HPfBL C3 Cornell University Library HV 5261.C3 Substitutes for the saloon 3 1924 002 070 906 CORNELL UNIVERSITY. LIBRARIES ITHACA, N. Y. 14853 . Hotel Administration Liksiqg Starlet Hall DATE DUE wirt^ w^ _..i.mrfliiflilki 1 P^a«Kis# J^ JLMSi WWP ttw p>^^"* W^kJ OAVLOnO The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002070906 CJe liqitnr JJrofilem. THE LIQUOR PROBLE-M IN ITS LEGISLATIVE AS- PECTS. By Frederic H, Wines and John Koren. An Investigation made under the Direction of Charles W. Eliot, Seth Low, and James C. Carter, Sub- Committee of the Committee of Fifty to Investigate the Liquor Problem. With Maps. i2mo, ^1.25. ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. By John Korhn. An Investigation made under the Direction of Professors W. O. Atwater, Henry W. Far- nam, J. F. Jones, Doctors Z. R. Brockway, John Graham Brooks, E. R. L. Gould, and Hon. Carroll D. Wright, a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Fifty. With an Introduction by Prof. Henry W. Farnam. i2mo, $1.50. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. By Raymond Calkins. An Investigation made for the Committee of Fifty under the direction of Elgin R. S. Gould, Francis G. Peabody, and William M. Sloane, Sub- Committee. i2mo, $1.30, net. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, Boston and New York. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON BY RAYMOND CALKINS AN INVESTIGATION MADE FOR THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY UNDER THE DIRECTION OF FRANCIS G. PEABODY, ELGIN R. L. GOULD AND WILLIAM M. SLOANE SUB-COMMITTEE ON SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON Hotel Adrainistraiion UfiraCi SE.P 1 2 198^ BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY (Stfie ttibetjji&e ^n0, €.ambtii>ae igoi ^no^-j COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY FRANCIS G. PEAEODY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ^6^ Puilished June, igoi PEESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMITTEE OF FIFTY. April, 1901. President. Hon. Seth Low, LL. D., Columbia College, New York. Vice-President. *Charles DuDtET Wabnbk, Esq., Hartford, Comi. Secretary. Prof. Francis G. Peabodt, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. Treaswrer. William E. Dodge, Esq., 99 John St., New York, N. Y. Executive Board. The above-named Officers and — Dr. J. S. Billings, Astor Library, Lafayette Place, New York,' N. Y. President Charles W. Eliot, LL. D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Col. Jacob L. Greene, Hartford, Conn. Hon. Carroll D. Wright, A.M., LL. D., Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. Members. Prof. Felix Adler, 123 East 60th St., New York, N. Y. Bishop Edw. G. Andrews, D. D., Methodist Building, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. Prof. W. 0. Atwater, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. Dr. J. S. Billings, Astor Library, Lafayette Place, New York, N. Y. Charles J. Bonaparte, Esq., 216 St. Paul St., Baltimore, Md. Prof. H. P. Bowditch, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. Rev. Prof. Charles A. Briggs, D. D., 700 Park Ave., New York, N. Y. Z. R. Bkookway, Esq., Superintendent State Reformatory, Elmira, N. Y. John Graham Brooks, Esq., Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. Hon. James C. Cakteb, 54 Wall St., New York, N. Y. Prof. R. H. Chittenden, Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven, Conn. Rev. Father Thomas Conaty, D. D., Catholic University, Washington, D. C. * Died, 1900. iv ORGANIZATION OF COMMITTEE OF FIFTY. John H. Converse, Esq., Baldwin Locomotive Works,Phaadelphia,Pa. Wm. Bayard Cutting, Esq., 34 Nassau St., New York, N. Y. Eev. S. W. Dike, LL. D., Aubnmdale, Mass. WrLLiAM E. Dodge, Esq., 99 John St., New York, N. Y. Eev. Father A. P. Dotle, Paulist Fathers, 455 West 59th St., New York, N. Y. President Charles W. Eliot, LL. D., Harvard University, Cambridg-e, Rev. Father Walter Elliot, Paulist Fathers, 455 West 59th St., New York, N. Y. Prof. Richard T. Ely, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Prof. Henry W. Faenam, 43 HUlhouse Ave., New Haven, Conn. Rt. Rev. T. F. Gailok, D. D., University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. President Daniel C. Gilkan, LL. D., Johns Hopkins University, Bal- timore, Md. Eev. Washington Gladden, D. D., Columbus, Ohio. Richard W. Gilder, Esq., Union Square, New York, N. Y. Dr. E. R. L. Gould, 281 Fotirth Ave., New York, N. Y. Col. Jacob L. Greene, Hartford, Conn. Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, 5 Brimmer St., Boston, Mass. Hon. Henry Hitchcock, 707 Chestnut St., St. Louis, Mo. Eev. W. E. Huntington, D. D., Grace Church, 237 Broadway, New York, N. Y. Prof. J. F. Jones, Marietta, Ohio. President Seth Low, LL. D., Columbia College, New York, N. Y. President James MaoAlistek, LL. D., Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. Eev. Alexander Mackay-Smith, D. D., 1325 Sixteenth St., Wash- ington, D. C. Prof. J. J. McCook, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. Eev. T. T. Mungeb, D. D., New Haven, Conn. Egbert C. Ogden, Esq., Broadway and 10th St., New York, N. Y. Rev. Prof. F. 6. Peabody, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. Rt. Eev. H. C. Potter D. D., 29 Lafayette Place, New York, N. Y. Eev. W. L Eainsfoed, D. D., 209 East 16th St., New York, N. Y. Jacob H. Schiff, Esq., 27 Pine St., New York, N. Y. Eev. Prof. C. W. SmELDS, D. D., Princeton, N. J. Prof. W. M. Sloane, Columbia University, New York, N. Y. *Charles Dudley Warner, Esq., Hartford, Conn. Dr. Wm. H. Welch, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Md. Frederic H. Wines, Esq., Springfield, HI. Dr. P. M. Wise, N. Y. State Commission in Lunacy, 1 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. Hon. Carroll D. Wright, A.M., LL. D., Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. « Died, 1900. INTKODUCTION. This is the third volume issued by the direction of the Committee of Fifty for the Investigation of the Liquor Problem. The committee was organized in 1893 " to secure a body of facts which may serve as a basis for intelligent public and private action." " It is the purpose of the committee," as its first announce- ment stated, "to collect and collate impartially all accessible facts which bear upon the problem, and it is their hope to secure for the evidence thus accu- mulated a measure of confidence on the part of the community which is not accorded to partisan state- ments." Thus, as was said by Mr. Charles Dudley "Warner (Harper's Magazine, February, 1897), " it was from the first understood that the prime business of the committee was not the expression of opinion, or the advancing or advocacy of one theory or an- other, but strictly the investigation of facts without reference to the conclusions to which they might lead." The Committee of Fifty was at once divided into four sub-committees to consider respectively the phy- siological, legislative, ethical, and economic aspects of the drink question. The publications of the Com- Ti INTRODUCTION. mittee of Fifty have thus far been made in the name of these various sub-committees. The Legislative Sub- Committee, consisting of President Eliot, President Low, and Mr. James C. Carter, published, in 1897, " The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects " (Houghton, Mifflin & Company), an investigation conducted by Mr. F. H. "Wines and Mr. John Keren. The Economic Sub-Committee, consisting of Colonel Carroll D. Wright, Professor Henry W. Farnam, Mr. Z. R. Brockway, Mr. John Graham Brooks, Dr. E. R. L. Gould, and Professor J. F. Jones, published, in 1899, " Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem " (Houghton, Mifflin & Company), an investigation made by Mr. John Keren, under the special direc- tion of Professor Farnam, the secretary of the sub- committee. To each of these volumes was prefixed the following statement describing the relation of the Committee of Fifty to these special investigations : "By vote of the Committee of Fifty, January 10, 1896, reports made by its sub-committees to the whole body may be published by authority of the Executive Committee as contributions to the general inquiry; but to all such publications is to be prefixed a state- ment that reports of sub-committees are to be regarded as preliminary in their nature, and only contributory of facts upon which the general discussion may in the future be undertaken by the committee as a whole." INTRODUCTION. vii The present volume has the same preliminary and contributory relation to the conclusions of the Com- mittee of Fifty. It is issued under the direction of a special committee appointed from the Ethical Sub- Committee, and as originally constituted was made up of Professor Francis G. Peabody, Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, Dr. E. R. L. Gould, and Professor William M. Sloane. The death of Mr. Warner has deprived the committee of his generous sympathy and judicious counsel. It may not unreasonably be asked how far this series of preliminary studies is to proceed, and how long the formal conclusion of the inquiry of the Com- mittee of Fifty is to be postponed. To these questions it seems proper to answer that the Committee of Fifty hopes to complete its programme of research within a year. The present volume is to be soon followed by another, presenting the results of the researches made by the Physiological Sub-Committee, and on the basis of these four preliminary inquiries the Ethical Sub- Committee will attempt to form some brief and general summary of the conclusions of the Committee of Fifty. It will be remembered, however, that the Committee was not organized to institute practical undertakings, but to set forth a body of verifiable truth, and that its work will be '•accomplished if it can furnish such evi- dence concerning the physiological, legislative, eco- Tiii INTRODUCTION. nomic, and ethical aspects of the drink-habit as shall be both trustworthy and suggestive. The present volume differs in important respects from those prepared by the legislative and economic committees. It does not propose to cover any general view of the drink-habit, or to answer any fundamental question of politics or ethics. It deals with a single aspect of a single problem. The problem approached is that of the saloon, and the single aspect of that problem which is considered is the contribution of the saloon to sociability. Dismissing for the moment all discussions concerning the physiology of temperance or the regulation of the drink traffic, we give our atten- tion to the phenomenon of the saloon as it exists in most American towns ; and dismissing, stiU further, all question of the debasing effects of the saloon, we take account of a single characteristic, which gives to the saloon much of its prosperity and permanence. What- ever else the saloon may be or may fail to be, it is, at any rate, the poor man's club. Its hold on the com- munity does not wholly proceed from its satisfying the thirst for drink. It satisfies also the thirst for socia- bility. The number of patrons of a saloon who are slaves of the drink-habit is by no means so great as the number who feel the natural cravings of the social instinct. Club life has become a social factor of in- creasing importance in all modern society. It meets a INTRODUCTION. ix need felt by women as well as by men. A very large proportion of those people who have the most resources in their homes now spend many of their leisure hours in social clubs. The poor man, however, finds no resource of recreation and change of scene so con- venient or so persuasive as the saloon ; and the saloon, by every possible device, offers itself for the satisfac- tion of the social instinct. It is not only a place for drinking, but the agreeable centre of gossip, curiosity, and excitement. The inquiry now undertaken begins at this point. It assumes that no attack upon the saloon can hope for permanent effectiveness which does not take into account this satisfaction of the social instinct. It in- quires whether there is any considerable competition with the saloon as a means of sociability. It asks whether anything can be learned by experience or by observation as to effective methods of this social sub- stitution. Thus the design of the following investiga- tion has very definite limits. It is not an academic or technical, but strictly a utilitarian and practical inquiry. We imagine a philanthropic citizen in some American town considering the possibility of some offset to the solicitations of the saloon. He proposes to himself the establishment of a Boys' Club, or a Gymnasium, or a Coffee-House ; but he does not know how far such undertakings have been successful else- X INTRODUCTION. where, or what their risks may be, or on what lines of organization they should be developed. Might it not be greatly to his advantage if he could learn what had been done of this nature in Baltimore, in Chicago, in San Francisco, and in half a dozen other communi- ties ? Might not the scrupulous collection of this evi- dence from various commimities give judicious direc- tion to his new enterprise, and save him from some of the mistakes of precipitancy, inexperience, and unregu- lated zeal ? With this limited purpose of practical guidance in mind, two methods of procedure presented themselves to the committee as possible. One was the plan which had been followed by the legislative committee, under which two trained observers visited typical States of the Union and reported on various forms of law. The other was the plan of the economic committee, under which a large number of local ob- servers reported to a single expert, whose duty was to collect this evidence and estimate its general lessons. The first plan seemed to promise greater uniformity in treatment, but would in the present case demand a degree of acquaintance with local conditions which no single observer could in any limited time hope to possess. The second plan called for a large amount of contributory material, drawn from different com- munities and likely to be of very differing value ; but INTRODUCTION. xi it seemed also to promise greater trustworthiness as well as greater picturesqueness in its results. The committee, therefore, first of all secured the services of an experienced and sympathetic expert to con- duct the entire research. The Eev. Kaymbnd Calkins of Pittsfield, Mass., had in 1895 directed a similar inquiry on a smaller scale in the interest of the Com- mittee of Fifty, concerning the saloons of the city of Boston and the agencies which compete with those saloons in providing recreation and sociability. The results of this investigation were presented in an arti- cle in the " Forum " for July, 1896 (Substitutes for the Saloon in the City of Boston). Mr. Calkins has brought to the present inquiry the same devotion and generosity, together with a literary skill which appears to the committee to make our volume not only instruc- tive but vivacious and picturesque. "Whatever excel- lence is to be found in the following chapters is due to his discriminating use of the mass of material before him. The first step in the investigation thus initiated was the procuring of evidence from all parts of the coun- try. The committee have endeavored to reach the most unprejudiced and the best informed authorities in each community, and the responses to their de- mands have been painstaking, sympathetic, and gener- ous. University students and teachers of economics xii INTKODUCTION. and sociology, agents of charity-organization societies, residents in social settlements, and many other inves- tigators with special qualifications have participated in the research. The cities selected for special study were as follows : San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New Haven, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Memphis. The list of persons who have directly contributed to the work is appended to this introduction. On the basis of these many and varied reports Mr. Calkins has prepared his successive chapters, discuss- ing in succession the various possible substitutes for the saloon, and illustrating the advantages and disad- vantages of each substitute by reference to the evi- dence put in his hands, and this evidence, as set forth in the Appendix, will in its turn lead the reader, if he wishes to go still further, into direct relations with specific undertakings whose lessons may be applied to his own needs. The reports of these special investi- gations, many of which have been prepared in great detail, are mercilessly abbreviated or reduced to tabular form in order to meet the exigencies of space, and the results as they are exhibited by no means indicate the extent of research or the degree of devotion which have been given to the task. The material at the command of the committee is quite sufficient to fill a second volume INTRODUCTION. xiii and, if its publication were possible, would provide for the student of special forms of philanthropy a most valuable collection of evidence. To all these contrib- utors, and to the many other persons who have co- operated with them, the committee desire to express their deep obligations. These obligations are espe- cially due to Emily Lathrop Calkins, who has not only given devoted assistance in the compilation of the tabular statements and the general arrangement of the volume, but has personally prepared Chapters V. and VIII. of the general discussion. The volume thus represents a vast amount of pains- taking inquiry devoted to a single aspect of the many- sided problem of temperance reform. The committee, however, are not without hope that this limited under- taking may indicate to some readers one point in the somewhat bewildering complexity of temperance agita- tion where it may be possible to proceed with intelli- gence and effectiveness, and may invite some public- spirited citizens to a judicious investment of time and means in a direct and practical method of social service. Fkancis G. Peabodt. E. E. L. Gould. William M. Sloane. xiv INTRODUCTION. LIST OF PERSONS WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS VOLUME. 1. Reports : — Atlanta ... ... Rev. Frank E. Jenkins. Boston William I. Cole, ) of the South Kellogg Durland, | End House. Baltimore William L. Ross, of Johns Hopkins University. Buffalo Messrs. Levon A. Tchorigian, under the direction of Westminster House, and Ludovic Jones, Rev. Cameron J. Davis, Arthur Williams, and Walter Brown, under the direction of Frederic Almy of the Charity- Organization Society. Chicago Royal L. Melendy, of Chicago Commons. Cleveland Starr Cadvfallader, of Goodrich House Social Set- tlement. Cincinnati Adolph I. Marx, of the University of Cincin- nati. Denver Robert T. Walker, of Colorado College. Memphis Rev. J. K. Wooteu. New Haven Charles L. Storrs, Jr., of Yale University. New Orleans Frank M. Norman. New York .... Francis H. McLean, then Assistant Secretary of Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. Philadelphia Edwin S. Meade, of the University of Pennsyl- vania. INTRODUCTION. xv St. Louis Walter J. Brown and R. C. Hardy, of the St. Louis Y. M. C. A. St. Paul and Minneapolis . Professor F. L. McVey, of the University of Minnesota. San Francisco .... Dane Coolidge, of Leland Stan- ford, Jr., University. 2. Special contributions : — Legislation and the Social Features of the Saloon, John Koren. Trade Unions and the Saloon, Dr. Edward W. Bemis. Fraternal Societies and the Saloon, Professor B. H. Meyer, University of Wisconsin. Boys' Clubs, William A. Clarke. Outdoor Amusements in New York, Dr. William I. Hull, of Swarthmore College. Outdoor Amusements in Philadelphia, Francis H. McLean. Outdoor Amusements in Boston, Grosvenor Calkins. A Temperance Coffee and Billiard Room, Rev. Dr. MacKay-Smith. The Social Work of the Salvation Army, Brigadier Cox. The Social Work of the Church Army, Colonel H. H. Hadley. The Cambridge Prospect Union, Robert E. Ely. 3. Contributions prepared for other purposes, loaned to the editor of this volume : — Hollywood Inn, Rev. James E. Freeman. xvi INTRODUCTION. Lodging-Houses in Cincinnati, Mr. Bryant Venable, Cincinnati, Ohio. The Religious Condition of Young Men in American Cities, Mr. James F. Oaks, Central De- partment Chicago Y. M. C. A. A Study of the Playgrounds in Boston, The Massachusetts Civic League, Mr. Joseph Lee, Secretary. 4. Special studies into local conditions : — Miss Mary Peckham of Kingsley House, Pittsburg; Miss Corne- lia Bradford of Whittier House, Jersey City; Miss Elizabeth Wil- liams of the College Settlement, New York; J. M. Hanson, The Commons, St. Paul; Clarence Gordon of the East Side House Set- tlement, New York; Miss Helen F. Greene, Hartley House, New York. 5. Among a long list of others who have assisted in the inves- tigation are : — Mr. E. L. Shuey, Dayton, Ohio; Mr. Z. A. Brockway; Carroll D. Wright, U. S. Commissioner of Labor, Washington, D. C; Professor Henry W. Farnam, Yale University ; Professor Richard T. Ely, University of Michigan; Mr. H. A. Short, Birmingham, England; Mr. William E. Wilkinson, Belfast, Ireland; Mr. Wil- liam Peskett, Liverpool, England ; Professor Graham Taylor, Chicago Commons; Mr. James B. Reynolds, University Settle- ment, New York; Mr. Lawrence Veiller, See. N. Y. Tenement House Commission ; Mr. Robert A. Woods, South End House, Boston; Mr. Robert Graham, N. Y. Church Temperance Society; Professor Samuel Lindsay, University of Pennsylvania; Wm. Knowles Cooper, General Secretary of the Springfield Y. M. C. A. ; L. L. Doggett, Ph. D., the Springfield Training School. CONTENTS. OHAF. PAGE I. The Saloon as a Social Cbntee .... 1 n. Legislation and Substithtion 25 III. The Clubs oe the People 45 IV. Clubs pok the People 70 V. Populak Education 101 VI. The Church, the Mission, the Settlement, and the Young Men's Christian Association . . 125 VII. Indoor Amusements ....... 156 Vin. Outdoor Amusements 187 IX. Lunch-Rooms and Cofeee-Houses .... 216 X. English Temperance Houses 243 XL The Housing op the Working People . . . 267 APPENDIX. L Attitude op Trade Unions toward thb Saloon . 303 II. Boys' Clubs 314 HI. Report on Substitutes por the Saloon in Boston 821 IV. Summary op Reports prom Ten Representativi! Cities . 338 Atlanta, Baltimore, Buppalo, Chicago, Cleve- land, Denver, Minneapolis and St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco. V. Diagrams illustrating Distribution op Saloons . 386 VI. BiBLIOGBAPHT 389 Index 393 " Economists have been trying for a long time to discover how best to employ the energies of men. Ah, if I could but discover how best to employ their leisure ! Labor in plenty there is sure to be. But where look for recreation ? The daily work pro- vides the daily bread, but laughter gives it savor. Oh, all you philosophers ! Begin the search for pleasure ! Find for us if you can amusements that do not degrade, joys that uplift. Invent a holiday that gives every one pleasure, and makes none ashamed." — £mile Souvestre : Un Philosophe smts les Toits. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. CHAPTER I. THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. The saloon, economically considered, is a place where intoxicating liquors are sold at retail. They may be drunk immediately upon the premises, or they may be taken away. The purpose of the saloon-keeper is the same as that of the grocer or any other retail mer- chant. He is there to sell his goods at the greatest pos- sible profit to himself. If he fulfills any other mission to the community, he does so because it results natu- rally from his real business. If he consciously supplies any other demand than that for drink, he perceives its commercial value and seizes upon it in order to increase the amount of his sales. Always it is the selling which interests him. The saloon as it exists is no more a conscious benevolent institution than the grocery store. The idea that the saloon-keeper is disinterest- edly performing any social service must be set aside at once. The commercial motive is at the bottom of it all. That is to say, the saloon-keeper is a business man like many others in the community. Just as the keeper of the saloon looks always at the selling of liquors, so his patron is there primarily to buy them. If it were not for the patron who comes 2 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. only to drink, the saloon could not exist for a day. It may be that other things go with the drinking ; that these become known and sought for what they are and for what they can give ; that they become even the primary attractions for many saloon patrons. But the craving for liquors is what makes the saloon. The proof of this lies in the failure of prohibition to destroy the demand for drink. If it were anything less than this upon which the saloon rested, it might easily be abolished. The tremendous strength of the liquor business rests upon physiological grounds. Primarily, then, the saloon answers to the demand for liquor, but it goes beyond this and supplies a deeper and more subtle want than that of mere animal thirst. This want is the demand for social expression, and how it is met becomes clear by noting what elements are needed to create what we may call a social centre. These elements are the absence of any time limit, some stimulus to self-expression, and a kind of personal feel- ing toward those into whose company one is thrown, which tempts one to put away reserve and enjoy their society. Where these three elements coexist, however imperfectly, they create a social centre, a situation, that is, in which the social instincts find their natural expression. Such a centre the saloon evidently is, even in its lowest forms, for the elements which create a social centre are parts of the very nature and constitution of the saloon as such. In a saloon there is no time limit. Loafing is not prohibited, and there are no placards telling men to move on. The saloon-keeper is anxious to have a man stay if it seems, as it usually does, THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 3 that he will spend more money. Only when he has no more money to spend, or his presence has become obnoxious, will he be asked to leave. The stimulus to sociability is present irrespective of the quality of the liquor and the attractiveness of the saloon. There is no means of arousing the social instinct so sure as that which lies within the reach of the poorest man. An expense of five cents will put him at any time into what we may call a social temper. The saloon is warm in winter, and as cool as any other place in summer. The liquor is hot when the weather is cold, and cold when the weather is hot. The stimulus is calculated nicely to meet just the social end. Best of all he meets his fellows, and is met by them in the direct and per- sonal way that breaks down the reserve, and causes at once the springs of his social nature to act. The saloon is the most democratic of institutions. It appeals at once to the common humanity of a man. There is nothing to repel. No questions are asked. Kespect- ability is not a countersign. The doors swing open before any man who chooses to enter. Once within he finds the atmosphere one in which he can allow his social nature freely to expand. The welcome from the keeper is a personal one. The environment is con- genial. It may be that the appeal is to what is base in him. He may find his satisfaction because he can give vent to those lower desires which seek expression. The place may be attractive just because it is so little elevating. Man is taken as he is, and is given what he wants, be that want good or bad. The only standard is the demand. There is evidently no room for argu- ment here. Persons may disagree in their opinions as 4 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. to the ethical value of the saloon, as to the extent to which the saloon ministers to the social needs of the community, but it can hardly be denied that even if it be the demand for drink, and that alone, which brings a man to a saloon, the saloon patron finds himself when he enters in a centre peculiarly adapted to the free expression of his social nature. Here, then, is a social phenomenon to be studied wholly apart from ethical considerations. It may be a good thing or a bad thing that such opportunity exists. With this we are not for the moment concerned. What interests us now is simply that the opportunity is there. It is not a question whether a man is injured more than he is benefited. The fact to be studied is that he finds in the saloon the answer to a social demand. The saloon is so related in our minds with the question of morals that it is hard to look at it merely as a social institution, hard to assess it correctly upon the basis of precise observation without allowing our preconceived notions of its ethical value to influence our judgment. An unbiased study of the saloon as it exists in our American cities, under many differing laws and in its many different forms, compels the conclusion that it is acting to-day as a social centre, even where this pur- pose is furthest from the mind of its keeper, and where its apparent attractiveness is reduced to its lowest terms. Upon closer examination, the importance of this re- sult only increases, and the real hold of the saloon upon the social life of the people becomes more and more clear. It is apparent for one thing that there are not many centres of recreation and amusement open at all THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 5 hours to the working people, none that minister to their comfort in such a variety of ways. The longer one searches for just the right kind of a substitute for the saloon, affording its conveniences without its evils, the more one despairs of finding it. And yet such places are a positive necessity, for the social instinct that demands and finds its satisfaction within the saloon is a reality. Work is not and was not meant to be the whole of life. The leisure problem equals in im- portance the labor problem, and surpasses it in diffi- culty. Our present-day social philosophers are search- ing for the solution of this problem. In the mean time, to satisfy the social needs of thousands of our laboring people, stands the saloon ready to welcome them, and admirably adapted to such an end. How admirably, a short study of some representative types of saloons will easily show us. Even in the lowest kinds of saloons there is a kind of social life present. These places may be positively immoral, where all the adjectives of the temperance rhetorician apply literally. Unfortunately, even such saloons as these are not the less for all this, centres for social expression. To say this is not to say a word in their defense. The fact is simply recorded. Social desires may be depraved ; they are none the less real, and that their expression gives relief and satisfaction cannot for a moment be doubted. The saloon becomes in this case the conduit through which pass off the lowest forms of social life. The men who patronize these places are ex-convicts or embryo-criminals ; men whose tastes and habits are the lowest. Often the 6 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. mental and physical activities of such men as these find outlet in acts of positive violence and disorder. But a saloon may be dull and degrading without being positively vicious. Here, for example, is a sa- loon on Ninth Avenue in New York. It is typical of a large number of poor saloons in any large city. An Irish plug-ugly acts as barkeeper. It is a rather cool evening, but the gusty draughts of air are freely ad- mitted through open doors. Small, head-high screen doors alone hide the interior from passers-by. All this but indicates the indifference to real comfort which characterizes so generally the poorer kinds of Irish sa- . loons. Despite the general discomfort, in a nook which is partially protected from the wind, five or six regular patrons are playing with greasy cards on a black and dirty table. They are all middle-aged men of miser- able type. The place is not of a kind which would be likely to attract the younger men, for though the inte- rior finish was once good, dirt has become so deeply ingrained that the general effect is forlorn, uncomfort- able. Walking down the same block one might find four or five saloons of precisely the same character. Here it might seem as if the social element had been reduced to a minimum. It is only when one studies the character of the man who frequents such places that one perceives the real social service which the saloon renders him. For this man, a squalid room in some tenement, a dirty bed in some lodging-house, the streets, or the lockup are the only social alternatives. From his point of view, your dirty saloon wears a new aspect. To him it is a real asylum, an escape from the drudgery of work or the hand of the police. He THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 7 was born in dirt and he is not afraid of it. To him the atmosphere is positively congenial. The rude wel- come is the kind he wants. He has a place of his own, warmth, fellowship. He wants his drink and he gets it. Even such saloons as these, which stand for a large number to be found in any community, act as social centres to the kind of men that they attract. Another class of saloons deserves special study be- cause it is the most common form to be met with any- where, the typical American " stand-up " saloons. The interior of saloons of this type will necessarily differ according to the population, and according as they at- tempt more and more to provide for the physical com-^ fort and recreation of their patrons. As a rule, they are clean and neat. This is not always the case, espe- cially in the meaner saloons, where, as the day goes on, the bar and floor become more and more untidy. Yet almost always the saloons are distinctly superior in ap- pearance to anything their patrons are accustomed to in their own homes. For decoration, there is the usual display of bottles filled with different colored liquors. The expensive bars and plate-glass mirrors are supplied by the brewers. The pictures are often advertisements issued by the brewers and advertising the brewery beer. Some of these are cheap and tawdry, but others are quite elaborate. The appeal to what is low and vulgar by means of indecent pictures is not common in these ordinary saloons. Other ornamentation is not supplied because it is not demanded. The patrons of saloons of this type have no highly developed aesthetic or artistic sensibilities. When the people have a higher education in art, it will be discoverable upon the walls of the saloons. 8 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The amount of furniture supplied depends largely on the license system that prevails. Where the license is low and the saloons are numerous, competition results in a larger attempt to provide for the physical comfort of patrons. Where the license is high and the saloons are limited in number, other attractions than the drink are not needed. In Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania, the saloon wears a much plainer aspect than in the South and West, where there are few saloons that are not provided with some furniture aside from the bar. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, for example, out of 315 typical saloons, 270 were supplied with tables and chairs ; and in Chicago out of the 163 saloons of the Seventeenth Ward, no less than 147 made similar pro- vision. More important than the furniture is the general character of these saloons. They are, in the first place, thoroughly cosmopolitan. One saloon in Chicago advertises its cosmopolitanism by the title " Every- body's Exchange." Men of all nationalities meet and mingle. More important still, the general atmosphere is one of freedom. That spirit of democracy which men crave is here realized. That men seek it, and that the saloon tries to cultivate it, is blazoned forth in such titles as "The Fred," "The Social," "The Club," "The Eeception," "Ed and Frank's," "The Two Andersons," " Joe Cardinal's Place." The Bowery has a saloon called the " Poor Man's Ketreat." The club idea is used to make the saloon atmosphere con- genial. That instinct which is so manifest in our modern life is utilized thoroughly by the saloon. The term " club " applies, for many saloons have their own THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 9 constituency, although it may not be organized. Where the saloon patronage is large, men naturally associate according to their own cliques or affiliations. The character of saloons is determined often by the char- acter of the men who, having something in common, make the saloon their rendezvous. That same instinct which brings business men together in their Somer- set Club or their Union League Club leads the labor- ing man into the clubs furnished by the saloons, • The saloon becomes the natural headquarters of a club which may have no constitution or by-laws, but is still a distinct, compact, sympathetic company of men. Their common ground may be their nationality. In this case the saloon becomes a kind of national headquarters. It is not at aU uncommon in large cities to see saloons bearing such names as " The Italian Headquarters," etc. There are whole blocks of saloons which appeal to men of a single nationality. Or the bond that unites them may be their occupation, as is indicated by the names " Mechanics' Exchange " or " Milkmen's Exchange." The utility to men of the same trade in having a single saloon to represent their interests is obvious. The saloons become, in fact, labor bureaus. The laboring man out of employment knows that in some saloon he is likely to find not only temporary relief, but assistance in finding work. To " The Stone-Cutters' Exchange," for example, men seeking masons often apply. Men meeting there dis- cuss their profession. A man out of employment does not go to the charity organization society, but to his club saloon. Information concerning positions is gathered by the men themselves and is made common 10 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. property. Many a man has been put on his feet by just this kind of help. He does not feel like a charity applicant, for he knows that he is as likely to give as to receive. The athletic instinct may be the common ground, and many men find their athletic club within the saloon. An ex-prizefighter or baseball champion sets up a saloon which becomes the clearing-house for aU kinds of athletic and sporting intelligence. A noted place in St. Louis is called " Tom Allen's Cham- pion Rest." The proprietor is an ex-pugilist from Lon- don, and his place is well known throughout the West. Politics may be the common bond. This is perhaps the most common tie of all. In Chicago one saloon is known as " The Democratic Headquarters of the Eigh- teenth Ward." In New York the Tammany headquar- ters in many a district is found in a saloon. These sa- loons are well known, and particularly at election time they are crowded nightly with members of the political fraternity. Thus the strongest ties which unite men are effectually used by the saloon. It has become the official and the unofficial meeting-place for the discus- sion of those interests which are uppermost in men's minds. These men have had considerable education of a practical if not an academic sort ; especially when they touch upon social problems, they often reveal a real insight into the cause of present evils, even if the remedies that they propose are wide of the mark. The newspaper is an educator, and often men who have read and studied lead in the saloon discussions. The position of the saloon-keeper in saloons of this type is a most important and influential one. He is commonly a man of an intelligence superior to that of THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 11 his patrons. That the character of the saloon as a centre of sociability should depend on the personality of the saloon-keeper is only natural. He is above all else a man of the people. He knows his men and knows them well. He knows often about their families and their circumstances, and thus has a hold on their sym- pathies. The laborer often regards him as his chief friend. He has more leisure for self-improvement than most of his customers. He has in his possession the latest political and sporting news. He reads the papers and makes a point of being a leader in discussion, an arbitrator in debate. He makes a show of hospitality and generosity. A man can often borrow money from a saloon-keeper, and the saloon is frequently the only place where a poor man can " get trusted," and this he does not forget. To the proprietor, loss upon such loans as these is more than made up in the ultimate return; Very often the saloon is a laboring man's post office. His letters are sent there, and are taken care of by the bartender free of charge. From all this will be seen the influence which the saloon-keeper has gradually acquired. Thus it is easy to see how his political power arises. He is the middleman between the great financial interests represented by the brew- ers and the political units that are his patrons. By his position he is a leader. He is the man to whom the politician must go before the realization of his schemes. If there is any bribery, it concerns the sa- loon-keeper, who is asked to treat " the boys " in re- turn. Such are the varied functions of the barkeeper ; such is his social position ; such is his influence. In saloons of no other type, either lower or higher, is the 12 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. barkeeper quite the man of importance that he is in the majority of our city saloons. If he is not master of all these arts, he is of some. He is able to contrib- ute to, if not to create, an atmosphere of sociability, and through personal influence to win the confidence of his patrons. Besides this general atmosphere of congenial society and comfort, the saloon of this class has added certain features intended directly for recreation and amuse- ment. Their number and