Men 15 Trouble Men on Telephone 11 Butchers 11 Meat Cutters 10 Tailors 10 Doctors 10 Lawyers 10 Restaurant Proprietors 9 Plumbers 9 Piano Teachers 9 Moving Picture Proprietors 9 Paper Carriers 8 Translators and Interpreters 8 Engineers 7 Bartenders 7 Violin and Mandolin 7 Dentists Bakers Window Cleaners Masseurs Crane Operators Barbers i Foremen (not specified) 5 Cashier in bank and stores 5 68 THE ROOMER Nurse 2 Assistant at Lunch Counter 1 Night Watchman 1 Photographer 1 Detective 1 Book-binder 1 Promoter ,. 1 Total 1,000 Distribution of 200 Female Roomers by Occupation. Clerks in Stores 71 Stenographers 19 Cashiers 16 Waitresses 13 Teachers 11 Nurses 9 Milliners 9 Dressmakers 9 Sewing-girls 9 Book-keepers 9 Art Students 8 Domestic Science Students 7 Manicurists 5 Telephone Operators 4 Missionaries 2 Demonstrators 2 Cloak Models 2 Hair Dresser 1 Doctor 1 Detective 1 Total 200 In this table we have taken no account of any who were out of employment. When this* table was computed the number out of employment was less than four per cent. Nor has any account been taken of women who do not work. Most of those living in "rooming houses" are regularly employed. There are a few single women in the district without em- ployment but they are chiefly old ladies, living on modest incomes, or supported by some relative. Some make a living by doing plain sewing for the "roomers." In the table of male "roomers" we find that the 1,000 were distributed among forty-five different occupations 1 . The list of occupations could be ECONOMIC CONDITION 69 greatly increased by specifying more definitely the sort of work. Those employed in Baldwin's 1 Locomo- tive Works generally reported their occupation as "foundrymen" or "iron-workers," From later infor- mation we learned that three of the men so reported were brass- workers. Among the railroad men. may be found conductors, brakemen, baggage-masters, firemen, etc. The striking feature is the large number of clerks and salesmen. Together with the skilled workmen, they make up the mass of those engaged in business, manufacturing and mechanical pursuits and lend the rooming house population its ^characteristic tone. It is evident that a proportionally larger number of clerkei than of skilled workmen live in lodgings. Clerks usually start out with small salaries and are slower in gaining a footing than men in other employments. This larger relative number of clerks and salesmen is to be expected. The average shop- girl lives at home with her relatives, in the city or in the suburbs; but the ordinary clerk or salesman, earning less than the skilled mechanic, yet feeling himself on a higher plane than the latter, ia for a long time unwilling to marry and assume the respon- sibility of home and family, and consequently re- mains indefinitely in a "furnished room house." It is also true that skilled workmen marry earlier than mercantile employees. Occupation is one of the strongest bases of sociability. There is a well defined "consciousness of kind" between the individ- uals living in "rooming" houses. The grouping of 70 THE ROOMER people is according to the occupation in the different houses. One "rooming house" will be found filled with students, another with workers from Baldwin's Loco- motive Works or some other industrial plant in the neighborhood; and still another with clerks of a department store. In the table for the female roomers we find a large number of clerks in stores. These are employed usually in small stores and offices. The low wages paid by the department stores do not permit of girl employees to live in lodgings. Some department stores make a specialty of employing only girls who live at home, whom they can secure at low wages. The comparative large number of waitresses is due to the demand from the local restaurants and eating houses. Not all roomers are wage earners. There are many wives supported by husbands and some hus^ bands are supported by their wives*. There are a number of students in the district who are supported' by others, and there are a few people living here who are living on past savings or are receiving sup- port from' relatives or charity. But the great majority of roomers are paid workers. Income of Roomers. We have succeeded in getting the average weekly income and expense of the following: Expense Occupation Average weekly income. (room rent and board) 45 Clerks $9.64 $5.97 24 Salesmen 10.73 6.48 21 Collectors 12.11 6.53 12 Students 6.47 15 Foundry-men 20.10 5.65 ECONOMIC CONDITION 71 Occupation 10 Waiters . . . Average weekly Income. 9.00 Expense (room rent and board) 3.10 18 75 6 95 19.20 6 50 2 Tailors 13 00 6 05 12 00 . 6.00 16 00 6 25 Average . $140.53 . $14.05 $59.48 $5.95 We excluded the students in making up the aver- age. If this average were properly weighted, the average weekly income would be slightly less, owing to the large number of clerks whose average weekly wage is less than the total average. Board and room rent take from one-third to more than one-half of the weekly income. When a man's salary rises to $25.00 a week he is likely to get married and sooner or later take a room in the suburbs'. The medium grade mercantile employees and skilled mechanics are those who stay in this district. For five years we have noticed a gradual departure to other sec- tions of those whose economic condition improved. From the above table we see that the economic outlook of the majority of roomers is not very encouraging. Forty-five clerks had an average of $3.67 a week left after paying their board and lodg- ing. With this balance certain other fixed and regu- lar expenses musit be met, such as car fare, laundry, clothing, etc. Laundry expenses vary, The most economical man requires fifty cents a week for this purpose. On fair days the majority walk to their place of employment. Clerks are supposed to be well dressed and present a neat appearance. They are compelled to maintain a higher standard in the 72 THE ROOMER matter of dress than the mechanic and have con- siderably less to do it with, The employer expects hisi clerks to look neat and clean constantly. The average clerk has very little money to spend on amusements and pleasure so necessary in our day and under existing conditions. Lack of money accounts largely for his attitude toward the Church; it requires: money to engage in church and Sunday- school work. In this, age of laymen's "forward movements" and other great missionary enterprises, the whole stress is laid on raising large sums of money and making a big showing. At one time the Church was interested in the salvation of souls 1 and in improving the economic and spiritual conditions 1 of the "stranger within the gates ;" today, the efforts are expended for the inhabitant of India, China, Africa and the islands of the seas : very little is. done for the apathetic and indifferent within her gates. "The world for Christ in this generation" is, a high sounding battle-cry intended to inspire the faintest warrior in the Church militant, but it &eems> to us that the negro on the back street who is struggling hard to keep his little brood together, and the Japanese cook in the kitchen are as worthy of our efforts as the savage Zulu dwelling contentedly in his native Africa. To carry on this missionary propaganda requires money. The average young man who, perhaps, has less than a dollar a week after paying his 1 fixed expenses, attends church and 1 Sunday-school and is at once asked for some special self-denial offering. That young man's whole life ECONOMIC CONDITION 73 is a self-denial. It cannot be anything else unless he steals'. We know of instances of young men giv- ing up attendance at Sunday-school and church because they could not meet all the financial de- mands made upon them. It is time for the Church to see her duty in respect to young men and women living in "rooms" and to fulfill her mission to the "stranger within her gates." The young man of the "rooming house" is the typical young American of the city the man behind the counter, the clerk in the counting-room, the skilled mechanic, the trained artisan, unmarried and unhampered by family, free to come and go, who gravitate where conditions are pleasant and wages' satisfactory. He is representative of the ambition, th pushing energy, the perennial hopefulness which characterizes the younger productive ranks of mer- cantile employees. He is in the prime of life, in the vigorous years of productive power and univers- ally driven on by the conviction of success. The belief that there is "room at the top" spurs these young men and women on. It is not only the desire to escape the irksome and manual labor of the farm, but the hope of advancement and preferment that draws an ever-increasing number of boys and girls, from the country to the city. For the time being, their economic condition may not be improved, but hope dwells' in their breasts and they confidently look forward to better things. Not a large number of sales girls live in rooms. Their salaries are uniformly lower than those of 74 THE ROOMER men, yet they are compelled to maintain the standards 1 of living and in the matter of- dress, higher standards than the men. We found that the average weekly wage of ten sales-women living in one house was $8.75 a week. These girls worked at fashionable stores where the wages are higher than those paid for the same work in an ordinary depart- ment store. Their "rooms" and meals cost them an average of $5.05 a week. This left $3.70 a week for laundry, car-fare, clothing and other incidentals. Stenographers and bookkeepers receive a higher aver- age wage. One girl stenographer living in the room- ing district receives a wage of $35.00 a week. She pays $8.00 a week for room and board. The majority of stenographers start in at about $7.00 a week, after graduation from a business 1 college. It is unfortunate that so many women who are compelled to earn a living are without good homes. It is bad that men should be without such comforts, but the man has opportunities for relaxation which are denied to women. To fight against the growing tendency of women to become independent wage- earners is useless^ It remains for society to adapt itself to existing conditions and at least to throw as many safe-guards around women as possible.' There ought to be numerous hotels, boarding houses and "homes" for single women in the city to the end that who must work may be surrounded by the moral comforts of home life and may have some relief from the dreary round of earning a living. Here is a chance for philanthropy to do some of its> best constructive work. ECONOMIC CONDITION 75 The furnished room houses are filled with human derelicts who are down and out. Philanthropic workers bear testimony to the fact that there is a large amount of real poverty in the district. Later we shall show that the rooming house is a breeding place for more serious forms of social degeneration. Many varieties of misery come to light in this district. Here is a typical case. In February, 1910, an attractive young woman was arrested by the police of the Buttonwood station for soliciting on the streets. She gave her age as 19 years; and said she was married. She and her husband lived in a house on Tenth street above Spring Garden. The husband was out of work; the room rent was due and they had nothing to eat. After consulting together they decided that the only thing to do was for the young wife to go on the street and solicit men for immoral purposes, thus 1 prostituting herself in order to maintain the family. Such cases often occur in this district. The economic condition of the average rooming house occupant is not a roseate one. He is not far removed from want. Actual poverty often stares him in the face. His fixed expenses are so high that he is unable to heap up a surplus for a "rainy day." The roomer generally carries some insurance in one of those companies that make weekly collections such as the Metropolitan or the Prudential. The whole subject of poverty in the rooming house dis- trict of Philadelphia deserves 1 more detailed study than we can give it. THE ROOMER. HIS SOCIAL CONDITION. In order to study the social condition of the "roomer" it is necessary to know something of his environment and note how he reacts upon that environment. What institutions are found in the district? What part do they play in the life of the roomer? What amusements are found here? etc. The first institution we shall discuss is the Church. What influence does the Church exert upon the life of the roomer? Is her work effective? What is the Church doing to meet the changed and constantly changing conditions 1 ? What churches are still working in the neighborhood? Is the Church retreating? Why? Churches hi the District at Present. Church. Location. Green Street M. E Green Street above Tenth Thirteenth Street M. E Thirteenth and Vine St. George's M. E Fourth below Vine Temple M. E Fifth and Spring Garden Eleventh Street M. E Eleventh and Ogden Fourth Baptist Fifth and Buttonwood North Broad Street Baptist Broad and Brown Zion Lutheran (German) Franklin and Vine St. Paul's (German Lutheran) Fourth and Canal St. Paul's Independent Lutheran Third and Brown St. John's Lutheran Race Street near Sixth St. Mark's Lutheran Spring Garden above Thirteenth Northern Liberties Presbyterian Ch.... Fifth and Buttonwood Central and N. Broad Presby. Church Broad and Green Ch. of St. Jude and the Nativity (P. E.).llth and Mt. Vernon St. Stephen's Protestant Episcopal. .. .Tenth above Chestnut Christ Protestant Episcopal Second above Market Grace Protestant Episcopal Twelfth and Cherry German Reformed Fairmount Ave. below Fourth First Reformed Church Tenth and Wallace Second Reformed Church Seventh above Brown All Souls (P. E.) for deaf mutes Franklin above Green Arch Street Meeting (Society of Friends) . .Fourth and Arch THE CHURCHES 77 Church. Location. Friends' Meeting Fourth and Green Fourth Street Meeting (Soc. of Friends) Fourth and Callowhill Zion Baptist (Colored) Thirteenth above Wallace Ch. of the Assumption, R. Catholic Twelfth and Spring Garden Roman Catholic Mission Fourth and Brown St. George's Roman Catholic Fourth and Milling St. John's Roman Catholic .... Thirteenth above Chestnut Holy Orthodox Greek Church Franklin below Brown Salvation Army Hall Eighth and Vine Volunteers of America Ninth and Callowhill American Salvation Army Ninth above Arch Gospel Mission Eighth near Callowhill Front Street Mission Front and Green Congregation Rodef Shalom Broad and Mount Vernon A. M. E. Melon Street Church Melon above Twelfth Churches That Have Removed Since 1865. Church. Denom. Location. Removed. Eleventh Baptist. .12th above Race. .1886. .21st and Diamond First African Bapt.. .Cherry above 10th. .1897. .16th and Christian Spring Garden Bapt... 13th and Wallace. .1889. .19th and Master Third Church Bapt. .Front and Hazel 1890. .Disbanded Mission Tenth Bapt. Bapt... 8th above Green. .. .1889. .19th and 'Master Marble Hall Adven...7th below Poplar. . .1887. .17th and Norris M. E. .Vine below 12th 1887.. United to form M. E...13th above Vine 1887. .13th St. M. E. M. E.. .8th above Race... .1883.. 15th and Mt. Vernon .1888. .20th and Diamond M. P.. .llth and Wood Disbanded Central . Nazareth Trinity . Union . . Grace . M. E.. .4th below Arch, Zoar (colored) M. E.. .Fairmount Ave 1897. .16th and . . near Fifth Fairmount First Moravian Franklin and Wood 1627 Fair- mount Ave. First Swederuborgian Spring Garden 1879.. 21st and near 12th Chestnut Arch. .Presbyterian. , .10th .and Arch 1898. .United with West Arch St. Ch. North. .Presbyterian.. .6th above Green 1900.. Broad and Allegheny Second Presbyterian. .7th below Arch 187- . .21st and Walnut Spring Presbyterian, .llth above Green.. .1892. .21st and Garden 'Columbia Carmel Presbyterian. .New St. above 4th .1892.. 19th and Susquehanna Ave. Reformed . ..Presby., .Filbert and 12th. ... '70' s. .Disbanded Swedish . .Lutheran. .9th and Button- .1908.. 17th and Mt. wood Vernon 78 SOCIAL CONDITION Church. Denon, Location. Latter Day Mormon. .9th and Callowhill. .1901. .Howard and Salmts Ontario Spring Unitarian. .Broad and Spring. .188-. .Girard Ave. Garden Garden west of 15th St. All Universalist. .Broad and Spring. .188-. .Disbanded Souls Garden First Ref. Church in. .7th and Spring ..1895.. 