Monday.
When the door is opened more than a hundred people stream in. They have
all been waiting outside, some sitting on the stairs, others walking to
and fro. Of course, every passer-by notices them and knows who they are,
"Applicants for charity."
I have heard that remark many a time when passing by. Fearing I might be
taken for one of them I have decided always to wear a flower in the
lapel of my coat. They will know that no man who applies for charity
wears flowers. I also whistle and sing when I ascend the stairs. The
other people, the investigators and office workers don't seem to take
precautions in this respect. They take it for granted that no one will
think this of them.
Mrs. B., the investigator, calls me aside and tells me of the wonderful
play she has seen last night. She is stage struck and is even dreaming
of her lost career. Meanwhile, the people, the applicants, crowd the
room. I know that several of them are there to see Mrs. B. and I want
to cut our conversation short, but she has buttonholed me and pours out
her whole soul. Other investigators arrive and each one goes to her desk
to finish up a report. Some of them want to see the manager and report
personally on matters of importance. When I got through with Mrs. B. the
waiting room is overcrowded. More than fifty women and men are walking
around the room, pacing up and down the floor. There are not enough
chairs. A young woman sits in a corner, in the darkest spot. She has a
black shawl over her head and has drawn it so far over the face that
only her eyes are seen. She is ashamed. She does not want to be seen by
the others. I would like to know who it is!--would like to see her
face--yet every time I pass her she draws the shawl more over her
face--what beautiful, lustrous eyes! Where have I seen them? Where? She
is in mourning.
It's remarkably quiet to-day. It's so warm. The investigators loll
around and tell one another where and how they have passed the week-end,
Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Cram comes up and makes an inspection. "We've
got some new customers," he remarks to the office boy. "Plenty," the boy
answers. I can't help thinking, what will become of that boy? He is so
cynical, so stony-hearted, so cruel. Nothing astonishes him, nothing
softens him. He makes fun of the most pitiful situation. As he walks to
and fro calling the ones wanted by the Manager or bringing the records
from the safe, he sneers at all the people in the waiting room. If a
woman is in his way, he bows mockingly and hisses out, "My lady is in my
way!" Purposely he jolts the men and then he demands excuses.
Of late he has practised spitting at a distance. He takes a good aim at
an old man or woman and from a distance of ten to twelve feet he hits
his target. When successful he exults--champion of the world--greatest
marksman. Of course, he does it secretly. Suddenly you see a man drying
his face or cleaning his beard.
The office is in love with the boy. He is the pet. But still, what will
become of him? How will he be father, husband, friend? I once asked him:
"Say, Sam, what do you like best? What do you do in your free time?"
"Oh, nothing in particular," was his answer, while he bit into a fresh
piece of chewing gum. "Theatre, base-ball, ice cream?" "No, nothing in
particular," he again answered. He is dead to everything. He is blasé.
"Yes, Sam, but what do you intend to be when you grow up?" "I will work
up here--work up to the top--you understand?" "Yes, but suppose a time
comes when there will not be any poor." "Well, I hope the time will
never come," and Sam walks away.
There is a commotion at the door. A woman wants to enter the waiting
room without a letter of invitation. She wants to see the Manager. She
cries and curses. The janitor puts her out.
The "derelicts" become restless and nervous. It's 10 o'clock. A woman
seated near the one with the shawl over her face wants to start a
conversation. She answers her very curtly and turns her back. The office
boy makes his appearance again. Sam announces that the "Boss" has come
and work starts immediately. "Martha Blum"--"Joe Crane"--"Rita
Somers"--and every time a name is called the people raise their heads at
once. The lucky ones go into the other room to be questioned. Work has
started.
In the factories wheels go round, clothes and shoes, and tables and
chairs are made--consumptives and unfortunates also. Here, souls are
torn, men and women degraded, insulted--that's their work. It's a
bedlam. Accusations from one side and cries and appeals for pity from
the other. They don't remain long. Still crying they are put out--and
others are called in: "George Hand," "Carl Wender," "Gib Ralph,"
"Margaret Cy"--and others, others wend their way towards the other room.
"The terror" has come. Seeing such a big crop, she gets ready the
threshing machine. From her room the cries are louder than from any two
put together. The applicants also stay longer; she takes delight in
their torture. Monday and Friday are her days. A woman has taken a fit.
The janitor is called. He drags her out and lays her down in the hall.