variety will depend upon the existing license regulations. The screen law, well known in Massachusetts, is an effective means for depriving the saloons of much of that sociability for which a certain amount of privacy is necessary. In New York social features are not uncommon, and in the West they are almost universal. The most ordi- nary form of amusement is card-playing. Tables and cards are supplied by the proprietor, and sometimes card-rooms. They are always small, and no effort is made at decoration of any kind. This arrangement is commonly seen in New York, where saloons are pro- vided with back rooms furnished with tables and chairs. For example, out of fifteen representative saloons in the Fourteenth Assembly District, nine have rear rooms used for card-playing and other social purposes. Beading is not so common. It is the exception to find men busy reading the papers to any extent or for any length of time even when the saloon supplies them. In Chicago out of 163 saloons in the Seventeenth Ward, 139 were found to be regularly supplied with papers. But in Cleveland, the chief of police reported that he had never seen a newspaper in a saloon in that city THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 13 unless it were one wHch the proprietor had used and discarded. In other cities the local papers are often found, but they are not much read. Reading is too quiet, too individual, too little social an occupation to suit the ordinary saloon habitud. Music is not commonly found in bar saloons. The proprietor cannot afford good music, and the patrons, as a rule, do not care for it. A music-box is occasion- ally found, or a graphophone, or a nickel-in-the-slot machine, or other device for reproducing sentimental songs. Sometimes a singer or violinist is hired for the evening, but as a rule it is the more highly developed saloons to which one must go for the music. The bil- liard and pool table is a more common method of amusement than the newspaper Or the musical attrac- tion. Twenty-seven per cent of the saloons studied in Chicago have them, and in St. Louis they are very common. And yet thie pool table is not seen so much as formerly in some of our cities. In many high license places it is prohibited. In others, for one rea- son or another, it has given way to other forms of amusement. The tables take up too much space ; they easily get out of repair ; the excitement of the game often takes the place of drink, which is far from the saloon-keeper's wish. There is the temptation to lin- ger too long over the games. An almost inevitable means of attracting to the saloon is to report the current sporting and athletic news. On the night of a well-known prize fight, the saloons of the entire country are commonly packed. The news of the " mill " is received " by special wire " and detailed to the customers. Sometimes a black- 14 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. board is used for illustrations. During the baseball and racing season, it is very common to have score cards given out free of charge. As the game pro- gresses and the results are announced, the score can be kept as accurately by one sitting at a table with his drink as if he occupied a seat on the " bleachers." But not all the methods employed for amusement are as innocent as these. The gambling instinct is given its chance for expression in many of the saloons. This may take the harmless form of tossing for drinks or cigars ; it may be the almost universal playing for the game in billiards, by which the loser pays the expense for the whole company; it may be a playing for stakes at cards, which is very common, or it may be the use of the gambling machine. The relative amount of gambling in a saloon will depend, of course, upon the severity of its supervision. The tendency toward it must always exist to a greater or less extent. The gambling ma- chine is not so common in the East as it is in the West. But it is only recently that it has been banished from the saloons of New Haven, and it is still to be found in Baltimore. In the St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago saloons gambling is quite prevalent. A favorite type of machine is a penny-in-the-slot contrivance, to be played for drinks or cigars, or for money. Often one can see men crowd around these machines, waiting a turn to try their luck. Ordinarily but five or ten cents, but sometimes from fifty to seventy-five cents is dropped in at a single play. In one of the largest first- class saloons of Cincinnati, after an evening's play, the bulk of the coin taken from its ten machines measured over a half bushel. If more gambling does not exist. THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 15 ■it is often due to the fact that the demand is not great enough for a larger number to thrive and pay the " tax," that is, the hush money. That the social evil is also pandered to by the saloon of this class, as well as of the lower types already mentioned, is well known. The two vices of drunken- ness and social immorality are closely allied. Drink in- fluences the passions and leads to excess. Many sa- loons are in close connection with houses of assignation, while others are well-known rendezvous for prostitutes, and have a distinct patronage on this account. .A common form of saloon of this class in New York is a Raines Hotel of a low type. The cities of the West have their saloons with stalls or wine-rooms. There may be no definite business agreement between the women and the keepers of the saloons, but as a rule the saloon-keepers are compensated for the extra space and furniture by the increased bar receipts, and the women, in turn, are furnished a " hang-out." A distinctive and general feature of the saloons of this class is the food which they serve. Some provi- sion of food by the saloons is required by law for hygienic reasons : it is bad for a man to drink upon an empty stomach. But it is a long cry from this to becoming, as the saloons now are, the base of the food supply of thousands of men of all classes in our cities. Besides the free lunch, many saloons serve what is called a business lunch, or a commercial lunch ; that is, upon payment of five or ten cents a man obtains in a saloon the same amount of food which he would ob- tain in a restaurant. The quality of the food is as good, there is no delay, and for an additional payment 16 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the customer can have his drink. These saloons are patronized generally at noontime and at night rather than through the day. They do a regular restaurant ' trade, but serve liquors in addition. The free lunch is free only in the sense that when a man has bought a drink, he is not charged for eating. But it is undeniable that the workingman, any man not supplied with much ready money, regards even the most meagre free lunch as one of his greatest blessings. The quality of these lunches varies a good deal. Where the competition is not great, or where the license is high, the free lunch is not so attractive. In Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia the ordinary saloons certainly do not serve a very abundant or a very appetizing free lunch. Usually this lunch is cold. Where a hot lunch is found, it wiU almost always con- sist of soup with bread. The cold lunch is generally made up of the following articles : Bread, crackers, and wafers ; cheese, bologna sausage, wienerwurst, cold eggs, sliced tomatoes, cold meats, salads, pickles and other relishes. The demand is commonly for something sour or salt. The consumption of pickles, salt meats, sauerkraut, and potato salad runs far ahead of anything else. The drinking man's stomach seems to crave the acid. A workingman does not need to eat very heart- ily of the free lunch in order to appease his hunger. A slice or two of bread, a few pickles, and a small piece of meat with the beer is all that many of them eat at noontime. The meagre lunch which many of the saloons in our Eastern cities afford is perfectly adequate to the needs of a great majority of drinkers. No limit is ordinarily put upon the amount which THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 17 a man may eat. A well-dressed or a regular cus- tomer is never interfered with. It is only the man who comes seldom or evidently comes for the lunch alone who need fear the eye of the bartender. How- ever, there is a kind of etiquette about the use of the free lunch which acts as a corrective to the greed of some patrons. It is, of course, at noontime that the saloons serve most largely as eating-places. Then it is that hundreds of men make use of them as restau- rants. Standing at almost any street corner near a large factory, one can see the men going in large num- bers directly from their work to the saloon for their lunch and their schooner of beer. In certain sections it is the exception to see a dinner pail. A hot lunch is often served at noontime, and when a second beer is purchased, a piece of roast meat, some vegetables, and a relish can be obtained without extra charge. In the South the Negro problem has its effect upon the free lunch. One saloon kept in Atlanta reported that it did not pay to set out much of a free lunch be- cause the Negro is such a heavy eater that there would be no profit. Again, the white man would not help himself out of a dish which had been used by a Negro, and in many saloons it would be impracticable to have a double counter. For this reason, in saloons which have a mixed trade, the free lunch is inconspicuous. In other saloons, however, the free lunch in the South is more like what it is in the North. This may be seen from the following description of the free lunch served in all the saloons in the business portion of New Orleans, or where there are a large number of working- men about the railroad yards or ship wharves. A large 18 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. table is set out in the saloon, on whicli are placed trays of cut bread, bowls of butter, salads and sauces. Then there is another table where there is a large tureen of soup, a platter of roast beef, a large dish of rice or baked beans, or hash or mashed potato ; there is gener- ally a change every day, and on Friday there are oyster soup and fish. This hot lunch is served from eleven to one o'clock. Any one can go in, take a soup plate from the pile, and get some soup ; then help himself to meat and vegetables, and take what is wanted of bread and butter, or anything else there is on the lunch table. When the meal is finished, the patron goes to the bar and takes his drink. As will be seen, this lunch is more elaborate than is common in the eastern cities of the North. In the Western cities the free lunch is even more elaborate. This is due primarily to the greater compe- tition which exists between the saloons, and partly to the cheapness of food. The best free lunches to be found anywhere in the country are in Chicago, in St. Louis, and in San Francisco. The following amount is consumed per day in a Chicago saloon : 150 to 200 pounds of meat, 1^ to 2 bushels of potatoes, 50 loaves of bread, 35 pounds of beans, 45 dozens of eggs on some days (eggs not usually being used), 10 dozen ears of sweet corn, f 1.50 to $2.00 worth of vegetables. Five men are constantly employed at the lunch counter. The total cost of the lunch is |30 to |40 per day. The only way in which such an amount of food can be given away is through the competition of the brewers, who furnish the beer and food at wholesale to the retail dealers. The attractiveness of such a free lunch can THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 19 be imagined. In San Francisco the saloons furnish an equal abundance and variety of food. In comparing its free lunch with the ordinary restaurant, it is of interest to note that while the saloons dispense hot meats freely, but two restaurants could be found which furnished meat dishes for five cents. A woman at the head of a local temperance organization declared that when her boys began their business life in San Fran- cisco, they found themselves practically compelled to resort to the saloons for their midday lunches. They could not afford to get them elsewhere. The incident indicates how the patronage of the saloon is increased by means of the free lunch. To this long list of comforts and conveniences sup- plied by the ordinary saloon, one other must be added. The saloon is often the only place in crowded sections of our large cities which provides public toilet-rooms. This provision, which belongs properly to the muni- cipality, has in America been left to the hotels and the saloons. Many men who never under ordinary circumstances patronize a bar do so because they feel under some obligation to pay for the convenience afforded them. This is another illustration of the way in which the saloon has made itself indispensable to the community. A third class of saloons remains to be described. It is the Continental type, where the motive of "sociability and amusement is as strong in the patron as the desire for drink. The drinking is done at tables, both in the main room and in separate rooms. Very often there is no bar. The atmosphere is that of comfort and of sociability. There is much less intoxication, as a rule, 20 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. than in the bar saloons. Distilled liquors are seldom called for, except in the Italian saloons. More time is spent over the drink than in the " stand-up " saloons. It is more of a loafing-place ; the social element domi- nates. Within this class also there is great variety. The saloons range all the way from the small German restaurant to immense establishments involving a great outlay of capital, and providing luxurious accommoda- tions and almost every possible form of amusement for their patrons. The boulevard restaurant, after the Parisian model, the beer garden, and certain business men's restaurants are all included, for in them all the element of sociability is highly developed, and the drinking is made the accompaniment of many varied forms of social activity. The foreign quarters of any large city contain num- bers of small drinking-places where the men come to smoke and talk. They are not exclusively German, although these preponderate. The Italians have their wine-shops, and the Hungarians and Poles and other foreigners have places of their own. The interior pre- sents a different appearance from that of the bar sa- loon. There is less noise and hurry. There are fewer transients, and less passing in and out. Men come in quietly and settle down to their' pipes and beers with more deliberation. During working hours these places are half empty, but they fill up rapidly in the evening, when they do their best trade. There is commonly no free lunch, but food is served at something lower than restaurant prices. The patronage is likely to be uniform. As a result, the proprietor is personally acquainted with a larger number of his patrons than THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 21 in the saloons where there are more transients. Thus in every way the element of sociability is heightened. The boulevard saloon is not very well known in this country. No avenue in America perhaps presents just the spectacle of a boulevard in Paris with its many cafes, whose tables are placed in numbers in the front, where men and women may sip their drink, read the papers, or observe the passers-by. And yet this kind of saloon is not wholly absent from our American cities. In New York, for example. Second Avenue during the summer months has many such establish- ments. Some of them have small summer gardens, with tables in full view of the avenue. This is a well- known broad promenade, crowded on either side with passing throngs of people of almost every nationality. Meals are served at these cafes at all hours. In the evening a good three-course dinner with coffee can be obtained in many of them for twenty-five cents. Beer is the common beverage, but many people frequent these caf^s who scarcely ever call for liquor. They are very pleasant places, especially in the evening. There are one or two of them which make a point of supplying a good many newspapers. At the corner of Houston Street and Second Avenue is a saloon which has no outside seats, but the main room is quite large. There is a profusion of tables and papers. The pa- trons sit there during the whole evening, some drink- ing coffee, others beer or liquors. The place does not even suggest a bar-room. The windows are not shaded in any way, and from the outside one might imagine the room to be a free reading-room. It has a most homelike appearance, and it draws large crowds. 22 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The lack of an adequate provision of places for busi- ness appointments has given the saloon an advantage which it has been quick to seize. Many a first-class saloon is altogether suited to this purpose. Here a man and his friends may sit down, often in an alcove, and discuss at leisure over a first-class dinner, with any kind of liquor, the business that brought them there. Not only are these places used for business appoint- ments, but separate rooms are sometimes furnished for the use of committees and small meetings of various character, there being no charge for their use. The head of a department in one of Chicago's large whole- sale houses said that certain of their best salesmen sell a large portion of their goods over a glass of beer in a neighboring saloon. One of the most famous of these business men's establishments is Tony Faust's in St. Louis. Certain saloons have as a distinguishing feature their oddity and the novelties that they present, or owe their existence to customs of long standing. On Avenue A in New York, for example, is a German saloon which reproduces accurately in its furnishings an ancient German tavern. There is a general air of restfulness and quiet about the place. The impression is distinctly different from that which one gains in going into one of the more fashionable German beer halls. Nearly every city has its " Log Cabin " saloon, its " Maze," and other odd establishments. Still other saloons make a distinct business of amusing their patrons. In the East this is generally prohibited by law, but in the West it is very common. Indeed, it is often hard to tell whether we are dealing with a saloon or with an amusement THE SALOON AS A SOCIAL CENTRE. 23 enterprise. The two meet and mingle. Is it a theatre saloon, or a saloon theatre ? Is it a concert hall where drinks are served, or a saloon where music is furnished ? There is little upon the surface to determine. It is very difficult to distinguish between many large beer gardens and suburban parks which permit the sale of liquors. The saloon idea is so developed that the very name seems no longer to apply. The amusement offered is almost always one of two kinds. It is either musical or dramatic. The concert saloons are often unobjec- tionable and sometimes do a real service to the com- munity. They are the only concerts which thousands of poor people ever hear, for the public band concerts are miles away. Of the vaudeville saloons little good can be said. At their best, they are vulgar ; at their worst unspeakably degrading. As a rule, the perform- ances are free. The large patronage upon which such places can depend reimburses the proprietor for his extra expense. They generally serve food as well as drinks, the prices being about the same as those charged in any good restaurant. The effort is not, however, to make a profit from the food. It is from the liquor sales that the profit is expected. The most highly developed amusement saloons are large establishments with every provision made for social entertainment. A good illustration of an establishment of this kind is Heinegabubeler's famous saloon in Chicago. This saloon occupies a building in the very heart of the business centre. A great amount of money has been spent to make the place attractive both without and within. Besides the ordinary buffet and social rooms on the street floor, there are three upper stories that 24 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. are decorated and luxuriously furnished and arranged with free gymnasium, reading-rooms, large halls and reception rooms. The spacious roof is utilized in sum- mer for a garden. Less pretentious establishments of a similar kind exist in almost all the Western cities, where the chief attraction is a good orchestra. In the evening these places are commonly filled, and the re- ceipts are amply sufficient to reimburse the proprietor for the added expense. An inquiry into the social side of saloon life reveals the firm hold which the saloon has upon the people. It is true, as was said at the beginning, that the motive of the saloon-keeper is always a commercial one, and that the demand of the patron is primarily for drink ; yet the roots of the saloon are sunk deep within the social life of the great mass of the inhabitants of our large cities. An economic examination of the problem reveals the great amoimt of capital involved in the liquor traffic, the great number of people employed, directly or indirectly, in its production and distribution. The ethical side of the problem is hardly less convin- cing in its demonstration of the important position occupied by the saloon in our social economy. CHAPTEE II. LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. The saloon is the poor man's club in the sense that it often offers him, with much that is undoubtedly in- jurious, a measure of fellowship and recreation for which he would look elsewhere in vain. It does a vast amount of mischief, but at the same time supplies a legitimate want in the life of the workingman by giv- ing him relief from the monotony and meagreness of his daily life. This want is so generally recognized that social workers have often remarked that, bad as the saloon is, they would hesitate to remove it unless there were something to take its place. The question arises. How may the evils of the saloon be eliminated and at the same time the social wants of" thousands in our great cities be satisfied ? Two methods must evidently be pursued. The saloon must be con- fined by legislative restriction to its own normal func- tion of the distribution of liquor, and other places of recreation be provided without the perils accessory to the saloon, where a man may enjoy the society of his fellows without being confronted with the evils of in- toxication, of gambling, of social vice, and where he will not be tempted to squander his week's wages. These methods do not exclude but complement each other. To destroy the social functions of the saloon without making any provision for the social needs of 26 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the people would be unjust. To rival the social attrac- tiveness of the saloon without first limiting its full liberty to act as a social centre would be impossible. Where these two methods are wisely employed, the evils of the saloon wiU be reduced to a minimum and the social needs of the people wiU at the same time be supplied. In the adjustment and application of these two methods lies the ultimate solution of the liquor problem. Certain legislative enactments must plainly precede any successful effort to offer social substitutes for the saloon. For example, if no attempt is made to limit the number or location of saloons by law, the hopeless- ness of the problem becomes apparent. The diagrams that appear in the Appendix have been prepared to show the number and location of saloons in sections of certain cities. Any attempt at substitution under such conditions is very difficult. The saloons crush their rivals by sheer force of numbers. Such a condition the law can change at will. " The number of saloons can be limited either by statutory enactment according to population, as in Massachusetts, or merely with respect to what the licensing authorities conceive to be the popular needs of the community, as in Pennsylvania." ^ The number of saloons in a block can be limited, and a too great congestion in the poorer residence districts can be forbidden. All such enact- ments which lessen the whole number of saloons and to a certain extent confine them to business sections 1 Much of the material relating to the legislative aspects of the problem is taken, at times verbatim, from a report prepared for the editors of this volume by Mr. John Koren. LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 27 give their social competitors a better chance of suc- cess. In this way legislation can at once overcome the initial advantage of the saloon. But even when legislation has done this, it has still left untouched the social attractiveness of the saloon, which actually increases as the number of saloons de- creases. The problem is practically left where it was before. The question arises, Can legislation go still further and extirpate the social functions of the saloon? If this can be done, then evidently the plan of provid- ing social substitutes to take its place becomes not only a possible but a highly important form of social ser- vice. Our restrictive liquor legislation, it must be frankly said, has as yet done but little to counteract or to minimize the social attractions of the saloon. This fact a brief examination of existing systems will suffice to demonstrate. All low license systems fail, for curiously enough the lower the license fee, the fewer, as a rule, are the legal restraints imposed upon the saloon. Nowhere is the license so low as in San Francisco. Those retail dealers whose aggregate sales amount to less than f 600 a quarter need pay no license at all, and those whose sales amount to less than $15,000 a quarter pay a license of only |84 a year, and nowhere is the saloon freer from legal restrictions. The law requires only that the business be not conducted by a person con- victed of a felony, and that the resort be not used for immoral purposes. In Chicago the fee is but $500 a year, and in Chicago, more than in Eastern cities, the distinctively social features of the saloon predominate. This is true also of St. Louis, where the fee is even 28 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. lower. The great majority of saloons in St. Louis are furnished with round or square tables and chairs for the convenience of their patrons. One who passes by can often see card-playing through the open door. Many of them also have billiard and pool tables ; still others, wine-rooms and theatrical and athletic exhibi- tions. In Ohio the saloon is taxed at the uniform rate of f 250 per year.^ The law does not forbid the com- bination with the saloon trade of other attractions, as music, dancing, and games, or of other pursuits, such as the sale of provisions or the exhibitions of plays ; there are no restrictive regulations as to chairs, tables, screens, and the like. These may be taken as illustra- tions of the influence of the low license system upon the social attractions of the saloon. It may be said, in a word, that under the system of low license the social attractiveness of the saloon is not at all limited by legislation. The method of high license evidently contemplates a restriction of the social features of the saloon. Yet the result is not attained, and the saloon continues to be, to a greater or less degree, a social centre. The primary reason for this lies in the very nature of the license system. The traffic is left in private control, and the operator is taxed for the privilege of engaging in his business. The question of revenue is a vital one with him. If the restrictive measures be too severe, they wiU drive him out of the business, and this is not the purpose of any license system. The evident injustice to the dealer is the reason why more restrictive laws are not passed, and why those that are passed are not 1 See Legislative Aspects of the Liquor Problem, p. 298. LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 29 more rigidly enforced. The feeling is that where the saloon is already highly taxed for the privilege of con- ducting its business, it should be left free to stimulate its trade by any legitimate means. In some cities, of course, the restrictive laws are fairly well enforced without seeming to cripple to any extent the saloon trade. " The truth of this is perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in Massachusetts, where the high license system has reached a more complete develop- ment than in any other State. Here the employment of numerous restrictive expedients, as well as the stat- utory limitations of the number of saloons according to the traffic, together with unusually high fees, have ' served to raise the tone of the traffic to some extent and to eliminate the old-time dive. The saloons in Boston, for instance, are to a less extent than those of other great cities social centres; for not only are they prevented from holding out inducements to their patrons by the aid of various kinds of social machinery in vogue elsewhere, but above all, the law has shorn them of that privacy which conduces so much to the sociability and club-like atmosphere of the drink places. Yet notwithstanding the unusual publicity of its business which makes it impossible for the drinker to escape altogether the public gaze, and in spite of the generally efficient police supervision, the Massachusetts saloon admittedly holds its own as a centre of social life for the workingman. It is stiU a favorite resort, the head- quarters of local political machinations, and the rendez- vous of gangs ; and its presiding genius is a man of social prestige and appreciable influence among his fellows by virtue of his occupation. In ministering to 30 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the social wants of certain classes, he is still without dangerous rivals." What legislation in Massachusetts has been unable to accomplish, the license laws of other States are still further from attaining. Where legislation puts a pre- mium on the hotel feature of the drink place, as in New York, under the liquor tax law, it results not only in accumulation of the ordinary attractions, but of opportunities for gambling, prostitution, and other excesses. The dealer feels that he must recoup him- self for the extra expenditure involved in the running of a " hotel," by fair means or by foul. The root of the difficulty, it is almost needless to emphasize, lies in the fact that a license law, whether high or low, permits the sale of liquor for private profits. The dealer naturally seizes every chance to increase his business. By so much as he can increase the cheer and hospitality, as well as the more tangible allurements of his place, the profits grow. Private pro- fits must be eliminated from the sale of liquor before much progress can be made in offsetting the social attractions of the saloon. " Look where we may, to our own experience or to that of European countries, we find that legislation is powerless to revolutionize the character of the saloon as a social institution until it takes it out of private hands." Thus both the low and high license systems have failed to counteract the social side of saloon life. The same may be said of the prohibition laws. So long as public opinion does not insist upon the extinc- tion of the formally banished saloon, just so long is it possible not only for it to exist, but to preserve all the LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 31 essential elements of a social centre, and to draw pa- tronage as such. Unaided by popular conviction, the official odium attaching to it cannot seriously diminish its attractiveness. " As a cause of intemperance in Maine, especially among young men, is mentioned the dearth of good pleasure resorts and public amuse- ments. As one who for fourteen years had been a labor leader in Portland remarked : ' They [the Pro- hibitionists] try to take the bar-rooms away from the boys and give them nothing instead except the churches.' The saloon is still a social centre in Port- land for which no permanent substitutes have been offered to the large number of young men, abounding in every city, who cannot in any sense be said to have homes." ^ All tbese laws have then, generally speaking, failed to destroy the social functions of the saloon. This result has been attained, however, in our own country under the South Carolina Dispensary System. The success of the system has been due, it is needless to say, to the fact that the element of private profits has been largely eliminated. The business is conducted by the State and not by private individuals who are in the business for what they can make out of it. It is unnecessary to go into the details of the system, but for the sake of contrast, it is well to remember what becomes of an ordinary saloon when it is taken out of the hands of individuals. "Take a typical South Carolina dispensary which has supplanted the flaunting, ubiquitous saloon of former days. Except for the modest sign over the 1 See Legislative Aspects of the Liquor Problem, p. 58. 32 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. door, there is hardly anything to betray the business of the place. Its location has not been chosen for con- spicuousness. The interior furnishings are meagre in the extreme, and have respect to bare utility. Instead of presiding behind a polished bar with its tempting array of bottles and decanters, the dispenser is ensconced behind a lattice-work which fences off all the long and narrow room except a small space in front. On the shelves and on boxes partly hidden from view are the officially stamped liquor packages. Through a small aperture in the middle of the lattice-work the dispenser communicates with the customers and receives the orders. After the necessary formalities have been complied with (they are such that if properly insisted upon the undesirable customer is denied his request), the goods, never less than a half pint of distilled liquor in a sealed bottle, are passed out, and the purchaser is expected to make room for the next comer. The dis- penser may be courteous, but he is not cordial. There is no invitation to make oneself at home ; and there could be no reason for extending it, since the room is barren of all comforts, and does not even contain a chair or a table, not to mention other conveniences. It is absolutely prohibited to open a liquor package on the premises ; treating in the ordinary sense is thus done away with. ... At six p. M. the doors of the establishment close, not to open again until after work hours the next day." It would be difficult to imagine conditions less conducive to sociability. The bar is a memory only. The buying of intoxicants has become as prosaic as the buying of soap or codfish. By this is not meant that the South Carolina system LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 33 is the best method of regulating the liquor business. On the contrary, it wiU probably be found that there are in such a system very grave defects. For one thing, the State is given an interest in promoting the establishment of the dispensaries, since the whole of the profit is retained for state and municipal expenses. Even the elimination of private profit has not been completely secured, since the salaries of the county dis- pensers are fixed according to the amount of business that is done.^ Another serious defect of the system is that it does not succeed in taking the liquor traffic out of politics. The Governor of South Carolina, in his message to the General Assembly, January 10, 1899, said the new system " has now been in force three years, and, in my opinion, it has failed to accomplish the purposes of its advocates. The idea was to divorce the dispensary system from politics, and to put it under a strictly business management. No such re- sult has followed. It is notorious that the dispensary is as much or more in politics than it ever was."^ But in spite of these disadvantages the system has accomplished much, since it does destroy the social features of saloon life, while permitting the distribu- tion of intoxicating liquors. The same result has been achieved in Norway and Sweden under the Company system, the central prin- ciple of which is the elimination of private profit. The drinking-places, in general, are not so devoid of all attractions as the South Carolina dispensaries, and ' See Legislative Aspects of the Liquor Problem, p. 168. ^ Quoted in The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, pp. 240, 241. 34 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. in some of them liquor may be consumed on the pre- mises. But even in Christiania, where the shops of the Company offer the most attractions, there is little to remind us of the American saloon. "They are not resorts for social intercourse ; they are not comfortable and spacious. No games, newspapers, or other means of recreation are provided, not even seats. Men do not congregate there to do business, to discuss politics, to bet on the races. There is no treating or lingering over the social glass." In short, they are not in any sense social centres. The advantages of the Company system are that the drink traffic is forever taken out of politics, that local administrations can adapt the details of the system to local conditions, that the profits must be used to establish substitutes for the saloon of an educative and a recreative sort. This beneficent plan is already in operation in Norway. In other words, under this system both the restrictive and constructive methods of meeting the liquor problem are in opera- tion at the same time. This system doubtless repre- sents the highest and most successful type of liquor legislation to be found anywhere, for it unites in a sin- gle system of control the two methods, the successful operation and adjustment of which means the ultimate solution of the liquor problem. This much at least is clear : neither local enactments nor police surveillance can avail to destroy the social attractions of the saloon so long as it is left in private control. The saloon as a social centre can only disappear when the element of private profits has been removed. The ability of legislation to extirpate the social at- tractiveness of the saloon has thus been demonstrated; LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 35 but in proportion to the degree in which legislation is successful in taking from the saloon its social features, the obligation becomes imperative to provide for the patrons of the saloon other places of social recreation and fellowship. Up to the present time reformers have given much more attention to the method of legislation than to the method of substitution. The latter method is the one that now requires careful study. Until ade- quate and sensible means have been devised for the recreation of the people, the time will not have come to consider the advisability of employing legislation which can rob the saloon of all its social features. As yet adequate substitutes for the social benefits which thou- sands of the people actually derive daily from the saloons have not been developed. It is to this problem that the experience, the wisdom, and the wealth of those interested in social progress must now be directed. Europe has taken the lead here as well as in the method of legislation. The importance of this method of meeting the liquor problem has been clearly recog- nized by foreign governments. Russia, for example, has not only put a restrictive liquor law into operation (the Government Monopoly will within a year or two be extended into seventy-five provinces), but has been organizing a scheme of preventive agencies, as well, un- der the lead of Prince Oldenberg of St. Petersburg. The plan is to open reading-rooms with libraries and cheap, attractive restaurants near public gardens and squares where the working people congregate. The movement has grown remarkably, until now there are nearly 2000 of these tea-rooms and tea-restaurants, 943 36 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. reading-rooms and libraries, 654 popular readings in hired halls, and many other similar popular attractions. Interesting experiments have been inaugurated in Norway and in England. The coffee-houses of Liver- pool have become famous ; the workingmen's clubs, the model tenements, the friendly inns of London and other English cities are well known. So far back as 1834 a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in reporting on the " Causes and Consequences of Intoxi- cation among the Labouring Classes," recommended, among other things, " The establishment, by the joint aid of the government and the local authorities and residents on the spot, of public walks and gardens, or open spaces for athletic and healthy exercises in the open air, in the immediate vicinity of every town, of an extent and character adapted to its population ; and of district and parish libraries, museums and read- ing-rooms, accessible at the lowest rate of charge, so as to admit of one or the other being visited in any weather and at any time ; with the rigid exclusion of all intoxicating drinks of every kind from all such places, whether in the open air or closed." ^ Twenty years later, in 1854, another Select Commit- tee of the House of Commons reported : — " Your Committee are fully impressed with the im- portance of as far as possible dissociating places of public entertainment from the sale of intoxicating drinks. Dramatic and musical performances have a tendency, under a strict censorship, to raise the character of the people, and there is evidence of a growing taste for such entertainments among the working classes, ^ Hie Temperance Problem and Social Reform, p. 384. LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 37 which it appears to your Committee may be made to serve as a powerful counter-attraction to the public house. " Your Committee have been impressed with the good effects of the Saturday evening concerts, such as take place at the Lord Nelson Street Rooms, Liver- pool, which, on all occasions, are presided over by some person of note or respectability ; and they are satisfied that were the example followed, and the means provided, independent of public houses, for the working classes to gratify their taste, especially for music, the result would be a diminution of intemperance and the refinement of the popular taste." Since 1854 other recommendations have been made to Parliament in regard to the importance of providing for the social needs of the people. The most interesting beginnings in our own country are patterned after European models, but they are be- ginnings only. In no city in our country are the social substitutes at all adequate to the demand, A greater advance has been made in the method of substitution in the cities of the North and East than in other sections of the country. It is in Boston, Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia that the most significant experiments have been tried. Several very careful inquiries have been made in certain small cities and in limited sections of the larger cities to discover how many substitutes actually compete with the social life of the saloon. Jersey City, for example, has a population of about 195,000 and a saloon to every thirty-five voters. The workers in Whittier House were able to discover a few clubs connected with churches and the settlement, 38 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. several good branch libraries, three cheap theatres, a few parks, but no effort to provide cheap and whole- some food and lodgings for the needs of a distinctively transient population. The settlement and an energetic institutional church perform practically all the philan- thropic activity for the entire city. In Pittsburg, Kingsley House instituted a rigorous search for substi- tutes in the Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth Wards, where sixty-four saloons are located. The results were as fol- lows : Fifteen clubs of all kinds, of which six were for women and four for boys ; seven libraries, of which three were fairly large and well graded and three were Carne- gie home libraries for children ; three pool-rooms ; three nickel lunch establishments, two lunch wagons, five small lunch counters, a few cheap restaurants, and four cheap lodging-houses. This was all beside the educa- tional work of the settlement. In the Fifteenth As- sembly District in New York City, Hartley House dis- covered three workingmen's clubs, three boys' clubs, two political clubs, a singing society, a mission, and four restaurants of a social nature. After making all allowance for the influence of institutions situated out- side the district upon the life of the people within it, and conceding that these districts may be more poorly supplied with substitutes than others in the same cities, it will still be seen how small an impression these en- terprises must make upon the total life of the commu- nity. The reasons for the scarcity of social substitutes are many. The chief reason doubtless why substitutes have not kept pace with existing conditions is the phenome- nal growth of our American cities. The census of 1890 LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 39 demonstrated that over 27 per cent of the entire pop- ulation of the United States were in the 400 towns of over 8000 population, while as many as 28 cities had over 100,000 population. At present there are 39 cities in the latter class, and 159 cities have a population of 25,000 and over. New York has 3,437,202 with its extended bpundaries, Chicago 1,698,575, Philadelphia 1,293,697, while St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore have each over half a million. The following table shows the increase of urban population during the past twenty years : — Classified Sizes. Cities of 200,000 or more Cities of 100,000 and under 200,000 Cities of 60,000 and under 100,000 Cities of 26,000 and under 50,000 Totals Population. 