15th and America Garden Dauphin Third Ref. Church in. .10th and Filbert 1882. .Disbanded America First Ref. Dutch. .Crown above Race. .1873. .Merged with Church another Cong. First Reformed. .Race St. between. .1881. .10th and Third & Fourth Wallace Universalist Church. .8th and Noble .... '70's. .Disbanded First Disciples. .12th and Wallace Berks and Church of Christ Marvine United Presbyterian .13th and Vine 1871. .Disbanded Bishop p. E. .Front and Callow- .about 1870. .Dis- White Church hill banded and Cong. united with other Churches St. Philip's ..P. E.. .'Spring Garden and 42d and Broad Baltimore Ave. St. Jude's ....P. E.. .Franklin & Brown .1909. .United with Nativity, llth and Wallace Church of Covenant. . .Melon and 12th. .1888. .Now at Reformed Episcopal. Broad & Venango Beth Ameth Hebrew. .New Market and. .1892. .Disbanded Poplar Beth Israel Hebrew. .7th below Race Broad and (Portuguese Jews) York Ken*seth .. .Hebrew. .6th and Brown ... .1886. .Broad and Israel Columbia Greek Catholic Ch...9th and Button- closed its doors wood February, 1909 On Sunday, February 19th, 1911, a Methodist Episcopal church on Front street, below Girard 1 avenue held a farewell service and closed its doors. A newspaper account says, "The service at which there was an attendance of forty was very sad and impressive." In addition to the churches in the above table others are about to move out of the dis- trict. Grace Protestant Episcopal Church at Twelfth and Cherry will soon be closed. The prop- erty of this congregation was sold for $150,000 in THE CHURCHES 79 1909. A newspaper account of the sale of the property is quoted : "Following in the wake of St. Jude's and' All Saints', Grace Protestant Episcopal Church, Twelfth and Cherry streets, with plenty of money hut a slim congregation, is about to be sold. The lot which it occupies has a frontage of about 100 feet on Twelfth street, and about 150 feet on Cherry street, back to the Philadelphia and Reading railway, which will buy the property. The price agreed upon is $150,000. Grace Church in years gone by, had a large and influential congregation. Samuel Vaughn Merrick, one time president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was active in the membership, which included a number of other men, prominent in professional and business circles. But for several years, owing to changes' in the character of the neighborhood, the church has been on the decline,- until now it is to abandon its old site, and seek new quarters) in a more promising field. In the grave-yard are more than sixty vaults, where lie the ashes of many well known Philadelphians of a half century ago. The endowments of Grace Church amount to more than $100,000, and the selling price would increase the congregation's funds to a quarter of a million dol- lars with which to start in a new neighborhood. It is thought that a location in West Philadelphia will be selected for this purpose, and some of the mem- bers are in favor of occupying Grace Church Chapel, at Girard avenue and Forty-first street. The chapel was erected twenty years ago to accommodate those 80 SOCIAL CONDITION who had migrated 1 westward across the Schuylkill. Others, however, advocate the erection of a new church. The Baptist Church at Broad and Brown has sold its property to Temple University with the privilege of using the building until the new university build- ings are erected on the site. The congregation has dwindled to less than fifty members. In 1870, there were about sixty-five churches in this* district with commodious church buildings and valuable property. Today there are only about thirty and some of these are so enfeebled by age and lack of adaptation to their environment that they are anxiously waiting the moment to sing their Nunc Dimittis. Of the churches that have removed from the district, many have been the most prominent congregations in their respective denominations. In the "seventies" Bishop Brooks, T. De Witt Talmage and others were the popular pulpit orators, who served congregations in this district. The move- ment of the churches out of the district is pro- nounced and it is still going on. Population changes, worshippers move away and churches are left without support. The Protestant churches are retreating in almost hopeless confusion, leaving the district and its inhabitants' to the devil, and follow- ing their wealthy and fashionable members to the suburbs. The Roman Catholic Church is not retreating. She is holding her ground and in some sections' is more flourishing today than ever. She stands secure THE CHURCHES 81 like a rock in the ocean, unmoved by the onward tide of business interests, the coming of the immigrant, things which seem to sweep Protestantism from its- ancient moorings. In her charitable efforts and personal ministration to the masses she is doing good work and proclaims the Gospel of her Lord as she understands it, and interprets the spiritual life of men to a vast concourse of people. Amidst these changing conditions the Roman Catholic Church seems to retain her hold on the masses and maintains her glory undimmed. The social student sees here a problem that calls for solution. How is it that she pursues her conquer- ing way in spite of stupidities that would have hast- ened the death of any other religious body? Some say she holds only the ignorant. This is untrue. Others say she ministers mostly to the immigrant who has not yet adjusted him'self to his new envi- ronment and the freedom of American conditions. This, too, is untrue. For whatever discord is mani- fested in her efforts to maintain the harmony of her organization, seems to come from the foreign element and that part of the foreign population re- cently arrived'. This is especially true in the Greek Catholic Church. She has many that are uncul- tured worshipping at her altars, but she also main- tains her hold upon the learned, the noble and the influential. The very fact that she is able to bring out such hosts of wage-earning men and women, who have worked hard through the week and many of them far into the night, but who are willing in 82 SOCIAL CONDITION the early hours of Sunday morning to go to the house of God and engage in religious ceremonies, is a phenomenon worth thinking about, It is certain they do not go to hear the discussion of some inter- esting social problem from the pulpits> of their church. Nor do they go to hear some famous musi- cal composition. They go to celebrate once more the death of the Saviour of the world. On the altars of the Church stands the crucifix. Before the eyes of every faithful Catholic that crucifix is held until they close in death. He goes out of the world thinking of Jesus crucified. That seems to be the power that gives this Church such a strong hold upon the masses, educated in her own parochial schools and trained from infancy to worship at her altars. The fact remains, however, we may try to account for it, that the Church of Rome remains in the very districts from which the Protestant Church is retreating in hopeless confusion. In St. Malachy's and St. Stephen's Boman Catholic churches, more people may be found worshiping each Lord's* Day than in all the Protestant church- es combined 1 . At least eighty per cent, of the membership of the Protestant churches in this district do not reside in the neighborhood of the churches. The average membership of the Protestant churches in the dis- trict is two hundred and fifty. There are a few con- gregations with a membership of five hundred or more; on the other hand there are a number having less than one hundred members. The twenty Prot- THE CHURCHES 83 estant churches have four thousand five hundred 1 members. If thirty-three and one-third per cent, of the members lived in the district, we would have one thousand five hundred people belonging to Protestant churches in a district with a population of one hundred thousand. From a complete investigation of a large resi- dence section in the rooming district we are led to believe there are as many nominal Protestants in this district as ever. But they do not attend the services of the Church. The statement has been made by a prominent writer and investigator of re- ligious conditions in New York City, that only three men out of every hundred of the working- men attend divine service. This statement would hold true in many sections of Philadelphia, In one rooming-house in which there were twenty-four roomers, all were of Protestant antecedents. Eigh- teen had been baptized in Protestant churches in infancy, and twenty-two had been members of vari- ous Protestant churches during some period of their lives. Only one of the twenty- four was a regular at- tendant of a church in the neighborhood and still kept up his church connection. Some attended ser- vices "occasionally" ; another always went to church on Easter Sunday; another went on Christmas, and still another attended a popular musical service held by a certain church once a month. In an investiga- tion of more than three hundred persons, all of whom claimed to be Protestants^ we found ten who were fairly regular in attendance upon the services of some Protestant church. 84: SOCIAL CONDITION Why has the Church lost her hold upon these masses? It is because she has not adjusted herself to the changing conditions in her neighborhood. She has not been abreast of the age. "Out of date" method and mediaeval churches are a failure and a farce in this new world, which is the result of a new civilization. The robes and rags of supersti- tion have no attractive force in these days of light and life. Men demand a church adapted to the needs of a new century, and they have a right to that demand; that church is a traitor to its. trust which does not meet it A building of the eigh- teenth century with an undertaker's sign on it and the address of the sexton, with the appearance of a sepulchre, and open only once in seven days, will always repel real men. The church that does not study the intelligent application of her Gospel to the needs of men, that does not follow in the foot- steps of Him, who came "not to be ministered unto, but to minister," has no right to exist. Many of the methods of the Church are not the methods) of the age, and men are looking at it as they do at any other "article of antiquity." The sermons and ser- vices should be adapted to the needs of men. The church's method of doing business repels. Many churches' fail conspicuously in conducting their own- finances. Where is the business man who carries on his work the same way as he did in the "sixties"? Yet the Church is doing this very thing. The churches in this section are ministering to the older group who have moved out of the dis- THE CHURCHES 85 trict, but who for sentimental reasons still retain their membership in the old church, and are abso- lutely neglecting the newer group who have come in. One of the fundamental weaknesses of these old tra- dition-ridden down-town churches is the lack of be- ing able to meet changing human conditions and adapting themselves to their new environment. They have too much history and tradition, and whenever one is^ bold enough to suggest a change, in method, the first question asked is, "What has been our cus- tom in the past ?" Many churches today neglect the life and cling to the letter, the very thing on which Jesus fought His battle. They are crystallized into associations for cultivating letters, of some sort or another and are dodging the problems, of life. That church is unfit that does 1 not adapt her activities to the needs of those about her. There are ecclesiasti- cal delinquents as well as moral delinquents., and their fate is the same annihilation. In moving out of these districts the church is only following the path of least resistance. It is easier and more pleasant to minister to the wealthy and contented inhabitants of the suburban districts than to solve the complex problems and needs of the different groups down-town, If it be the mission of the Church "to seek and save the lost" she can find no more fruitful field for the prosecution of her labors than this very district from which she is retreating. Where can she find a larger sphere for her ministrations than in these places where squalor and crime reign supreme, where 86 SOCIAL CONDITION hard lines of lust and poverty are written on faces that never smile, where children are born and raised, in a single room, and never know the real comforts of home, and often are robbed of a fond mother's love and a father's care ? Where can she find a larger sphere of influence than among this typical young American who fills the rooming houses? He is in the prime of life, in the vigorous years of industrial productive power, and universally driven on by the conviction of success. Among this great number of unattached men and women are thousands of her own children who have turned away from her altars because of a lack of sympathy on the part of those who call themselves the followers of Jesus and find comfort in the meetings of the Socialists or even among those who fly the red flag of anarchy. Many of the churches have apparently felt their mistake in forsaking these communities and are now trying to atone for it by coming back into the very territory which they once abandoned. To many of these regions the "settlement" is returning, often under the support and patronage of the very denomi- nation which once abandoned a church in the same territory. It would have been a far wiser and saner plan to keep the church open in the first place. Judicious aid from wealthy congregations or from the mission boards of the Church at large should have been, ex- tended without requiring the congregation aided, to lose its identity and independence. This would have THE CHURCHES 87 kept the diminishing worshipera together, given a base for moral and religious effort and, in turn, brought together a new flock. The Christian Church is a missionary Church. Where there are souls to save and conditions to be improved it dare not re- treat. The same spirit, force and grace, which once established and founded churches should surely be equal to preserve and support those that now exist. While nearly all the denominational boards* whose churches are represented in the congested district have active field missionaries ministering in the sub- urbs of our great cities, none have felt it incumbent upon them to solve the great problems of those: dis- tricts where churches are manifestly needed. They establish missions in the undeveloped sections of the city because there is a large population expected to make their home there, whom the church hopest to reach, and, at the same time, old established congre- gations are closing their doors in those sections of the city where there is a congested population whom they have failed to reach. The prevailing reason most churches give for hav- ing removed from the district is that the foreigner has come in. This is true in many sections. There are, too, thousands- of unchurched, native-born Amer- icans in the "furnished room" houses of the city. A class of people the Protestant Church must minister to, if she means to be a thing of power in our American, city life. Most of these "roomers" have come from 1 the rural districts and smaller towns of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Dela- 88 SOCIAL CONDITION ware, It is a sad commentary on Protestantism that her churches move out when her children move in. The failure of the Church to reach the residents in her neighborhood is not the fault of the Church alone. Whatever affects the home affects the Church. Home life has suffered material changes' within re- cent years. The tendency of our day is toward the destruction of some of its essential features. The furnished room district is practically homeless.. Not only are the tenements-, apartments, and furnished rooms* practically homeless;, but the residents are in a constant state of migration, and all this has much to do with the relation of the Church to the people and its influence upon them. The most powerful grip of the Church must be upon the home. The church attendance is considered! as secondary in im- portance in the boy's life. School attendance is pri- mary. Many men of today do not attend church, because the parenta of yesterday did not train them in this most eacred duty. The work of the Church in her re- lation to society has been misunderstood and mis- represented in the modern social discussions. The Church saves society by first saving the individual. It declares that the fatherhood of God must precede 1 the brotherhood of man. The seeds of individual re- generation will at last produce the golden harvest of a perfect society for the secret of all social wrong rests in the individual heart. The Church is by no means perfect, as we have discovered' and courage- ously declared, but the whole burden of fault, as THE CHURCHES 89 some have supposed, does not rest under her. The in- dividual and society must bear their share of the blame. There is a hopeful side to the problem. The churches are beginning to see they owe a duty to those about them. The Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Jude and the Epiphany at Eleventh and Mount Vemon streets has erected a commodious parish house, which is open every night and isi in- tended to meet the needs of the neighborhood. The Central and North Broad Street Presbyterian Church at Broad and Green streets, with an endow- ment fund of $400,000, has decided to engage in neighborhood work. St. Mark's Lutheran Church, at Thirteenth and Spring Garden, has rented 1 a hall for a men's club and is contemplating one for the women. The solution to the difficult problem we have presented must be worked out gradually, and very likely will be effective only after innumerable failures. It may be that the future church for this neighborhood will be institutional in character. One thing is certain, the solution will not be reached un- til the Church has placed a larger force of trained workers in the field. These trained workers should be educated not only theologically, but well drilled in social work. So long as the Church makes no proper provision for such trained workers, so long will the problem remain unsolved. The church that will meet the need of the toiling masses and give them a little of the salt of life that the stale flat- ness of their existence may be somewhat disguised, will be the church of the future in the crowded city. 90 SOCIAL CONDITION Schools. The strongest agency for good in this district is the public school. Taking the whole district into consideration, we find that the population is mixed and congested. There are many foreigners in some parts. In one of the large schools, the "Wyoming Combined Grammar and Primary School," at Sixth and Fairmount avenue, seventy per cent, of all the scholars are Hebrews. On a recent Jewish holiday one class with an enrollment of forty-three pupils had an attendance of six. There are a number of Germans, Letts and Slovaks in this neighborhood. Ninety-two per cent, of the pupils are children of foreign birth, or of foreign parents. I submit a table of the schools in the district with the number of scholars enrolled and the percentage above the normal age in order to determine if pos- sible some of the causes of retardation* Enroll- above Name of School. Location. ment. normal age. Mifflin Third above Brown... 