An old man tries to read the engraved letters above the door. They were
once gilded, the gold has partly fallen off and it is difficult to read
them. Slowly he reads them out, "Whosoever stretches a begging hand,
give and don't question." He shakes his head doubtfully and tries to
read the inscription on the other door, "For the poor of the land shall
never cease." From the "terror's" room comes a young woman. Her eyes are
red and tears run down her pale cheeks. She hurries out as though some
one was running after her. What has the "terror" done to her? Look how
she runs! I open the door and look after her. How she runs--how she
runs. I turn round. The "terror" is near me. She is hurrying--ah! She
triumphs. "What happened?" I ask. "She got her medicine--a good strong
dose, too." She looks around the waiting room, searching for a victim.
She notices the woman with the covered face.
"What is your name?" I don't hear the answer, but the "terror" bids her
follow her into the other room. I listen. The woman has awakened my
interest. It's very quiet. The investigator raises her voice a few times
but is met with such a quiet, calm answer that it goes on in the
ordinary conversational tone for a few minutes. Then I hear the woman
cry.
But my attention is called elsewhere. An applicant does not want to get
out of the investigator's room. She yells, cries and screams. "I want to
see the Manager--I want to see the Manager--I have been put out of my
rooms--my children are on the streets." The investigator, Mrs. B., uses
force, but the woman holds on at the door. "I want to see the Manager.
You can't torture me that way. I want to see the Manager." She screams
yet louder. The janitor is called and he does his duty. Takes hold of
the woman and puts her out. The woman screams in the street. A policeman
is called and the officer gives the woman notice that he will arrest her
if she does not desist. She still screams and refuses to go. The door
opens and she sees the Manager as he orders her arrest for disturbing
the peace. The test is applied. Of course she will be immediately
released. The Manager telephones to the station at once that they should
release the woman. Mrs. B., the investigator, is walking nervously from
one desk to the other.
"That pest--that pest--she would not get out. I will give her a lesson.
She will not forget as long as she lives."
"What is the matter?" I inquire.
"For the last six months she bothered me that she wants to move out from
where she lives. The rooms are too dark, the walls are damp and all that
sort of thing. All she wanted of course was to get out of my district.
You know, I keep them pretty well together, in a few blocks. You want to
move--well! I gave her the chance of her life. Let her be on the street
a few days, then she will know how to appreciate her house."
That old fellow who tried to read the inscription comes up to me, "How
long will I have to wait? I have been called for nine A. M. It's half
past eleven now."
"I don't know, old man. You just have to wait." He shakes his head and
goes back to his place on the bench, and again reads the inscription.
"The terror" has released her victim. Coming out the woman leaves her
face uncovered. She has gone one step lower, robbed of the sense of
shame. She is young and beautiful. Pale, very pale. Her eyes are red.
She cried. She has got to see the Manager. Before entering the sanctum
she fixes her stray hair and dries her eyes. "She is green," remarks the
office boy. "Doesn't know the trade." "Who?" I ask. "The lady in
black." He looks around: "Gee--they done quick work."
The investigators are in a hurry to-day. Noon. Only a few employés
remain. All the others go to lunch. About forty applicants still in the
waiting room. Their names have not been called. The janitor orders them
out. Again they throng the street. He drives them off the stairs. They
tramp the sidewalk, up and down, and it's so very hot, 96 degrees. I
lunch with the others. Mrs. H. still talking about yesterday's show and
about that woman that did not want to obey her and get out. They talk
shop during lunch. Sam's prowess as a spitting marksman is highly
praised. "Champion spitter of the world," Cram proclaims him. "A clever
boy." "A sensible boy." "Gay." "Clever, very clever." "He will be a
man." "Oh, yes, oh, yes. He will rise high."
Their admiration for Sam is boundless. They recall his repartees on
different occasions and how he once cynically remarked to the Manager:
"A woman died in the waiting room, sir. Shall I bring you her record? P.
B. 9761 is the number." He got his raise not long after that. The
Manager was struck by the boy's efficiency and his splendid memory.
"Why," said Mrs. B., "he knows all the records by heart. G. D. 7851 has
four children, husband dead, three dollars r. c. cl. Just ask him when
you want to know. He will tell it off before you can say a word or
consider."
Then from the boy the discussion drifted to the new Manager and his
peculiarities and how he compared with the former occupant of his
office. "He is too lenient with the people," says Mrs. H. "Wait until he
gets fooled good and hard," intervened Cram. "Wait, when he gets fooled
a few times and the committee grumble there will be something doing, I
tell you."
The lunch finished, only Cram and I returned to the office; the others
went to do outside work, investigating. On the way Cram expounded a new
theory: The charities to buy an island somewhere and send all the
applicants there--women and children separated from men--all to live in
one huge building--a big home for the poor. It would cost less, he
figured.