1900. 11,795,809 2,412,538 2,709,338 2,776,940 19,694,625 1890. 8,879,105 1,808,656 2,067,169 2,100,559 14,856,489 6,311,653 1,009,163 1,368,309 1,244,802 9,933,927 31.0 33.2 a^ FLi 40.6 79.2 51.0 68.7 49.5 It is not to be wondered at if philanthropy has been unable to keep up with this rapid development. That many saloon substitutes are not and perhaps cannot be made to be paying investments for capital is another obstacle. An exception must be made of model tenements, since recent experiments in providing for the housing of the poor have proved that these, a most important substitute, can pay an interest upon money invested. An exception must also be made of the 40 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. investment of capital by manufacturers which tends directly to the betterment of their employees. Social experiments in this direction have undoubtedly demon- strated that the money invested yields very ample return in the quality and increased amount of the work performed by the employees. But the financial diffi- culty is and always must be so great that it is probable that the conditions never can be successfully met until the municipality controls its own liquor business and expends the profits upon the establishment of social centres for the people. The tax is too great to be borne at present by the municipal treasury or by private philanthropy. But if the enormous profit from the drink traffic could be diverted into the legitimate work of establishing centres of recreation for the people, an immense progress could be made towards social reform.^ A minute examination into the different kinds of social recreation needed by the people seems to demonstrate afresh the necessity of such liquor legislation for large cities as will both limit the social features of the saloon and divert the profit of the drink traffic into providing social centres to take its place. But the whole trouble does not consist alone in the small number of these social enterprises, but in their inability for one reason or another seriously to attract and permanently to retain the attention of the people. An interesting experiment showing the opinion in which these substitutes are actually held by the people was recently tried at the Elmira Reformatory. At the ses- sion of the Ethics class held in that institution one ^ For a practical demonstration of the working of the system, see The Temperance Problem and Social Beform, pp. 393-418. LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 41 Sunday evening, a class of three hundred intelligent adults averaging twenty-one years of age, the subject of the " Liquor Saloon Ethically Considered " was up for discussion. It was hoped that the men would discuss the substitutes proposed, and there was placed upon a large blackboard an analyzed list of thirty-two of them. The substitutes attracted only a smile, not of contempt, but of indifference. These habitues of saloons were not impressed or seriously interested in the substitutes proposed. The discussion ranged about the saloon itself, its dangers and disadvantages and the benefits to be derived from it. This test was a fair one, and doubtless represents the actual opinion of the laboring man upon existing social substitutes. It is to be ques- tioned if the saloon-keepers themselves actually dread very many of the present-day efforts to compete with the saloon, and instances are not unknown where they have actually contributed to their support. If we ask why it is that social substitutes are so often ineffective, different answers must be given. For one thing, too little account is taken of a man's social nature. The experiments are often those of the doctrinaire and not of the observer of actual conditions. The beginning is made not from within, but from without. Many of the people who work against the saloons are much more ready to talk to or at a man than to talk with him, forgetting that the primary need is companionship. Men will not largely patronize a place where the feeling prevails that some one is doing something for them. The workingman rightly resents the intrusion of the philanthropic or religious idea. The saloons, on the other hand, interpret the needs of their constituents 42 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. accurately because they know them intimately. They exercise much ingenuity, as we have seen, and no little discrimination in supplying attractions. The majority of those who are attached to the saloon do not, per- haps cannot, analyze the cause of its attractiveness, but they feel the difference between the warmth and cheer of the saloon and the repellent atmosphere of many of the substitutes. The location of saloons is in their favor. They are commonly placed on the street corner and invariably occupy the ground floor. Substitutes are often located in out of the way places, or upon the upper floor of some building, where they cannot be seen from the streets. Saloons are open eighteen or nineteen hours out of every twenty-four. Substitutes often close their doors when men would be most likely to enter. Another reason for the failure of social substitutes is the lack of cooperation among them. It has not been at all an uncommon experience to find social workers ignorant of each other's existence or distrustful of each other's methods. On the other hand, the proprietors of the saloons and their backers are fully aware of their common interests and stand closely together for mutual protection. The gravest problem, however, that confronts the success of any social substitute for the saloon is the problem of drink. "Whether substitutes can expect to make appreciable inroads upon the patronage of the saloon without offering any form of stimulant is an open question. Soft drinks are not a substitute for alcoholic beverages. A drink containing an amount of alcohol sufficient to please the palate without at the LEGISLATION AND SUBSTITUTION. 43 same time causing intoxication has not yet been dis- covered. The situation must be faced that, especially among the foreign population, the drinking of alcoholic beverages is well-nigh universal. Beer is the common beverage of the working people. The secretary of a German order in Chicago said that he personally could not recall a single German family in which beer was not used. The laboring people of many nationalities give beer to their children as others do milk. " You can depend on the beer, but you can't teU about the milk you get down here," one man remarked. It is probably true that certain of the most effectual substitutes for the saloon which actually exist in many of our large cities are not the strictly temperance agencies, but those which permit a moderate use of mild forms of liquor and regulate very caref uUy its consumption. The chief objection to any plan, however, of attracting people to a place where intoxicating beverages are for sale is the danger of thwarting the very object of substitution. Yet it would be going too far to say that this must always be the case. This difficult question must be dealt with according to the nature of the substitute and the habits of the people for whom the substitute is proposed. To compete with the saloon, therefore, by the method of substitution, many different elements, all of which enter into the problem, must be taken into considera- tion. An earnest attempt to provide for the social needs of any community wiU begin by carefully study- ing local conditions. Some social life will be dis- covered already existing, and the effort will be made to stimulate this from within, avoiding all semblance 44 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. of outer reform. New social enterprises will then gradually be added, adapted to the particular needs of the community. These substitutes will assume many different forms, and present many perplexing problems. In the following chapters the effort will be to state the practical results of a variety of experiments, and to suggest possible methods of rivaling the social attrac- tions of the saloon. CHAPTER in. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. One of the first demands which the saloon satisfies is the desire for the companionship of one's fellows. The saloon, however much it has departed from its an- cestral pattern, still performs the function of the ancient tavern ; it is the same common centre where the isolated personal experience is merged in the common lot of all. The tavern instinct of our Saxon forefathers is the chief impulse, aside from the desire for the drink itself, which draws their hosts within the saloons that line our streets. This instinct must be reckoned with. It is deep-seated, and will resist to the end any effort to deprive it of the means of its satisfaction. It is a strong opponent of the temperance agitator who advo- cates the unconditional and immediate abolishment of the saloon, and the strength of the resistance is in pro- portion to the reality of the human need which it repre- sents. The saloon is the centre of the social life of hundreds of thousands of the dwellers in our cities. If the question is asked, Where do the other thou- sands who are not patrons of the saloon find their social recreation ? the answer is easy. They have comfort- able homes. They have sufficient means to secure a large variety of social enjoyment. In quest for the society of their fellows, they step from their homes to their clubs. The word " club " suggests the group, the 46 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. circle just beyond the family, to which belong immedi- ate friends and neighbors, those associated by business ties, by political or by social sympathies. The multi- plication and development of these groups form an interesting chapter in recent social history. This development has followed naturally the phenomenal growth of urban population. Where a district is more sparsely inhabited, the relations are more personal and less artificial, but where thousands are thrown together within a limited area, the social relation must be in groups, to which belong those whom some common in- terest unites. Such is the genesis of the modern club, which forms such a prominent feature of city life. Even homes of luxury and refinement do not suffice to satisfy the so- cial instinct. Little wonder, then, if what seems neces- sary and attractive to a rich man should be even more indispensable to those whose homes lack the most meagre comforts. A serious difficulty which confronts all the clubs of the working people is the lack of suitable club-rooms. This difficulty is not felt by the rich, by the men of moderate means, or by the clerks or skilled workmen in any profession ; but it becomes a problem to the great number of unskilled laboring men. The wage which barely suffices to support the family does not admit an extra charge for the rental of a club-room however modest that may be. It is just here that the saloon makes its appeal. Here is a club with no rental to pay, where a man has that same satisfaction which his rich neighbor finds in his club-rooms. Here groups are naturally formed from among those habitually meet- THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 47 ing in the same place. Hither groups already formed come to meet because they have no other shelter. The saloon has been quick to see its advantage and to make the most of it. The process by which its hold is in- creased through the club instinct which it fosters and satisfies is an interesting study. This process begins with the boys, who already possess the instinct for organization. Nearly every boy in all our cities has his club of intimate friends. This club is familiarly called "the gang" or "the push;" and these clubs all taken together form the source of that great stream which a few years later fills the saloon, packs the primary, crowds the docket and the prison. The life of these clubs is very simple. Their chief aim seems to be to avoid the police, and to perform all kinds of " stunts " on the streets, in vacant lots, or wherever they can find a field of operation. A leader, selected by virtue of his native ability rather than by formal ballot, a signal, and a rendezvous are the only essentials of their organization. Any one who can run is eligible for membership. The meeting-place is the "corner," the wharf, or the street in summer, and in winter, a lumber pile, a shed, or some deserted build- ing. " Nightly, after supper, the boys drift to their corner, ^ not by appointment, but naturally. Then en- sue idle talk, jawing-matches, rough jokes, and horse- play. No eccentric individual gets by the gang with- out insult. Nearly every gang has ' talent,' one or two members who can sing, perhaps a quartette, also a buck- dancer, one or two who can play on the jews'-harp, and a funny man. Not infrequently the singing, the ^ The City Wilderness, p. 116. 48 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. horse-play, or the dancing is interrupted by the rounds- man. At the sight of the brass buttons there is an excited call of ' Cheese it ! ' and singing or talking, as it may be, is suddenly stopped ; the gang disbands, dis- solves, and the boys flee down alleys, into doorsteps and curious hiding-places, and reappear only when the ' cop ' is well down the street." "Where the boys have an indoor meeting-place, a little home-made apparatus for a " gym " is often found. As a rule, however, the telephone poles and the cables which they support form their principal gymnasium. Smoking is the rule, for cigarettes have a strong hold, and spare pennies are commonly invested in them or in dime novels. Such are the clubs of our street boys. The saloon begins at the very start to get hold of the people and to provide for their social life. Where the boys are driven about the streets like so many vagrant animals, the saloon opens for them a bright and cheery refuge. At an early age they are saloon patrons, for the law prohibiting sales to minors is com- monly disregarded. In Chicago and other cities rooms furnished with billiard and pool tables, cards and other games are often placed at their disposal. A low price is charged for a game of billiards, and five cents wiU always pay for a glass of beer. Thus the boys begin the drink habit, and become frequenters of the saloon. The young men's social or pleasure clubs represent doubtless, by a process of natural selection, the best of the boys' clubs, such as have not been broken up by acts of disorder or by a process of general disintegra- tion. Club life now takes on the more dignified form THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 49 of a definite organization, although the purpose may be vague. As one young man expressed it, " The police- man would n't let us stand on the corner, so we thought we 'd get together and form a club." The club meets in some inexpensive room furnished according to the means of the members. If the club membership is large enough, an entire house may be hired and fur- nished. The rooms serve as a loafing -place for the members, and also as a place for occasional social enter- tainments. In the poorer of these clubs there is nothing to attract but the bare room itself, with its chairs and card tables. Sometimes a ring and boxing-gloves be- tray the character of the club. Pictures of " Pompa- dour Jim " and other celebrities of the ring and stage adorn the walls. In the better clubs the rooms are carpeted. There is a piano, a small collection of books, and some gymnastic apparatus. There are all kinds of clubs, recreative, political, dancing, athletic, bicycle, and even literary clubs. All of them, however, are social organizations, since the special activity occupies but a subordinate place in the club life. To the club- rooms the members come each evening to play cards, to smoke, and to have a good time. Occasionally enter- tainments are provided, consisting of comic songs, buck- dancing, story-telling, etc. The " girls " are often in- vited to these entertainments. All the clubs have their annual balls, and many have picnics or outings in the summer, offering prizes for athletic competition. The character of the annual balls differs with the character of the clubs. Some of them are doubtless thoroughly orderly and respectable ; others are fre- quented by bad women, and intoxication is common. 50 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The number of these clubs in any city is extremely difficult to estimate. Their existence is at best a pre- carious one, and they are often broken up because of disorder, or the failure of members to pay their dues. A careful census would reveal a large number of them. In Philadelphia the number was estimated at seven hundred, and in Cincinnati at one thousand. It would not be too much to say that in the poorer sections of any large city, at least one club would be found exist- ing to every hundred young men in the district. The bicycle club does not differ in its general form of organization and social activity from any other social club. The members make the house their meet- ing and loafing place in the evenings and during the idle hours. Some of them began as social clubs and upon application were admitted into the Association of Bicycling Clubs. Nearly aU of them have their rooms open the year round. It is on Saturday afternoons and on Sundays that these clubs are especially active, but the members seem to " drop around evenings " pretty regularly. As regards the drink habit, it is not likely that any distinction can be made between these and other social clubs. The idea that the athletic bias leads to abstinence is a plausible but unfortunately not a tenable hypothesis. When the cycling season begins, the road-house or the brewery profits where the saloon loses. A member of one club said that when runs are held a keg of beer is opened, as a rule, for from thirty to thirty-five riders. The value of all of these young men's clubs as social substitutes depends on the degree to which the drink habit prevails, and upon their relation to the saloon. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 51 Few members of any of these clubs are total abstainers. At this age they are fully accustomed to their drink. A certain proportion of the clubs doubtless exist solely for the purpose of social drinking. The members meet at their clubs rather than at the saloon, only because it is a more comfortable way to drink. It is sometimes diflBcult to obtain Sunday beer from the saloons. In the clubs it can be bought in advance and freely dispensed to all comers. At the balls and entertainments intoxication is very common. The dance hall is sometimes offered free of charge by the brewing companies that supply the beer. Some of the clubs are regularly licensed and have bars of their own, but this is not common. Where the license is obtained, the consumption of liquor is generally very great. Liquor selling to members has always been an easy way to raise revenue among rich and poor licensed clubs alike. It would probably be found to be true of them all, that the sale of liquor alone suf- fices to pay the running expenses of the club. The relation .of these clubs to the saloon calls for comment. It would be going too far to say that the saloon-keeper always views them with a friendly eye. It all depends upon the influence that he can obtain over them. If this is slight, then they become his rivals, for either they foster sobriety, or else the money that used to find its way into the tills of the saloon is now paid directly to the brewer. But any hostility which the saloon-keeper feels is carefully concealed. He tries in every way to connect the clubs with his saloon. He throws open his rooms for entertainments, provides music for dances free of charge, or offers at a 52 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. small cost a much larger and better club-room than could be obtained elsewhere for a large rental. Sometimes he makes an effort himself to organize such clubs and have them meet at different nights in his saloon. Either he or the bartender is, in nearly every instance, a member of the club. Aside from the question of drunkenness, it is doubt- less true that the moral tone of many of the pleasure clubs is very low. There is published in Chicago a leaflet called the "West Side Amusement World," issued weekly. On the inside cover is printed a list of about seventy of these pleasure and sporting clubs. The six columns of " Club Boys' Gossip " that follow are the quintessence of a cheap and disgusting vulgar- ity that mirrors a very low order both of intelligence and morality. If the paper represents fairly the life of these Chicago clubs, there is little good that can be said of them. Probably many of them are above the level of their "organ," but very often one would look in vain to these clubs for anything even nega- tively creditable. But there is another side to all this. For one thing, it must be said in all fairness, the clubs of the poor will probably bear very favorable comparison with those of the rich both as regards intoxication and social vice. In some of them liquor is absolutely prohibited ; in many more, drunkenness is a rare occur- rence. If the rooms are well furnished, it becomes of personal interest to the members to protect the joint property from damage such as drunken carousing always carries with it. Then, too, a club does not like to acquire a reputation for drinking, nor to arouse the THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 53 suspicion that it is selling liquor contrary to law. The self-respecting clubs have no connection with the sa- loons, and discourage their members from patronizing them, for it must be remembered that a certain amount of respectability is necessary for existence. These clubs in a sense are self-regulating. Their evolution must tend either to respectability or to early extinc- tion. As a rule, they recognize this and keep within certain limits. The penalty of failure is the forfeiture of their existence. Again, one must remember that the alternative of these clubs is not the Christian Association rooms or the parish house, but the saloon. The more one studies them, the less inclined one is to condemn them as a whole. Some of them re- present an earnest effort on the part of their mem- bers to provide a helpful kind of club life in a small way. They mark the first effort of the working people to get, as one of them expressed it, " on their own social resources." The feeling of club pride which certainly exists is in itself some guarantee of good. Yet what impresses one the most, as one considers these clubs in the aggregate, is neither the good nor the bad that is in them, but rather the opportunity for social service which they present. Young men rarely remain after marriage in the clubs which we have just been describing. The mar- ried man has clubs of his own, but they cease to be purely social or pleasure clubs. Some more serious or definite purpose now enters into his conception of a club. It is probable that life itself becomes a more serious thing to him, and he is brought to face and to 54 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. deal personally with conditions which before now have not concerned him. One of these purposes which serve to bring men to- gether is inherent in our democratic form of govern- ment. Politics is a common bond everywhere, but nowhere more strikingly than in America. Unfortu- nately what might be a helpful and .educative form of association has, under the well-known system of poli- tics now operative in our large cities, become very unsatisfactory and even hurtful in its effects. The " political club," as it exists among the poorer people in all large centres of population, is not a forum for the discussion of current issues so much as a conven- ient means for " bunching " votes for the next election. The number and activity of these clubs depend directly upon the nearness and the importance of the election. Some clubs revive only at the approach of the cam- paign, in order to share the bounty of the politician. Few clubs can resist the pecuniary oifers of a political campaign. In fact, such readiness to improve the opportunity has become almost a matter of course. From what has been said of the relation of the saloon to politics, it may be gathered that the influence of the saloon upon such clubs is considerable. It is the exception to find the political clubs without a bar or without some visible connection with the saloon. For a great many of these clubs, it serves as the headquar- ters. Many more are harbored in rooms furnished for the purpose, and in a still larger number the saloon- keeper is an influential factor even if he is not a mem- ber or an official. For these reasons political clubs cannot rank high as social substitutes for the saloon. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 55 An exception must be made perhaps of one form of political association in whose clubs the educational ele- ment is decidedly in evidence. The growing impor- tance of the socialist or socialist labor party is inter- esting from many points of view. For our purpose it is sufficient to note that the object sought for does unite the men in a very real and earnest way. They represent the collective expression of the thoughtful workingman of a certain type. They are not a great factor in the life of the city, and do not attract the more practical wage-earners just because they are idealistic and care less about immediate results than about ultimate principles. " We can afford to wait " is a word one hears often among them. They labor to advance the cause of scientific socialism by means of lectures, debates, papers, and other educational meth- ods. This is seen in the names of the clubs. They are " The Working Men's Educational Club," " The Socialists' Educational Club," or " The Socialist Lit- erary Club." The men are usually middle-aged, and the majority of them are often foreigners. Their or- ganization is a loose one, and they welcome any who care to come to their lectures and discussions. These form the chief feature of their club life, although other means of recreation are sometimes provided in their rooms, which are usually the headquarters of their party in the district in which the club is located. But the social features seem intended chiefly to make the club an attractive rendezvous as a place for the teach- ing of socialism. Some of the clubs are very large, counting over one thousand members. They gather each evening and on Sundays by the hundred in 56 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. their rooms and engage in discussions or carry on regular class-work. Their meeting-place, like that of all other clubs of which we have spoken, is often in or over the saloon, where they are expected to " drop " fifteen or twenty cents a night per member. The ten- dency and the wish of the officers and better class of members is to move into quarters of their own, but these are hard to find, and members object to paying more for rent than seems to be necessary. Clubs of this kind furnish the educational stimulus in the lives of their members, and the fact that their activity is not intermittent, like that of many other political clubs, distinguishes them, and gives them a special value in the movement for displacing the saloons. Another purpose which furnishes a bond of union among workingmen is their work itself and the con- ditions which affect it. Here is a common platform which excludes none but the very lowest members of the social order. The different trade unions repre- sent a solid constituency of nearly a million wage- earners devoted to the object of their organization, with a firm control over their members, and a consti- tution which compels allegiance. We are dealing here with a social phenomenon meriting our most careful attention. The attitude of this great body of laboring men toward the saloon is of the utmost importance. It has been felt for some time that organized labor largely holds the key to the situation in its own hands ; that when the wage-earner perceives it to be for his own good to sever connection with the liquor traffic, the great hold of the saloon upon the community must be appreciably lessened ; but if, on the other hand, the THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 57 workingmen show no power of initiation in their own behalf, then the reformers are dealing with a dead weight. The question which arises is, What is the at- titude of this great body of workingmen toward the saloon, and what influence is it exerting to lessen the hold of the saloon upon its members and to provide for them social opportunities apart from it? In the first place, it is certain that the life of any- trade union is penetrated with a very earnest purpose. Its ultimate desire is the welfare of its members in a very large sense. At its best the aim is neither too broad nor too narrow. Its programme does not reach to wide and shadowy schemes for social reform, nor content itself simply with a clamor for more wage and fewer hours. Labor leaders to-day have a direct thought for the better moral condition of the working- men of the country. The union, although intensely clannish and self-centred within its bounds, seeks to evolve a more intelligent order of workingmen, to raise the character and the capacity of skilled labor in all its varied branches. An isolated laboring man, exposed to all the tempta- tions of his environment, is taken up, on becoming a member of a trade union, into a higher order of corpo- rate life. He finds himself invested with the dignity of his order. He is less inclined to waste his time and money in the saloon, to weaken his character and de- stroy his usefulness by intoxication ; he is more inclined to economy and to self-respect ; he enters more and more into the life and aims of his order, and finds himself upon a plane where the coarser appeals of the saloon fail to move him. His spare time is now 68 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. occupied, and he is kept busy between meetings. The trade-union papers are made the starting-point for dis- cussions of larger questions of state or national policy having a lively interest in their bearing upon the wel- fare of their little group. Then, too, insurance fees compel a certain amount of saving each month ; and when this feature is absent, frequent assessments are made in case of sickness, accident, or death. Women take a lively interest in the numerous activities of the union, either as active members or in auxiliary societies, as among the railway employees. In all these ways the life of the union tends to raise the life of the indi- vidual. It gives him ideals, education, common inter- ests, fraternal feeling and responsibility for the welfare of others. Imagine some such influence at work among a million wage-earners of the country, and its effect in raising them above the common saloon level can be felt even if it cannot be estimated in fixed terms. By its very object, the trade union seems pledged to in- crease sobriety among its members. But we may go further than this. Nearly all of the unions have well-defined constitutions. In most of them the attitude of the unioti toward the liquor traffic is clearly set forth, and in many of them the position is made very emphatic. An inquiry into the attitude of organized labor in the United States toward the saloon has yielded most interesting and, we may saj^ at once, most encouraging results.^ The statistics which have been obtained by correspondence cover forty-five trade unions, with a total membership of 531,804, thus repre- ^ This report, which may he found in the Appendix, was prepared for the editors hy Dr. E. W. Bemis. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 59 senting nearly two thirds of the American unions hav- ing a national organization and more than two thirds of the membership of such organizations. The statistics show that one union in every five is by its constitution directly opposed to the saloon ; one in every three is at least generally opposed to it ; while only about twenty- five per cent of all the unions seem to have no definite policy in relation to the liquor traffic. Such a result is certainly encouraging, and indicates even better things to come. When we look more directly, however, at the social work which is being attempted by the trade unions, the outlook is not so encouraging. In the first place their organization is not democratic. Laboring men must subscribe to the constitution and swear allegiance to the organization before they can become members. As a consequence not more than from ten to twenty per cent of the laboring men of the country are at pre- sent members of the unions. Again, their meetings take place very infrequently and are taken up largely with routine business. No union meets more than once a week, and often the meetings are held but once a month, sometimes only on call. In Denver the aver- age interval is twelve days between the meetings of fifty-four unions of all kinds. In New Haven, out of eighteen unions, forty-five per cent meet but once a month, and forty per cent once a fortnight. The rest meet at irregular intervals. It can be readily seen that under these circumstances there is no continuity of social life. It is a rare thing to find the rooms of a union suitable in any way for social meetings. In New York, out of ninety labor organizations which 60 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. belong to the Amalgamated Federal Union, only two or three have social rooms. In Cleveland, the Knights of Labor have been trying for over a year to have a gen- eral social evening once a fortnight, with little success. In Chicago, out of one hundred and twenty-six organ- izations, only four have club-rooms with any social features connected with them. Sometimes when the room has a bar attached, social life appears. Thus in the German unions, which more commonly than others permit the sale of intoxicants, there is much more social life than in the other unions. A ball is often given annually, or a "labor play," which necessitates constant rehearsals during the winter months ; but as a rule the social life of trade unions is reduced to a minimum. Just why this should be so is not easy to say. It is due, at least in part, to the feeling that the union stands for the serious rather than the play side of life. Our American unions need to recognize the economic importance of the right kind of play for workingmen. Higher wages and shorter hours mean greater opportu- nity for recreation, and for this organized labor must make provision. Another reason why more social life is not found within the unions is that they cannot afford to pay the rental for rooms sufficiently ample to permit of much social life. A textile union which changed its place of meeting to a building in which other social organizations were accustomed to meet observed at once the benefits of the amusement features of the other organizations, and voted to add such features to the programme of their own union. It is very probable that many unions would make provision for the social life of their members if they could afford suitable meet- ing-places. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 61 Just as in the case of the small boys' clubs, so with these adult and serious organizations the saloon be- comes the meeting-place. It is probable that this habit is much more common than even the labor leaders themselves are aware. When one begins to investigate, the column foots up rapidly. In Buffalo, an actual count showed that no less than sixty-three out of sixty-nine labor organizations held their meetings in some hall connected with a saloon. In other places the preponderance was so decided as to discourage the investigator, who had thought to find in the union an effective substitute for the saloon. The fault, as we have seen, does not He by any means wholly with the trade unions. They have always claimed that they could not find other suitable places without putting themselves under obligation to institutions of whose purpose they did not entirely approve. This claim is not an idle one. The head of a settlement in one of our largest cities has said that he could not recall in the entire city a single hall conveniently located, with the exception of that of the settlement, which labor organizations could obtain at a reasonable price. In consequence, they are driven to the saloons. The proprietor is only too glad to supply a hall at a very low rental, and trust to his bar receipts to repay him, which they amply do. A labor leader, himself a total abstainer, once said ^ that he felt a sensation akin to shame when he passed the bar night after night without paying his five cents for a drink. The secretary of a trade union once applied for a room in a settlement building in which his union might meet once a week. He was told that the terms ' From the Chicago report. 