676 29.8 E. M. Paxson Buttonwood below 6th 907 38.9 Adams (Special School) . .Darien below Button- wood 116 84.4 Warner 6th and Fairmoimt .. 851 38.7 Wyoming 8th above Parrish 496 36.2 John Hancock 12th and Fairmount. .1,088 46.5 Robert Vaux (Special School Wood and Twelfth 165 78.1 Spring Garden Twelfth and Ogden . . 339 31.6 Northern Liberties Third below Green 946 33.2 Madison New Market above Noble 824 37.6 School of Observation and Practise 13th and Spring Garden 479 12.0 Does this table present a problem' ? The percentage of children above the normal age is too high. The question at once arises what are the causes of this condition? Many answers have been given. Some THE SCHOOLS 91 claim it is due to the immigrant children, retarded because they are unacquainted with the language. We need waste no time in refuting this statement. We see from "the table that the school which have the largest percentage of children of foreign birth and) parentage, do not have as large a number of children above the normal age as those schools situ- ated in districts where children of foreign parentage are rarely found among the school population. The Wyoming School, composed almost exclusively of foreign children, has an average of 38.7 per cent, above the normal and the John Hancock School, at Twelfth and Fairmount avenue, where hardly any foreign children are found, has an average of 46.5 per cent, above the normal age. How will we account for this difference in retardation ? It eurely cannot be due to "adenoids", "defective eyesight" or "defec- tive hearing". Is it not noteworthy that in this dis- trict, so similar in character, such extremes should be found,? The number of children above normal age in the different grades: is higher in the "fur- nished room" and "apartment or room to let" dis- trict than any other place. The fault does not lie in the schools or in the curriculum. It lies in the home. The children whose parents live in "rooms" are frequently the children! of poverty. They lead an irregular, hand-to-mouth existence from day to day. Poverty's misery falls hardest upon the chil- dren. Underfed children cannot be taught as effec- tively as well-fed children. "Defective feeding" should be looked into as well as defective vision and 92 SOCIAL CONDITION defective eye-sight. Associated with underfeeding are such evils as over-crowding, ill-ventilation and 1 insufficient clothing. The children from these fur- nished rooms for housekeeping, are not only suffer- ing from 1 under-nutrition but from lack of a proper amount of warm clothing, and from unsanitary home-surroundings. What effect does this improper environment have on the progress' of the child in school ? An unfavorable environment can only cause physical and mental retardation. The school at Twelfth and Fairmount avenue has the highest percentage of children above the normal in the whole district (not taking into account the special schools). Contrary to expectation, this school is not in the foreign settlements, but in the very heart of the "furnished room" district. Here are found a class of children who suffer from a lack of proper food, not because of the poverty of the parents, as much as of the inability of the parents to care for them properly. The child in the "rooming-house" is deprived of a proper amount of well-cooked and nourishing food. The frying-pan is the principal cooking utensil, and the most unpalatable food is placed before the child. The question here is not "How many children are 'underfedf, but as to how many are poorly fed." We have interviewed a number of principals and teachers on the subject of improper feeding among the children of the public schools. All agree that there are a number of children suffering from im- proper feding, but when pressed for definite infor- THE SCHOOLS 93 mation their statements were rather vague. One prin- cipal said : "More than ten per cent, of my children suffer from improper feeding." The teachers say there are many children in the schools' who get only those miserably poor breakf astei of coffee and! bread. One of the bright boys, living in the "rooming house" district, was very anxious to go with his class to the "Zoological Garden." The city furnishes free tickets of admission to all the public school children. Thisi particular grade had chartered' a car to take them to the "Zoo." The cost of transportation amounted to fifteen cents a head. On the day be- fore the contemplated trip the boy told the teacher he could not go, because he did not have the fifteen cents. The teacher knowing that 'this boy sold the Evening Bulletin, inquired whether he did not make enough money selling papers to pay for his ticket. She learned that the family lived in two rooms and that they had only had bread, bread for breakfast all winter, and that the boy was contributing the fifteen cents he earned each evening by selling papers, to- wards' the payment of the rent. Some children suffer from over-feeding. A short time ago a boy thirteen years old was taken ill soid^ denly in the Wyoming School and was immediately sent to the Children's Homeopathic Hospital. When the principal asked the mother what the boy had eaten she told him he had eaten about a half pound of Sweitzer cheese for breakfast and a box of sar- dines for lunch. In another school there is an overfed boy eleven 94 SOCIAL CONDITION years old in the third year A. He is well developed physically, and" there is no apparent reason for his retardation. After the principal consulted with his mother they came to the conclusion that the boy ate too much. He eats four or five large sandwiches for his lunch and as many apples or bananas. At hie home he eats as much as any two members' of the family combined. Let us return once more to the study of the statisr tics in our table. We find the lowest percentage of children above the normal age in the School of Practise and Observation, connected with the Girls' Normal School at Thirteenth and Spring Garden streets. The pupils of this school are selected with care. They are far above the average children found in any community. The majority of them are the children of wealthy parents living in the suburbs. They are well-fed and live in the most favorable en- vironment, so that the marvel is not that the per- centage of this school is so very low, but that it actually amounts to twelve per cent. Some efforts have been made to solve the problem of underfeeding in the congested "rooming" dis- tricts 1 of the city by the introduction of the penny luncheons. These are given under the auspices of the Starr Centre. The aim is to give children as much wholesome food as possible for the money. The unit of value is one cent. The idea is 1 to have the children cultivate a taste for good substantial food. At present it is still in the experimental stage. If it serve to educate the children of the poor in the AMUSEMENTS 95 use of food and food value it will accomplish, a good work. We reach the following conclusions on thi& sub- ject: 1. Underfeeding and improper feeding is< respon- sible for much of the backwardness of the children in the public schools. 2. It is more prevalent in the congested and "rooming" districts than in other sections. 3. A systematic effort should be made to deter- mine its extent. 4. The state should provide luncheon for those who cannot afford a proper food supply. 5. Lectures and demonstrations on food and food values should be given in the schools 1 . Amusements. The whole subject of amusements is a serious one, and cannot be dismissed without some thought. Amusement places of every kind abound in the dis- trict. Most of them are centered on Eighth street, but moving picture houses are numerous: in other sections. On April 1, -1910, there were eighteen places of amusement on Eighth street between Race and Vine, varying in character as follows: Five Moving Picture Shows. Five Shooting Galleries Nos. 253-206-218-222-234 Bijou Theatre Nos. 211-217. Circle Show No. 219. Wonderland Museum Nos. 241-245. Forepaugh's Theatre Nos. 255-259. Majestic Vaudeville Nos. 265-267. Museum of Anatomy No. 224. Penny Peep No. 235. Palmistry and Pictures No. 232. 96 SOCIAL CONDITION This block is a regular midway of license and pleasure, drawing the rabble from all parts of the city. On Arch street are found a number of vile the- atres such as the Trocadero, the Dime Museum, and others. On Market street are found a number of high-grade "movies." On the southwestern confines of the dictrict are two high-class theatres, erected recently, the Lyric and the Adelphi. At Broad and Poplar is the magnificent Philadelphia Opera House erected by Oscar Hammerstein. At Broad and Fair- mount avenue is The Grand, which until two years ago was. one of the most popular theatres in the city, but which has now been converted into a moving- picture and vaudeville house. What is to be the outcome of all this melodrama, music, picture-shows, vaudeville, etc.? Archbishop Farley, of New York City says: "The stage is worse today than it was in the days of paganism. We see today men and women old men and women who ought to know better, bringing their young to these orgies of ob- scenity. Instead of that they should be exercising a supervision over the young, and should look care- fully after their companionship." A certain amount of amusement is both necessary and desirable in this age of the industrial revolution. Nor need this amusement be of the highest grade. Many people do not appreciate a Greek art lecture or the essays of a Browning Club. They will get as much real enjoyment out of a performance at a vaudeville exhibition as they would' from Mary Gar- AMUSEMENTS 97 den playing Salome at the opera house. Too often people condemn the "bad taste" and "low morals" of every form of amusement which does not have the imprint of their own more discriminating culture. Dr. Patten, in the New Basia of Civilization, says : "Punch and the clown are as valuable as the comic muses of the Greek drama, because they also mark an epoch in man's growth. The primitive man, de- energized by work, craves no more activity and is happy while he rest, if he can be made to feel in- tensely. It is necessary, therefore, not only to start the current of his thought, but to direct it by the nearest and most direct stimulus. This exists 1 in its most accessible form in the people's) theatre, which utilizes material gathered from immemorial sources and sets forth the life process in the popular melo- drama of the hour." He makes 1 a strong plea for amusements of all kinds. We need more amuse- ments' today than ever before. It seems, however, that the character of our amusements isi degenerat- ing. The trail of the Tenderloin is on our stage. What does this mean ? It means that a trivial, pleas- ure-loving, hectic class of men and women, who make up so large a part of the theatrical audiences of Broadway, New York, are imposing their stand- ards, their vulgarity upon the American stage. It means, as Walter Prichard Eaton, in Success Maga- zine for April, 1909, declares: "That today, as the result of the tyrannical dominance of a group of New York theatrical managers over the theatres of the entire country, an unprecedented wave of licen- 98 SOCIAL CONDITION tiousness 1 in theatrical entertainment has arisen and is moving out from the Tenderloin, into the real United States. Vaudeville is already inundated.. Musical comedy has in the past two or three years sunk in many cases to the level of back- alley Pari- sian indecency. The dramatic stage has felt the in- fluence and let down the gates to forces of the rank- est suggest! veness. And this is. because such plays "pay" in the Tenderloin of New York City, and so acquire a reputation that piques curiosity through- out the country." The only thing that will stop indecent exhibitions on our stage is an aroused popular sentiment, that will make them unprofitable. It is the public to whom the appeal must be made, the public not of the Tenderloin, but of the country. The advertising manager and advance agent for Al. Wilson, who stars the country in an independent company, says the American people do want a clean, decent show, and will support it. This accounts for his phenome- nal suoces in such shows as "When New York Was Dutch," "Metz in the Alps," "Metz in Ireland," etc. Al. Wilson meets with crowded houses everywhere. No stronger proof of the fact that the average man and woman wants a good, clean show need' be men- tioned than the support given to William Hodge in "The Man from Home," which has been playedl to crowded houses for months in, the Adelphi Theatre. The same thing may be said of the "Country Boy," playing at the Walnut Street Theatre; or of "The Fortune Hunter" playing at the Garrick. AMUSEMENTS 99 The average "roomer" prefers a clean show. Be- cause the vile theatres are situated between the busi- ness and "rooming" districts, one must not draw the conclusion that they are here because they receive the patronage of the "roomer." In a study of three hundred "roomers" we found that two hundred and thirty-seven had never been in a theatre or moving- picture show on Eighth street. That is a good rec- ord, especially, when we bear in mind that these theatres and shows are within easy walking distance of their homes. In a study of four "rooming-houses" on Spring Garden street in February, 1911, we learned that sixty-seven "roomers" living in one block had been to see Wm. Hodge play "The Man from Home." It is a remarkable fact that the average "roomer" prefers a clean play or a decent "moving-picture" show to the trash of the tenderloin theatres. Inde- cency does not appeal to the "roomer" any more than it does to the average group of men in other sur- roundings, even though the cheap theatres flaunt their suggestive plays in his eyes on bill-boards at every corner he passes. On a single bill-board, in this district we saw the following "ad&" very sugges- tively illustrated: "Miss Innocence," "The Girl from Rector's," "Out Saloming Salome," "The Queen of the Moulin Rouge," "Cleopatra Dance," "The Whooping Cough Girl." The worst feature so far as the influence of these shows is concerned, and so far as their influence on the district is concerned, is the so-called amateur nights 100 SOCIAL CONDITION in theatres like the Trocadero and 1 Gayety. Here little boys and girls of very tender years give vaude- ville sketches, sing songs and dance. These children are accompanied by their parents,. The children generally perform near the close of the show. Some- times it is eleven o'clock before they are put on the stage. They have been sitting in the auditorium all the evening, listening to all forms of indecency and suggestion. They are usually the children of poor parents who use this means of increasing the family income. They are the children of the "rooming- houses." School principals complain of backward children who do stunts at these shows. Mr. Kin- cade, of the Society for Prevention, of Cruelty to Children, has numerous records on hand, showing where this organization had to step in and rescue children from the cruelties of parents who compelled their little ones to do these stunts on amateur nights. Perhaps you may be a little skeptical as to the in- decent character of many of these shows. You may even be a trifle annoyed by this suggestion of "lurk- ing danger," and may question the writer's standard of "decency," and think it prudish or hyper-critical. You don't go to such shows. Your pleasant sur- roundings seem quite as pleasant as ever, you are sure people are just as moral. Is it not "poison," or a danger to the adolescent mind when half -naked women make suggestive gestures, in the glare of the footlights, directly in the face of the boy? Songs are sung, and gross dialogue spoken that are