"But they would not go--they would not go, the scoundrels!" he lamented.
"We are too easy on them. We are really doing bad work. We are
encouraging paupers, our rule should be: don't give a cent until the
applicant has no other alternative, 'charity or suicide.' But we are all
weaklings, sentimental trash!" Thus speaking we arrived at the door of
the office. Cram turned his head and pointing to the people walking in
front of the building he made a broad sweep with his hand: "This whole
damned pack is the degenerate fringe of our century. We should do away
with them and not help them live." These are the sentiments of a
superior officer of organised charity. "Say, Cram, why don't you resign
your position? You don't like the poor. You don't believe in
charity--resign!" "Neither do I like pig iron and I don't believe in
love," he answered in bad mood.
What does it mean? I had a smoke with him in his office in the basement.
He was very talkative. Spoke about his past and future. He too hopes to
reach the top. A good man for the job.
At two o'clock the doors are again thrown open so that I have to go to
the waiting room. They must again give up their letters to the janitor.
A scuffle again. One fellow wanted to enter without invitation. The
janitor insisted that the man go down stairs to Cram's office, while the
man wanted to go in. Of course the janitor won out. All the others, the
applicants helped him. It's to their interest that there should be one
less, they get more quickly through the mill. To-day is committee day.
The big room is prepared. The office boy reads roll call to see if all
those summoned are present. Then he looks up all the records and places
them on the table at the place reserved for the Manager. The people
waiting for the investigators are told to go home and come to-morrow.
How they cry! How they cry! They know what that to-morrow means. It may
mean a week and more. Meanwhile the pension is suspended, the children
are hungry. "To-morrow at nine A. M. big sale of ladies' underwear," Sam
announces. The ones with letters for the committee remain in the room.
Not very long, though. Automobiles stop before the door and the
gentlemen are immediately at work.
One after another the applicants are called in. Their records and the
investigators' are read and a new cross-examination starts. "What is the
matter with you, Erikson? A young woman like you to apply for charity.
It's a shame."
"But, sir, I have been ill." The Manager stops her impatiently.
"What about your children, Erikson?" One of the gentlemen says: "Hadn't
you better give them to a Home and then be free and go to work, as a
servant or something. We could easily get you a place, you know."
"I would not separate from the children, they are too small." The
mother, a young Scotch woman, defends her offspring. The gentlemen look
at one another a few seconds, then Mr. R., the chairman, gets up and
yells at her:
"You would not? Hein, you would not? We too, would not. How do you like
it? What do you want with your three small kids? Here is a special
place for them. The Orphan House. That settles it."
And he sits down again and looks into another record. The mother wants
to speak, argue, beg. "That settles it." She is shown the door. I follow
her outside. She remains at the door for a few minutes thinking hard.
Then she braces up, stamps her feet, and says very loud, "No, I won't, I
won't, I won't give them up." She goes away.
Another man is called. He is a consumptive and very weak. He is even
offered a chair and asked to sit down. He wants to go to Colorado. They
are not very brutal to him. He gets the fare and a few dollars extra.
"Good luck." "Thank you."
A few more are expedited very rapidly. Most of them are denied any help,
but the chairman is very "soft" to-day. It's very hot and he perspires
heavily. The boy calls out a name and an old woman comes in. She has a
very dignified appearance and takes exception when she is not politely
addressed by the chairman. He always takes delight in insulting those
who are of better appearance.
"Sir," the woman says, "in a moment of distress I have applied for
charity and I am given insults. I have been called three times here and
what have you done for me? Nothing. Is that charity?"
"Nothing! Nothing!" screams the chairman, and wipes the perspiration
from his brow, "and what is that? Here we sit and sweat ourselves to
death for you. Do we get anything for that?"
"Neither did I," the woman retorts. But the Manager is on his feet in a
second, he tears the application, opens the door and pushes her out.
"Get out, get out, and quick," and though the woman is going out, the
janitor helps her descend the stairs.
The Manager returns to the committee room. "Yes, that's what we have to
put up with!"
"What impudence," says one. "That's what it has come to," says another.
"Pretty soon they will request upholstered chairs."
"I would have had her arrested," pipes out a stupid old degenerate who
never says a word. They keep on talking that way.
"Shall we continue?" the manager asks.
"Not to-day," the chairman says, "it's too hot. Not until next week.
They say that they don't get anything from our work, see how they will
get along without it." He again wipes off his brow and goes out first.
The others follow him. The Manager accompanies them to the stairs. The
automobiles disappear.