62 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. would be $150 a year. He said that it would be im- possible to pay that price, since they were then paying for the privilege of meeting in a much larger hall the sum of but 140 a year. This hall was connected with a saloon. Upon inquiry, he admitted that the average attendance at their meetings was two hundred and fifty, and that probably on an average the members would drink two glasses of beer per meeting. It was pointed out to him that the union actually paid the proprietor $25 a week for beer, out of which, accord- ing to the standard estimate, $12.50 would be profits, so that the actual amount paid by the union was sev- eral times greater than the rental asked for the hall not connected with the saloon. He admitted the truth of this, and added that he felt that the saloon was detrimental to the serious work of their organization, but said that their members were so much accustomed to the scheme of indirect taxation by collecting most of the actual room rent from trade in beer that they would be alarmed to be directly taxed for a sum actu- ally much smaller than that which they were then paying. In New York on Tenth Street is a saloon known as the Casino. No less than twenty-eight asso- ciations of various kinds meet there each week in rooms connected with the saloon. The bar-room occu- pies the front half of the basement. On the walls are photographs of members of the various clubs and lodges which assemble there. About twenty letter-boxes be- longing to societies are arranged along one side of the room. Sometimes the saloons will plant themselves directly beneath or adjacent to a trade-union hall. It will take on the name of the union and call itself the THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 63 " Unionist " or tte " Building Trades Exchange." The men will get their meals there, paying live cents for a lunch and a glass of beer, and stand about look- ing for work. Yet the unions are not unappreciative of better things or loath to avail themselves of them. In Bos- ton the Central Labor Union has its headquarters in the Wells Memorial Institute, in the South End. The Central Federated Union of New York recently voted to meet in a hall owned by the University Settlement. For eighteen years they had met in a dark, dirty hall over a saloon. After the first meeting in their new quarters, one of the men came to the head of the settle- ment and expressed his satisfaction in meeting in a place which was clean. One of the leading members also remarked that he was confident that the proceed- ings of the body would be more dignified in their pre- sent habitation. Shortly after a resolution was moved and passed instructing a special committee to arrange that an hour and a half should be given on the first Sunday of each month to the discussion of economic and social problems. The passage of such a resolution so soon after meeting in the new haU is an interesting indication ^of the progress which unions would make under more favorable conditions. As American trade unions become more fixed in their ideals, there must be a growing desire to free themselves from any attach- ment to the saloon. There is one other social organization which exists among the people, and supplies the wide fellowship which is inherent in club life. The lodge, the secret 64 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. orders, the fraternal and beneficiary societies which exist in such large numbers all over the country, have a place in the social life of the people which we must endeavor to estimate.-*^ The number of these societies at present existing in the United States is about six hundred. The present membership, including Canada, exceeds five millions or approximately one fifteenth of the entire population. The financial operations of all these societies involve millions of dollars annually, and the obligations as- sumed by them hundreds of millions. It is surprising to note how rapid has been the de- velopment of these societies in recent years. Of about 575 societies whose date of organization could be ascer- tained, only fourteen per cent were founded before 1880 ; twenty-two per cent between 1880 and 1890 ; twenty-three per cent between 1890 and 1895 ; and forty-one per cent between 1895 and 1900. It will be seen that eighty-six per cent are only twenty years old ; nearly one fourth are between five and ten years old ; and more than forty per cent are five years old or less. The aggregate membership of these societies has doubled within the last ten years, and increased approximately twenty-five per cent within the last five. Of the hundreds of societies existing in this country to-day, only three claim a very early origin ; two were formed early in the nineteenth century, half a dozen less significant societies were organized before the Civil ' A report on fraternal societies was prepared for the editors ty Pro- fessor B. H. Meyer of the University of Wisconsin. Portions of this report relating especially to the protective and legislative features of these societies may be found in the annals of the ATnerican Academy of Political and Social Science, 1901. THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 65 War, and all the others have been organized since 1868. It is largely a very recent development with which we have to do. Nothing better illustrates the growing demand for fellowship in our day. Two main causes will account for this social develop- ment : one is the demand for fraternity, the club spirit, which is the spirit of our age ; the other is the desire for insurance, for the pecuniary benefits which all these organizations offer. The fraternal and the com- mercial ideas combine in giving these organizations their great hold upon men of all grades and callings. Add to this the ritual and the secrecy of the orders, their democracy and their philanthropy, and it is not difficult to understand their rapid growth. Their social value depends ultimately upon the com- parative estimate which is put by them upon the fra- ternal or the commercial idea. Here it is impossible to give any statistics or specific statements. But this may be said, that the oldest and largest of these socie- ties exalt the fraternal side of lodge life, and adminis- ter relief in the fraternal spirit ; but that by far the larger number of the more recent societies are domi- nated by the commercial idea, and minimize the social opportunities which such an organization presents. It is true of all the fraternal and beneficiary orders of America to-day that they are at the parting of the ways. One or the other of these ideas is to get the upper hand. Either the orders wiU become largely insurance societies, or thej^ will become real social organizations with benefit features. Needless to say the latter ideal is the nobler, and towards its realization all who have at heart the interests of these societies should labor. 66 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The great majority of these orders have, of course, some social features in connection with their meetings. Initiations and the granting of degrees absorb some attention. On these occasions ritualistic exercises are generally performed. Organizations in which insur- ance plays an important part devote time to the exam- ination of death proofs and the payment of claims. Debates on the policy of the lodge and conferring of benefits occupy some time. In addition, musical and literary programmes are often provided with readings, essays, debates, and the like. But the most important part of the social life is doubtless the intimate fellow- ship of the members. When we consider that the largest and best of these societies at least are recruited from all classes, the worth of such a social order is evident. It is this spirit of brotherhood which is the particular boast of all these orders. It is upon this that they lay peculiar emphasis in estimating the social value of the organization. An important part of the social life of some lodges is the influence of women members. Less than ten societies are composed exclusively of women, and of these several are auxiliary to men's societies. Prob- ably not more than fifty societies admit both men and women. But where the women are present, it is unquestionable that their membership is an extremely important and beneficent feature of lodge life. Occa- sions are all too few in the life of the wase-earner o where men and women are brought together in a social way. But when all has been said, the fact remains that the amount of continuous social life which even the THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 67 most fraternal of these societies actually offers its members is limited, and altogether out of proportion to its opportunities. Lodge meetings do not occur more than once or twice a month. Even if every meeting were attended by every member, the demand made upon the time of the individual by the lodge is not large enough, and the opportunities given the member for the satisfaction of his social needs are not adequate to insure his remaining away from the saloon. Lodge-rooms are deserted except at the stated hours of meeting, and then only a small proportion of mem- bers are in attendance. There appears to be no good reason why lodge-rooms should not be used as club- rooms and remain open, as all other social club-rooms are open, every day and night in the week. At pre- sent fraternal societies cannot seriously be regarded as a substitute for the saloon except during the few hours of social meeting. But if the rooms were always open they would act as such continually throughout the hours of any day. If it is impossible to ascribe a large direct work of substitution to the fraternal societies as at present con- ducted, it is equally impossible to speak unequivocally of their relation to the saloon and to the liquor busi- ness. Yet it may be said of them that their position is beyond what we might reasonably expect of so large a body of men in our present state of ethical develop- ment in relation to the liquor problem. Several fra^ ternities, like the Knights of Columbus, are first of all temperance societies. All or nearly all of the societies refuse to admit to membership any who are engaged in the sale and traffic of intoxicating liquors. 68 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. This in itself is an important measure, not that it in- sures sobriety on the part of the members, but because it places a stigma upon the liquor traffic, and expresses a moral disapproval of it. But further than this, no one who drinks to excess is admitted to membership. It is observable that the insurance and benefit features of these societies have a bearing here. If the benefi- ciary work is on the life-insurance plan, an habitual drinker becomes a hazardous risk ; if it is on the fra- ternal plan, his needs demand more than his share of the funds. In these ways, then, the fraternal and beneficiary societies discourage and condemn the traffic and the consumption of liquors. The public practices of some of these orders arouse the suspicion that their moral standards are none too high. Periodical picnics and excursions take place, and these are not always free from excesses ; nor does the disci- pline of the lodge seem strong and severe enough to prevent their recurrence on similar occasions in the future. The bringing together of large numbers of men under the auspices of the order, removing them from the restraining influences of home associations, doubtless has its unfortunate results. In regard to the location of the lodge-rooms much the same report must be made as in the case of the trade unions. Investigation shows that in almost any large city, " the lodge-room is located in a building, the ground floor or basement of which is occupied by a saloon ; and when there is an exception, you will find a saloon in its immediate neighborhood. It wiU be found, too, that the saloon-keeper looks for his cus- tom to these lodge members ; the saloon becomes most THE CLUBS OF THE PEOPLE. 69 profitable where there is the greatest travel and the largest number of people congregate ; and whatever may be the influence of these organizations on the saloon problem, it is a fact easily demonstrated that the lodge-room and the saloon are near neighbors. " But in modern life the best of men cannot always designate who their neighbors shall be ; and the close connection between the lodge-room and the saloon seems to be a coincidence, at least in many instances, rather than cause and effect. In smaller towns the choice of lodge-rooms is usually greatly restricted, and it sometimes happens that the hall above a saloon is the only one available. Instances have also been re- corded where saloon-keepers have set up their places of business after the lodge had been established. But after all, the habits of the members of a lodge are much more important than externals, and a conscious effort is often made on the part of the officers of a lodge to secure rooms away from the saloons." The fraternal system stands for self-control and voluntary restraint on the part of the individual, rather than for prohibition. It recognizes differences among men; it exercises authority over the weak; it encourages mutual helpfulness, and that kindly per- sonal assistance which transforms men. On the whole, our judgment of fraternal and beneficiary societies ought to be favorable and appreciative. It could be wished, however, that its leaders would seek a still further divorce between its meeting-places and the saloon, and that they would seek to develop its social features, and to make the lodge-rooms places of daily resort, instead of occasional meetings. CHAPTER IV. CLUBS FOE THE PEOPLE. The club life of the people evidently does not lack reality. The worst thing that can be said about a club, that it fails to attract or to interest, cannot be said of these clubs as a rule, for they do both. They are full of life and vigor, since they represent the actual interests of the different classes whose social instincts they help to satisfy. But the defects of the clubs which have been described are apparent ; for taking them just as they are, it must, in all truth, be said that they afford very little wholesome opportunity for recreation. The trouble lies here. Where the social life predominates, the club is most open to temptations which threaten its usefulness if not its existence ; and where the standards are highest, and the aim most serious, there the social element begins to disappear. The most serious of these clubs need more recreative features ; the most social of them need a greater moral ballast ; and all of them to- gether, without exception, need to be made independent of the saloon and its keeper, in order to lead a life of their own which shall both amuse and uplift. When the laboring man can step out of his home and go natu- rally, not to a saloon, but to a club which furnishes real comfort and some decent recreation without any depend- ence upon the saloon, then a long stride will have been taken in solving the problem of the people's leisure. CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 71 An objection must be spoken of here which will occur to one more than once in the course of this dis- cussion. It will seem as if too little account had been taken of the home, the rightful centre of all legitimate recreation and amusements ; that the multiplication of clubs and reading-rooms had been recommended with- out apparent recognition of the danger that by these means the dignity of the home life will be threatened, if not destroyed ; that the place of woman in the social economy, and her necessity for freedom and relaxation, had been ignored. As for the last objection, atten- tion must be called to the limitations of the subject. Women, as a rule, are not saloon patrons, and there- fore have less need than the men of substitutes. Be- sides, it has been assumed that most of the agencies mentioned are for women's use as well as men's, and the importance of a social life in which both men and women have a part has been fully recognized. As for the home, nothing is more necessary than that it should become the chief centre of recreation after the day's work. The necessity for amusement and some outside excitement, however, still remains. And the conditions under which thousands of our city toilers live make the " home " little more than the space neces- sary for eating and sleeping, to say nothing of comfort, and still less of social enjoyments. Some day things may be different. Even then, the spirit of the age will make itself felt upon the poor as well as upon the rich. If these demand their clubs, so will those, and they will find them in the saloon if better places are not provided. One method of supplying the need for wholesome 72 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. club life within the reach of the ordinary saloon patron is to develop clubs from among those already exist- ing with the idea that they become self-supporting and be controlled by the people themselves. In forming these clubs two conditions must be met. In the first place the clubs must be given at least a decent place in which to meet, which has no attachment to or depend- ence upon a skloon, and in the next place there must be some esprit de corps, or sense of union, which will supply the individual clubs with the impulse for a higher tone of club life. The difficulty of securing any club-rooms apart from the saloon has already been mentioned. The hostility of the saloon-keeper is sure to be aroused if the club thinks of going elsewhere, and boarding-houses and hotels will not harbor them. The alternative of the saloon-room is usually a very dismal place, lacking all the conveniences which the other possesses. The dues of these clubs rarely exceed twenty-five cents a week, and ten cents is the common fee. Two good rooms could not be rented for less than twenty-five to forty dollars a month, and the rental would represent but half of the necessary outlay. No wonder, then, that the saloon-rooms are eagerly sought. But how shall good accommodations be provided if the clubs cannot afford to pay for them ? Evidently they must come from some source where a profit is not expected. There is no good reason why the muni- cipality should not seriously consider the propriety of erecting in different sections of the city large plain buildings, which should serve solely as clubhouses for the different organizations in the district that should CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 73 desire to meet there. In the end this would prove to be a real economy. The rental could be put high enough to cover the running expenses and the interest on the capital invested, and still be within the reach of a hundred organizations, to which it would be a welcome refuge. Such a building, if it existed in almost any part of one of our large cities to-day, would be filled in a week. Clubs would come from alleys, back streets, tenements, and saloons. Transferred into well- lighted and well-ventilated rooms, the whole tone of their life could not fail to be improved. Equip this building with a gymnasium in the basement, and a roof garden, and it would become at once a powerful substitute for the saloon. The bringing together in the same place of so many different sets of men would encourage a kind of social life very different from the narrow sort of fellowship which is all that many of them know at present. Such a building would take its name, not from any one club, but from the district. It Would be known as "The North End Club House," "The Seventeenth Assembly District Club House," "The Tenth Ward Club House," etc., and in it all manner of clubs would find suitable lodging. The housing of clubs is thus a proper field for municipal activity. The duty of the municipality is to provide for the safety and comfort of its inhabitants. A wholesome satisfaction of the social instinct, under right and safe conditions, is certainly within such a definition of its functions. A beginning in this direction has already been made. In New York City, by the sanction of the Department of Education, school buildings have been thrown open 74 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. to clubs for boys and girls. The idea is taking hold that the school should be the natural social centre, where the whole life of the child, and not a detached portion of it, should receive expression. This experi- ment in New York originated in the League for Polit- ical Education, which recognized the excellent results which followed from centring the club life in settle- ments and parish houses, whereby the social activities of young boys were enlarged, and the dangers of street life lessened. The league saw that if this club life could be extended so as to use the numerous large school buildings in the thickly crowded portions of the city, the field of influence would be indefinitely enlarged. There were plenty of young men to take the leadership in such clubs, — young men who had had the advantage of growing up in settlement clubs, who were amply capable, under wise direction, of doing good work. But, of course, there were other expenses, and beyond all this the need of convincing the School Department that this throwing open of the doors of the schoolhouses in the evening would result in much good and no harm. Finally these difficulties were overcome, and several clubs were started in the school on Chrystie Street, between Delancey and Rivington streets. The clubs met weekly. They had business meetings, addresses or readings, and an exercise hour. At present the school buildings of New York are pro- vided with indoor playgrounds, and are the centres for a good deal of recreation for the children of the neighborhood. The drift of public opinion seems to be in favor of utilizing the school buildings for all reasonable purposes. But this is not enough. Build- CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 75 ings are needed to be used solely for social purposes. Until they are provided the social life of thousands of the wage-earners in our great cities must continue in the control of the liquor dealers. The second need in the planting of these clubs is for some sense of union, some bond that shall unite the separate clubs into a higher unity, some association or guild into which they may be brought so that the spirit of corporate life may pervade them all and the stan- dard of the different clubs be gradually raised. This idea has been successfully applied, as is well known, to boys' clubs. The importance of providing good clubs and other means of recreation for boys and girls has been appreciated of late years, and no branch of social reform has received more attention. The hope of better future conditions, it has been felt, centres in the child. The immediate necessity, then, is to get hold of the child, and in early years create such interests and ideals that the future man and woman cannot be drawn into the lower life of which the saloon is often the exponent. The ideal club for boys and girls has not yet been evolved, and there are many divergent views. This much at least can be said with some confidence : the ultimate purpose of such clubs, whatever their ap- parent object, must be to train their members by expe- rience to put personal character above immediate gain, and to live in right relations with their fellows. For- mal instruction will not dominate the recreative and social features of the club, and the spirit of cooperation and the sense of responsibility will be fostered by every available means. It is here that the guild idea comes into play and solves at the same time another 76 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. problem, that of numbers. The method of conducting boys' clubs at present most approved, is to combine the original idea of having a single large club, with the small group club, later developed by the settlements. These different groups are now united in some sort of guild, or federation, so that the humane, personal touch is not lost, and at the same time the enthusiasm of larger numbers is retained.^ The Columbia Park Boys' Association of San Francisco is an admirable federation of clubs, aU under one competent manage- ment. The same plan may be followed with the young men's social clubs. It is true that these young men's clubs are not so easy to reach or to influence as the boys' clubs. The feeling of independence, the suspicion of interference, the dislike of even the suggestion of moral improvement increases with age. It is always easier to reach the child than the young man, but it is still true that these young men's clubs will yield in the end to influence of the right kind, and present a splendid if difficult field for social service. All that is needed is, as always, the man or woman who clearly sees the need and determines to meet it. What is proposed is nothing else than the same kind of an organization or affiliation among the young men's social clubs as settle- ment workers have already accomplished with success among the boys' clubs. Let these clubs be taken just as they are, and gradually be brought together in some sort of guild or association, the ultimate object of which is to raise the tone of club life and provide wholesome ^ The reader is referred to the article on " Boys' Clubs,'' in the Appendix, by Mr. William A. Clarke of Lincoln House, Boston. CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 77 kinds of recreation. The beginning would be made with one club, in the hope that others would be glad to join. The clubs would come in gradually, as the boys' clubs did when the idea was first started in the East Side of New York. Mr. Riis has told how one of the clubs held aloof after the others had come in, observing coldly what went on to make sure it was " straight," until one day there came a delegate with the proposi- tion, " If you will let us in, we will change and have your kind of a gang." ^ It is only as the clubs of young men make sure that the thing is " straight " that they will change and have the new kind of club. When Harry F. Ward became head-worker at the Northwestern Settlement in Chicago, he found in the community a club of young men calling themselves " The Keybosh Club." They met in saloons, played billiards, and told stories.^ Mr. Ward became inter- ested, and the settlement furnished a room in an ad- joining store with a combination billiard and pool table, and here the Keybosh, now the Kingsley Club meets. They were glad of the opportunity. Eegular business meetings are held, and men of standing invited to dis- cuss before them various sociological problems and topics of current interest. As one of their members said : " We used to do nothing but crack jokes, and plan how to have a good time. Now we have something serious to talk about." It gave them a new view of life. They plan their picnics with Mr. Ward's advice, and the whole character of the club is greatly changed. What has been accomplished with one club may be 1 See A Ten Years' War, pp. 162, 163. ^ From the Chicago report. 78 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. done with many, and these clubs may thus become the affiliated members of a general body or guild of which the control will be largely in their own hands. An illustration of such a possible federation of clubs is presented by the guild connected with the University Settlement in New York. These clubs are seven in number besides the children's clubs, whose members are under fourteen years of age. Of these seven clubs, one is for women, three are for girls and young women, two are for young men, and one for the older men. Each of these clubs chooses two of its members to re- present it upon the guild committee, which has authority over the social life of the different guild clubs and their relations with one another.^ In this connection it conducts, through its committees, the dancing acad- emy, occasional concerts and lectures, and recommends at times to the head-worker the organization of certain classes. The guild gives the clubs a sense of control and of fellowship both with each other and with the resident workers, but most essential of all is the sense of mutual cooperation and mutual aid which has come from these associations. From the start there is the idea that each one has something to contribute to their mutual well-being, and that it is only necessary to find in what way this contribution should be made. Another good effept of the association is the continuity of the hold it exerts upon the different clubs. As we have seen, the life of these clubs of the young people is a very precarious one ; but so soon as the corporate idea becomes developed, the hold upon the individual clubs becomes strengthened at once. One difficulty, * From the New York report. CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 79 it has been found, must be guarded against. If the powers delegated to the guild committee are made absolute, it may be found difficult to increase the num- ber of clubs when such an increase would seem most desirable. The spirit of exclusiveness is liable to make itself felt. At any time clubs which do not seem to be in favor might be barred out by the guild com- mittee when their admission would mean their social salvation. Hfere, then, we have in practical working the sugges- tion of the kind of organization which might be employed to unite the young men's clubs of the neigh- borhood.^ Such a work among the young men's clubs of any city would have to be pursued with much deli- cacy, and results would show themselves only gradually. But imagine a score or more of these clubs, all of them composed of young men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five, united in some such federation under the capable leadership of one who had their confidence and understood thoroughly their needs. The good that would result would be incalculable. Without at- tempting any striking innovations, a new tone could be given to the life of these clubs. Libraries could be placed in many of them, talks upon current topics of importance be provided, excursions to places of historic interest be planned, and other similar methods be em- ployed. Instead of being left to themselves, to the unequal conflict with their surroundings, they would be helped to greater self-respect. The very best way to provide for the social life of the people is not to plant new clubs, but to remake those which already exist. ^ Such also is the Hebrew Benevolent Association of New York. 80 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. A new club has always to overcome a certain inertia ; it arouses suspicion, and is often at the mercy of a clique which seeks to secure control only to break up the club. Where the beginning is made with clubs already existing, and the control is left largely in their own hands, these dangers are reduced to a minimum. These suggestions have related especially to the young men. Among married laboring men there exist few purely social clubs. Why these should not be found among the older laboring men in America as they are found in such numbers in England, it is hard to say, but such is the fact. The underlying purpose of a club among the workingmen of America will have its relation to politics, to the trades, or to insurance benefits. The most careful search has failed to reveal in any of our American cities native clubs among the older men of which the primary idea is recreation and fellowship. This fact merits the most careful attention. To it may doubtless be traced a good number of those evils of whose existence we have been aware without understanding the cause. Social clubs among wage-earners are a positive necessity, es- pecially in our intense American life. They serve as a centre in which the pent-up social energy can find nor- mal expression. Their absence means that this energy will find expression in other ways. It is not fanciful at all to suppose that the unaccountable vagaries of trade unions and the disappointing success of ques- tionable political clubs may be due to the fact that matters of serious concern come up for settlement CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 81 when neither body nor mind is in a fit state to deal with them. When a man comes tired and overwrought from his work, he needs recreation above everything. He ought to have a home where he can find it, and he ought to have clubs where the pressing problems of daily existence will not intrude. The remarkable absence of such social clubs for the wage-earners of America is a problem which needs to be faced in every city of the country. This need has been felt, and some effort has been made by those interested in working men and women to provide clubs for them. The People's Institute of New York has made a beginning with its People's Clubs, one of which is now in a flourishing condition. The plan contemplates a number of clubs in different parts of the city. Men and women both may become members. The club-rooms are always open, and occa- sionally receptions are given, and lectures and other entertainments provided. The Social Reform Club of New York is another interesting attempt to draw together thinking men and women from all walks of life, and to unite them in some helpful association. San Francisco presents a similar institution, more nearly approaching the ideal of a workingman's club, in her Labor Union Association. There is no line drawn here between union and non - union men, although the former predominate. The main purpose is to provide a common meeting-place, where the mem- bers may spend a social evening, and where they may debate social and economic questions. A speaker is often provided, and free discussion follows. Freedom of speech is the chief article of the constitution, and 82 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. speakers must be prepared for the " roasting " to which they are often treated. The rooms are always open, they are comfortably furnished, and provided with newspapers and some kind of a library. Occasional evenings are provided with smoke talks and entertain- ments or a reception. All of these clubs merit words of praise. They are educational, helpful, and not their least important service is to do away with class dis- tinctions, and to develop a true social democracy. But yet these clubs do not touch the real problem of the social life of the toilers in our great cities. What we are waiting for to-day is not so much the establishment here and there of a semi-social, semi- educational club among working men and women, as the inauguration of a movement which contemplates planting a score of clubs in every city, the sole object of which is to provide for the recreation of their mem- bers. The question arises, How can such people's clubs be provided ? The first and most natural way that sug- gests itself is that the trade unions themselves make more provision for the social enjoyment of their mem- bers. But the trade unions, even under the most favorable conditions, can never become the ideal social clubs. As Canon Barnett has said : '' Clubs in which workingmen associate with none but workingmen, in which interests are all the same, in which education and experience are confined within comparative narrow limits, must be in a large sense anti-social. Class clubs hardly consider the needs of others or respect the whole of society of which they are parts." In the absence, then, of any clubs with which to make CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 83 a beginning, new social workingmen's clubs must be formed that will unite men of all trades and creeds and classes for the primary purpose of social recrea- tion. In America we have no precedent for such clubs, but England furnishes us an interesting move- ment of this kind which has passed the stage of experi- ment, and has become a settled institution among the wage-earners of that country. The success of the workingmen's club movement in England has been very conspicuous. Its history now runs over thirty years. In 1863 an organization was formed known as The Working Men's Club and Insti- tute Union.^ Its purpose was to help workingmen to establish clubs or institutions where they might meet for conversation, business, and mental improvement, with the means of recreation and refreshment free from the temptations of the public house. At the beginning a paid secretary was hired who had for his duty the formation of such clubs, which were received into the institute upon payment of a registration fee of two shillings and sixpence. The first year twenty- two such clubs were formed. In ten years the number of affiliated clubs had been increased to over 245, and in twenty years to 500 clubs, having about 75,000 members. This total does not include many other clubs which the society had been instrumental in form- ing, but which were not connected with it. The con- trol of these clubs was vested in a central council, originally composed of people who were interested in the movement and had contributed to its support, but 1 Club Land of the Toiler, by T. S. Peppin, B. A. J. M. Dent & Co., London. 84 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. were not themselves members of the clubs. It was not until ten years had passed that representative control was thought of. In that year five dele- gates, elected by the affiliated clubs themselves, were admitted to seats in the council. In 1882 this number was increased to nine, but in 1884 a complete change was accomplished. At that time the institute became a legally constituted corporate body. Its management was now entirely in the hands of the clubs which belonged to it, the number of outsiders being very small. The good effects of this change towards a more democratic management were seen at once. For one thing, many clubs became self-supporting. Before the change in the management was made only about fifty per cent of the clubs were self-supporting, but ten years after the change was made, it was the excep- tion to find a club that did not support itself. Again from the financial standpoint a great gain was made. Prior to the change there was always a yearly deficit of at least £100, but in 1893 the excess of assets over liabilities was £1273. The control exercised by the central council was much more firm after the clubs themselves were represented. Until then it was very difficult to obtain reports from the clubs. In 1893 out of the 150 clubs in London, 144 sent in returns. Evidently the method of democratic management has been shown to be essential to the success of any such plan. When we look at the character of these English clubs, we are met at once by the fact that they are purely social clubs. No attempt has ever been made to intrude any other motive. These clubs are nothin;;' CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 85 more, but nothing less, than an institution to provide men with the opportunity of social intercourse under morally innocuous conditions. The club is not regarded in any especial sense as a means of salvation to any- body. No wealthy Londoner joins his club from such a motive ; neither does the East End workman become a member of a club with any specially exalted purpose. These clubs have been developed by the workingmen to provide for themselves means of re- laxation. A club, wherever it exists, is simply the outcome of the needs of the community for social recreation, and must be judged by its ability to meet this need, and not any other need that might be suggested. But while this has remained the primary motive of these English clubs, all of them have certain educa- tional features. Of 119 clubs which sent in returns in 1896, 83 have libraries and 68 have lectures. These lectures are commonly given on Sundays, but many of the clubs have lectures on week days as well. In addi- tion, classes are held in which such subjects as short- hand, bookkeeping, French, and literature are taught. In addition, the institute itself encourages educational work among the clubs, sends out circulating libraries, gives lectures at the central hall in ClerkenweU Road, plans excursions, etc. The clubs also become interested through the institute in questions of social reform that bear upon the life of the workingmen. The London clubs recently joined in a memorial to the London School Board asking that evening schools should be free, that the classes should be more largely advertised in the dis- trict, that working people might be associated in the 86 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. management of these schools, and that more of the social and recreative element might be introduced as a regular feature in connectioo with them. For amusements all the clubs supply cards and bil- liard tables, and have occasional entertainments, to which the women are always invited. Athletic and gymnastic exercises do not seem to have found their way into these English clubs, although the desirability of these is conceded by the managers. Excursions are often planned called " The Saturday Afternoon Visits," the object of which is to combine recreation and in- struction and to foster social intercourse at the same time. The entertainments of the clubs consist of con- certs and occasionally are more ambitious, professional talent being engaged from outside. On the whole, if there is nothing very uplifting in the amusements of these clubs, at least they are free from anything objec- tionable. The most remarkable feature of these clubs, how- ever, remains to be mentioned. At the beginning of the club movement, it was the exception to find clubs which supplied liquor to the members ; but as time went on, the habit became increasingly common until to-day the majority of the city clubs have a bar. The relation of self-support to the provision of liquors also is seen to be very close. In 1871-72 alcoholic drinks were supplied in only fifteen clubs out of 164 sending in returns, and only about one third of that number were described as self-supporting. Five years later out of 194 clubs which made returns, thirty-five per cent sup- plied beer to the members, and rather more than half of these clubs were self-supporting. There seems to CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 87 be no doubt that this increased financial independence is to some extent due to the increased sale of drinks. Under democratic management this process continued, 314 clubs, out of the 366 making returns, supplying liquor according to the reports of 1893, and as we have seen, just about this proportion of the clubs were self- supporting. The management of the clubs then feels warranted in making the assertion that, as a rule, work- ingmen's clubs cannot exist as self-managed and self- supporting institutions without the sale of stimulants. This development was certainly unexpected by the founders of the club movement. The primary idea of the founders was to strike a blow against intemperance, so prevalent among the industrial working classes. For several years, the institute made a bold stand against the introduction of liquors, and the same expe- rience was repeated year after year. Workingmen did not care to join temperance clubs, or, if they joined them, withdrew their membership when the novelty of the thing had worn ofE. It must be remembered that the excise laws in England do not require that a club which disburses liquors to its members only shall be licensed. In order to conform to the excise laws, the only rule necessary was that other than club members should not be able to obtain drinks by paying for them. In addition, in order to avoid any possible danger, the rule was made that no club could be admitted to the institute over which a control was exercised by any brewer or liquor dealer. The question of the result of the sale of liquors to members remains to be answered. It is claimed by the management that in few of the clubs is drunkenness common, and that the amount of 88 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. money spent for drink by the members of the clubs is very moderate, on an average not over twopence a member per night, and that, while complaints are not wholly groundless, the abuses are comparatively few and the results upon the life of the clubs and the mem- bers not harmful. The claim is made that less liquor is drunk by the members in their clubs than would be drunk in the public houses, and that on the whole the life of the clubs is orderly. Such, then, is the remarkable workingmen's club movement in England. Summarizing the story, we obtain the following facts : 1. It was successfully begun as a philanthropic temperance movement, and had no serious difficulty in planting and sustaining a large number of workingmen's clubs. 