inde- cent and suggestive. Ten years ago Mr. Keith would) AMUSEMENTS 101 not allow an actress who impersonated! a French maid in a sketch at his Boston theatre to wear silk stockings, because silk stockings were suggestive of fast life. Today many "headliners" who are women, appear on the vaudeville stage with no stockings 1 at all. Barefoot dancers are common occurrences. Re- cently a dance was done in this city by a, woman who was apparelled only in jewels and spangles. She did not even wear a gauze skirt. Last year a professional woman swimmer appeared) in a skin-tight union suit, and in order to make the act, which is naturally only an athletic exhibition, suggestive, the managers put on the stage a man with a camera to impersonate a peeper. In the "Fol- lies of 1910" a young woman applies to the manager for a position in vaudeville, stating that she has a figure which will please, The manager replies: "I am from Missouri and must be shown." She throws off a silk robe which she is wearing and stands be- fore the audience without any clothing, save a skin- colored loin cloth. The "Soul Kiss" is full of suggestions of impur- ity. "The Queen of the Moulin Rouge" is said to go the limit. It depicts alleged Parisian life. Paris revolted at two of its dancers. Assaults on the physi- cal passions are made throughout the play. The "Girl from Rector's" is a made over play from a vile French farce. In Trenton, New Jersey, the po- lice ordered the posters for this play off the fences-, and finally closed the play up. Shows of this character are playing continually 102 SOCIAL CONDITION in the rooming district. It is not necessarily true, however, that these shows are patronized solely or even mostly by the roomers. Visitors- in the city attend these theatres*. There are more than one thousand transients in Philadelphia hotels every day. Every night these visitors go to see some show. The visiting buyer must be entertained. Such an entertainer told me how he had procured' seats* for a visiting buyer from Williamsport to see Wm. Hodge in the "Man from Home." The buyer sneered con- temptuously. "Say," he remarked, "I get to Philly once or twice a year. Do you think I want to go to a Sunday-school convention or a pink tea?" The seats were sold, and tickets procured for the Troca- dero. The tenderloin theatres are not composed en- tirely of degenerate residents of the slums, of wicked gamblers, of "furnished roomers,," and painted blondes of doubtful virtue. The man from the country, the resident of the fashionable suburbs, the business man who is lonely because his wife has gone to see her mother help fill these houses. These theatres are here rather than elsewhere because of their central location near the railroad terminals, giving their patrons from the country easy access to the trains. They are here because of the cheap rooming and lodging house and so-called "hotels," or "theatrical houses" which flourish in this district and furnish the actresses and chorus girls with tem- porary shelter and board. Without the patronage of transients in the city and residents of the suburbs and outlying country districts, more than one-half of these theatres would be compelled to close up. AMUSEMENTS 103 The most popular amusement in our city today is the moving picture show. It is found everywhere. It is commonly called "The Movies," or the "Moves." Thousands of school children attend the "movies" daily. The so-called tenderloin, on the verge of the furnished 1 room district, is filled with "movies." The moving* picture show is a cheap form of amusement and is capable of doing a great deal of good. For instance, the work being done on the Panama Canal could be shown or the progress madie in irrigation in the West, or the processes of raising cattle and ship- ping them to market, or the intricacies in making a Panama hat, etc. Instead of this we have such scenes as shop-lifting, lynching, etc., depicted. Less than a year ago a number of school children; lynched a companion, carrying out the deed as it had been portrayed in a moving-picture show, and the boy was barely rescued in time,, and suffered for weeks from his experience. Mayor McClellan met the evil in New York by appointing a small commission, whose head was the late Charles Sprague Smith, the organizer of the People's Institute at Cooper Union. No film can be exhibited in Greater New York until it has been passed upon by this Commission. Its moral stand- ards have been high. Films that are vulgar, as well as those that are suggestive of evil, are excluded. A liberal judgment is applied. The Commission bears in mind that the moving-picture audience de- sires sentiment, is amused by trifles and) cares for action. 104 SOCIAL CONDITION Such censorship is needed in Philadelphia. An actual count in Boston shows that four hundred thousand persons visited the "movies" in a single week. The number attending in Philadelphia has been estimated by the Evening Bulletin to be con- siderable over one million weekly. A closer super- vision is needed to protect this popular form of amusement. Nine teachers of a school in the dis- trict we have been studying asked their pupils whether they had ever seen a moving picture show. All had seen them. These children were in the first to the fourth grades. In a Sunday-school of the district, with more than two hundred present, the same question was asked, and all had been to the "movies" excepting four little children in the lowest primary department. We learn from these instances the extemt to which they are patronized. Principals of the public schools and teachers gen- erally hold that the picture shows exert a baneful influence upon the children. Henry G. Deininger, of the Wyoming school, says: "It is my firm opinion that most of the moving picture shows a& now conducted, exert a very consid- erable baneful influence on the children. As a re- sult of the performances: "1. The children neglect school work in order to attend] them and also remain out of school without permission. "2. They fill the minds of the children with a con- tent that detracts from their interest in the regular AMUSEMENTS 105 school branches and leads them into improper direc- tions. "3. As many of the films are of scenes and inci- dents of crime and misconduct, it is not strange that children, who are the great imitators, should b led astray by them. "4. They lower the moral tones, of the children by making them familiar with scenes that they would never kniow about otherwise. "5. Some of the children have taken part in these performances. In such cases the above influences are even more pronounced." We quote also extracts: from the public press of our city to show the influence of some of these shows. "The admission pf a seven teen -year- old boy, who had stolen a watch in order to get money to go to moving picture shows was taken by Magistrate James A. Briggs, before whom the boy was ar- raigned in Twentieth and Federal streets Police Station today, as the occasion for scoring such places. The magistrate, after hearing the boy's con- fession, said: "Moving picture and other cheap shows are re- sponsible for the downfall of boys more than any- thing else I know of. The scenes they show, not only give the boys a false view of life, but exert such a fascination over them that they will steal, if neces- sary, to get money to go. There ought to be some law preventing boys from going to see them." "The boy, , of S. Eighteenth street, was arrested yesterday by Sinex, a special 106 SOCIAL CONDITION policeman, for stealing a gold- watch belonging to his father, which he pawned for twenty-five cents. The magistrate held the boy under $400 bail for court." From Philadelphia Press, March 30, 1909. Another article entitled, "Girl a Runaway" "Goes to Moving Picture Shows, and Buys Candy," appeared in the Evening Bulletin in December, 1910. "A desire to see the world on her own account led Edna , of street, to start from school on Thursday afternoon equipped' with one dollar. It was only after a general alarm had been sent out to the police stations of the city by her parents that she was located at Juniper and Market streets, at three o'clock yesterday morning by Special Police- men Sheller and Richter, of the Fifteenth and Sny- der avenue Station House. The little girl started as usual Thursday afternoon to attend the Baldwin School, Sixteenth and Porter streets. She did not return at the usual hour, but the child's mother thought nothing of this, because she was in the habit of helping her teacher after school. But when it was time for the evening meal and the girl had not returned, the father notified the police. Thinking that the child had probably been locked in the school 1 house, the janitor was hunted up and the building searched. About ten o'clock a general alarm was sent out. "She told the policeman who found her that she had spent her money in going to moving picture shows and buying candy. When the last picture house closed she was afraid to go home." AMUSEMENTS 107 On Monday morning, February 27, 1911, the papers were full of an account of a boy who killed one of his playmates by imitating a scene in a mov- ing picture show. The Philadelphia Press contained the following headlines of the tragedy: "Imitating Picture Show Kills Boy" "Lad of Ten, Illustrating Wild West, Shoots Playmate Through Heart" "Nicolodeon Blamed for Scenes which Lead to Fatal Accident." "Sergeant McMullen, who arrested Jimmy, declared that the Saturday night's exhibi- tion of Wild West moving pictures, which is given by a neighboring nieolodeon, is blamed by the family for inspiring in the boys, desires to emulate the heroic scenes portrayed. The sergeant is also of this opinion. He explained that the boys, anxious to put what they had seen into real life, went "whacks" on an air rifle. The rifle was concealed by the boys on Saturday night, and the shooting done on Sundiay." The papers are filled, from time to time, with ac- counts of the same character; it seems- that a law should be enacted forbidding children of tender age from attendance upon a moving picture show, unless accompanied by their parents or adult caretaker. To enter upon a wholesale condemnation of the whole moving picture idea, which brings pleasure to thou- sands of people daily, is absurd. In fact, it is the only source of pleasure for a great part of our popu- lation. A man and wife and three children can have an hour or two of wholesome amusement for a quar- ter. Young men and women in the "rooming house" 108 SOCIAL CONDITION whose incomes are small and sources of pleasure lim- ited, because they are strangers in a strange land, have in the moving picture show a cheap form of entertainment. For five cents they get an hour of pleasure, an not of much value. Four settlement houses, with alarge staff of workers, are gradually seeking to extend various social and educational advantages to the rooming population. These settlement houses, are the Methodist Episcopal Settlement on Vine street near Sixth, in charge of deaconesses of the M. E. Church. Several houses that have been purchased;, for various> branches- of this work, are being remodelled and improved. The North House is conducted under the auspices of the Society of Friends and is situated at 451 N. Mar- shall street. The Luther Settlement House is situ- ated at Fourth and Callowhill streets. The Settle- ment House of the Second Prasbyterian Church is situated at 613 N. Eighth street.. In each of these settlements there are from three to five resident workers and a dozen or more associate workers who come from other sections of the city and give their time and talents to the uplift of men. In, the eleventh annual report of the settlement house, Eighth and Green streets, the following reference is made to neighborhood conditions. "The Second Presbyterian Church Settlement i& located very near 122 SOCIAL CONDITION to the Tenderloin district. What was. once a good residence neighborhood i now almost wholly given over to 'furnished room' houses, where moral condi- tion are deplorable and anything like normal life is impossible. Added to this aue the questionable amusements offered in the cheap theatres and mov- ing-picture shows, which abound on every hand." This 1 settlement house is one of the most effective in the district. A well equipped playground is one of its characteristic features. Nearly all the childiren come from "rooming" houses. Arrangements are now being made to reach the young men and women in the "rooming" house. Wholesome amusements will be provided for them a well as for the boys and girls.. The question is frequently raised whether the settlement is "making good." Every settlement in the district is doing effective work. It first duty is toward the neglected childhood of the community. Henry G. Deininger, Principal of the Wyoming Combined Primary and Grammar School, says: "The settlement house exerts- a, marked influence on the boysi and girls, in our school. Discipline is a comparatively easy matter with the boys and girls after the settlement has influenced their lives." Rev. Ambrose Herring took charge of the Luther Settlement House, October 1st, 1910. In March, 1911, he submitted the following report of the work under his direction. "The institutional work is. at present centered in three buildings. The Penny Savings Bank which is conducted 1 from the office AGENCIES FOR UPLIFT 123 experienced a 'rush' before the holidays' because the young people drew their savings to buy that which, in many cases, proved to be their first Christmas gifts. There are at present eighty-two depositors. The settlement knows that poverty is as much a problem of saving as of income and the bank was established to encourage small savings. "The settlement exists to do necessary work which makes for better social and religious life for all the people in the community in which it is located. The 'Cobley Alley Gang' reputed to be the worst boy's gang in the district, constituted our first group of boysi and their sisters were our first girls. The captain of the gang came to inquire in behalf of 'his gang' saying that, ''de kids hadint no place to go nowhere in the evenings but the alley and de street corner, and that the corner wasfent no good 'cause de cop was always hanging around to chase you and that most of de kids only had five cents a week for the "movies," J "On October 16th, 1910, the Cobley Alley Gang entered upon a new epoch in its long and) active his- tory; a history which bristles with such deeds of heroism, daring and adventure as might have made the pirates of old turn green with envy. We are told that no pastor was safe in making calls in Cobley Alley while the 'gang' was around, and they were everywhere and always on the job. Their code of signals kept the policemen guessing and men, with silk hate kept their eyes open and stepped lively. The Cobley Alley boys are splendid fellows. They 124 SOCIAL CONDITION have red blood and are heroic fighters but they have a wrong conception as to what constitutes true heroism and they need to apply their fighting quali- ties to better issues.. The settlement gives them a chance and shows them how. The 'Cobley Alley' gang is all right. The trouble lies in its wrong ideals which the grown folks have given them. 'They can lick any bunch that comes down the pike.' 