2. It attained its greatest development and its financial independence only by permitting the clubs to govern themselves under careful and competent direction. 3. All educa- tional features were made subordinate to the primary idea of recreation. 4. The sale of liquor to members proved to be necessary for self-support, and did not seriously impair the usefulness of the clubs. There seems to be no good reason why such clubs should not be successful in our American cities. A company of men and women interested in social pro- gress, with means at their disposal, would engage the services of a skilled secretary, who would proceed to form such clubs from among the existing pleasure and political clubs, or to form new clubs composed of those not at present members of any purely social organiza- tion. There would be small initiation fees and regular O dues. The rooms for meeting would be chosen with CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 89 care, the effort being to avoid connection with saloons on the one hand or philanthropic institutions on the other, unless these had the full confidence of the club members. There would be above all no taint of patron- age. The clubs would be given a large measure of self- government. This might mean the overthrow of some clubs because of the incapacity or jealousy of the mem- bers, but the danger is much less than the alternate danger of patronage. The idea of recreation would be kept uppermost, any educational features being added only as they were called for. With regard to the fur- nishing of intoxicants, the experience of English clubs would not be decisive. It is true that financial inde- pendence is the essential condition to the permanency of any movement of this kind, but it may not be true that this can be secured only by the sale of liquors, and it might prove to be true that liquors could not be sold to the members without imperiling the life of the club. Here is a question, then, that would have to be left open for experience to decide. In conversation recently, a prominent laboring man of New York, whose father had been instrumental in starting the English move- ment, declared that the workingmen of our great cities would welcome such clubs just as the English working- men welcomed them. He considered a bar indispen- sable, and thought there would be no more ill effects than have resulted there. He was on the point, he said, of beginning a similar experiment in New York when the Raines Law made his plan impossible. One word needs to be added. While women are not active members of the English clubs, they are frequent attendants at special meetings. At entertainments their 90 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. presence is so invariable as to amount to an etiquette or ritual. The clubs are an aid to the home life, not a hindrance. A similar social development in our Ameri- can cities would have, it is safe to say, the approval of the workingwomen, who would share directly and indirectly in its benefits. The second method of providing clubs for the people is to make for them clubs in which the idea of self- support is abandoned, and in which much greater facilities of one kind and another are provided than is possible in the clubs which have been described. The clubs already discussed are people's clubs in the strict meaning of the term. The location and appoint- ment of their club-rooms and the scope of their activi- ties represent only what is within the reach of the working people themselves, and can be paid for out of their own pockets. But there is another form of workingmen's clubs which is provided by private phi- lanthropy with club-rooms or clubhouses, furnished at a cost which cannot be met by the people them- selves. The expenses of such an establishment are far beyond the receipts from the membership dues, and are met either by endowment for the purpose, or by the contribution of funds. Of workingmen's clubs of this type, there are many examples in England and some in our country, which may serve as illustrations of what has been accomplished, and of what may be done by any who are inclined to invest money in this branch of social reform. It is possible to limit the discussion here to the experiments which have been inaugurated in our own country, since they equal in CLUBS FOE THE PEOPLE. 91 effect any that have been attempted in England or on the Continent. There is no better iUustration of a workingman's club of this type to be found than the well-known Hollywood Inn at Yonkers, N. Y. i The story of the growth of this institution contains all that can be said upon this form of social experiment. It is needless to say that a Hollywood Inn presupposes a William F. Cochran. The cost of the club at Yonkers was about 1150,000, and Mr. Cochran himself estimated the run- ning expenses at about fSOOO yearly. This amount for three years was to be pledged by the people of Yonkers before he would erect the building. The actual cost of maintaining the institution, however, was much in excess of this amount. The club began with a fund of fSOOO, and this sum, together with an income of about $2000 from membership dues and other sources, no more than met the expenses. The establishment and maintenance of such a club, then, demands a large initial outlay and yearly contribu- tions above its receipts from membership dues. The club building is a fine stone structure, forty feet by one hundred, and six stories in height. The base- ment is devoted to bowling-alleys, men's gymnasium and locker-rooms, with shower and needle baths adjoin- ing. The first floor, or main entrance, contains a large reception hall, offices of administration, smoking and music rooms, shuffle-board and coat rooms, and in the most conspicuous and attractive part of the floor a well-furnished and liberally supplied library. To this ^ For the following description of the Inn the editors are indebted to the Kev. James E. Freeman of Yonkers, N. Y. 92 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. room the wives and children of members are admitted, and to them the privilege of drawing books is extended. On the second floor are found eight pool and two billiard tables. The price is two cents per cue for the former, and thirty cents an hour for the latter. The tub-baths, cigar-counter, and lavatories are also on this floor. The third floor is occupied by a large hall, with gallery accommodating five hundred people. Here entertainments for the members are given twice a month, to which a member may bring his wife or a friend. The next floor contains the class-rooms, where instruction is given in mechanical and archi- tectural drawing, stenography, type-writing, bookkeep- ing, vocal music, and first aid to the injured, the last being one of the most popular and satisfactory depart- ments in the educational work. The fifth floor is given over entirely to boys under eighteen years of age, the -membership fee being two dollars per annum. Here we have a microcosm of the larger club : game- rooms, gymnasium, locker and reading rooms, and baths. The top floor is used by the janitor and his assistant for their apartments. Besides this building the management has secured a large inclosed field, and a suitable clubhouse has been built for the convenience of members. The primary object of the Hollywood Inn is to fur- nish for men of moderate means a first-class clubhouse with privileges which heretofore were only afforded at a cost of from fifty to sixty dollars a year. It was designed especially as a saloon substitute ; therefore everything which the saloon affords that is innocent in itself, as pool and cards, was made a conspicuous CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 93 feature of the enterprise. The institution became as democratic as the saloon, in which all men might meet without discrimination as to politics, religion, or social conditions. The appearance of charity was avoided by requiring dues, which, however, were placed within the reach of the poorest, — but three dollars a year in two successive installments. In addition, rates were charged for the games, but were put a fraction below the rates charged in the ordinary saloon. The baths, library, gymnasium, and entertainments were free to members, and the game-rooms free to all, and lastly the control of the club was placed partially in the hands of the members themselves. That the privileges of such an institution are appre- ciated is shown from the fact that the membership rose from 665 the first year to 817 the second year, and at present is somewhat over one thousand. Its membership is not limited to workingmen, and it was but natural that business men and clerks and others should have been attracted by its superior advantages. Yet it is gratifying to the management that of the present members of Hollywood Inn over five hundred are artisans and laboring men. Such is the Hollywood Inn. The experiment may be repeated as often as men of means feel inclined to invest their money in this way. The influence for good of such an institution upon any considerable body of workingmen must be far-reaching. If it does not empty the saloons at once, it offers a complete substitute for them, and must save many a man from their evils, and furnish him with the recreation and means of self-improvement that he needs. 94 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Hollywood Inn does not stand alone. It is the most conspicuous example of its kind probably existing in the country, but many if not all of its features are to be found in less pretentious establishments, and it deserves to be noted that the Hollywood Inn Club existed before its present clubhouse, and that its prin- ciples may be employed to advantage in starting any club of the kind. The East Boston Athletic Club, iu its original form, is an illustration of the same type of club planted by private philanthropy, and it, too, exerted a wide influence. The " R " of Philadelphia is another example. This institution is the result of the generosity of a woman who gave the money for its purchase, and provides the funds for its mainte- nance. The initial letter, which has come to be its name, stands for those things which the club was planned to provide : Eesort, Restaurant, Recreation, Reading-room, Rest, and Reformation. It is a three- story structure, containing lunch-room, reading-room, and smoking-rooms. It is open from eight o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock in the evening. Lectures are given, and discussions provided upon matters of current interest, political, scientific, and social. There is no membership list, and no organization connected with it, and thus the club feature is not dominant. Philadelphia has another institution, which is some- what different in character from those that have been described, while it still presents the essential fea- tures of a workingmen's club. The "Lighthouse," located in the heart of the great working-class district of Kensington, is one of the most interesting social institutions in the city. It had its origin in the desire CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 95 to provide for the workingmen some social substitute for the saloons. It began in a small way in the winter of 1893 and 1894, when two rooms in the Episcopal Hospital Mission were opened every Friday and Sat- urday evening. The next winter found the rooms crowded, and in 1895 the " Lighthouse " was secured through assistance given by friends interested in the work. The entire establishment conforms to the good ■features of the saloon without any of its drawbacks. Its restaurant is one of the best in the city, its tem- perance bar is the centre of the sociability of the neighborhood, and it reaches a large and ever increasing constituency of workingmen. Here the club idea is prominent. The " Lighthouse " is run by the working- men ; it is strictly their own institution. They elect the officers, and transact the business. To this demo- cratic control may be attributed much of its success. All experience goes to show that such a method of control is essential to the success of any workingmen's club. The " Lighthouse " makes much of its religious and temperance activities, yet in its case this does not seem to be detrimental to its work. On the contrary, in the minds of its managers, it is the secret of its success. These are examples of this form of a workingman's club. Whether these clubs be small or large, it must be remembered that they are not self-supporting, that they depend for their existence upon gifts of money and yearly contributions for their support. Where men and women of means are inclined to give of their wealth to provide social opportunity for the poor, these experiments are sufficient to indicate how their money 96 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. may wisely be invested, but such clubs cannot hope to become self-supporting institutions. Another form of workingmen's clubs remains to be noticed, in many ways the most important and promis- ing of them all. One of the most encouraging signs of the times is the growing sense of responsibility felt by employers for the happiness and well-being of their employees. This responsibility is being recognized each year by a larger number of mercantile and manu- facturing establishments which employ large numbers of men and women, and each year adds to the number of such establishments which seek to provide means for the recreation and improvement of their working forces. The motive is not wholly a philanthropic one. A return for every cent of expense is made in the increased efficiency and devotion of the employees. Tradesmen and manufacturers are finding that these enterprises have a distinct economic value. It is safe, therefore, to suppose that the future will witness a general extension among all large commercial and manufacturing concerns of this habit of providing suit- able means of recreation for the people. When we look at the life of young business men, the necessity for some sort of wholesome social opportu- nity becomes very apparent. Thousands of them are condemned to the boarding-house in the evening, for they will not join religious institutions, nor can they afford the better class of amusements. Many walk the streets ; many patronize cheap amusements ; many have little sociables at home ; some belong to bicycle clubs ; some to lodges ; some take advantage of what is offered CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 97 in night schools and free lectures. But the majority of them would be ready material for a club of their own. This statement was substantiated by five overseers of the five largest dry-goods stores in New York City, who said that they personally would support such a movement, contribute money to it, and knew of many clerks who would be glad to do the same. One said his idea had always been that the large surplus of their benefit association should go toward some such club. A member of one firm said that he had 'f)een waiting for his clerks to express a desire in that direc- tion, but apparently all are ready to act if some one takes the initiative, collects money from outside, and gives the clerks an evening home. A beginning has already been made. One of the largest dry-goods stores in Boston has a musical club among its employees, and provides free instruction in choral singing. In New York a firm has established a school for the cash-boys, where attendance is required on two half days a week. Another started a literary and social club, with addresses, reading, and whist. These are but small beginnings, yet they indicate the drift, and illustrate what may be done and what ought to be done by every large retail establishment in our great cities. The degree to which such philanthropic activities may be carried and the results which' may be achieved are very clearly demonstrated by the extraordinary success of certain manufacturing establishments in Europe and in America. England takes the lead in factory reforms and innovations. For example. Hazel Watson & Vinie, manufacturers of coke, and the 98 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. proprietors of factories where Sunlight and Life-buoy soaps are made, have provided for their employees clubs and schools, recreation parks and model cottages. In this country we have such firms as the Pope Manu- facturing Company of Hartford, the Warner Brothers Company of Bridgeport, Conn., and the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. The War- ner Brothers employ chiefly women. Their Seaside Institute suggests what might well be done for men. A building was erected in 1886 by the company for the ixse of its employees. Its cost, including furni- ture, was about $75,000. It contains a restaurant, where lunches and meals are served at cost, a large reading-room and library, well equipped with popular books, music-room, bathroom, and lavatory. On the third floor are a hall and several class-rooms. The privileges of the building are free to all the employees of the company. The reading-room and library have been well patronized. The employees have formed classes and have entertainments, to which men are ad- mitted. The Pope Manufacturing Company of Hart- ford has provided lunch-rooms and reading-rooms for the men. On an average, forty per cent of the em- ployees of the concern have taken advantage of these rooms, and more would doubtless do so were it not for the fact that they live within a few minutes' walk from the factory. The operatives have appreciated the advantages of the rooms, and the management feels that it secures a better class of men as employees than can be found in factories where no attention is paid to their comfort. The National Cash Register Company of Dayton, ^as ' A merican Journal, of Sociology, May, 1898. CLUBS FOR THE PEOPLE. 99 is well known, has carried the idea of cooperation with its employees and of provision for their social needs further than any other manufacturing establishment of our country. Numerous clubs exist among the employees. These begin at the kindergartens, and after 1915 no employee is to be received who is not a graduate of the kindergarten. Then come the boys' clubs, which have a place of their own to meet in, the boys' brigades, and the Sunday schools. The young women and the mothers have guilds of their own. For the men there are several clubs. There is the Advance Club, composed of the officers, foremen, assist- ant foremen, heads of departments, and all in author- ity. Fifty members of the rank and file are chosen alternately from the main body of the factory em- ployees to take part in each meeting. These meetings are held' in the factory theatre each Friday morning, the session lasting for an hour and a half of the com- pany's time. The object of the club is the advance- ment of the general interest of the company. Here are offered criticisms or suggestions for the benefit of the company or its employees. Then there is the Progress Club, which is the employees' club for general discussion of topics, such as : " Is competition the life of trade ? " " What training besides his trade should a mechanic have ? " In addition, there is the Choral Society, the South Park Club, the Eelief Association, and four or five musical organizations. The company provides several places of meeting for these men's clubs. In the business centre of the city the company has a large hall. Here most of the organizations meet, and many lectures and entertainments are given for 100 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the benefit of employees. Near the factory itself is the administration building, in which is a reading-room and a weU-directed circulating library of several hun- dred volumes for the use of the entire working force. In addition there is the " N. C. K. House of Useful- ness." This is in reality a small social settlement for the benefit of the people in the neighborhood. Its rooms are especially valuable for influencing the boys, but the men come freely, and at noon fill its rooms. The result of these efforts is best seen in the testimony of a brewer who recently sold out a saloon near the factory and moved away, saying the nearer he came to the N. C. E. factory the worse it was for his business. If all factories would imitate even upon a small scale the work which has been carried on at Dayton, the same would be found to be true. The experience of this and other factories has conclusively shown that any manufacturing establishment which will simply take a good-sized room, put into it books, checkers, chess, and then form a club from among the em- ployees to use and control it, will be doing much to offset the evils of the saloon. CHAPTER V. POPULAR EDUCATION. " The future of the saloon depends on public sen- timent and economic conditions, and these will only improve with the advance of public education." Edu- cation has a commercial as well as an ethical value. A high average of intelligence is essential to a good popular government and a well-ordered society, an intelligence which can discriminate between the bad and what is good for oneself and for the welfare of the community. Education from our present point of view, that of the saloon substitute, brings us face to face with the problem of character-building, with the sentiment of all modern educators that we have not merely to make the man a better workman, but the workman a better man. If it holds of intemperance as of other diseases, that a preventive is better than a cure, we are not far from our subject when we discuss the value and bearing of secondary school education, and even the kindergarten, whose aim is self-realization, development of tastes, and good citizenship. A moment's reflection will show that if the school could accomplish its aim, many of the questions which arise concerning the saloon and its substitutes would be at least partially solved. The ideal school is so organized that the child feels a re- sponsibility to the body of pupils as a whole and as 102 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. individuals, and he learns to recognize that upon his act depends the welfare of his little community. With the right methods of instruction, the position which the school holds as a factor in the formation of public sentiment and the determining of economic conditions can scarcely be overestimated. Grant, then, to elemen- tary education the great responsibility which belongs to it, and let every effort be made by this means to form characters that in due time will demand and obtain other kinds of recreation than the saloon affords. According to good authorities, only six per cent of the people of the United States are systematically edu- cated after leaving the common schools, at about fourteen years of age. As a result, the man has no resources within himself. His early training has left him weak- willed. His early lack of education has left him without desire or interest for healthful pursuits. Adult educa- tion must form a permanent part of our educational scheme. What systematic education can there be for the thousands who leave school at fourteen and from that time have to earn a livelihood ? And provided we can arrange a system of education, what shaU bring the system and the people together ? The second question must be answered first. The system cannot touch the people unless it begins where they left off, and unless its subject matter is related to their daily life, their home, business, political creed, or the history of their country. When the system rises from a man's own plane of knowledge and thought, then a relation is established, and the one thing needed is some one whose personal interest in his fellow men is so great that he will open their eyes to what is right before them. POPULAR EDUCATION. 103 How far does the municipal night school go to meet the need ? Here is a system which the law enforces in every large city. The work begins where the gram- mar school stops. The instruction is free and the building is central. The institution is a beneficent one, and the attendance in many cases proves its work to be important. It offers a chance to any boy or girl who leaves the grammar school because he must work, to continue his study. But we must remember that as soon as the boy is at work, whether in the mill or the shop, he has new interests, and it is harder than ever for him, at sixteen, to see the practical bearing of Eng- lish grammar upon weaving. The foreigner wants to learn English — not the grammar, but the language. The curriculum must be broad. An examination of the curricula of certain night schools in New York and other cities proves that some educators at least have realized this, and a visit to the schools shows the effec- tive result. Bookkeeping always appeals to the wage- earner as practical, and that is offered him. Manual training, drawing, singing, gymnastics, civics, history, political economy, physiology, subjects which are allied with the wage-earner's immediate interests, are to be emphasized. When they are, there will be fewer night schools on the point of closing because the pupils do not come. In any educational system, the teacher is more im- portant than the subject, and in this respect many of the night schools are sadly lacking. In some cases men and women are teaching in them because there is no place for them in the day schools. Worse than this, they are sometimes there because the meagre salary 104 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. paid for two sessions of work makes a third essential. The pupils who come weary from a day of toil look for inspiration to a leader more weary from her own day's toil. There are not enough teachers who feel that iu the night schools there are problems to be solved which are so vital that they dare not stay away. One weak- ness of the night school lies in not arousing the interests of the indifferent. The great success of philanthropic work in this direction is due to the motive which takes the workers into it. The competent teacher needs to know her class as well as her subject. From a personal knowledge comes the sympathy which really helps. In this particular work, the teacher may well be a district worker, knowing the community from which she can recruit her class, its needs and its ambitions. The night schools should increase in number as well as in effectiveness. An educational report from New York City in 1898 shows that of the two hundred and seventy-seven primary and grammar schools in Greater New York, only forty-two were used as evening schools. In view of the fact that besides the ignorant men and women there are thousands of children over fourteen whom the law does not compel to go to school, but who could be benefited by the use of the school buildings out of school hours, this seems a waste of capital and opportunity. A report from Minneapolis and St. Paul in the same year said : " The public school author- ities in both cities have maintained night schools until the last three or four years, when the financial stress forced the boards to cut all but the absolutely essen- tial. In their judgment, the night school was one of these." Every schoolhouse in every city should be. a POPULAR EDUCATIO:n. 105 centre of intellectual life for the district in which it is placed, and the public schools should be provided with halls where adults may be comfortably seated. Because it is a public building, the people have a certain feeling of ownership, the work goes on without denominational prejudice, and there is no atmosphere of charity, — three conditions which go far to qualify it as a popular edu- cational centre. Its use need not be limited to the work of evening classes provided by the city's appro- priation, but the school board should have power to make it, through outside means, the broad citadel of culture which it ought to be. If the city appropriation cover the expense, so much the better. The Board of Education in New York is supplying intellectual entertainment and educational stimulus to hundreds of thousands of citizens by its free lecture courses. Thirty-two out of its fifty-one centres are public schools (1899-1900). "The scope of the work is not only to attract and entertain, but also to offer suggestions that are of practical benefit, and to give encouragement and stimulus to earnest workers. . . . The system is practical and utilitarian. ... It is grat- ifying to note that the work is becoming rapidly popu- larized, and that its benefits not only reach directly the thousands of students who are destined in their day .and generation to uphold American reputation for ability along the various lines of human effort, but that the lecture course is fast becoming a recognized educational force among the masses of the community, attracting thousands out of the slums from the saloon, the cheap theatre, and the dram-house." Since 1898 the course has been under the direction of Dr. Henry 106 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. M-. "Lftjjjyjijfsr.. "^rhe following figures show something of the results of the organization's work : — For 1890-1, 185 lectures; £ ittendai ice, 78,295 1891-2, 287 " t4 122,243 1892-3, 310 " (( 130,830 1893-4, 383 " (( 170,368 1894-5, 502 " (C 224,118 1895-6, 1040 " <( 392,733 1896-7, 1065 " it 426,927 1897-8, 1595 " it 609,135 1898-9, 1923 " it 619,411 1899-1900, 1871 " ti 638,084 Its rapid growth is attributable to its broad spirit and to the discriminating judgment which determines the topics. Many distinguished men and women have gladly aided this great movement by taking their places before these cosmopolitan audiences, and have addressed them with enthusiasm. A report of the re- ception of each lecture, the number in attendance, and other details is sent to Dr. Leipziger ; moreover, he is informed of the treatment of every subject listed. The topic and its treatment must appeal to the audience, and thus the people become " the final arbiters in the selection of their popular tribunes." The courses in history, literature, geography, science, and civics have been so labeled and developed as to bring to willing listeners the highest conceptions of duty, of patriotism, and of civilization. The experiment of selecting certain centres where the lectures were to be devoted to but two topics during the entire winter has proved success- ful. In preparing each season's course, a study is made of the needs of the different lecture centres. POPULAR EDUCATION. 107 The loaning of books from the platform, to be used in connection with the syllabus for study, has been a feature of the lecture courses. In some cases exam- inations have been held and papers written. In this work the cooperation of the library and the lecture hall is most important. Other cities than New York are at work in this direction. The president of the Board of Education of Philadelphia has recommended the free lecture courses for that city, and Boston and Chicago already offer them. The boards of education do not stand alone in their efforts to educate the masses by this means. It is the method of the University Extension societies. The University Extension movement was begun in Philadelphia, but the small fee which was charged pre- vented the work reaching as far as it should until the free lecture system was adopted. The lectures have been given in the public schools and at branches of the Free Library. In 1899, beside the University Extension lectures of the American Society in twenty- four places in Philadelphia, lecturers were sent to as many different towns. This work has a great advantage over reading circles and correspondence clubs, because of the contact of the speaker with the people he is teaching. The personal conviction of a good teacher and his enthusiasm must arouse interest. There is a chance, too, for the discussions which usually follow the University Extension lectures. The People's University Extension Society of New York is an organization which holds itself ready to furnish classes and courses of lectures to missions, churches, settle- ments, and other societies that receive appeals for 108 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. instruction which they cannot supply. Instruction has been given in about one hundred and fifty places in New York during the past year by this society, and applications are constantly increasing. The organiza- tion is in its third year, and its work has already been called one of the most promising signs of the times. In the opinion of the society, hygiene and civics are the subjects essential to the welfare of the individual and the State, and these courses are free. Audiences receiving courses in subjects of less fundamental im- portance are expected to bear the small necessary expense. The influence of the University Extension movement has been felt in hundreds of towns. In many cities, other educational enterprises, more local in character, are offering free lectures to the people. The following are a few of the numerous in- stitutions of this kind : Cooper Union, New York's great promoter of popular education, is one of the centres for the work of the Board of Education, but it has in addition courses of lectures under its own control and others which are given in cooperation with the People's Institute. In the winter of 1899-1900, the People's Institute gave one hundred and seventy- tliree lectures there. The plan of each evening in- cluded an address, lasting about an hour and followed by a discussion. The audiences were largely composed of workingmen from different sections, who took part freely in the discussions. Receptions held after the lectures in the room of the People's Club gave the members and their invited guests a chance to meet many of the leaders in public life. The Educational Alliance of New York offers lectures to its members. POPULAR EDUCATION. 109 The Wagner Institute of Philadelphia gives courses of free lectures, with an opportunity for those who are especially interested to stay afterwards for class-work and experiments in the laboratories. This work of the institute has been constantly growing in importance, and it has the encouragement of reaching the class of people that need such opportunities. Free lectures are also given by various societies that wish to interest the public in live questions. The Library of Economics and Political Science makes a point of keeping the circulars of such lectures and calling the attention of the frequenters of the library to them. Here again is shown the value of cooperation between the free lecture and the public library. The plan just mentioned is an excellent way of turning the attention of a part of the public to the lecture halls which have opened their doors to them. But this somewhat mechanical con- nection is not the most vital one. The lecturer will send back to the library much more intelligent readers. He can make the man who has never read anything " worth while " have a real yearning for histories, biographies, and other literature that will be of benefit to him, and he can make the man who never reads anything feel the need of a book. A generous supply of platform and branch libraries should be at the lec- turer's disposal. Some libraries give public lectures in their own halls, and the full attendance and conse- quent carrying away of books prove the worth of this use of the building. The Boston Public Library, dur- ing the season of 1900-1901, gave free lectures on municipal problems. A word might be said of the financial conditions of 110 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. public lecture organizations. "While leading men in every profession are taking part in this work, and many of them without even a nominal fee, there are many whose incomes do not allow the time thus spent to be wholly unremunerative. It is one of the wisest features of the scheme that the teaching be the best, and that the work in each centre be continuous. The work can- not be self-supporting, but it is one of the most judi- cious of the civic investments of the tax-payer. It is an unfortunate thing that a " popular lecture " means to some people simply a pleasing lecture, for often it implies more. The popular lecture with educational aim must hold that idea uppermost, and be pleasing because the skillful lecturer so presents his serious material that the audience is able thoroughly to enjoy it. The free lecture, then, is a system of education that can be popular. Besides the instructional value of these lectures, the hours so spent are glad ones for thousands of toilers and an antidote for many of the temptations of city life. The subject can be chosen to suit each audience, the lecture can be taken to the people, and the man or woman who delivers it shows by his being there that he has the desire, which every educated person ought to have, to share his knowledge with the less fortunate. However, in most cities the law enforces no such system, the people do not demand it, and it is left for philanthropy to evolve it. Much progress has been made in this work, but, on the other hand, many cities have to acknowledge that, in view of their small number and their irregularity, the influence of the free lectures as a corrective to the saloon, at any rate, is not great. Where they are frequent and the POPULAR EDUCATION. Ill courses are regular, their efficiency as saloon substi- tutes is twofold : many pleasant evenings are spent in this way which would otherwise be added to the number which the wage-earner does not know how to spend, and thousands of men are given a live interest in some broadening and helpful theme. Because the library is most effective when working in cooperation with other educative organizations, it must not be forgotten that alone it stands as a great schoolmaster for the people. No town is considered complete without its public library, and the rich and poor, educated and uneducated, point to it with pride. The library supplies the public with its reading mate- rial, and the public appreciates the fact, whether taking advantage of ,it or not. A sightly, well-constructed building which belongs to the people and which exists for their good is in itself something of an inspiration. And it is the library that supplies the homes with books. In mission centres, after the demand for food and clothing, the request for reading matter is most frequent. " Lend me some books or magazines so that my husband or son may have something to read and to occupy his mind without having to go to the saloon," is the form the request takes. In this respect, the libraries as saloon substitutes have great value, for they can furnish books to the people in abundance and without cost. Every one knows that a public library is not enough. It must be a free public library. Moreover it should be made easy for the people to get their register cards. Often a stranger in a town and too often residents of the poorer classes do not 112 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. know whom to ask for a guarantee. This is one of the kindnesses an employer may well offer his em- ployees. Free registration is not enough. The libraries must be planned to facilitate the use of books, and there are a number of practical ways of doing it : by work- ing in cooperation with other educational centres ; by branch libraries ; by traveling libraries ; by access to shelves. One means of cooperation is to receive from teachers and lecturers lists of books that will likely be in demand, and to have enough copies to prevent discouragement being a reason for not read- ing. Branch libraries no doubt accomplish more as saloon substitutes than the main libraries. The busy laborer is the very one whom cheap rent takes from the centre of things, and branch libraries should be established for his benefit. In almost every large city the free library has its branches. Private or semi-private libraries may well be affiliated with these. They should always contain reference books, carefully se- lected fiction, books of travel, biography, and history. Neighborhood workers who know the habits and tastes of the people of their communities can often best choose the books, and the librarians of the main buildings gladly receive their suggestions. It is inter- esting to see how many apply for cards who would have neither time nor inclination to frequent the cen- tral library. A library of eight hundred books was recently placed in a small manufacturing city a mile from the main library, and in the sixth month of its existence over three hundred books were taken out. POPULAR EDUCATION. 