'They are the worst gang around ;' everybody says so from the minister and judge down to the policeman and their own fathers, and they feel that they must make good or lose their reputation. "The settlement does not claim to have accom- plished much definite work with these boys, for the development of years cannot be undone in a few months', but it has taken the place of the street and the alley, and has become their club-home and ad- viser. When these boys come to the Settlement now, they are better dressed and have cleaner hands and faces than they had at first. Some day they will see the relation between clean hands and clean character and orderly lives." It is the uniform testimony of those who know that in its contact with people the Settlement is making progress. The policeman on the beat in the neigh- borhood of a Settlement House came into the gym- nasium recently to tell the workers that since the Settlement is here he has much less trouble, and that all is 1 quiet. A business man., upon being ap- proached for financial aid for Settlement work, filled out a check for $10, saying, "I know of your work. AGENCIES FOR UPLIFT 125 I hear about it constantly. It is the kind of Chris- tianity I believe in." Other agencies working along the lines of general uplift are the Salvation Army, and the Volunteers of America. They have worked] here for years, and so far as the external character of the neighborhood is concerned, we fail to notice any improvement. No doubt some good is accomplished by these agencies, but not nearly so much as is usually claimed 1 by their enthusiastic supporters and admirers. The Volunteers of America are trying to do some con- structive work in the Tenderloin. They have a worker visiting houses of ill-fame, and the dens of Chinatown, and more than one girl has been res- cued from a life of sh;ame and sent home. Work of this kind is slow and 1 has many discouraging fea- tures. There are a number of self-conistitutedi mis- s-ions and missionaries in the district of doubtful value. The Galilee Mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church deserves especial mention, It is situated on the corner of Vine and Darien streets, in the heart of Philadelphia's Tenderloin, and it is said to be the best equipped; rescue mission in the country. Goodi meals are served in the dining room 1 for five cents, the average number supplied being over three hundred a day; beds are provided in four large, well- lighted dormitories, with the use of shower baths, at ten cents a night, the hundred 1 and sixty-eight beds being occupied! nearly every night. Men who sleep in the mission have the use of a fine and well- 126 SOCIAL CONDITION equipped reading room and a smoking room free, andl also the benefit of a well -equipped laundry and bath for five cents, other men being charged ten cents.. In order to help men- to help themselves, there is an industrial department, where they can earn their meals, and bed and use of the laundry. Services are held nightly by the Rev. J. J. D. Hall, the Superintendent of the Mission. We doubt the lasting influence of the great number of conversions reported! by these agencies. It would make an in- teresting study to follow up the so-called converts and) determine what proportion again lapse into their former life. Prostitution and Crime in the District. No attempt to picture the rooming house would be even approximately accurate without some refer- ence to prostitution. It bears: the stamp of modern social and industrial conditions. The hosts of un- married) men of the great industrial city living in the rooming house represent the masculine factor; the feminine factor consists of girlsi and women from the midst of the social organism 1 who have been impelled by circumstances to make a quasi- voluntary choice of prostitution as a means of live- lihood. Speaking generally, we have too large a number of prostitutes in the city. Some volun- tarily choose a life of shame from innate perversity. Others are victims of force or fraud; still others, of adverse social and economic conditions. It is an old and trite saying, that the real cause of prostitution is the male factor. A community, PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 127 it is said, will have as much vice as it will pay for. "Demand will create a supply." Thisi idea contains an element of truth. Under existing conditions many women are attracted, not forced into prosti- tution. The greater the earnings of the prostitute, the richer her attire, and the more luxurious her mode of life, the stronger is the attraction for those who are on the borderland of vice and virtue. Con- sequently, any account of prostitution may proper- ly begin with a consideration of the general reasons that are responsible for an extensive "demand." The problem of prostitution is closely connected with that of the movement of population towards the city. A great part of the population of a mod- ern city consists of young mem who have drifted hither from the country and email towns, attracted by the greater opportunities of rising in social life and by the greater degree of personal comfort that the city offers. As a rule, the income a young man earns, while sufficient to procure for himself the ne- cessities of life and, at times, some luxuries, does not suffice for founding a family. As his income increases, his standard of personal comfort rises; accordingly, he postpones marriage until a date in the indefinite future, or abandons* expectation of it altogether. His interests centre almost wholly in himself. He is responsible only to himself and the pleasure he can obtain becomes the chief end of his life. It is not unnatural, then, that the strongest impulse of man should find expression in the only way open indulgence in vice. The rooming house 128 SOCIAL CONDITION district is filled 1 with places where he may have his desires gratified. The Evening Item of March 11, 1911, had forty-one ads. in the "Personals" giving the locations of "massage parlors," which are noth- ing more nor lese than houses of prostitution. "Mass. Young Operators", "Mass. Bath, Two New Attendants", "Mass. New Young Expert", "Mass. Entirely New", "Mass. Magnetic Treatment", "Mass. Satisfaction", "Mass. Bath, New Nurse", "Mass. Ba>th, New French Nurse" are some of the ads. Most of the addresses given are in the district under consi deration. Besides the "massage parlors" there are a number of well-known houses 1 of ill-fame in the district. They have existed for years-. Houses of assignation are very common in this district, where men and 1 women rent a room temporarily. Such houses are found on Cherry street between Twelfth and Broad. A stranger walking from Twelfth to Broad street on Cherry after eight in the evening is likely to be accosted by a score of young girls walking the streets for purposes of pros- titution. It is so patent that there is a strong sus- picion that the whole system is organized', controlled and protected by powerful interests. Prostitution appears under different guises. There are a considerable number of regular houses of pros- titution. Wood street is filled with dens of the vilest character. Women call to passers-by on the street and invite them in, On a Sunday afternoon in September, 1910, the writer passed down Wood street and saw the Salvation Army hold! services PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 129 in the centre of the street. While the members of the Army were kneeling in the street in prayer, the inhabitants of the houses were calling out and 1 solic- iting some of the bystanders and using some of the vilest language. Darien street from Vine to But- tonwood is filled with houses of prostitution of the vilest character. Other such houses are found in the mictet of the furnished room district. The best of these houses are ostensibly elegant and very quiet residences. They are almost absolutely quiet dur- ing the day, and even at night they are careful not to invite police surveillance by noise or by lighted windows. They are also very careful not to incur the ill-will of their neighbors. The existence of a' notorious house of prostitution a few doors removed from a certain "Settlement House" in the district seemed to annoy the resident workers- of the Set- tlement. They determined on its removal. But it was not as easy a matter as they had supposed. The police were very willing to do all they could, but they had to be supplied with evidence. It is pretty hard to get evidence in cases of this kind. The business men and little shop-keepers in the neigh- borhood did not want "this good woman disturbed." Not a parent in the neighborhood seemed desirous of having anything done in the matter. The house is still a fixed institution in the district. Another type of ' disreputable house is conducted under the guise of a "rooming house" or an apart- ment house. It is very likely to have ita street number posted in large letters on the front door, 130 SOCIAL CONDITION and perhaps in the window. Perhaps a few men room here as a blind, but primarily it is a house of prostitution and conducted for that purpose. These houses^ advertise in .the Item and in, the Sunday Transcript : "Furnished Rooms with Privileges," or "Furnished Rooms for Transients." A variant of this' type is that in which the land- lady is not directly engaged in this traffic, but where, with her knowledge, live women of loose character who bring men to their rooms whenever they please. Rents in such houses are high. A young medical student, of great moral probity, de- clared that he changed "rooming houses" a num- ber of times because he found a woman of loose character living in- almost every house, occupying rooms there, and often being introduced to the gen- tlemen "'roomers" for the purpose of plying her trade among them. In houses of this type the landlady knowsi of the irregular practices. If she allows them she can make some money out of her house. The economic struggle she must make the necessity of getting as great returns from her house as possible results in a gradual relaxation of her moral standards, at least in so far as> they are applied to practise. Be- fore she knows it the strictest and most prudish woman has dropped into the easy-going habit of not knowing too much about her roomers. Prostitution may go on in a house without the knowledge of the landlady. Nearly every rooming 1 house keeper says she keeps only "nice" people^ It PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 131 is impossible for her to know what goes on in the rooms of her house. The proximity of the rooms of men and women, the fact that they are under rooming house etiquette and have a perfect right to visit one another's 1 rooms;, and the quietness with which people can come in and out, render immoral practices not only easy, but almost a matter of cer- tainty. There are many young women, working in department stores at less than living wages, whose scant earnings are supplemented by a gentleman "friend" who demands certain "privileges"; these girls often form temporary unions with men and live together as> man and wife. A merchant in the district told me of an attractive young woman who dealt with him for a year or more. At times she asked! for credit to the extent of one or two dlollarsi, which he granted her without knowing her name. She came in hurriedly one evening in December, 1909, and asked whether her account was settled and said, "I have thrown my old man over and in-' tend to leave him." In November, 1911, she came into his store and he greeted her, and' asked her whether she had returned to the neighborhood to live, to which she replied, "Yes, I have lived a re- spectable married life with three men since I left the Green street house; two I threw over and the last one 'threw me' over. I am back at the old place again, and no doubt the old man will take me in again." After a girl has lived with a man and has been "thrown over" it is much easier for her to cast aside her pride and self-respect and go and live 132 SOCIAL CONDITION with other men, whence the way to the life of the avowed prostitute is wide open. And after a man has thus, treated one girl, it is easy for him to con- tinue to prostitute himself and leave a. trail of ruin- ed lives behind him. George Picot in Seances et Travaux de FAcademie dee Siences Morales et Poli- tiques, Vol. 53, p. 681, states that "Ninety per cent, of the women prostitutes of Paris are recruited from the lodging house class." It is difficult to come to definite conclusions' in matterst of this kind- There are a number of mistresses or "kept" womeni in this district. Doctors have much evi- dence on this and kindred topics, all of which bears more or less directly on the problem of the "roomer," which we cannot discuss here. It belongs to a spe- cial investigation of the subject which some one should make. We insert eome concrete cases from the newspap- ers because they illustrate so many of the character- istics of rooming house life the heterogeneity and fluidity of population, the vice and crime prevail- ing here, and the moral dangers with which that life is beset. "Forty-four Caught in Raid." (Press, February, 1911.) "Forty-four prisoners caught in one house was the record established in a raid made by the police of the Tenth and Buttonwood streets Police Station yesterday morning, at 343 N. Ninth street. "Yesterday morning Magistrate Belcher held Mr. PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 133 aad Mrs. in $500 bail each, for court, charged with being the proprietors, and the others caught in the dragnet received either ten or thirteen day sentences in the County Prison or were fined $6.50 and costs each. The raiders had the place covered for some time. It was a cider saloon, and when the descent was made, ten women and thirty-four men were caught. This included a three- piece orchestra." "Six Years in Jail for 'White Slaver,' " "Young Man Who Admitted 1 Keeping Girl Prisoner in Disorderly House is Severely Punished." (From Evening Bulletin, April 26, 1910.) "Louis Cantor today pleaded guilty before Judge Carr in Quarter Sessions Court No. 1, to luring Dora Rubin, a pretty young Austrian girl, to this city, and forcing her into a life of shame or what is known as a 'white slave.' "Judge Carr told the prisoner that he would sent- ence him to the full penalty of the law, not only for hie own punishment, but as a warning to his asso- ciates in the same business. On the three indict- ments he was sentenced to three years, two years and one year repectively, making six years, alto- gether, to the county prison. The girl, who can speak a little English, and who has only been in this country a short time, is an orphan. She was living in New York with an uncle and supporting herself by working in a factory. At the noon hour she was in the habit of buying her lunch, along 134 SOCIAL CONDITION with the other girls, in a cheap restaurant near the factory, and it was in this place that the prisoner Cantor first saw her and introduced himself to her ae a fellow countryman. "After taking her to theatres and other places of amusement, he won his way into her confidence, and at the end of a week's time persuaded her to accompany him.' to Philadelphia to get married. After coming to Philadelphia, he took her to a dis- orderly house, where, by means of threats, he forced her to become a 'white slave/ and turn her earnings over to him, under the pretence that he would save the money until they had enough to get married and go to housekeeping. "The girl was rescued by Gibboney, of the Law and Order Society, whose attention, wasi called to the case, by a man to whom she had told her plight and appealed for protection at the first opportunity, when Cantor, seeing that she was ill and weak from the abuse andi ill-treatment to which she had been subjected, took her to a moving picture show one evening last week and left her for a few minutes while he spoke to an acquaintance. "When, Cantor was placed in the dock he pleaded not guilty to the charges in the three indictments against him, but after he saw the effect that the testimony of his victim had made on the judge and jury, as was plainly detected on the stern, faces turned towards him, he decided to change his plea in the hope that his- punishment be made light. Judge Carr, however, refused to listen to any plea PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 135 or excuse, when Cantor attempted to explain, that he had been told the girl was a bad girl before he met her. "Assistant District Attorney Kogers., who con- ducted the examination of the girl, endeavored to learn from Cantor how many of hie friends were engaged in the 'white slave' traffic in New York, but the prisoner could not be led into a confession im- plicating any of his associates. Secretary Gibboney, of the Law and Order Society, who was in court, hopes to secure the arrest of several other men with whom Cantor associated while in this city, and who are supposedly all members of an alleged syndicate engaged in the 'white slave' traffic, having their base of operations in New York, with houses in this city, where young immigrant girls are taken." "Missing Woman Found Dead in Booming House in Tenderloin, and Companion Held." "Police Iveatigate Strange Circumstances." "Arrests May Follow Probe into Death, of Former College Teacher and Amateur Actress." "Coroner Ford this afternoon ordered a rigid in- vestigation, into the circumstances! surrounding the death of Mrs. lona Mae M , a talented school teacher and elocutionist, who died in a room at 467 N. Ninth street, yesterday. Missing from. 1 her home for a week, Mrs. M , for ten years a teacher at' Girard College, and lately a public school teacher and dramatic coach, was found dead yesterday, 136 SOCIAL CONDITION under what the police say were suspicious circum- stances. "William C , forty years oldi, was arrested by the Tenth and Buttonwood streets police, in connec- tion with the teacher's death, but the police throw an air of mystery around their investigation and declare that the man is held merely as a witness) for the coroner's inquest. During the last three weeks Mrs*. M had stayed away from home over night, two or three times, her relatives say. She explained, however, that she was staying with friends and that she found it more convenient instead of returning home late after the rehearsals for dramatic charity entertainments 1 , which she arranged;. "Her husband, whose body she brought home from Italy a year ago, had left her some property, houses as well as a large personal estate, estimated to be worth thousands of dollars. She carried consider- able money with her as a rule, and also rings and jewelry worth several hundred dollars. "C was a former policeman and was living with Mrs. M when she died'. What happened to Mrs;. M since she left home was told by C in the police station today. He said he met Mrs. M in a house near Thirteenth and Pearl streets,' where they were drinking. The