113 The shelves were against the back wall of a grocery store, and the keeper said he would not exchange what he had "learned from them books " for aU the trade he had done. It was reported, in 1898, of the Webster Circulating Library of New York (a department of the work at the East Side House), that the number of names on the registry exceeded the number of volumes in the library, the former being 8157, the latter 7858. The park libraries of Brooklyn have proved very suc- cessful ; and while there is much to say against filling the parks up with buildings of any kind, their reports seem to justify them. The statistics of the Tomp- kins Park Library for one month give 2372 borrow- ers, 4190 books circulated, and 2900 readers. By " readers " is meant those who do not take books out, but read papers and magazines in the library. Traveling libraries have an aim very similar to that of the more stationary branches. Many settlements and clubs need more books than they can afford to buy ; and to have several hundred books loaned them for a few weeks, with a new set taking their places, helps them to solve this difficulty. It has proved a successful enterprise to send these libraries to fire- engine stations and police stations, where the men have leisure and yet must be at their posts. The boys of the telegraph and messenger service need to be supplied with books. Factories and manufacturing districts are incomplete without their libraries. A reading-room is often the only place beside the saloon near the docks for sailors who are in port. The Pub- lic Library of Cleveland reports that in 1899 the cir- culation from the branches and stations for home read- 114 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. ing was fifty-seven per cent of the entire circulation for the year. " The aim is to make the branches and stations social centres for their neighborhoods. In bringing this about the library management is work- ing in and through the schools and settlements." In all libraries, including the main one, access to the shelves is of great importance. "Access to the shelves means that any one can go to the shelves and take down the books to read, or select the books he de- sires to carry away. As a result time is not lost in waiting, and where a person is familiar with only one or two books on a subject, the fact that these books are out does not discourage him. In looking over the books themselves — not lists of books — he may find something better. Probably interest will be stimulated. The rooms are made more attractive with their open shelves, and the lack of police system makes the library a pleasanter place." The very large circulation of the Free Library of Philadelphia is ascribed to this free-shelf system. It is reported that the consequent loss of books is very slight in com- parison with the cost of employing extra service. It is an interesting fact that if children are allowed to go to the shelves, they usually select non-fiction. The reading-room and circulating library are so united in aim and fulfillment, that their separation is arbitrary, and yet each has an advantage over the other. The circulating library furnishes a pleasant and helpful pastime for the man's leisure hours and encourages him to spend them at home, while the reading-room gives him a valuable resort outside of his home. This fact makes the reading-room perhaps POPULAR EDUCATION. 115 the more efficient substitute for the saloon. It is en- couraging that the reading-room not only promises to be, but is a place where men come and spend time that would otherwise be spent in the saloon or on the street. It is true that a goodly per cent of the patrons are children and people of the well-to-do classes, but there is constant increase in the number of adult read- ers, and there are many reading-rooms for the laboring people of which the rich know nothing. The free library and reading-room of Cooper Union represents a type worthy of study. With the excep- tion of a few who come from a distance, for the sake of class-work, the attendance is chiefly from the sur- roimding wards, i. e., the Tenth, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Seventeenth. The follow- ing table shows the predominating nationality and pop- ulation : — 10th Ward . . Russian Hebrews 74,401 11th Ward . . Germans and Hungarians . . 97,435 13th Ward . • Hebrews and Irish .... 59,267 14th Ward . . Italians 36,292 15th Ward . . Italians 32,811 17th Ward . . Germans 133,257 433,463 These statistics are as reported for the Tenement House Committee in 1894. The Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Bowery portions of the Tenth are probably the only wards which are strongly represented, and this means a population of about 202,360. The Bowery lodging-houses are within walking distance, and no doubt many men come 116 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. to the reading-room from these. The following is the record of attendance for 1898 : — January . . 72,977 July . . . . 23,380 February - . 66,670 August (2 wks.) 12,805 March . . . 55,531 September . . 29,956 April . . . 53,614 October . . . 45,669 May . . . 32,799 November . . 56,237 June . . . 27,348 December . . Total .... 69,438 546,424 This means an average daily attendance of 1821. The reading-room has met v?ith this success notwithstand- ing the fact that it is on the third floor. Including newspapers there are about four hundred and fifty periodicals on file, and the library contains between thirty-five and forty thousand volumes. A large proportion of the visitors come to take advantage of the daily papers, and it is evident that to read their home papers is really a boon to many men. This satisfaction of the thirst for home news is in itself a large reason for such reading-rooms. There are hun- dreds of men who will pass open saloons and walk many blocks for the sake of reading a few items in the home paper that will lessen their feeling of lone- liness in a great city where they have no social con- nection. Other free reading-rooms in crowded districts have met with proportionate success. This is one of the priv- ileges the workingman does demand and appreciate. The circulation of the settlement libraries is so phenom- enal, as compared with ordinary libraries, that it war- rants careful attention. Statistics show that almost POPULAR EDUCATION. 117 without exception the well-ordered reading-room soon becomes a popular centre. Often it is a question how to meet the demand for certain literature, and how to furnish sufficient table room. The point most to be emphasized is the necessity of accessibility. No saloon- keeper places his wares in the back room on the second floor. A well-lighted front entrance on an open thor- oughfare, comfortable seats, and tables well supplied with reading matter, chosen to hold the interest of the patrons, will accomplish more in the work of making the reading-room a substitute for the saloon than rows upon rows of well-arranged bookshelves. If possible, a reading-room should be large, so that a man may slip in and out without feeling conspicuous and, if he pre- fers, not be submitted to unsolicited social advances. The combination of reading-room and smoking-room is one much to be desired. A successful example of this is found in the Galilee Mission, New York (Cal- vary Protestant Episcopal Church). The free and easy air of such a place gives it one of the most tell- ing characteristics of the saloon. It is open every night in the year, and on Sunday afternoons and holi- days. During eleven months of 1898, there were 27,310 visits made by persons enjoying its privileges, and of this number 10,729 were Sunday visits. The daily and weekly papers, as well as the monthly magazines, are on the tables, also a number of standard books. Dur- ing the winter months, talks are given Sunday after- noons on various subjects. Probably of all the social enterprises of the city of Denver, none have been so completely successful in drawing trade away from the saloon as the reading- 118 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. room. No better evidence of this fact can be given than the results of the establishment of the two read- ing-rooms in the Fifteenth Ward.^ Some six or seven years ago, the street railway com- pany built a large car-barn in the Fifteenth Ward. As there were usually a large number of the employees of the company in and about the barn, the liquor men, always alert for such an opportunity, lost no time in locating two saloons and a pool-room in the non-prohi- bition Sixth Ward, just across the street. Their expec- tations of a large trade were fully realized. The car- barns were cheerless and cold, and little provision had been made for the comfort of the men ; the saloons, on the other hand, offered warmth and sociability. Natu- rally the saloons came to be preferred, and soon were a sort of headquarters for the employees when off duty. The inevitable results followed, and complaints were common regarding the lawlessness of the neighborhood. The tramway company tried in vain to check the growing evil by means of stringent rules against drink- ing among their employees, but the attendance upon the saloons was not perceptibly diminished. . . . The once respectable neighborbood soon acquired an evil reputation. In 1896 the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union applied to the superintendent of the tram- way company for a room in the car-barn, in which to establish a reading-room ; this the superintendent gladly furnished them, free of charge. The first results were most discouraging. The attendance of the young men of the neigbborhood, and of the employees of the com- pany, those who were patronizing the saloon, and whom 1 From the Denver report, April, 1899. POPULAR EDUCATION. 119 it was desired especially to reach, was very small ; and whenever they did come, they violated the rules in the most open and flagrant way, without paying any attention to remonstrance. The boys were often rude and boisterous. Books and papers and even money were stolen frequently. In spite of all these obstacles and the lively opposition of the saloon-keepers, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union persisted in their efforts, and as time went on, the conditions be- came better, and gradually things began to come their way. At the present time, one of the two saloons has gone out of business, and the other has scarcely half the patronage that it once had. The majority of the tramway employees spend the most of their spare time in the reading-room ; while the " gang " that once ter- rorized the neighborhood has melted away, and the boys and young men that formerly composed it are nightly frequenters of the reading-room, and are quiet and well-behaved. A violation of the rules is rare, as is also the loss of anything through theft. The credit of this improvement belongs principally to the reading- room. It is said of the Southwest of the country, as of other parts, that the saloon is the greatest evil, the greatest because it leads to other vices. It stands with open doors ready to receive the young men who go there, leaving the home and social influences of the East. There, too, the free library is doing its work. In Bisbee, Ariz., a mining centre, the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company put up a commodious building, and furnished it with books, newspapers, magazines, tables, chairs, and pictures. It is well 120 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. patronized, and in the case of a large number of the miners and railroad operatives it is a very successful rival of the saloon. The plan is to keep open doors and have as few restrictions on the men as possible. They may conduct themselves in the library as freely as in any saloon, barring the drinking and the gam- bling. There are chess, draughts, and checkers. There is opportunity for talking and smoking. This freedom secures the attendance of many who would otherwise be patrons of the saloon. Mr. Pritchard, who is in charge, has opportunity to come in close contact with the men and to talk with them of their own affairs. It has been possible to interest many of them in the contention against the saloon, and a few have shown a desire to aid in the work. The Board of Directors of the mining company are directly responsible for the fact that the saloon is not a paying business, and that gamblers call it the poorest town in Arizona for their profession. In Tucson, the Southern Pacific men are all contributing fifty cents per month for a similar institution, and have in connection with it free baths and other attractions. When the night school, the lecture hall and the library are open to the people, there is still much to be done. There is no way so sure to arouse intel- lectual interest as personal inspiration. The greatest problem in popular education is not to furnish the supply, but to create a demand. Even the reading- room is not always a success. The manager of the Chesapeake Pottery Factory of Baltimore failed to interest the young men in his employ in a reading- room. The Woodberry Free Eeading-Koom, primarily POPULAR EDUCATION. 121 intended for laborers, especially for the men of Wood- berry mills, and provided apparently with all the essentials of success, drew mostly people from the wfealthy suburbs of Baltimore. In the education of the working people some con- cessions must be made. The situation makes it neces- sary to do away with many of the traditions of schools and colleges. Institutions of learning, like Cooper Union, the People's Institute and the Educational Alli- ance of New York, Temple College and the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, Ohio Mechanics' Institute of Cincinnati, Trade Schools, and the Prospect Union of Harvard, are successful because of their method, and because of their curricula. They offer classes which are of practical benefit to the wage-earner. It has been said of Cooper Union, " There is no institution similar to Cooper Union, placed in so excellent a loca- tion, or which approaches it in its clientage of those not interested in the educational." Last year, at the People's Institute, classes were held in history, litera- ture, ethics and sociology, and often there was not even standing room in a hall which would seat two hundred and fifty. In the Mechanics' Institute of Cincinnati, of four hundred and sixteen students, one hundred and forty-four are machinists. No doubt many of them are too much interested in their trades to waste time in saloons, and yet with too few re- sources for leisure hours, the strongest may be tempted. The Prospect Union ^ of Cambridge is in a no- license city, but there has been a measure of compe- tition with the temptation to patronize Boston saloons, 1 From report of Rev. Robert E. Ely. 122 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. and with the tendency to form social and athletic clubs of doubtful moral tone. Moreover, the influence of the Union has inclined men to vote for no-license, although the organization, in accordance with its prin- ciples, has abstained from taking part in the no-license campaigns. The Union is a partial and local adapta- tion of the social settlement and university extension idea. The men, whether wage-earners or Harvard stu- dents, meet upon the level of a common manhood for mutual helpfulness, without regard to differences of caste or creed. The fee for active members is two dollars. Evening classes and lectures constitute the principal activity of the Union, with frequent musical and social gatherings. The classes are small, the method of teaching is informal, and the effort is made to adapt the instruction to the desire and need of the individual pupil. The classes are conducted by Har- vard students, and often on Wednesday evening there is a lecture or address by a member of the Harvard faculty or by some reformer. An opportunity for questions and discussions always follows the lecture. In the building, which is open every day and evening of the year, are a reading-room, smoking-room, library, and shower baths for the use of members, class-rooms, a lecture hall, and rooms for residence. Such a work as this awakens new interests, leads to new activities, and gives a broader outlook upon life. Catholics and Protestants, foreigners and Americans, come together in such an enterprise. There is not the suspicion that often attaches to a denominational organization, and men are not ashamed to be found in an educational institution. POPULAR EDUCATION. 123 Industrial schools are needed. They are a neces- sity for both boys and men. The school that offers classes in plastering, blacksmith's work and bricklay- ing, will not, be empty. The economic progress in Germany is conceded to be due to the industrial school system. True charity is kindred to education. Imme- diate relief is often necessary, but if, in connection with our charity organizations, there could be training schools in which people might be helped back into lives of useful and self-restraining activity, it would keep many whom the saloon reduces to pauperism from returning to it. The St. Louis Provident Asso- ciation and the Philadelphia Society for Employment and Instruction of the Poor try to do something of the kind, but the classes are largely for women. How- ever, we must not overlook the fact that philanthropic work among women is often counting indirectly against the saloon. The mothers' meetings, the domestic science classes and cooking lessons, that teach women how to make the home attractive, are doing much to keep men from the saloons. On the other ha,nd, the sesthetic side of the people's education must not be undervalued. Their eyes need to be opened that they may see, quite as much as their hands need to be trained that they may handle. The poor are removed from the rich ; they live away from the most attractive part of the cities, and what is there to cultivate their taste for art, to take them to the galleries and museums ? The loaning of pictures from art galleries and schools is an excellent plan. Local exhibits and excursions to places of beauty and interest may well be encouraged. Akin to this idea is Mr. 124 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Frank Damrosch's work in New York. The object of the People's Choral Union is to cultivate the love of music among the working people. Any one who has been a member of the advanced class of the People's Singing Classes for one season is eligible to member- ship. The classes are established and maintained by the Union. Ten cents a lesson meets the incidental expenses, and no teacher receives compensation for his services. Mr. Damrosch believes that "art is not a luxury for the rich, but a necessity for the poor, and that all people can learn to sing." " The one form of art which comes nearest to the people's hearts, which may be acquired and practiced by nearly every one, and could therefore enter into the daily life of the people, making it brighter, sweeter, happier and richer, the State makes little or no provision for, and it was to fill this need that the People's Singing Classes were established." The success of the undertaking has been beyond the highest expectations. It is such a reali- zation of the working people's needs and such a desire to make them share the more ennobling things in life that will succeed in educating and uplifting them. When a man sees outside of the saloon what is more attractive than what he finds in it, he will cease to be its patron. The closing century has been called the century of popular education, and it could ask no better title. Its lesson may well be that a " man needs know- ledge, not as a means of livelihood, but as a means of life." CHAPTER VI. THE CHXmCH, THE MISSION, AND THE SETTLEMENT. This chapter is to deal with methods of making provision for the social needs of the people that are prompted by the religious motive. This is not wholly true of the settlement, which is discussed by itself at the close of the chapter. Religion is concerned with the personal relation of the individual life toward God. To create and to strengthen this relation is the one purpose of avowedly religious institutions. A generation ago the term life was considered synonymous with soul. To-day, the unity of life is recognized as it was by Christ ; and the church, like its Master, seeks not only to pronounce the word of pardon, but to heal the sick, to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. It seeks not so much to save men out of the world, as to save the world itself in all of its relations. This is the real change which has taken place in our day within the church. It has not been a change in doctrine or in worship, but a change in its relation to the world. To it may be attributed the growing au- thority and influence of the church in our complex modern social order. Even where little effort has been made to express this sentiment in tangible terms, the sentiment abides. The church has come to believe that if it does not interest itself with what concerns human- 126 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. ity, it cannot hope that humanity will interest itself with what concerns the church. There is every reason for believing that we have seen the extreme limit of the alienation of the " masses " from the church ; that the return of the church to humanity means at the same time the return of humanity to the church. Dr. Hale, when asked recently to forecast what he believed would be the character of the church of the twentieth cen- tury, replied : " I once heard a well-informed clergy- man . . . say of our New England churches of all communions that they are quite well organized for pur- poses of worship, that they do something on Sunday for education, that they are interested to a certain ex- tent in hospitality, but that they are not at all well organized for charity. I think that fifty years hence the same sort of people who are now glad to live within the range of the charities of a well-conducted hotel will be glad to live in the neighborhood of a church. I think that every church wiU understand the best way to proclaim the good tidings of God to those who need them." This it is which the church is beginning to learn. No one can have failed to observe the gradual evolu- tion of new methods in church work, new efforts to apply material wealth and personal power to the actual needs of men and women. Year by year the number of churches which still hold themselves aloof from the temporal concerns of the people is being lessened. In city and in country alike, in despite of tradition or con- vention, under the leadership of thoughtful and far- seeing men and women, the church is meeting in many ways the immediate needs of those who surround it. THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 127 Parish houses and settlements, libraries and kindergar- tens, clubs and training schools, all speak of the new- spirit which animates the modern church. The old power is not lost : it is directed and applied. The Roman Catholic Church has seemed to rely almost wholly upon the spiritual appeal. Yet she is not indifferent to modern conditions and is preparing to meet them. Her organizations are taking on more and more a social character. The Total Abstinence societies have often a considerable social element in connection with their work ; some own their buildings, which are provided with reading-rooms, gymnasiums, and billiard halls. Such societies may be found at pre- sent in almost all of the large cities of the country. The lyceum is growing to be a very popular organizar tion connected with Catholic parishes in workingmen's districts. In the city of Baltimore, lyceums were found to be connected with no less than eight of the Catholic parishes of the city. The method is usually to occupy some building which is fitted up with means for social and athletic enjoyment. The three requirements for membership in a lyceum is that a man be a good Cath- olic, be of good moral character, and have some desire to improve himself. As a rule, these lyceums are re- markably successful, and their membership aggregates many thousands in any city. Another social organiza- tion has just been planned by the Catholics, the Young Men's Institute, patterned after the Young Men's Christian Association. In these ways the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church is plainly visible. More Protestant churches than Catholic conduct what are known as " institutional " activities, and yet the 128 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. number is small compared with the total number of churches and the need which confronts them. In Cleve- land only two or three churches out of about two hun- dred are reported as undertaking at all seriously any social work. Out of twenty-three Baptist churches in Cincinnati and vicinity, twenty-one follow the old methods of work. A crowded district in Buffalo has a population of 55,000. Of the forty Protestant churches and missions, but one has a night school, and only two offer weekly attractions to the neighborhood. In Chi- cago a very careful canvass was made, and a personal letter was sent to 751 clergymen. The results are as fol- lows : Six wrote absolutely disapproving of the church engaging in any social work, quoting Scripture pas- sages in support of their position. Those who hoped to enter such work were seventeen. Fifty-four churches had no further social organization beyond lit- erary and religious societies. Eighteen had outdoor sports, six had gymnasiums, but the silence of over five hundred indicates inactivity due either to opposition or to sympathy that has not yet sufficient energy to take tangible form. "West of the Mississippi, the propor- tion of churches doing any social work is even less than in the East. In New York City ninety-two churches out of a total of about seven hundred. Catholic and Protestant, were reported as doing a real social work. An analyzed list reveals the following particulars : — 1. Having clubs 9 2. Having clubs, reading-rooms, and lodging-houses . . 2 3. Having libraries or reading-rooms 9 4. Having industrial training and other educational features 15 THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 129 5. Having clubs and gymnasium 1 6. Having clubs and reading-rooms 2 7. Having clubs and educational features 24 8. Having clubs, educational features, and gymnasium . 2 9. Having clubs, gymnasium, and reading-rooms ... 1 10. Having clubs, reading-rooms, and educational fea- tures 7 11. Having gymnasium and educational features ... 2 12. Having educational features and reading-rooms . . 4 13. Having all of above-mentioned features excepting lodging-houses 14 92 The parish house is the centre of the social life of the modern church. Upon the size and material re- sources of the church will depend somewhat the amount of social work undertaken. The parish house is the home of kindergartens, cooking-classes, boys' clubs or brigades, industrial schools, and other work for the children and youth of the neighborhood. The organi- zations which affect particularly the young and older men of the parish are the gymnasium, the reading- room, social rooms, and social clubs. Where a parish house is provided with a gymnasium, it is sure of per- forming an important social work. The gymnasium always takes care of itself. There is no particular wisdom that is necessary with a trapeze and parallel bars. Denominational differences and religious pre- judices are overcome more quickly by these mechanical contrivances than by anything else that can be thought of. It will generally be found that it is unwise to make any limitations of creed or church affiliation for those who shall use the gymnasium. A fee will be 130 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. charged commensurate to the incomes of those who attend, and if possible, some oversight will be given in the athletic exercises, but beyond this nothing is neces- sary. The reading-room presents a more difficult pro- blem. It is not at all uncommon to see churches advertising reading-rooms that are very little attended by church people or any one else. Certain difficulties must-be met. In the first place, it will be found that a reading-room which is directly connected with the church building will fail, as a rule, to draw much patronage, especially if the neighborhood is not par- ticularly in sympathy with the church. The useful- ness of one church reading-room in New York is prac- tically destroyed by the fact that the room is not adjacent to the street. Another church in the same city reports that its reading-room is very pleasant and open to all, but as a matter of fact scarcely ever does a stranger enter. The explanation is that it is not suffi- ciently public in its location, and occupies a part of the church building. On the other hand, the reading-room of a downtown church in New York has a large patron- age. It is open from eight o'clock in the morning till nine at night. The minister in charge reports it the most successful branch of their non-religious work. Daily and weekly papers and monthly magazines are furnished besides a library of 3000 volumes in direct connection with the reading-room. During the year 1898 there were 41,642 readers, or an average of 137 daily. Of these, the daily average of male adults was 120. Two reasons can be given for the success of this church reading-room. In the first place, it is entirely disassociated from the religious work of the chapel. THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 131 In the next place, no expense is spared to make the reading matter what will appeal to an intelligent class of readers. The social rooms of a parish house, in order to do their work, must be what the name implies. They should offer the social privileges which are to be found in any other social clubs. It is needless to say that the religious atmosphere should not intrude, and that so far as possible the rooms should be controlled by those that frequent them. The men's club of St. Bartholomew's Church of New York, for example, occupies a suite of rooms in one of the upper stories of the parish house. Entering, there is an ante-room and a hall ; next comes a large and handsome smoking- room ; adjoining this is a library and reading-room. The club has its own circulating library with well-filled shelves. Leading from the smoking-room there is a second hallway ; opening from this there are two read- ing-rooms and the billiard-room having three pool tables and one regulation billiard table. The charge for the pool tables, which are most used, is one cent per cue. The charge for the billiard table is twenty-five cents per hour. The billiard table is one of the most popular features of the club. The rooms are open from ten o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at night. During the day members who have a few minutes of leisure drop in for a chat or to read a news- paper. In the evening the club is well filled, the attendance averaging 150 daily. There are educa- tional classes in connection with the club, but these are not very popular or very numerous. It is the social side that dominates. Where a parish house 132 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. has such social rooms, a club may be formed of those ■who shall have the use of them, dues will be paid, and perhaps an initiation fee, and the members of the club ■will have the right to regulate the use of the rooms ■which they occupy. In St. Bartholomew's the club contains from five to six hundred members, and in St. George's not much less, although at St. George's mem- bership is limited to those connected with the church. The dramatic instinct is always strong in young men, and where other methods fail to interest this will often succeed. The study of plays, with an occasional pre- sentation of them, will be found to interest and hold young men. Civic or economic questions always ap- peal to young men because of their political and pro- fessional interests. Where a club is made purely a literary club, its existence will probably be somewhat precarious. Such, then, are the methods for providing for the social needs of young men which may be centred in the parish house. But the church may go beyond this, and seek to support missions and social enter- prises which have no connection with the church build- ing and are often located at a distance from them. Some of these may be briefly described. The most common method is to establish a mission church. These mission churches, where they have no social features and are simply centres of evangelization, are often dreary in their character and accomplish a mini- mum of result. For one thing, they lack funds and have to do their work with straitened financial re- sources. The general impression of these churches is one of monotony. The music is usually indifferent, THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 133 and while the speakers are much in earnest, their methods are not calculated to accomplish their aims. Mission churches of this variety are probably not on the increase in any of our large cities, and it is as well that they are not. A modern mission church needs a modern conception of its mission. Sometimes churches have attempted to organize workingmen's clubs. Several years ago the Episcopal churches of Philadelphia made the experiment, which was discontinued after a time because the members desired to have a bar in the clubhouse. It would be well to have this question decided in advance whenever this experiment is repeated. Several churches of the country are endowing and supporting settlements which do the work of college settlements and in much the same spirit. The churches themselves are uptown, but they are supporting in the heart of the city not a mission or an evangelistic agency of any kind, but a settlement, performing a distinct work of a most valu- able kind for the district in which it is located. Some of the most effective church work which is being accom- plished to-day in the country is of this character. Such are some of the methods by which the churches can perform a social service to the community. One could wish not only that there were a greater number of churches seeking to fulfill their mission to the community, but that they should do so in the spirit of disinterestedness and cooperation. Where a church seeks its own increase instead of the increase of right- eousness, and where churches labor without any know- ledge of each other, the work accomplished must be fragmentary. An even greater need is that the spirit 134 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. of a true democracy pervade the church, in which social distinctions shall be lost sight of. Until this ideal has been at least in some measure attained, the church cannot expect by outer means to attract the multitudes. But where such a sentiment is a reality, where at the same time the spiritual message is not forgotten, but is exalted, there the church will be freed from the reproach of selfishness and indifference, and retain a position of undiminished influence and power. The work of missions calls for a special word. The mission is a religious and reformatory institution that performs the function of the church without ad- ministering the sacraments. Its object is to reach the masses with the religious appeal unhindered by the barriers which hedge in the church. Missions may be divided into different groups. One consists of the Gospel or rescue mission, whose sole object is to make the spiritual appeal in its frequent religious ser- vices. Other missions combine with their services the giving of food, clothing, and shelter. The bad results of this system have become so evident, however, that missions of this type are rapidly passing away. In the abstract they might seem to provide a substitute for the saloon of the most practical kind. Actually they tend to keep a man from honest labor and to put a premium upon hypocrisy. In some cases provision for labor is made : the best modern missions of this class invariably provide it. The wood yard, the shoe-shop, the brush and broom factory, and other methods are used to give men work. The majority of them make the condition of THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 135 entrance to be a willingness to work, this being consid- ered the essential condition of any personal reform. Ability as well as willingness is also a requisite, for otherwise cripples and invalids would prove the ruin of the industrial principle. Instead of the word " inmates," the men are called " employees," a change gratifying to the. men and promoting self-respect. No skilled help is employed. All the men are taught the trade after entering. All the work is carried on by men who come from the streets. Such is the mod- ern charity mission. It must be admitted that such institutions act as substitutes for the saloon, but it must be observed that now our mission has become a school, a reformatory, an industrial home ; it offers not only social opportunity, but other opportunities that a man needs in his normal life. It ministers to a frag- ment of our population who have no home, no friends, no work. It substitutes for many things that a man ought by right to have for himself. The social value of such institutions is in direct ratio to the adequacy of the methods employed to refit the man for a place in society. In so far as it performs this whole work, it will perform the work included within it of offering a social centre. A large number of missions direct their efforts entirely to reaching sailors. Sometimes they are churches, mariners' churches. They are also known as Port Societies, Seamen's Institutes, and Sailors' Homes. There is no denying the special needs of this class of men since many have no homes in the ports which they visit and are exposed to the temptations which the saloon affords. Sailors need spiritual ministry, but 136 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the social needs are so overwhelming that they would seem to demand greater recognition than as yet they have received. If possible, it would be well to have the religious services of the mission held apart from the reading and social rooms. The reading-room ought always to have the latest papers and magazines, instead of being fiUed with last year contributions from churches and families. The plan of having the build- ings controlled by the men themselves has been tried with success in some of the sailors' missions. The frequent absence for prolonged intervals of many men does not prevent the establishment of a committee upon which those may serve who are to be in port or near at hand for a longer or shorter season. Such are some of the more common types of missions. As for the Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America, these, too, prefer to treat the question of the saloon and its patronage from a spiritual standpoint rather than one merely of sociology or of ethics. Their peculiar duty is to bear heavily upon the hearts and consciences of mankind. This is the work they do with what consecration and success all the world knows. The Salvation Army has proved two things that the modern world needed to have freshly demonstrated : the power of the Gospel both to reach and to uplift the most degraded, the outcasts and the criminals ; and the power of the Gospel to attract to its service men and women of intelligence and culture who take literally the word of the Master that they leave all and follow Him. In this demonstration of the vitality of Chris- tianity in its most humane and missionary aspects lies the deepest service of the Salvation Army. Besides THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 137 this it may fairly be claimed for it that it reaches the masses as the ordinary mission does not do. Their work is prosecuted with success, and the sincerity of its promoters has disarmed much criticism. From the beginning, social service has been one of the great underlying ideas of the Salvation Army movement, which aims to care for the temporal as well as the si^iritual needs of men. A large part of the social work of the army, such as the project of country colonization, the means for providing temporary work in factories, labor yards, and work-shops, for securing permanent employment by labor bureaus, the work for children, the rescue homes, the hospitals and dispensa- ries, lies outside of the present discussion. Two forms of social enterprise in which the Volunteers of America and the Church Army participate must be described later, — the food depots, cheap restaurants and coffee- houses, and the shelters and workingmen's hotels. With these eliminations there is left the social oppor- tunity offered by the stations or barracks of the army, of which there are no less than 684 in the different cities of the country. These halls are always ready to be thrown open in times of special need. During the bliz- zards of winter, they give shelter to hundreds of home- less and freezing persons on the streets. Nearly two thousand homeless and destitute men and women were given food and shelter one night two winters ago in the shelters and barracks established by the army in the Borough of Manhattan. And it must be said that the army has demonstrated its sincerity to a degree which removes the repellent atmosphere adhering so often to relio'ious institutions. The social value of these halls 138 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. may be expressed in the words of a young man who said as he was leaving, " Coming in here has kept me out of the saloon for one night at any rate," and without any doubt he was but one of many hundreds. Still it is evident that since the rooms are intended primarily for purposes of evangelization, their influence as a social resort must be limited. It might be wished that the Salvation Army and other organizations would enter the field of substitution. Indeed, this has been begim. Public reading-rooms have in a few instances been established, but generally in connection with army headquarters. If such rooms could be thrown open along any of the streets of our cities, and provided with current papers and magazines, they would attract more visitors than they do now. One of the more radical commissioners of the army expressed himself in favor of having a smoking-room annexed to one of the halls. The halls of the Salvation Army and other armies are invariably located in the right spots. Their work- ers are almost without exception free from prejudice, and have a good hold upon the people. The army is in a position to do a larger work in providing for the temporary social needs of hundreds in our cities than it has yet attempted. It is impossible to appreciate the spirit and aim of the Young Men's Christian Association without under- standing precisely the motives of its founders, which have continued to be its ruling purpose. What im- pressed George Williams, when he went to London in 1841, was the appalling indifference to religion among multitudes of young men. His one object in beginning THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 139 the work which has grown to such dimensions was to awaken an interest in religion among the young trades- men of London. There was no other thought than to win men to a personal acceptance of religion. In a few years the methods employed broadened somewhat, but the purpose of the association itself was unaltered. It was still a " united body of young men working for Jesus Christ in the sphere of their daily calling." . It was essentially a missionary movement, the field being limited to the young men engaged in the trades and commerce of a modern city. The success of the asso- ciation in the eyes of its promoters was evidenced in the fact that many were converted by its efforts. This was the aim of all associations that were formed in America after the English models. It was to be an evangelistic effort on the part of Christian young men to bring others under religious influences. Noon prayer meetings, Sunday evening lectures, mission Sunday schools, — these were the methods commonly employed, and to-day when so much has been added to the original conception, the religious idea is still uppermost. All else is a means to this end. The one supreme aim is the extension of the kingdom of Christ among young men. " The object of this associ- ation," says one report, " is to persuade men to begin and continue in the Christian life." Educational and social features are contributed, but they are never the one determining end in themselves. That end is and always has been " the one unswerving devotion to the aim of winning young men to become Christians." ^ 1 History of the Young Men's Christian Association, by L. L. Dog- gett, p. 61. 