police allege that C passed as the husband of Mrs. M . The couple went to live in a lodging house at Fifteenth and Vine streets. After this he rented a room at the Ninth street house for himself and wife. He PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 137 did not give his name to the proprietress of the Ninth street house. It was here that eh died under suspicious circumstances." In May, 1908, we learned of a very fine looking young woman living in the rooming district, near Spring Garden street, who attracted considerable attention by her stylish dress. She was; also known to frequent certain well-known cafes during the day. Men looked for her in vain at night. On learning the story of her life it was' found that she wasi only twenty years old, and was the wife of a bank examiner. At fifteen she cam home from a fashionable boarding-school and lived with her par- ents in the northwestern section of Philadelphia. She fell in love with a boy who was her senior by a 'year. On the promise of marriage, they assumed illicit relations, and she became pregnant. The young man was not in a position to marry her, and she was sent by her parents to a rural district in the state of Maryland, where a criminal operation was performed. On returning home her parents handed her a $10 bill, and told her they had decided that she must now leave home and look out for her- self. She declared that this action on the part of her parents was a great mistake. She had no desire for any further illicit relations, and might have been induced to lead a moral and respectable life under the guardianship of her father and mother. She left home, a mere girl not yet sixteen, with light curls hanging down her shoulders. She went down 138 SOCIAL CONDITION town and walked up and down Chestnut street. In a short time an eminently respectable looking, well- groomed man accosted her in passing, saying, "What pretty curls you have, little girl." She replied, "Do you think so?" He stepped' up to her, raised his hat, and asked her where she was going, to which she replied, "I think I will go with you." He laugh- ingly a&ked her to follow him to a side entrance of a cafe. Here she explained her situation. He im- mediately took her to a "rooming house" and in a few days 1 had her fitted up with handsome new gowns, hats, shoes and other articles, essential to a girl's wardrobe. He then took her to New York City and placed her in a fashionable hotel. She became the protege of this man, who visited her weekly for two years. He gave her a musical edu- cation. She obtained a position in a chorus and toured the smaller towns and cities of New York State and Pennsylvania in the Elsie Janis Com- pany. During this time she remained true to the old "gentleman." In Scranton, Pennsylvania, she met an alluring young man and yielded to his en- treaties. He placed her in a house of prostitution. Here she remained under contract for nearly nine months, when one of the patrons of the place was attracted by her beauty and youth, and asked her to become his wife if she could love him. She accept- ed, and in December, 1907, they were married in Wilmington, Delaware, and returned to Philadel- phia to the furnished room district to live. They lived here until the early part of 1910, when she PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 139 and her husband suddenly moved from the district, leaving no traces of their whereabouts. The prevalence of immorality among males is a less uncertain quantity than is> the extent of prosti- tution! among women lodgers. The evidence of a number of reliable physicians of the district is that sexual immorality and venereal disease are very common among male lodgers. Indeed, one is led to believe that few young men in the rooming district escape contamination at some time in their lives'. Drug clerks say that a large quantity of patent medicines and preparations for 'venereal diseases 1 are sold to men and women in the district. The great number of medical specialists thriving in this dis- trict and advertising in one or two of the less reput- able newspapers, is an indication of an evil growing directly out of the temporary unions to which we have alluded:, and the disinclination of all classes to have children. A number of malpractitioners have been arrested in the past, but very few are convicted. The law requires corroborative evidence in addition to the so-called dying statements. This corroborative evidence is hard to get. It has been found almost impossible to convict a physician in- dicted for malpractice in the courts of the city. No one acquainted with the district denies the existence of the social evil here. It is found here rather than elsewhere because there is no neighbor- hood feeling here. The main external check upon a man's conduct, the opinion of his neighbors, which 140 SOCIAL CONDITION has such a powerful influence in the country or email town, tends to disappear in the great city. In the rooming district there are no neighbors. No man knows the doings of even his 1 close friends, few care what the secret life of their friends and neighbors may be. There is no community interest that can be aroused in this district. Reform is impossible, because the advocates of better conditions are not those living in the community, but fashionable resi- dents and reformers' from the suburbs. A few la- ment the fact that things are not as they once were, or that "people" are very wicked in our "age," but seem hopeless to remedy this state of affaire. The small shopkeepers lament the fact that their chil- dren must be reared amid such vile surroundings, yet, are careful not to molest these housee of ill- fame for fear of losing their trade. The prostitute is a liberal spender, and makes most of her pur- chases in her own neighborhood. The policemen know of the existence of these houses, but rarely make any arrests. Legal proof is absolutely neces- sary for placing a woman in such a class and brand- ing her as a prostitute. Such proof must neces- sarily in the majority of cases be difficult, if not im- possible, to obtain. We are all agreed upon the necessity of suppress- ing, so far as possible, flagrant and .open incitement to debauch. Solicitation upon the street and in public places should be restrained; haunts of vice should be compelled to aseume the appearance of de- cency; in short, every method of conspicuous adver- PROSTITUTION AND CRIME 141 tising of vice should be done away with. This can be only partly accomplished. The prostitute will always invent ways to make her presence known. Vice is especially dangerous in public 'places. The policy of the License Courts of Philadelphia, of revoking the license of saloon keepers who permit unattended women to frequent their premises has helped to drive vice from the saloon proper. The policy, too, of calling attention to bottlers and brew- ers whose bottles are found in places that have been raided by the police has had a salutary effect in stamping out "speak-easies." Vice to a great extent has been driven from public places since the enact- ment of the Brooks High License Law. If prostitution is denied the right of flaunting itself in public places, it will take refuge in private houses. This is what has occurred in Philadelphia. From time to time there have been inns, hotels and rooming houses in the city in, which no attempt has beem made to conform to the rules of morality of the general community. Rooming house keepers of unscrupulous character have winked at disreputable practices when they have not positively encouraged them and shared the resulting profits. It is easy to go a step further and understand the transition from such houses that wink at loose practices to the house of assignation., which does) not derive any part of its returns from the legitimate service of keeping roomers, but depends upon the patronage brought to it by the professional street walker. Wherever solicitation upon the street is permitted, 142 SOCIAL CONDITION such establishments will exist. Depending entirely upon vice, their location is necessarily limited to the quarters where the volume of vice is considerable. Solicitation upon the street is in turn limited to the vicinity of such houses, since the street-walker, in order to ply her vocation with profit, must have a place in the near vicinity to which she may bring her victims. It is impossible to form any idea of the number of thefts and robberies committed by prostitutes and their male retainers, since the victims do not usu- ally make complaint. It is known, however, that such crimes do take place. More stringent method should be adopted in dealing with this problem. The evils of prostitution should be unceasingly condemned by public opinion as a sin against morality. A system of eugenics should be taught in the public schools. Where pros- titution assumes the form of a public nuisance, it should be punished as a crime. Purer forms of amusement for the young, better moral education in school, home and church, better housing and living conditions for the poor, the raising of the wages for female labor, the establishment of correctional institutions for those who have fallen these are some of the methods by which the evil could be abated. Use of Cocaine. Closely associated with the subject of prostitution is the use of drugs and cocaine. Startling revelations concerning the use of cocaine by inhabitants of this USE OF DRUGS 143 district were made in the spring of 1910. Two young men in the district made a confession, throwing an inside light on the effects of the cocaine habit. Both men had just passed 1 their twenty-third birthday, yet asserted ihat they had been using morphine and cocaine for seven or eight years. Both made their confessions 1 in matter of fact tones, telling as simply as if speaking of the weather, how young boys and girls drifted into the habit, and once slaves of the desire, would commit any crime to obtain the "dope"; how they lost all sense of decency, all re- gard for law and all sense of responsibility. Co- caine is taken to relieve the intense depression pro- duced by indulgence in morphine. Cocaine is an alkeloid derived from coca leaves. The hydrochlo- rate which is that sold among the "dope fiends" is excellent as a local anesthetic, being made into a solution and injected at the point to be affected. It produces temporary insensibility to pain and in the hands of an expert surgeon leaves no disagreeable after effects. The very qualities which make the drug effective as an anesthetic, however, make it harmful as an ordinary stimulant. Its prolonged use wrecks the mind and body and causes muscular twitching and insomnia. Druggists were arrested for selling it to children in this crusade. Later they were tried and convicted. The pallid faces, the drooping eyelids of numberless! men and women to be seen on the streets tell a ghastly story. Cocaine fiends are usually victims of the morphine habit before they begin the use of cocaine. Prostitutes 144 SOCIAL CONDITION and persons whose systems are jaded use these drugs to get some of their former energy back. There is usually an unnatural life that antedates the begin- ning of the drug habit. This crusade against cocaine and morphine was begun by the State Pharmaceutical Board early in 1910. In less than three months one hundred arrests were made, all of which have since been tried and convictions obtained in nearly every case. During the trials it was shown that a well organized "Co- caine Syndicate" existed in Philadelphia's Tender-' loin. Children of the public schools had purchased this fatal drug and had become "sniffers" of "coke." DT. Joseph P. Remington, dean of the College of Pharmacy, is responsible for the statement that many children of the crowded sections touching the Tenderloin and "rooming" quarters, are addicted to the cocaine habit. I insert an extract from the Press of April 2, 1910. "The startling discovery has just been made that the drug is being used extensively by children. It is said that those who have become fiends first used cocaine put up in the form of a catarrh cure. Some years ago, before the food and drugs act of 1906 became a law, many so-called cures for catarrh were put up in the form of a patented article. It is a known fact that cocaine has some effect upon the mucous membranes, and to those who first used the "medicine" some relief was afforded. After having used several boxes the unsuspecting victim' became a slave to the habit. The so-called 1 cure had done USE OF DRUGS 145 its work, and the victim, in search of relief from one disease, found himself in the toils of another. "These catarrh cures have been given to children by parents- who were unaware of the drug that they were administering. Many adults were using the drug without ever knowing that they were taking 'dope.' It has been discovered that in certain sec- tions of the city, candy and chewing gum, contain- ing cocaine are sold indiscriminately. Children using the gum and candy develop a craving for more. In a short time they become addicted to the habit and buy the drug from any of a number of illicit merchants. Dr. Koch says that children save their pennies until a number of them have saved a quarter. With this they buy a 'two-bite sniff'. "A device has been invented by these young vic- tims which they carry in their pockets and use from time to time. It consists of a small box, in the side of which a hole is bored. In this opening a small glass tube, like the glass filler for a fountain- pen, is inserted. The stiff cover of the box is re- moved and in its place a piece of cloth or thin paper is placed. The box is filled with the white powder, and when the drug fiend wishes to take a sniff of 'coke' he places the glass tube to the nose and tape the improvised cover of the box. The vibrations send little particles of the drug to the nostrils. In this manner the powder is placed where the effect is quick. Many of these boxes have been found in the pockets of young children." Lieutenant Barry, of the Tenderloin Police Sta- 146 SOCIAL CONDITION tion, has since called attention to the fact that these wholesale raids were followed by a wave of crime such as hold-ups and shooting affrays, in which "dope users" were the offenders. Maddened by the inability to satisfy their craving: for "coke", they sometimes attacked innocent passers-by in sheer wantonness. In Philadelphia, the rooming-house is dragged into the papers very frequently, by the suicide of the roomer. In October, 1910, five instances came to notice in two weeks. There were, doubtless, others as well. Many have come to our attention since. There is a house on Spring Garden street where five suicides occurred) within a year. It is natural that the rooming house should be the scene of such trage- dies, the friendless, the unemployed, the despondent, those disappointed in love, and girls in trouble drift to the rooming house. The causes of suicide are various, and often throw a side light on the inner life of the rooming house district. Murders and double shootings frequently occur in the rooming house, and are generally due to jealousy. In. 1909, a murder and suicide occurred in a house on Spring Garden street. When the parties were identified it was found that a father and step-daughter had run away from home in Newark and had rented rooms as man and wife. The man was fifty-five years of age, and his step-daughter sixteen. When the police became suspicious and began to ask questions, he shot his step-daughter and killed himself. Crimes of a less serious nature occur continually. USE OF DRUGS 147 When a shop-lifter is arrested, it is generally found that she lives in some rooming house. Fourteen cases of this kind have come to our notice in six months. In February, 1911, the Bulletin contained the following article: "Daisy Brown Held." "Daniel Brown, alias 'Daisy Brown/ who was ar- rested at 324 N. Eighth street, by Detective Scanlon and Special Officer McCarty, charged with having received stolen jewelry valued at $300, was held in bail for a further hearing this morning, by Magis- trate Beaton at the Central Police Court yesterday. "Brown was arrested on a warrant sworn out by Simon G , seventeen years old, who was arrested on December 14th, and sentenced to four years in the Huntingdon Reformatory for the theft of rings and other articles of value, which amounted to $300, from Mrs. Annie Smith, of 29 N. Felton street. "The boy declared that he had sold the jewelry to 'Daisy' for the sum of $20, with which he hoped to leave the city, and said that when he asked for more money, Brown gave him a severe beating." Different crimes are brought to our attention from time to time. A man was locked up for attacking his wife and choking his daughter. Two men were arrested for swindling. A shoplifter had stolen goods in a department store and pawned them, a woman stole milk bottles from the front steps. These crimes were committed in the district in a single month. The district is a sort of sink into which are drained all the homeless vagabonds who live by their wits 148 SOCIAL CONDITION or prey on the community. Thousands of good peo- ple live in this neighborhood. The good andi bad dwell under the same roof and sleep in adjoining rooms. Whether young men and women are thrown directly into contact with prostitutes and criminals is not the question. The fact is, that they are living in an unfavorable environment, next door to fearful possibilities, and the surprise is, that these possibili- ties do not more frequently develop into actualities. Summary^ The problem of the roomer is due, mainly, to eco- nomic causes. There always will be a boarding or rooming house problem of some sort, especially if the growth of our cities continues. The phenomenal growth of the modern city is due to a re- distribution of population. Philadelphia is two hundred' and twenty-five years old, yet one-third of its population has been added during the past twenty years. One of the causes contributing to this growth of the city is due to the application of machinery to agriculture. A special agent of the government reporte that four men with improved agricultural implements now do the work formerly done by fourteen men. Philadel- phia is situated in the midst of the richest districts of the United' States. The value of the farm pro- ducts of Lancaster county, Pa., exceeds that of any other county in the United States. Montgomery county stands second in the list and Chester county third. Owing to the introduction of machinery on the farm, many young men leave the farming dis- tricts and migrate to the city. The springing up of factories in the city has created a demand for labor of all kinds and attracted to the city the laborers who were driven from the f arms. The railway has been one of the principal factors in the growth of our cities. Because of the remarkable railway sys- tem it is an easy matter to transport food to the cities, thus making it possible to feed any number of 150 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM people massed at one point. The tremendous migra- tion of thousands! of young men and women from country to city, which characterizes our present-day civilization, is creating new social problems. The call for hands and brains to do the world's work brings young men to the city from a thousand direc- tions.. To the young man the city is more attractive than the country. Here may be found superior edu- cational advantages, greater religious privileges, more amusements, and an endless variety of excite- ment and happenings which appeal strongly to a young man or woman. The call of the city rather than the call of the wild lures the youth of today. Men no longer live at home with their parents until their apprentice days are past and until they are able to set up a home for themselves, as was the case a generation or two ago. They must be able to go where work is plenty and labor scarce. All these tendencies of our present day civilization produce the peculiar restlessness, the clanniehness, the no- madism > characteristic of the youth of today. To this class of workers a boarding or rooming house is a necessity. Those comprising the boarding or rooming house population have 110 household gods of a former generation to which they are attached, and are not hampered by any impedimenta save a valise or a trunk. They come and go when they please and where they please. It is fortunate for this wandering class that shelter and food are to be had; fortunate for the landlady that the roomer comes and goes ; and fortunate for the owner of the SUMMARY 151 property that some one is willing to engage in such an undertaking as that of boarding house keeper and thus insure him a large return on the money in- vested in the property. The district we have had under consideration is the resultant of three forces the flow of population from the country to the city; the migration of the older residents from the congested downtown sec- tion to the suburbs, due to the advent of large busi- ness establishments and factories'; the coming in of widows and thrifty young married couples to open up boarding and rooming houses in answer to the demand for shelter. Such a district has fairly well- defined boundaries which change as the conditions mentioned change. From earliest colonial days there have been board- ing houses and taverns for the accommodation) of strangers and those who had no families. The real development of Philadelphia began in 1854, fifty-six years- .ago. At the time of consolidation the new city had a population of 530,000, or about one- third of its present-day population. The growth of the city began after the era of consolidation. After the Civil War the country districts surrounding Phila- delphia contributed a large number of young men and women at the height of their industrial effici- ency, who shared in the future development and growth of the city. These young men and women were housed in the comfortable old-fashioned board- ing house. They were generally treated as members of the family, and the boarding house mistress mani- 152 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM fested a kindly interest in them, shared their trials incident to the new environment, invited them to accompany her to church and worship in her pew, and in more ways than one assumed the role of a mother in that critical period of their lives. Many of the prominent business men of our city today are ready to testify to the superior advantages and the refined surroundings of the boarding house of a gen- eration ago. It was a real home, where there was a public parlor, where one's friends might be enter- tained, and in which the boarders assembled at night to sing songs, play games and relate the experiences of the day. The old-fashioned boarding house is practically extinct. The rooming house has taken its place. The change from boarding to rooming began at the time of the Centennial Exposition in 1876. It is going on more rapidly than ever. This is true of the district we have had under consideration. The prin- cipal cause of this transition is economic. The high price of living has made it impossible for boarding house keepers to make both ends meet. Most of those who have given up "keeping boarders" and are now conducting rooming houses, declare they could no longer make a living by "keeping boarders." It is impossible to raise rates after they once have been established. The working hours for various occupa- tions are so different that it is impossible to set a time for meals, convenient for all the boarders. Un- less the establishment is very large, it is impossible to serve well-cooked meals at almost all hours. The SUMMARY 153 domestic servant problem is a serious one for board- ing house keepers find it extremely diffcult to pro- cure help to assist in general housework. The room- ing house keeper, on the other hand, experiences, no difficulty in securing a chambermaid or an upstairs girl, or a woman to come in and clean by the day. Cafe proprietors have no difficulty in procuring wait- resses or cooks. The work of domestics is becoming specialized. To secure a girl for "general housework" is well-nigh an impossibility. The cafe has other advantages over the boarding house, inasmuch aa it is prepared to serve meals at all hours. One can order what he cares for. There is also greater free- dom in the life of a lodging house than in a boarding house. The main reason for the transition from boarding to rooming is an economic one. The board- ing house keeper goes out of business 1 because she can no longer gain a competence by keeping boarders, or because she finds that greater returns 1 are assured her by running a "rooming house." We need not enter into a lengthy description of the character of the landladies. This varies greatly. The character of the landlady, to some extent, deter- mines the condition of life of the lodger. Her eco- nomic condition is usually precarious. She engages in the rooming house business because it is about the only thing she is fitted for. She is usually a widow without any other income, or a young mar- ried woman who uses this means of adding to the family income. Many a boarding and rooming house keeper is the product of hard luck and adverse 154 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM circumstances, and often the prey of the loan-sharks, the real estate operator, and the agents of the credit system. Her economic condition is frequently such that practices are allowed that she would not other- wise countenance, if she were in better financial cir- cumstances. Her effort to make both ends meet is a prominent cause for the existence of immoral prac- tices. It requires greater moral courage than is gen- erally possessed by the average rooming house pro- prietor to refuse several dollars for the use of a room for immoral purposes, especially when one is situated in a district where no one seems to care, and, if they did care, would not be likely to find it out. There are a number of characteristics common to the roomer. In this aggregation of men and women in the rooming house districts mutual acquaintance and association is established, and this leads to the formation of similarities of kind. There is what Giddings calls a potential likeness to be noted among the members of the boarding and rooming house population. This is natural, inasmuch as they are influenced by the same environmental conditions. This has led to the formation of a "type." The ex- pression is often heard from those acquainted with rooming house life, in discussing a "roomer 7 ' : "He is a typical furnished-roomer." There is a well- developed consciousness of kind among the dwellers in "rooming houses." One of the characteristics of the roomer is his desire to move frequently. He is a nomad. He often makes a change for no other reason than to satisfy this longing. The peculiar SUMMARY 155 isolation in the life of a roomer tends to make him unsocial, to a certain extent, suspicious of strangers, and cautious in making advances. There is a tend- ency for the roomer to group by occupation. This habit of grouping according to occupation is so pro- nounced that there is a characteristic tone to certain small localities. One block may be filled mostly by iron workers from Baldwin's Locomotive Works, an- other district may be recognized as a student centre, while still another may be composed mostly of rail- road men, etc. The economic condition of the average rooming house occupant is not a roseate one. He is not far removed from want. The salary of the young clerk, bookkeeper, stenographer, plumber's helper, me- chanic, etc., is not large. His fixed expenses are so higli that there is the constant struggle to make both ends' meet. The furnished room houses are filled with human derelicts, who are "down and out". Philanthropic workers declare that there is a large amount of real poverty in the district, and many cases of misery constantly coming to our notice in this district. This is especially true of those occupy- ing "furnished rooms for housekeeping." There is no real social life within the rooming house. Surrounded by thousands of their own age and social position, many roomers are as much alone as a Crusoe on some desert island. There is a re- markable isolation of the individual roomer from his fellows. Lodgers of the same house usually keep to themselves. There is no lingering after meals, no 156 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM music, no discussions of the events of the day, or oi sporting news, no Saturday afternoon excursion planned by the roomers. In very rare instances does one find a home-like atmosphere in a rooming house. What is the young fellow fresh from the country to do with his leisure hours? The motherly landlady of a generation ago is largely a dream of the past. He picks up a chance acquaintance somewhere. This acquaintance may be good or bad. But the possi- bilities wrapped up in casual meetings may assume a dangerous aspect. Women of immoral character have been known to take a room next to a young country lad on the third floor rear. The Church, which forms the center of social life in many a rural community, does not exert a very marked influence upon the inhabitants of this dis- trict. The roomer does not go to church. A few attend services occasionally. They do not have a church home. Very few are in any way identified with the active work of the congregation. Of the non-church goers the vast majority are men. Dr. Josiah Strong is responsible for the statement that "in New York City not more than three per cent, of the male population are members of the Protestant churches. The men who are nominally communi- cants of the Catholic Church rarely ever attend its services." It is hard to reach a just conclusion in matters of this kind. It is safe to say that less than ten per cent, of the rooming population are regular attendants upon the services of the Church. More than three-fourths of the population are absolutely strangers to the churches. SUMMARY 157 There is no necessity of multiplying figures. The facts are known and recognized everywhere. In most places there is not room in our churches for one-third of the population, if they wanted to go. This room is not one-half taken; that which is taken is largely occupied by women. Less than forty religious or- ganizations remain in the district under considera- tion. Are they adequate to minister to the spiritual needs of a population of 102,000? More than one- half of the churches have removed from the district within the past 40 years. Some that remain are so enfeebled by age that they are anxiously awaiting the moment to sing their "nunc dimittis" and depart in peace. The Roman Catholic Church has not retreated. This Church receives thousands of additions to her host of worshippers from the immigrant population. She holds men through the power of her compact organization. There are, of course, continual defec- tions from her altars as well as from the Protestant churches. One need not go far in a large city to find members of the Roman Catholics who are not true to their confirmation vows. On the whole, how- ever, she seems to exercise a greater influence upon h^r members than does the Protestant Church. The Protestant churches are seriously asking where they have failed. They are awaking to the situation which confronts them. When a man knows that he is sick and begins to seek a remedy, there is hope. The Church is beginning to learn that the ^ vast majority of men cannot be driven to attend ser- 158 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM vices; they can only be attracted. If the old meth- ods are worn out and ineffective, it is folly and sin to continue their operation. The Church has a Gos- pel, but needs to study its intelligent application. The truth may be the same and the need: may be the same, but the method must change with the time. The change in the church building ought to corre- spond with the changes in present-day architecture. The idea of utility or adaptiveness is always fore- most in other buildings. A manufacturing building is made for manufacturing purposes. A store is ar- ranged for special trade. But the Church has not always considered usefulness, or even attractiveness. Vast sums of money are used, but there is no light, no room, no ventilation, no comfort, but an echo, and a sepulchral appearance. There are pillars and arches and shadows but no people. The Church should adopt business ways and prin- ciples. Many churches fail conspicuously in con- ducting their own finances. The successful church must be the cosmopolitan and democratic church. There should be no social distinctions manifested in the work of the Church. The newer group, compris- ing the rooming house population, are not accus- tomed to the pew rent system which is in vogue in many of our downtown churches. "An old sailor went into a fashionable church in one of our cities, and the doors of the pews were shut as he came up the aisle, and the church was filled with emptiness, neither men nor Gospel being there. He passed up the aisle vainly looking for a seat. He was directed SUMMARY 159 to a back row. He walked out, and at the door-way asked the sexton what church it was. 'Christ's,' re- sponded the sexton. 'I guess he isn't here tonight,' replied the sailor." The failure of the Church to reach men is due to a misunderstanding of the mission of the Church. The Church is not a charitable institution, nor an educational institution, nor a centre of philanthropy and culture, but it is primarily the place of regenera- tion, and conversion and eternal salvation. It is the fortification of righteousness in the great battle against sin and wrong. It is a mockery of the sacri- fice of Christ and a sad perversion of truth, to teach that the Church ought to have most to do with this life. The Church has her faults. Her leaders admit it. But these, alone, do not account for the absence of men from her services. The hindrance to church attendance rests in the individual as well as on the Church. Men do not want to attend church and consequently manufacture all kinds' of excuses. The Church is a mighty factor in human society, here and now, but its first and fundamental work is to minister to the needs of the soul. The emphasis upon the present at the expense of the future, and the emphasis upon the body instead of the soul, has wrought untold injury, and rooted a poisonous misunderstanding in the minds and hearts of men. The Church has a social mission, but it has first a saving mission. Social grievances and misrepresentations have seriously affected the work of the Church. 160 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM The most powerful agency for uplift in this district is the public school. Dr. Brumbaugh, Superinten- dent of Public Schools in the City of Philadelphia, said, in his. annual report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1908 : "There is, perhaps-, no equal group in so- ciety that makes more powerfully for right living than do the teachers in our schools. They are not only required by law to be persons of high moral character, but the nature of the service they render is such as to attract and conserve the finest charac- ters society can produce. The moral character of the teaching body is so far above criticism that it is made the subject of emulation and eulogy by right- minded persons. It is a hopeful sign that this high standard not only exists but is constantly increasing. Our teaching body is a source of gratification and pride to our civilization. "Moreover, the school is so organized that it is essentially ethical in its entire spirit and operation. The pupil in the public school is under a system of activities^ that promotes not only his intellectual but also his moral and his spiritual well-being. From the moment the pupil enters the school till he com- pletes his routine of duties, he is impressed with the importance of punctuality, promptness, regularity, industry, neatness, accuracy and kindred virtues of the moral life. He is also given to understand the importance of kindness, courtesy, conscientiousness, respect for others and for law, fair play among his fellowsi, and devotion to clean and noble ideals. These qualities are constructively wrought in his daily life, SUMMARY 161 and by the discipline of the school, any violation thereof is promptly and adequately punished. The entire spirit of any rightly organized school makes for a sane and splendid spiritual self." Example and environment are potent forces in th* organization of soul-growth. Attention must be paid to the physical needs of the child. Medical inspec- tion is carried on, and trained nurses have been placed in charge of the children in the most con- gested sections of the city. Hygienic counsel is given to the parents. Much good has been accom- plished in this way. The school yards should be larger so that the child might have a chance to play. School yards should be kept open during the after- noons and on Saturdays and part of Sunday for or- ganized and supervised play. Jud&e Staake says: "If you want to lessen the burdens of the Juvenile Court, establish play grounds." In the "furnished apartments to let" children live in a, single room. To these children play is not only physically, but morally a necessity and an essential part of their education,. Various amusements are found in the rooming district, or within easy walking distance. The most popular form of amusement is the moving picture show. A censorship of the pictures such as is carried on. in New York City, is needed. Vulgar and inde- cent films should be excluded. Public sentiment has been aroused in this direction and a distinct im- provement in the character of the exhibitions has been noticed. Principals of the public schools and 162 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM teachers in general hold that the picture shows exert a baneful influence upon the children. There is abundant evidence that the average roomer prefers a clean show. Many of the theatres of the Tender- loin are vile but there is no evidence that these per- formances are patronized by roomers, to any great extent. One of the oldest social institutions in the city is the saloon. It has flourished since the days of Wm. Penn under all conditions, changing in minor details*, but vital enough to outlive the fiercest assaults of its enemies. It meets certain definite needs or it would not exist. It flourishes in this particular locality as nowhere else. In Philadelphia there is one saloon to every 816 of the population. In the 6th, 10th, llth, 12th, 13th and 14th wards there is one saloon to every 346 of the population. On the whole, the saloons of Philadelphia are conducted according to law. Even Mr. Gibboney, the faithful secretary of the Law and Order Society, admits this. He only presented three remonstrances against saloons in this district before the License Court in 1911. After careful consideration on the part of the court, the licenses were renewed. The strong feature of the ealoon is that it is always open and accessible. The natural and rightful competitor of the saloon is the home. But before home-life begins houses should be provided with the elementary conditions of sanita- tion, privacy and space. Yet these are denied thou- sands of working men and women in our city, who seek in the saloon what they should find in the home. SUMMARY 163 If the saloon is the unmitigated evil its enemie&would have us believe, it would have met the fate of the unfit ere this. To replace it we must give men what the saloon offers. It is the only meeting ground for friends and neighbors. It is the only place where a man can spend an hour in the company of his kind. It is the place where the man who is out of a job can find a position. Why do our temperance reform- ers not try to meet these every- day needs of men, and establish social centers where men may congre- gate? The Society for the Prevention o"f Cruelty to Animals erects watering troughs for horses in, all sections of the city, why not organize a society to build lavatories and resting places for men and serve "lunch" at a nominal price? Instead of spending thousands of dollars annually to legislate the saloon out of existence as is the case with the organization known as the Anti- Saloon League, why not spend that large amount in establishing a substitute for the saloon ? Prostitution appears under different guises in this district. First there are a number of regular houses of prostitution. Residents of the district and shop- keepers know these houses for what they are, but it is extremely difficult to get evidence that will satisfy the courts' and secure conviction. A more frequent type of disreputable house is conducted under the guise of "massage parlors." Some are conducted under the guise of "apartment houses'." In some houses women of loose character live who bring men to their rooms whenever they please. This is com- 164 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM monly known as a house with "privileges." Many houses take lodgers that may come at any hour of the day or night. "Rooms for Transients Day or Night" are the signs they display. Such houses are the rivals of the hotel, for the accommodation, of those transient couples who ostensibly as man and wife always "have just arrived in the city and want a room for the night," Immoral practices are easy in, a rooming house, and are often carried on without the knowledge of the landlady. The most dangerous phase of immorality in the rooming house is the large number of temporary unions that are formed under the outward guise of marriage. In the chapter under Crime and Prosti- tution we recorded instances of crime resulting from such illicit combinations. It is impossible to procure any accurate information on this subject, but the testimony of persons acquainted with room- ing house life indicates that a revelation of the actual number of such temporary unions existing at any one time would cause us to "sit up and take notice." The isolation of the young life from com- panionship and friends" renders the potentialities of such acquaintanceships very great. Two people often strike up a temporary alliance for the sake of eomr panionship and saving expense. The union, though illegal, is often happy. In many cases marriage is looked forward to as soon as the couple feel they can afford it. There are numerous instances on record where couples who had been living together in such an illegitimate relation for years were married. In SUMMARY 165 other cases temporary unions are formed where the motive of the girl is to find support and be relieved from the necessity of working in a store or factory, and that of the man gratification. Economic reasons play an important part in the formation of these temporary unions. Many employers pay low wages, with the hope that their girl employee will find some "gentleman friend" to help her. Temporary unions of this kind are frequently formed for the winter months, and re-formed between different parties the following autumn. Ministers of this district are not infrequently called upon to look after some young woman from the country living in such rela- tionships. These temporary unions are avenues through which recruits are secured for the prosti- tute class. A woman, loses all the self-respect that remains after she has been "thrown down" by a man. Then the way to prostitution is open. One of the most urgent needs of this district is the establishment of philanthropic hotels or board*- ing houses for working girls. The author of "The Long Day" clearly and strikingly presents this need in the following words : "We have a great and cry- ing need for two things things which it is entirely within the power of a broad-minded philanthropy to supply. The most urgent of these needs is a very mater- ial and unpoetic one. We need a well-regulated system of boarding and lodging houses where we can live with decency upon the small wages we receive. We do not want any so-called; working girls homes God forgive the "euphemism which, while overcharging 16G THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM us for the accommodations, at the same time would put us in the attitude of charity dependents. What the working girl needs is a cheap hotel or system of hotels for she needs a great many of them de- signed something after the Mills Hotels for work- ing men. She also needs a system of well-regulated lodging houses, such as are scattered all over the city for the benefit of men. "First and most important there must be no sem- blance of charity. Let the working girl's hotel be so constructed and conducted that they will pay a fair rate of interest upon, the money invested. Otherwise they would fail of any true philanthropic object. "As -to their conduct as institutions there should be no rules, no regulations which are not in full operation in the Waldorf-Astoria or the hotel St. Regis. The curse of all such attempts in the past has been the insistence upon coercive morality. Make them not only non-sectarian but non-religious. There is no more need of conducting a working girl's hotel in the name of God or under the auspices of religious sentiment than there is necessity for ad- vertising the Martha Washington, Hotel or any fashionable bachelor apartment house as being un- der divine guidance. "A clean room and three wholesomely cooked meals a day can be furnished' to working girls at a price that would make it possible for them to live honestly on the small wage of the factory and store. We do not ask for luxuries and dainties. We do not SUMMARY 167 get them in the miserable, dark rooms where we are obliged to sleep, and we do not get them at the unappetizing boarding houses where countless thou- sands of us find sustenance. I do not know I sup- pose nobody knows how many working girls in New York City live in lodging houses. But they are legion and very few of them are contented with that life. "In the model lodging house there should be per- fect liberty of conduct and action on the part of the guests who will not be inmates in any sense of the word. Such guests should have perfect liberty to come and go when they please at any hour of the day or night; be permitted to see any person they may choose to have come, without question or chal- lenge, so long as the conventions of ordinary social life are complied with. Such an institution con- ducted on such a plan and managed so that it would make fair returns to its promoters, cannot fail to be welcomed; and would be of inestimable benefit as an.' uplifting and regenerative force with those for whom it is designed." The Long Day, pp. 285-288. No ultimate cure of the problems now found in this district will be reached until the economic con- ditions which produce them are changed. When, the clerk, the bookkeeper and the stenographer is recog- nized as entitled to receive a living wage, when the public realizes that the female stenographer and the girl in the department store is under just as great expenses as the man beside her, who is doing the same work at a higher wage, and when a proper 168 THE FURNISHED ROOM PROBLEM adjustment takes place, some of the basic causes of the rooming house problem will be removed. We cannot expect young men and women from the rural districts to fit into the complexities of our city life at once. In many cases they have not had the moral training to carry safely the freedom thrust upon them by their new environment. The home is partly to blame for this state of affairs. The school is very largely to blame. The primary business of the school is to fit men to take their proper place in the state, to train them for participation in the social and economic progress of the nation. This is not a treatise on education. We merely w r ish to show that the school has a share in the responsibility of training young men and women for their proper spheres in life. The boys and girls of today, who are to be the men and women of tomorrow, and who. must go out and face all sorts of new situations, must have above all things an education which will put them in possession of themselves wherever they are. They must be shown how to retain the moral grip on themselves. They must be shown how to rise above their environment. Education, of the generation that is to form the lodging house popula- tion of the future will not only strengthen the indi- vidual who must undergo the life of the "roomer," but it will prove a leaven in the rooming house population itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Abstract of the 12th Census (1900) Third Edition. Reports of the 13th Census (1910). Fourth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor "Working Women in Large Cities 1 ," Carroll D. Wright. Richard Watson Gilder, Report of the Tenement House Committee of 1894. New York, 1894. Seventh Special Report of the II. S. Commissioner of Labor The Slums of Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. Washington, 1894. Eighth Special Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor The Housing of the Working People, 1895. Eighteenth Annual Report, U. S. Commissioner of Labor Cost of Living and Retail Prices of Food. Eleventh Annual Report of the U. S. Commis- sioner of Labor Work and Wages 1 of Men, Women and Children. Washington, 1897. Philadelphia A Municipal Publication published by the City Government. The Annual Report of the Superintendent of Pub- lic Instruction of Philadelphia. Aimals of the American Academy of Social and Political Science, Philadelphia. Annual Reports of the College Settlement Asso- ciation, New York. 170 BIBLIOGRAPHY Annual Reports of the North House, Philadelphia. Annual Report of the Galilee Mission of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. Annual Report of the Church Settlement, Phila- delphia. The Life and Labors of the Poor in London, Charles Booth. Albert Benedict Wolfe, Ph.D., The Lodging House Problem in Boston. The Committee of Fifteen The Social Evil. Jacob A. Riis, The Children of the Poor. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Josiah Strong, The Twentieth Century City. Charles Stelzle, The Workingman and Social Problems, Robert Treat Paine, Jr., Pauperism in Great Cities, Its Four Chief Causes. Boston, 1894. W. D. P. Bliss, The Encyclopedia of Social Re- form. New York, 1908. Frank J. Goodnow, Municipal Problems. New York, 1897. Charles Richmond Henderson, Social Elements, New York, 1898. Adna Ferrin Weber, The Growth of Cities in the 19th Century New York, 1899. Amos G. Warner, American Charities. 1894, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York. Dugdale, The Jukes. Putnam's., New York, 1877. Henry M. Boies, The Science of Penology. New York, 1901. BIBLIOGRAPHY 171 W. Douglass Morrison, Juvenile Offenders. Apple- ton's, New York, 1897. The Committee of Fifty Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem. J. P. Gallavardin, "Alcoolisme et Criminalite". Paris, 1889. G. Thornman, Inebriety and Crimiee. New York, 1889. Summary of the Investigations of the Committee of Fifty The Liquor Problem. Raymond Calkins, Substitutes for the Saloon. Boston, 1901. John S. Billings, Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem. Boston, 1902. Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth in the City Street. Chicago, 1911. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE VBi fit p*r? GU sTS