140 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The development of the institution has been very rapid. Some causes for its success are the phenomenal growth of city population, which has made the problem of reaching the young men more and more pressing ; the fact that the movement put into practical expression the growing sense of denominational cooperation ; that it became an exponent of the modern spirit of Chris- tianity, which contemplates the development of the whole nature of a man, and finally that it offered to Christian laymen a practical field for religious effort. The adoption of the new methods of work, which made provision for the intellectual, social, and physical needs of young men, had much to do with this growth. Up to 1870, after twenty years of effort, the associations had acquired little permanent property and had few paid workers. Under the new policy, local associations began to multiply, buildings were erected, and paid offi- cers became the rule. To-day (Year Book of 1900) the total number of associations in existence in North America is 1439 ; 1293 of these report an aggregate membership of 255,472. The net value of buildings and all other property is estimated at over $20,000,000. The current expenses of 984 of these associations was over two and a half millions of dollars for the year. The opportunities which a modern Young Men's Christian Association offers to young men are too well known to need description. The dues are not over ten dollars a year for all the privileges, including the gymnasium, and sometimes they are as low as five dollars.^ Three dollars invariably admits to everything ^ There are only two associatious that charge over ten dollars for all privileges. THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 141 but the gymnasium, and often for one dollar one obtains the use for a year of a good reading-room, all kinds of amusements, evening classes, and clubs. The gymna- siums are often the very finest in the city. The evening classes take the place of a first-class business college. The social rooms are fitted up with every comfort. In some associations meals are served for the benefit of clerks, and young business men. Employment bureaus are common. Never before have the physical, mental, and social needs of young men been more amply sup- plied than in a modern Christian Association building. It is impossible not to be impressed with the value of its influence upon those who are connected with it. Many young men who frequent these association halls, which are kept open every night, are preserved from the temp- tations of city life. They are the centres of best influ- ences. A young man is always sure there of a personal interest, of good advice, of a helping hand, and hun- dreds receive there what they would never obtain else- where. Special mention ought to be made of one department of the Association. The work for railroad men was begun in 1872. There are now 151 railroad associa- tions, with a membership of 32,000. They are made especially attractive for railroad men, who may become members irrespective of creed, for whose needs special provision is made in the way of lodgings, smoking and readin" rooms, lunch counters, and evening classes. These associations are "homes away from home." That the railroad corporations appreciate their work is shown by the fact that they make an annual appro- priation of 1175,000 for their support. Foreign gov- 142 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. ernments are beginning to realize the importance of this work, and are seeking to establish similar institu- tions for railroad employees. In what follows, an excep- tion must in part be made of this department of the Christian association work. It is evident at once that association buildings, with all their splendid equipment, are not great democratic centres like Cooper Union and the public libraries, and that the Association itself is hardly a factor in what may be called the industrial problem. A few statistics will make this clear. The institution reaches, with all its different branches, but a fraction of the young men in any city, and the buildings, as a rule, are a long way from being filled to their utmost capacity, although thousands of men without work are needing a place of rest and amusement. Baltimore has at least 75,000 young men among its population, but the total Young Men's Christian Association membership is but 2398. All the New York branches have a combined member- ship of 4479 out of a total constituency of 550,000 men. Looking at the country at large, we find, according to the census of 1890, a total of 6,119,646 men between the ages of 16 and 44.-' In the 500 towns which sup- port Young Men's Christian Associations, we find a membership of 169,299 (Year Book of 1899), or about three per cent of the total. In Chicago there are 456,- 964 men. Of these in the four departments of the Young Men's Christian Association, there are but 4721 members, or but one per cent of the total. 1 These statistics and those following relating to Chicago are taken from a report prepared by Mr. J. T. Oaks and other members of the Chicago ^Association upon the religious condition of young men in the United States. THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 143 Of greater importance is the question of the class of young men who actually make use of the associa^ tion privileges. Of these young men it may be said that they consist of those who are in the main reli- gious in temperament, who are not adverse to a reli- gious environment ; that the majority of them have social connections in the city in which they reside ; and that they come from the better class of working- men, tradesmen and clerks, or members of professions, and not from the class of unskilled labor. It has been said, by some in authority, that at least sixty per cent of the young men connected with any association could be considered as belonging to the category of religious men — men, that is, who have come from Christian homes. In the Chicago Associa- tion (Central Department) sixty-seven per cent attend evangelical churches, while forty-four per cent indi- cate membership in some Protestant church. If these figures are at all representative, they show that the natural constituency of the association is limited to a very distinct portion of the men of our cities. For the most part, they are Protestant, and of these a con- siderable percentage are already affiliated with the church. Again, it can be shown by figures from at least one association that its influence upon the class of young men who are comparative strangers is rather meagre. We have taken the records of new members join- ing the principal branches in New York during the year 1897 with reference to length of residence in the city. 144 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Omb Month. One Month and XTNDBR One Teae. Twenty-third Street Branch West Side Branch . . . 115 39 12 10 14 14 Per cent. 14.47 6.02 2.42 3.66 9.52 21.87 130 71 44 1 17 16 22 ■ Per cent. 16.35 10.96 8.87 East Side Branch . . Young Men's Institute . . German Branch .... French Branch .... .50 6.22 10.89 34.37 Total 204 7.78 301 11.47 One Yeae and undeb FrvE Yeaes and Five Yeass. OTEB. Per cent. Per cent. Twenty-third Street Branch . 153 19.25 258 32.45 West Side Branch .... 122 18.83 242 37.34 Harlem 73 14.72 145 29.23 East Side Branch .... 13 6.50 64 32.00 'Young Men's Institute . . . 28 10.22 154 56.41 German Branch 9 6.12 29 19.73 French Branch 18 28.13 10 15.63 Total 416 15.86 902 34.39 Total. Twenty-third Street Branch .... West Side Branch 139 174 222 122 64 79 Per cent. 17,48 26.85 44.76 61.00 23.44 53.74 795 648 496 East Side Branch Young Men's Institute 200 273 147 64 Total 800 30.50 2623 THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 145 It is therefore evident that but a small proportion of those who become intimately acquainted with this association are actually strangers in the city. These may occasionally frequent the rooms, but they do not at once find a home there. On the whole, it may be said that the Association finds its principal field among the young men who presumably have fixed social con- nections. Excellent as the work of the Association is, it leaves untouched the question of social recreation for the young men coming to New York without any acquaintances and striving to make their way. That the membership of the Association is not re- cruited from the ranks of unskilled labor may be seen by scanning the rolls of any association membership. Of the 289 members of the Young Men's Institute branch in New York, 98 are clerks and salesmen, 45 are mechanics, 23 printers and lithographers, and 14 engineers and firemen. Of the 3547 members of the Central Department of the Chicago Association, 2517 are engaged in mercantile pursuits, 557 in the profes- sions, 402 perform skilled labor, and only 71 are un- skilled laborers. Or, if we look at the question of nationality, we discover that although fifty-eight per cent of the wage-earners of Chicago are foreign born, and only twenty per cent are native Americans, no less than seventy-seven per cent of the membership of the Central Department are Americans and only twenty-three per cent are foreign born or of foreign parentage. If this evidence is at all conclusive, it is apparent that the Association is doing a splendid social work among a certain number of young men in our large 146 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. cities, its constituency being composed of mechanics and tradesmen who are for the most part native-born and fixed residents, inclined by training and tempera- ment to religious ideas ; but that it is failing to reach the mass of the men in our cities who desperately need the very advantages which the Association offers. Such a conclusion wiU draw forth varying replies. One will be that such a constituency is the legitimate field of association effort ; that the Association does not seek to be a factor in the industrial problem ; that if the doors should be flung open to every one, those whom the Association most desires to help would not remain ; that it is on the whole better policy to work for a few and do much for them rather than to shelter and amuse hundreds for whom nothing more could be done. Such a view is not necessarily narrow. Apparent limitation is often the highest wisdom. Others will be dissatisfied, unwilling that before so great a need the Association should continue to min- ister to so few and to those who seem least in need. They will seek to amend the constitution, to adopt new methods whereby the constituency will be in- creased. They will advocate the abolishment of the " membership " test requiring a controlling member of the Association to belong to some evangelical church. By making the Association less of a church annex, they will hope to attract those who are not in sym- pathy with religious ideas. They will favor the erec- tion of lodging-houses, the maintenance of coffee- houses, restaurants and reading-rooms to be used by all, in which the religious element makes no appear- ance. They will seek to introduce amusements like THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 147 billiards, smoking, and card-playing, maintaining that under right conditions these are not vicious, that there is no reason why they should not have their place in an institution whose aim is to minister to all classes of men. The State Association of Connecticut already permits the use of billiards in the different Associa^ tions, and the state secretary writes that this form of amusement has done no harm and has " helped mate- rially in holding the membership." The most radical proposition of all will insist upon a utilization of the present Young Men's Christian Association buildings in all our cities as resorts for the wage-earner no matter what sacrifice the change may involve. Here is the greatest need and the most difficult work now confronting American Chris- tianity. All means thus far employed have proved totally inadequate. And here stand expensive and splendidly equipped buildings by no means filled to their utmost capacity, which thousands of men will never think of entering so long as they remain centres for evangelistic or religious work. A separation of religious exercises from association buildings will be seen to be the only solution of the problem, and the buildings will then be thrown open to workingmen, and the prejudice which at present keeps them away will gradually disappear. As to the present constitution and traditions of the Association no change would be necessary. Religious services and Bible classes will be held in adjacent church buildings. Bands of young men in all our churches will be enrolled as Association members, and a real service will have been rendered in thus connecting 148 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. religiously inclined young men immediately with the churches. The benefits to the Association would be incalculable if by this means the association buildings might minister to the needs of thousands of those who most need help in the midst of the social evils of our city life. The one essential condition of a Settlement is the residence of one or more persons among the poorer classes, for the purpose of ascertaining and supplying, in some degree, their needs. The settlement, no mat- ter of what name or kind, realizes the ideal of a social democracy. The attitude of the settlement toward all questions of reform, toward the problem of the saloon in its relation to the people, for example, is clearly seen by this definition of its real position in the social organ- ism. It is the natural opponent of any effort to reform actual conditions that does not proceed from a correct appreciation of those conditions based upon a personal experience of them, for in this way reform becomes in- terference from without, does not- spring from a real sense of brotherhood. Any effort to practice upon one class of society theories conceived by another class has the fatal defect inherent in any divided social order. When, as realized by the settlement, society is not two but one, then the woes of the one will become the woes of the other and the needs of one the needs of the other, and only then can true reform be either justly con- ceived or successfully achieved. The temper of settlement work varies according as the emphasis is laid upon the personal force or upon the development of institutional activity. Thus the THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 149 aim of one settlement is described in these terms : " Our settlement has for its aim to develop through study and action in this single locality new ways of meeting some of the serious problems of society, such as may be ap- plied in other places, and to draw into this effort the finest available powers of heart and mind." A personal influence is the chief opponent of the saloon. The value of such a method of work is not express- ible in facts or figures. Its influence in overcoming the hold of the saloon cannot be computed ; it must be inferred. The effort is to create social resources in the personal life, in the home, and in the natural associa- tions of the people which will lessen the appeal of the saloons. The desire of a higher kind of recreation is created and fostered. As the life of the community becomes itself more beautiful, the coarser elements of the environment occupy a proportionately inferior posi- tion and exert a gradually diminishing influence. Like any other growth, this development is gradual, but it is none the less real. Evidences of its progress, however, are not wanting. It is seen in the growing sense of self-respect in many families that feel the influence of the settlement. It is seen in the looks and the dress of the children. It is foimd in the decrease of visible drunkenness in the neighborhood ; it is evidenced in the growth of better ideals, in an increased interest in the hisrher concerns of life. To illustrate from the ex- perience of a single settlement, which is the experience of them all : The head worker says that in the course of nearly five years he has not known on the premises one dozen cases of intoxication, while there used to be that number every week. Of even more interest is his 150 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. estimate that to-day not thirty per cent of the men connected in one way or another with the settlement vote for Tammany, while five years ago they were a unit in their support of the Tammany ticket. There is no need to specify the means by which such results are attained. The point to be borne in mind is this : that even where settlements are not institutions, where they do little in the way of direct substitution, of offering an asylum from the social evils of the com- munity, they still exert a powerful and pervasive influ- ence in overcoming the attractions of the saloon. If there were one direction in which it might be wished that this influence should make itself felt, it is upon the life of the existing adult clubs of the community, and especially the young men's clubs, which remain as sheep having no shepherd. It is the most needed, and the least attempted of all the forms of settlement work in America to-day. But no settlement contents itself with being only the centre of a personal influence, but seeks to improve the external conditions of life by whatever means it can. The activities of any settlement depend upon the size of the building, the number of residents, and upon the kind of work which the settlement proposes for the most part to do. Most settlements devote their energies chiefly to the children and to the young people. It is the exception to find large numbers of men over twenty-five years of age connected directly with any of the settlements. The age at which the boy drops away varies. Some give it at eighteen years, others at twenty and others at twenty-one, and all agree that it becomes increas- THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 151 ingly difficult after that age to hold and interest the men. To this fact must be added another, and that is the lack of equipment, which prevents many settle- ments from doing for the men the kind of work they would like to undertake. A large room in which smok- ing is permitted is the essential condition for any such work, and even this many settlements do not possess. Some have buildings adjacent to the settlement house itself in which many methods of providing for the social life of the neighborhood are successfully carried on. The most common, and the most useful of these as a means of recreation, are the entertainments of a social nature given from time to time, to which both men and women are admitted. These entertainments never fail to attract the people in large numbers, and it is interesting to observe that the numbers have been the greatest when the programme was presented by the young people themselves. One settlement pro- vided thirty-one of these entertainments from October to May, the total attendance being 6731. Nearly every settlement has its dancing class. The opportu- nities thus offered for social enjoyment in the midst of elevating surroundings is in every way beneficial. Some of the pupils of dancing classes have been led to join other classes, and a few have been stimulated to take a college education. Sometimes these social gatherings are even more informal and consist simply of a social hour for all who care to attend. But how- ever simple in character, they are direct substitutes for the saloon. The settlement is often the only place in the neighborhood at which rational and harmless amuse- ment can be enjoyed. 152 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Next in importance as saloon substitutes are the different clubs and classes for men. Almost without exception, these clubs, if they are not of a wholly social nature, are for the study or discussion of current political, economic, or sociological problems. These are the interests, as we have seen, which command the attention of the adult wage-earners of any community. For the older men are sometimes provided occasional conferences on modern problems. To these discussions women are admitted. For the younger men similar discussions and debates are attractive. The club that will hold the interest longest is a citizenship club, or an economic club, or some association that tends to bring the members into intelligent connection with the problems of the day. The school extension class of one settlement graduates its members into the munici- pal departments. Eleven men have gone from it into the police, thirteen into the department of street cleaning, and another into the office of sewer assess- ments. The citizenship club of another settlement was instrumental in calling a public meeting on the water question. Almost invariably it is found that some such methods as these must be employed if the young men are to be held after they have been gradu- ated from the boys' clubs. But what is needed above everything else is a plan by which young men may be held to the settlement instead of drifting away, as is so often the case. Un- less this can be accomplished, the work of the settle- ments for men must at the best be the least successful of their different activities. The best plan for retain- ing the hold upon the men is to give them a real THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 153 responsibility in the control of the settlement house as a whole, and not merely to train them in the habits of self-government within their own organizations. The method rests upon the simple proposition that with adult life comes a growing sense of independence, a growing sense of restraint under management, how- ever beneficent, a growing desire to initiate, and to control. Young people of a certain age much prefer to do things rather than to have things done for them. It is here that the guild idea has its hold. The guild committee of the University Settlement, to which reference has already been made, does things and feels free to criticise points of management or policy which do not meet their approval. It can act in a legislative capacity upon some matters, and is an advisory board to the head worker upon others. The results of such a plan have been plainly seen in the continuous hold which the settlement has maintained upon those clubs after their members have grown to adult years. The original young men's club does not exist to-day, it is true ; but the only reason for this is that the neighborhood has changed, and the German families, from which the club was recruited, have moved away. The club, originally composed of boys from fourteen to eighteen years of age, now men of from twenty-five to twenty-nine years old, stiU exists with practically the same members. But the work of the settlements in counteracting the social attractions of the saloon goes beyond an indi- rect influence upon the neighborhood as a whole, and even beyond direct provision for the social needs of its own constituency. The effort has been made to 154 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. establish and operate direct social substitutes open to aU the residents of the neighborhood, whether or not they are connected with the settlement itself. This is a recent development and one which has not as yet been carried very far. Reading-rooms, diet kitchens, and coffee-houses have been established and success- fully conducted ; and a few settlements in the country are endeavoring to meet this problem by the most heroic of all means. The settlement house itself is made a home for families or individuals, and supplies within that home means of sociability and of self-improve- ment. In the city of Buffalo a tenement block with no fewer than one hundred families in it was rented by a settlement worker. It was one of the worst in the city and in the worst possible location. The block was put in good repair and rented to fifty-six tenants, who have sub-rented until it is occupied at present by full one hundred families, only now certain rules of hygiene are insisted upon ; classes have been started and clubs organized from among the occupants. There are amusement rooms and entertainments, a library and a savings bank, and, needless to say, a new order of life among the little colony of five hundred people. There is every reason for believing that the provi- sion for direct substitutes can be accomplished more speedily and managed more wisely by the settlements than by any other agency. This would be a most fortu- nate extension of the fund of wisdom and of consecrated personal energy already represented by the fourscore of settlements existing to-day in America. There would doubtless be no aversion upon the part of the settlement people to undertake the responsibility. THE CHURCH, MISSION, AND SETTLEMENT. 155 They possess a knowledge of the field not possessed or obtainable by any others than actual residents and trained observers. They have a habit of mind which precludes the possibility of any taint of patronage in their several undertakings. They are not " foreign- ers " v?ho are invading for the purposes of reform. And last but not least, they are free from any religious or temperance bias which subjectively and objectively alike has proved the ruin of many a well-intentioned enterprise. If churches, Women's Christian Temper- ance unions, Young People's societies, and private individuals would utilize the settlements as their agents in such schemes, instead of attempting to man- age them alone, there would be fewer failures in the difficult work of substitution. CHAPTER Vn. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. Mant of the resorts of the people during the winter months have already been described : the evening schools, lectures and classes of all kinds, the reading- rooms and libraries. Such clubs as are at the disposal of the working people are now crowded. All of these furnish a certain amount of amusement and recreation. It is the purpose of the present chapter, however, to endeavor to. estimate the ethical value of certain dis- tinctively amusement agencies, especially as they oper- ate as substitutes for the saloon. A discussion of the value of billiard and pool rooms as social centres is simplified somewhat by the discovery that the opportunity to indulge in this pastime is gen- erally inseparable from the sale of intoxicating liquors. The saloons and the hotels furnish ordinarily the rendezvous for the billiard player. The number of biUiard rooms or halls in any city which exist entirely separate from a saloon or a bar is very limited. In Baltimore only thirteen were to be found, of which one was situated next to a saloon and another had a passage connecting it with an adjacent bar-room. In Denver of seventy-six pool and billiard rooms, sixty were licensed as adjuncts of saloons or clubs, and of the remainder several were next door to a saloon. Chicago has one hun- dred and forty billiard halls, but only those in the local INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 157 option districts of Hyde Park and Englewood are free from the sale of liquors. In Philadelphia and Boston, where comparatively few of the saloons have appliances for either billiards or pool, many more billiard-rooms were found ; but even where their number is sufficiently large appreciably to effect the situation, their depend- ence upon adjacent saloons is commonly too great to give them much value as saloon substitutes. Frequently the billiard-room is placed as near as possible to a saloon, sometimes above it, sometimes next door to it, often with a connecting passage. The idea of the billiard- room proprietor is, generally speaking, to see how many of the saloon patrons he can attract to his own estab- lishment after or between drinks. He does not seri- ously contemplate building up a patronage of his own. One proprietor computed it in this way : " The saloon next me does a business aggregating a thousand dollars a week. I expect fully fifty per cent of this patronage to come to me during the evening and on Saturday afternoons, to 'loaf between drinks.' In this way I can do business." In New York it was not evident that many of the billiard halls had a saloon connection. They seemed to shift their location frequently, evidently seeking the cheapest rents. But an examination of the places and of their patrons showed that the relation between them and the saloons was very close. It is doubtful also if the " atmosphere " of ordinary billiard- rooms is appreciably different from that of the saloon, or if it really encourages its patrons to any higher standard of conduct. It is commonly the loafing-place of the toughs and sports of the neighborhood who are already confirmed saloon patrons. It is the stepping- 158 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. stone to the saloon of the youth who has not already contracted the drink habit. In a word, the transition from the pool-room to the saloon is very easy, and the patrons of the one are already or tend very naturally to become patrons of the other. The question of how far the billiard hall fosters the gambling habit is a difficult one to answer. Of course, playing for drinks or for the cost of a game, in itself a gambling device, is a common matter of courtesy. Beyond this certain billiard-rooms in any city undoubt- edly exist, well known to the " talent," where bets are made and encouraged by the proprietor, but in general it can probably be said that billiards is not a gambling game. It depends too much on skiU, too little on chance, and gives no opportunity for cheating. As one man put it, "Professional gamblers won't touch bil- liards ; it 's too honest a game." ^ Yet all things con- sidered, it must be admitted that the billiard-rooms of our cities as they exist are not in any legitimate sense ethical substitutes for the saloon. The same estimate must be made of the bowling-alleys, and, to a less extent, of the shooting-galleries, although the latter are not numerous enough seriously to enter into the pro- blem. They both eater to the saloon trade rather than offset it. They are a saloon annex rather than a saloon rival. It thus unfortunately comes to pass that even the most popular games requiring skill and intelligence are found to be in such close connection with the drink habit that they cannot be counted among the number of the all too few means of offsetting it. The situa- tion certainly suggests the possibility of rescuing these ^ From the Chicago report. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 159 legitimate means of entertainment from the associations which tend to degrade them, of making them helpful instead of harmful centres of recreation. Under com- petent management they would certainly be self-sup- porting. In every city, especially in the tenement districts, there are public halls which serve as centres for the social life of the neighborhood. A study of the differ- ent forms of social activity carried on in these haUs gives one an idea of the scope of the social life of the working people. These halls are in effect the common drawing-rooms, ballrooms, and music-rooms of hun- dreds of families living in the same district. Not only concerts and dances, but private weddings and family celebrations as well are commonly given in them. The best known and best managed of these haUs are in constant demand.^ The manager of one of them in the East Side of New York said recently that a series of balls and weddings had just closed which had run through twenty-seven nights. These halls will accom- modate from five to twelve hundred persons, and can be rented for thirty dollars a night for a wedding or a ball. The manager of the dance pays for the hall, hires an orchestra of from four to six instruments, and expects to be more than repaid by the sale of tickets at twenty-five and thirty-five cents. These halls are also the headquarters of the dancing classes and academies. The social value of these classes is very great. They afford one of a very few means of recreation where the sexes can meet upon a decent 1 Year Book of the University Settlement of New York, 1899, p. 39. 160 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. footing. For the most part these dancing classes are respectably conducted, and there is a good deal of taste and refinement to be found even in the poorest. The use of liquors between dances is seldom carried too far. The chief object is to have a social evening, and those who attend are more bent on social enjoyment than upon drinking. Moreover the dancers are on specially good behavior, since they know that otherwise they will lose their proficiency, and there is considerable compe- tition for the distinction of being the most graceful dancer. The question of the ethical value of these amusement centres depends upon the use to vs^hich they are put and upon the presence or absence of the bar. Some halls acquire a bad name and become the rendezvous for the rougher classes of girls and men. In some cities the proprietor is always licensed to maintain a bar, and then intoxication is common, especially at the larger dances, when between seven and eight hundred persons attend. At smaller dances, greater respecta- bility is maintained because the company is more select. At the weddings excessive drinking is rare. It is at the public balls that disorder is at its height, when the beer flows freely. All this emphasizes the need of public meeting-places where liquor is not served and where a high social tone may be cultivated. Just as the summer problem is one of getting out of door meet- ing-places and breathing-spaces, so the winter Calls for respectable, quiet, and well-ventilated public halls as the solution of its social problem. A common form of amusement for men is furnished INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 161 by the athletic clubs or associations which conduct boxing and sparring exhibitions during the winter months. In Philadelphia, for example, there are no less than six such associations, and the bouts occur in the season at very frequent intervals.^ All who are interested in the better conditions for the working peo- ple will agree that this sport, even at its best, is not a desirable form of amusement, yet it is impossible not to say a word in its defense. In the first place, it must be recognized that a good deal of surplus energy can be worked off at these places in a very short time. The thirst for excitement, which often drives a man to drink, is here quickly satisfied. The interest is per- haps more intense than at any other kind of sport. Here is competition in its most vivid form ; the atten- tion is strained to the last degree. A man goes home exhausted after such an evening. He has had all that he can stand of excitement for the time being. Then, too, the element of brutality at these limited round contests is not so great as might be imagined. As a rule, the six-round contests at the Arena or the Indus- trial Hall of Philadelphia are much less brutal than the average football or wrestling match. The man- agers, for one thing, do not enjoy the notoriety which bruising contests bring them, and do their best to avoid their occurrence. Eighteen minutes does not offer sufficient time for any great amount of damage to be done, especially since neither of the principals is anxious to score a " knock out." Disgusting, then, as these contests often are from an esthetic or even moral point of view, they are not an unmitigated evil ^ From the Philadelphia report. 162 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. by any means, for often they seem to develop the vir- tue of honesty as well as to put a premium upon pluck. In " A Ten Years' War," Mr. Kiis describes one of these " mills " and brings out the point of which we have spoken.i " The hall was jammed with a rough and noisy crowd, hotly intent upon its favorite. His opponent, who hailed, I think, from somewhere in Delaware, was greeted with hostile demonstrations as a 'foreigner.' But as the battle wore on, and he was seen to be fair and manly, while the New Yorker struck one foul blow after another, the attitude of the crowd changed rapidly from enthusiastic approval of the favorite to scorn and contempt ; and in the last round, when he knocked the Delawarean over with a foul blow, the audience rose in a body and yelled to have the fight given to the ' foreigner,' until my blood tingled with pride. For the decision would leave it practically without a cent. It had staked all it had on the New Yorker. ' He is a good man,' I heard on all sides, while the once favorite sneaked away without a friend. ' Good ' meant fair and manly to that crowd. I thought, as I went to the office the next morning, that it ought to be easy to appeal to such a people with measures that were fair and just, if we could only get on common ground. But the only hint I got from my reform paper was an editorial denuncia- tion of the brutality of boxing, on the same page that had an enthusiastic review of the college football sea- son. I do not suppose it did any harm, for the paper was probably not read by one of the men it had set out to reform. Yet suppose it had been, how much 1 A Ten Years' War, pp. 258, 259. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 163 would it have appealed to them ? Exactly the quali- ties of robust manliness which football is supposed to encourage in college students had been evoked by the trial of strength and skill which they had witnessed. As to the brutality, they knew that fifty young men are maimed or killed at football to one who fairs ill in a boxing-match. Would it seem to them common sense, or cant and humbug?" Of the smaller amusement enterprises which appear from time to time along the streets of our cities, there is little to be said in this place. Their influence upon the social life of the people is meagre and intermit- tent. A shooting-gallery will attract for a time, the mutoscope will reap its harvest of pennies, and any novelty, if duly placed on exhibition with a suitable amount of advertising, will draw its crowds of boys and girls if not of men. The more stable of these places of entertainment are the dime museums, aqua^ riums, and nickelodeons, which occupy a kind of middle ground between the circus and the playhouse. It is here that the three-legged boy or the double-headed woman, the orang-outang, and the sea serpent can be seen. It is here that Madame Bosca swallows live snakes, that the human ostrich eats nails and glass and knives, that the India-rubber man turns himself inside out. Usually there is a poor sort of dramatic entertainment given in an adjacent room called " com- edy skits " of doubtful taste ; clog-dancing, juggling, songs, and " acting " of all kinds have their place. The patronage of the best of these museums is gen- erally large. Thus Austin & Stone's Museum on 164 SUBSTITUTES FOB. THE SALOON. Scollay Square,. Boston, is usually filled during the afternoon and evening at almost any season of the year. Something is going on there all the time, and the " fakes " are few. The crowd is made up very largely of men and boys whose idle time and spare dimes are consumed without much damage being done to their morals. The lowest of these places are very low. Between the best and worst are those which make a point of sensational advertisement. Within they are harmless enough, and when their true char- acter becomes too well known, they move on to another locality. The character of all these places, then, varies considerably. Where they are not absolutely bad, they have a certain value in the number and character of their constituency, whose time and money would better be spent there than in the saloons. The most important place of amusement for the people, together with the saloon and the public hall, is without doubt the theatre. It is necessary to see to what extent the theatre is available for the people and what its total influence is as a centre of recreation. It is important at the start to make a distinction, for the discussion of the saloon as a social centre reminds us that the line between the saloon-theatre and the theatre itself is not always very clear. Sometimes saloons have a theatre annex, and sometimes theatres permit smoking and drinking. A theatre, for the pur- pose of this discussion, is a place where a stage per- formance is given for which an admission price is charged. This eliminates the saloons which offer some sort of INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 165 dramatic entertainment and the music halls. These music halls, so called, are in reality saloons of the lowest type run under a different name. They are worse than ordinary saloons, since they combine the vice of prostitution with that of intemperance. Ad- mission is free. The women, after performing, fre- quently circulate through the haU in order to persuade the men to " set them up " to drinks. Needless to say these places are the centres of an immense amount of social vice. There is absolutely no good in them, and it is difficult to understand why they are allowed the protection of the law in any of our American cities. The same may be said of the saloon vaudeville shows. They are an unmitigated nuisance, a public misfortune of such dimensions that no time should be lost in abso- lutely prohibiting them. No saloon should be allowed to present any form of dramatic entertainment. Inva- riably, as might be expected, the performance is low and degrading. The tendency is always downward. The difficulty of drawing the people into decent places of amusement must be great when it has to rival the free saloon performances. The very men that frequent these places and the music halls are the men that most need decent recreation. Here is a sample of what they have given them in a well-known Chicago saloon- theatre : — PROGEAMME Week Beginning Monday, August 14, 1899. The performance will commence with the screaming comedy by Jim Smith, entitled McCkackbn's Reception. 166 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Characters by Company. Staff Promoter H. Besch. Matchmaker H. Blanchard. Referee Jim Smith. Bottleholder Fred Kettler. Timekeeper E. Jay Smith. Time, First Eound in Favor of ANNXB GOLDIE. The West Side Slasher, LEO FLOEBNCE. BESSIE EATMOSTD. She is Handy with Her Mitts. Jeffries' Next Opponent, MR. PEED HAWLET. MABEL LEONDO, Heroine of a Million Matches — Parlor, Sulphur, and Otherwise. SADIE MAESH, The Victor of many Defeats. SMITH vs. FLOEENCE, With a Bunch of Siler Gossip. The Airweight Champion, MISS NELLIE BUENS. The Misses GOLDIE VS. RAYMOND Will Meet All Comers. The Modern Atlas, GEOEGE WILSON, In Feats of Heavy Lifting, etc. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 167 The Unknown and Undefeated ANNIE LESLIE. MISS TOPSY TURVT, In Training for a Kough House. A Good Trainer, Adviser, and Fixer, MABEL LEONDO. A Grand Wrestling-Match. MK. WILSON Will Meet a Different Man Each Evening. The effect of such an evening's entertainment is not difficult to imagine. The least that any American city can do for its people is to prohibit immoral liquor sellers, from debauching the minds of its citizens. There is no such thing in America to-day as a real theatre of the people, — a theatre, that is, specially designed to amuse and at the same time to instruct the working men and women of our cities and country dis- tricts. That is not to say that there are not some theatres which are accomplishing this end, but generally speaking, it is true that all of our theatres to-day are in the control of private capital if not of huge syndicates, whose prime object is to see how much they can make, without very much of idealism in a profession which by every right should command a good deal of it. This applies to high-priced and low-priced theatres alike, for the bond between the two is closer than most people suppose. The nearest approach to the ideal in our day is the occasional performance in the best theatres which appeals directly to the sympathies and best sentiments of the working people. When Jeffer- son or Maude Adams is playing, it is a pleasure to visit 168 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the galleries, if only to see hundreds of the working people following the performance with the greatest delight. It makes one long for the dawn of the real metropolitan theatre for the people. If we look, however, simply at the theatres whose regular admission is as low as ten cents and never above fifty cents, the prospect is certainly not encour- aging. These theatres can be divided roughly into three classes, as they offer vaudeville performances, melodrama, or opera. The chief causes for discourage- ment lie in the number and character of the vaudeville or variety ^hows ; in the fact that the melodrama and standard plays are gradually losing their hold, and that the popular opera, an excellent institution, does not seem to attract the wage-earner, but has become rather the resort of the middle class. The low-priced vaudeville theatre is generally a poor, and often a vile place of amusement. There are good vaudeville theatres, but these are not intended for the working people. Keith's theatres in Boston and New York are an example. The performers are instructed to cut out of their parts anything suggestive or indeli- cate, under penalty of an immediate cancellation of the engagement. As a consequence, Keith's theatres are known to the " profession " as the " Sunday-school route." As another consequence, they are good places of amusement. Unhappily, they are not frequented by the people that most need them. The bulk of the attendance is made up of the thrifty middle class ; the poorer people do not attend except as an occasional luxury. The reason is that they are not expected to come, and they know it. Prices are not absolutely INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 169 prohibitive ; indeed, they may be but a fraction above what they are in a lower class theatre in the next block, but a sense of the fitness of things, if not of personal inclination, keeps the laboring man from going to any one of these higher class vaudeville theatres. The Haymarket Theatre of Chicago is a possible illustration of a popular vaudeville theatre of the better class. The seats cost anywhere from ten to thirty cents, and the average attendance is four thou- sand, of which fifteen hundred are men. The pro- gramme includes acrobats and trained animals, the funny man and the kinetoscope, the cake walk, coon songs, and the " comedy skits." There is nothing to hurt in all this, for if the jokes are stale they are not bad, and the whole performance is well above the aver- age. The working girls crowd the matinees, and on Sundays the boys take their bread and butter and "camp out" all day. Of this theatre it may be said that it does a minimum of harm even if it does not do much good. But the vaudeville theatres to which women resort in any numbers are very few. This is of itself a suffi- cient index to their general character. Investigation reveals that there is good reason for their absence. It is not alone that smoking and drinking are often per- mitted in the cheap vaudeville houses ; indeed, it is doubtful if these privileges are often abused, for here the main thing is the play, and not the drink. The drinking is an accommodation to the patron, not a source of gain to the proprietor. The man who has paid his dime or his quarter for the show wants the 170 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. show ; the rest is an incident. It is the character of the show, then, that accounts for the absence of women. Even here there is possibly something favorable to be said. Take the matter of stage dress. We may have our own theories of what it ought to be. That does not prove, however, that if the costumes do not corre- spond to our sense of propriety, they are therefore necessarily immoral in their effect on others. Again, because the language is not refined, it does not follow that the results are altogether demoralizing. It is probably true that the ears that hear are accustomed to much worse than the theatre affords, and pass it by without much thought, looking for something novel to interest and fasten the attention. ^ Within limits, then, a performance could shock a finer sensibility, and stiU do no appreciable added harm to those that witness it. But in freeing such theatres from one indictment, we have only brought upon them another. If such performances do not debase, they certainly do not uplift. Instead of directing the thoughts, as they easily might, to what is at least wholesome and novel, they select that which of all else most needs to be for- gotten, and thus give the mind no freedom, and offer it no outlet into the freshness and vigor of new life. This is the sin of such performances as are not posi- tively and grossly degrading. The programme will begin, for example, with a gayly costumed " Burletta," or operetta. It is entitled " A Tenderloin Soiree." It represents a midnight banquet, followed by a masked ball, with much drinking and singing and gambling, culminating in a grand raid by 1 From the Philadelphia report. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 171 the police. Following this comes the " polite " or up-to- date vaudeville part of the programme. Now the con- tortionists, the jugglers, the Irish comedians, the skirt dancers, the solo singers appear. Sometimes the acro- bats do well ; the singers and comedians are invariably the worst part of the programme. They are unac- countably coarse, and sometimes vile in their parts. If a prizefighter is not on hand to punch the bag, or to spar with a " partner," the vitascope will reproduce the last great fight. A year or so ago, living pictures would have been represented. Occasionally they are still seen, with spicy dialogues as interludes. A comedy sketch is an invariable feature, which usually harps on family quarrels and divorce suits, and only rarely touches on a real bit of human sentiment. The per- formance concludes with a burlesque or extravaganza, in which the whole company appears in Amazon marches and dances, culminating in a grand chorus, with calcium- light effect and the curtain. Now, in all of this there may have been nothing which could be specifically desig- nated as thoroughly bad, but the whole performance has been upon a low level. The enjoyment, if such it may be called, has been of a sad and dull kind. There has been no relief from the ordinary, the lower preoccupa- tion of the mind. But even here the limit has not been reached, for where the civic conscience or police regulation does not prohibit, some of these variety theatres are constant offenders against ordinary decency. They will go just as far as the law allows, and need watching all the time that they go no further. Songs and dialogues and pantomimes are full of the vilest innuendo, and that of 172 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. a dead and nasty kind. There is no attempt at wit. When women performers share with the men in offer- ing this kind of entertainment, the effect is unspeak- ably disgusting. The spectators, as a rule, maintain a sullen silence, only now and then interrupted by a hoarse laugh. On the whole a bar-room would offer a welcome escape from such performances as these, which are not by any means uncommon. In some theatres they are the rule. The sad thing about all this is that the number of variety theatres is on the increase, and because of their low prices thousands of the wage- earners of our cities who most need decent and helpful recreation attend places where they cannot find much that is good and are pretty sure to get a good deal that is bad. Another cause for discouragement when one is con- sidering the theatre as an amusement centre for the wage-earner is the gradual decline of the melodrama. The melodrama may have its inherent defects as a dra- matic composition, but its total effect upon its hearers is, on the whole, above criticism. It bears the Aristo- telian test of purging the passions. It sets things morally in their right relations. Evil is never so black, good never so alluring, as in the melodrama. The fact that the plays are sensational amounts to nothing. It is a sensation that those want and need who come there. True the sensation might be a better one, but still it is on the whole a good one, and often the play presents a very decided and unusual ethical lesson. Take, for example, the celebrated Irish play of " Kerry Gow." All the characters of the stereotyped Irish play are present, — the poor blacksmith lover, the sweet-faced INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 173 heroine, the villain who forecloses the mortgage upon the farm of the heroine's father, the even lower villain who hides weapons in the blacksmith's forge, so that the hero may be arrested upon a charge which, if proved, means death. Other plays are the " Knobs of Tennes- see," " Arizona," " Human Hearts," " Piney Ridge." The time was when the theatre presenting such plays was the people's theatre. It would be crowded nightly with men and boys as well as women, who were as ready to hiss the villain and applaud the hero as if they had not done so a hundred times before. Unhappily that day seems to be passing, if indeed it is not already gone. Theatre proprietors say that the people do not want such plays any longer. Probably the influence of the higher grade theatres has made itself felt for the worse. Possibly it is simply a temporary fluctuation in the theatre market. At any rate, the melodrama does not occupy, for whatever reason, the place it did a few years ago, and the change has been decidedly for the worse. In Boston, the Grand Dime, which for years offered melodrama, has introduced vaudeville numbers. In New York, the Star Theatre is the only one that still clings to melodrama, and there the prices are twenty-five and fifty cents. In Buffalo, the Lyceum Theatre keeps a list of standard plays running, but it is the only one of its kind in the city. In Chicago, the Bijou advertises widely, draws large houses, and offers, as a rule, good plays. The Academy of Music is on a lower plane. In San Francisco, the tendency away from melodrama is seen in the change that has over- taken Morosco's Grand Opera House. For four years it was the favorite and crowded resort of the working 174 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. people. Melodrama, without a break, held the stage, and the Opera House, which is the largest in the city, was of more importance than all the theatres in the city are now. At the recent change to grand and comic opera — a point in itself worth noticing — the old " Morosco audience," which had wept and hissed and laughed at melodrama so long, drifted away, and now most of them are probably breathing tobacco smoke at the Orpheum.^ Denver, Minneapolis, Cleveland, At- lanta, all report at least one theatre where melodrama still thrives ; and wherever it lives and holds true to its purpose, it is doing more to furnish good amusement for the people than all the rest of the theatres in the city combined. No more interesting experiment has been made of late years in the theatrical world than that of offering the standard operas at popular prices. The idea origi- nated at the Castle Square Theatre in Boston, proved an immediate success, continued for two years, and was the beginning of similar experiments in Chicago and New York. Both the orchestra and the singers, a stock company of about fifty members, were good. The operas were selected from among the French and even German classics. Nothing more desirable could be imagined than that twenty-five cents should admit one to a performance of the " Bohemian Girl," " Faust," " Fra Diavolo," or " The Huguenots." Such was the original intention of the projector of the enterprise, whose sole object was not financial profit. StiU from a pecuniary point of view the experiment has proved successful. Chicago and New York both report crowded houses and 1 From the San Francisco report. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 175 much appreciation upon the part of the general public. But it must be admitted that the musical education of the people has not as yet proceeded far enough to make even excellent music of this type alluring to the work- ingman. It has seemed to appeal to those who have already some musical taste, not to those who most need it. The audiences, as a rule, are composed of a class better than one would expect to find at performances charging so little. Having come then upon an excel- lent thing, we find that our constituency has slipped away. The rate of admission, character of the enter- tainment, the fine exterior and appointments, and the higher class of patronage all have something to do with the absence of the working people. This is true even of the Tivoli Opera House of San Francisco, which presents good grand and comic operas and per- mits smoking and drinking between acts. Evidently good music as yet has not succeeded in solving our problem. The problem, that is to say, has not been solved, and the theatre to-day is an educational or helpful centre of amusement for only the merest fraction of the wage- earners of our great cities. The question arises. How can a theatre be made in a true sense the people's theatre, a theatre, that is, " where the different elements whose union constitutes society can aU. attend, and in the re- presentations of which they can all be equally inter- ested ? " Not so long, this much is certain, as it is con- trolled by syndicates or by private capital which has an eye solely to profits. If the interests which at present control the theatres of the country cannot take a btoader view of their opportunity, then the work must 176 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. be taken up either as a philanthropic or as a municipal enterprise. The project of a " model theatre " has been often exploited on paper, occasionally attempted with melancholy results, and always declared to be a thor- oughly hopeless proposal. It is interesting to note, how- ever, that in France we have the beginnings of a real people's theatre. It is possible that this recent ex- periment may have far-reaching results. It is thus described by Mr. A. F. Sanborn : ^ — In September, 1892, on the occasion of the centenary of the republic, a free, open-air, popular representation of Moliere's " Medecin Malgre Lui " was given at Bussang, a village in the east of France, very near the Alsatian frontier, by M. Maurice Pottecher, a native of Bussang, and a number of his friends. The per- formance was so much appreciated that M. Pottecher, who had long been dreaming of a theatre of the peo- ple, set vigorously to work to make his dream come true. Three years later the Theatre du Peuple of Bussang was inaugurated by the performance of a play from M. Pottecher's pen, entitled " Le Diable Marchand de Goutte," — which may be translated, " The Devil, DramseUer," — depicting the horrid con- trol of alcohol on the one hand and the power to over- ride this control, on the other. " The theatre was simple. A huge scaffolding of wood decorated with greenery served as stage, and two enormous sliding panels as curtain ; the turf of a meadow as stage floor, a sun-illumined mountain as background, and rows of planks nailed to stakes as seats for a part of the spectators, the rest standing behind the benches 1 New York Weekly Post, Wednesday, July 11, 1900. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 177 in a grassy field. The cast consisted of a score or more of persons, among them a clerk, some college stu- dents, a professor, a manufacturer, a gardener, and a councilor - general. There was no painted scenery. Admission was free, the expenses being defrayed by a rich individual. The audience numbered nearly two thousand. Thus dedicated, the theatre has continued to prosper." The gratuitous performances are invariably given on Sundays or fete days, when the working people are at leisure. The patrons of the performances to which admission is charged feel themselves collaborators in the enterprise. The performers all serve without pay, and all belong to the region, either by birth or adop- tion. They continue to represent different social grades and many trades and professions, it being a pet theory of M. Pottecher, as it was a pet theory of Michelet, that the mingling of classes on the stage is as essential to a real popular theatre as the mingling of classes in the audience. They are encouraged to act naturally, to render, in the main, their own concep- tions of their parts in their own ways. Here, then, is a practical experiment, the success of which has already been tested. There seems to be no good reason why similar experiments should not be attempted in our American towns and cities. Let there be a real school for dramatic art similar to Mr. Frank Damrosch's classes for the musical education of the people in New York. The instruction should be free, being provided for either by private philanthropy or by the municipality. Then let playwrights be in- vited to submit dramas, upon the lines laid down by 178 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. M. Pottecher, for production, the selection to be made by a board of eminent dramatic critics. For represen- tation any theatre centrally located could be chosen until the experiment had proceeded far enough to warrant the erection of a building to be devoted solely to this purpose. Thus a real people's theatre would be inaugurated and the experiment is certainly well worth the trying. The simplicity of the theatre, the senti- ment of democracy which would pervade the perform- ance, the fact that the actors would come from the people themselves, that the play would turn upon some event of national or local interest, that admission would be gratuitous for those who could not afford to pay, would all contribute to the success of the plan. The elements for a successful solution of the problem are then at hand. When one considers the present condition of our theatres and the crying needs of the people for recreation of a true sort, it seems as if it could not be long before some real attempt be made in our country towards the establishment of a people's theatre. An interesting illustration of the possibility of popular entertainments under municipal contract is furnished by the Peoples' Concerts given in Boston under Mayor Quincy's administration. A music com- mission was appointed, and to the original plan was added the giving of free chamber concerts in different sections of the city, for which purpose citizens offered their halls free of charge. The public concerts at Music Hall were a great success. The programmes consisted of orchestral numbers and solos. The or- chestra was known as the Municipal Baud, placed INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 179 upon a permanent organization, having thirty-eight members. These received four dollars for each per- formance and the leader, ten dollars. On one even- ing the following numbers were executed : Weber's overture, " Oberon," Haydn's " Surprise Symphony," Delibes's " Sylvia " dances, Wagner's " Rienzi " over- ture, Gillet's " Bonheur Perdu," and Brahms's Hun- garian dances. In conjunction with a large chorus, directed by John A. O'Shea, one of the music com- mission, three selections were given from Gounod's " Redemption." The music commission showed con- siderable judgment in securing for the solo performers local amateur talent, which stimulated appreciably the interest. Tickets were distributed by the commission without cost through the different benevolent agencies to those who wanted them, but felt unable to pay the admission price. The regular admission charge was ten cents, which proved sufficient to pay all the costs of the entertainments. Public schools were util- ized as distributive centres, in order to reach all who cared to attend. Sunday evening was chosen as the time for the concerts. There was, of course, some difference of opinion as to the wisdom of the choice. It spared the concerts from coming into competition with the theatres and other week-day amusements, but it brought them into conflict not only with the churches but with the home gatherings which are of usual occurrence on Sunday evenings in many families. This question will need to be determined by local con- ditions. Boston has also taken the lead among our American cities in making another most important provision for 180 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the indoor amusement of the people. There are at present at least four municipal gymnasiums in the city, and others have been projected. There is no city without its gymnasium, but almost invariably it is the property or under the control of an organization or society, so that directly or indirectly it is not available for many who care to use it. The Turn Verein, the Young Men's Christian Association, a few churches and clubs have gymnasiums, but their use is confined to a very limited constituency. Consequently thousands of men and boys are without athletic exercise and recreation which they earnestly desire. Some years ago the East Boston Athletic Association was started by a wealthy woman living on the Back Bay. An old skating-rink was bought and made over into a modern gymnasium. In addition there were bicycle, reading and loafing rooms with a "bar," where soft drinks were for sale. A paid superintendent had charge of the building and of the athletic classes. The association had a prosperous career, and offered the best kind of recreation, summer and winter alike, to from four to five hundred members. The fee was five dollars a year for fuU membership, and the place became a favorite resort for clerks, mechanics, and others who could afford to pay the annual dues. Such financial assistance as it received from its founder was kept sufficiently in the background to relieve it of the stigma of being a charitable institution. The rules prohibited liquor drinking in any form, vulgar and profane language, and the use of tobacco within the building. The association was an unqualified success. This experiment can be repeated at any time by the out- INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 181 lay of the necessary money to secure a building and the services of a competent superintendent. But in 1897 a change was made. The building was presented to the city and thrown open to the general public. It was Boston's first Municipal Gymnasium. Changes were made, new apparatus was added. "The main hall is one hundred feet long and eighty wide, and is well supplied with gymnastic apparatus. One corner may be shut off by movable partitions for hand-ball. A running-track with twenty laps to the mile is marked off on the floor, and across one end of the room is a gallery for spectators. In the bathing department, there are eleven sprays with the necessary dressing quarters and lockers. Two days a week the entire building is reserved for the exclusive use of women and girls." ^ Thus the gymnasium is doing the largest possible service. The first year that it was under the management of the city its gross attendance during ten months was 65,000, or four times the number that had visited it while it was under private control. As for the good effect of this institution upon the neighbor- hood, we have the statement of the police of East Boston, who say that since the opening of the gymna- sium, there has been a marked diminution of lawless- ness. The local school principal gives emphatic testimony as to its influence upon children, and the disappearance of a number of low-toned social clubs suggests its importance as a rendezvous for young men. In South Boston is another gymnasium even larger and more complete than the one in East Boston. " The 1 From the Boston report. 182 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. South Boston gymnasium and bath was erected by the city a year ago. The structure is of wood, seventy- five by one hundred feet, in the English Gothic style of architecture. An elevated running-track extends around the interior. All the gymnastic apparatus is so arranged that it can easily be drawn up or jjushed aside, leaving the floor entirely free from obstruction. There are twelve hundred lockers and eighteen spray baths. A swimming-tank under a separate roof is a part of the original plan." This gymnasium is lo- cated in a most needy section. Five years ago, South Boston had practically no saloon substitutes. To-day the gymnasium and the baths offer, winter and summer, most wholesome and popular centres of recreation. Two more gymnasiums with baths are owned by the city and are fully equipped. One of these presents a most Christian spectacle. Until very recently, it was a Protestant chapel. Its constituency moved away and its windows became a convenient target for Catholic and Hebrew children. Then the building was sold to the city, which took the pews out and put up chest weights in their place. When the doors were opened recently to admit visitors, the boys crowded eagerly in, and dumb-bells, clubs, and flying rings were soon in active service. If our deserted downtown churches and chapels could be turned to such uses, there would be less reason to lament their abandonment for religious ends. Such, then, are Boston's municipal gymnasiums. The remarkable thing is that they are about the only ones of their kind in the country. Inquiry has failed to reveal anything similar in any of the cities selected INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 183 for this investigation, and yet the expense is compara- tively small and the benefits immeasurably great. A substantial and roomy gymnasium can be erected and equipped for $20,000, and the running expenses are very light. The benefits of such popular institutions are beyond exact computation. Aside from what they are doing to promote public health, they are a powerful aid to sobriety, and even to total abstinence. A young man " in training " will cheerfully deny himself his glass of beer. The economic gain in industrial capacity has been estimated mathematically by competent inves- tigators.^ Sir Edwin Chadwick declared it to be " established that for all ordinary civil labor four partially trained or drilled men are as efficient as five who are undrilled. In other words, considering the child as an investment, for a trifling expense . . . the productive power of that investment may, by physical training, be augmented by one fifth for the whole period of working ability." Whatever truth there may be in this computation, there can be no denial of the social, moral, and economic gain in the vicinity where these gymnasiums are located. It may be said, in passing, that no opposition to the establishment of such enter- prises by the city need be feared from the liquor men. So long as their traffic is not interfered with they are very friendly. An alderman, himself the proprietor of two popular saloons, was largely instrumental in secur- ing the gymnasium in South Boston, and is stiU its stanch supporter. In closing this chapter, one other method of enter- taining the people during the winter months may be 1 The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, p. 404. 184 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. mentioned, although it is not evident that the plan could be transported from its native soil to our American cities. Every one knows of the East London Peo- ple's Palace or Social Institute, in which varied forms of amusement and healthful recreation are provided. It is a combination of art gallery, concert hall, mu- seum, and social club, in which all sorts and condi- tions of men can spend their spare time with interest and profit. This plan has spread to the Provinces and to Scotland, where some of the most interesting exam- ples of them are to be found. The People's Palace of Glasgow, for example,^ is maintained by the city for the benefit of the working people. " The general idea is ^ that the permanent collections to be formed should relate to the history and industries of the city, and that some space should be set apart for special sectional exhibitions to be held from time to time. . . . One element of originality in the way of municipal enter- prise that can be claimed for this institution lies in the combination practically under one roof of a mu- seum, picture gallery, winter garden, and concert haU." In a statement furnished the authors of the volume from which the quotation is taken, made in December, 1898, the curator of the Palace said that the success of the institution had been very remarkable. In the even- ings especially the building became so crowded that the entrance door had to be closed for intervals. In ten months, more than 750,000 people visited the Pal- ace. He attributes its extraordinary success to its proximity to some of the crowded parts of the city, 1 The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, p. 395. ^ Glasgow Herald, January 24, 1898. INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 185 to the attractiveness of the building itself and the grounds surrounding it, and to the fact that art and historical collections do appeal to the interest and the imagination of the people. The suggestion contained in this experiment, of which use might be made in our American cities, is the free use, for purposes of popular education and amusement, of art galleries and historical and antiqua^ rian museums. The art galleries have begun already to loan their pictures for popular exhibitions, but no one can have passed through any of our fine museums, as, for example, the rooms of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, without regretting that more of the laboring people do not have the opportunity or inclina- tion to see these historical relics relating to the history of our country and of this Commonwealth. To carry out this plan, it would be necessary to have a commo- dious building or hall, where accommodation could be provided for periodical loan exhibitions of art, antiqui- ties, industries, and inventions. To make this attractive, a stereopticon lecture or a free concert could be added, the hall to be thrown open each night during the winter, with constant changes of exhibit. In Glasgow, at least, the experiment has been successful, and social settlements in our own country have demonstrated on a small scale the feasibility and benefits of the plan. Our inquiry into the possible indoor amusements for the working people during the winter months brings us back, with an added sense of disappointment, to actual conditions. The saloon, the dance hall, and the cheap theatre are to-day their chief centres of amusement. 186 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. The first is pernicious ; the other two, as they exist, are at least questionable in their influence. Of reading- rooms there are only a few ; of gymnasiums, the num- ber is still less. What wonder if, during the months when the streets and the parks are not habitable, the saloons are crowded with hosts of men and boys, for where else shall they go for amusement ? CHAPTER Vm. OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. For the boy or man who lives in the country, the problem of outdoor amusements practically solves itself. In the city it is different. However, what men think a town ought to be, it wiU be, and they can crowd the people into unwholesome slums, or open up parks and playgrounds, and make it a city of homes, not alone for the wealthy few, but for the masses whose need of comfort and recreation we have discussed. The diffi- culty of furnishing outdoor amusement for the people of a large city is understood when, for instance, we remember that the roofs of Greater New York are said to furnish more space than the city streets and court- yards. The height of the buildings suggests how many come from under one roof. The question with which we are now concerned is, Where are these thousands of people to find outdoor recreation and a " cooling-of£ place" outside of the beer gardens and saloons? The sights and sounds of the streets constitute an important part of the recreative resources of many crowded districts. Their hold upon the people is shown, not only by the sense of desolation which tenement children feel when they go to the country, but by the hesitancy of their elders to remove to the suburbs. The patrol wagon, the fire engine, the ambulance, the general passing show, and even the rows of shops en- 188 SUBSTITUTES POR THE SALOON. liven the monotony of an existence in~which wholesome amusement is sadly lacking. The streets are the prome- nade of the teeming thousands of pedestrians who, on Sunday, at least, have time for a walk, and they are the rendezvous of teams and push-cart venders. The streets are the playground of the children of the city's poor. Where else can they spin their tops and play marbles? Baseball is played in season and out of season, and until late at night, boy sentinels being placed at the corners to give warning of the policeman's approach. Froebel said, " It is through his play that a child first begins to perceive moral relations." The playtime of a child's life should not be tolerated by those older than himself, but made the most of. The street is a poor means to accomplish this. Knowing that he is a public nuisance, the boy is constantly on the lookout for the " cop," and as constantly planning to get the better of him. The treatment he receives from the passing throng only serves to make him ugly and suspicious. Another habit of mind altogether dangerous to his proper development is his continual change of purpose. Seldom can a project be carried out, and the boy grows restless and inefficient. Not only the individual, but the " gang " suffers for lack of a healthful meeting-place. The spirit of loyalty in the "gang" should be encouraged, not trained by an oppos- ing force to deceit and viciousness. Numerous suggestions as to the best plan of pro- viding playgrounds have been made. The late Colonel Waring, Street Cleaning Commissioner of New York City, proposed a combination of push-cart market and children's playgrounds, where business could thrive in OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 189 the morning, and fun in the afternoon. According to this plan, the city is to own the markets, whose rents. Colonel Waring claimed, would soon yield interest on and eventually the return of the capital invested. There is no argument which appeals to the average tax-payer and city comptroller with such force as the argument that " it pays." The opening of the school yards in many cities during the summer months is an advance well worth noticing. The Massachusetts Emer- gency and Hygiene Association has under its super- vision in Boston many sand gardens, which are located in empty school yards. It is the plan to give the children not only a place to play, but trained directors of their play. Regulated play is both recreative and educational, and while children are getting the benefits of exercise, they are gaining the principles of order, decency, and fair play. In the summer of 1898, eighteen hundred children were thus provided for at an expense of one dollar each. One suggestion the association makes is to open the yards only when there is shade, as otherwise the children do not come, and this arrangement provides teachers for more of them. There are many reasons for working with the chil- dren. They are willing to pass their knowledge on. ■ They may be influenced in many cases when it seems almost impossible to change the formed character of those who have matured in an atmosphere of squalor and vice. Again, while some Americans object to expenditures for the well-being of the adult population on the ground that it is socialistic, they are ready to listen to an appeal for children. It is a happy thing for the children of New York that the Educational 190 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Alliance, the Park Board, the Outdoor Recreation League, and the School Board have met on common ground. The fact that they have all worked success- fully is the best possible evidence of the rapidity vnth which the spirit of liberty and progress is spreading. In New York, the law forbids a public school being erected henceforth without an open-air playground. Those already built should be compelled to use the roofs. With such provision there will be less truancy, less lawlessness. New sites have been secured for playgrounds in the crowded parts of New York, but the rubbish heaps are too often left, and the transformation from tenements is slow. The playground at Seward Park is so much appreciated in the neighborhood, that the people of Hester Street rose in revolt when they learned that the Park Board had submitted a plan for the improve- ment of the park in which no provision was made for a playground. The Outdoor Recreation League has been most effective in impressing the Park Department with the importance of retaining the playground in the final scheme of improvement. The playgrounds should be free to parents and grandparents, as well as to the boys and girls. One morning a white-haired man looked on wistfully at Dearborn Yard, and said: "It does my old heart good to see the children. I wish there was a playground for old men." There would be if the number of small parks in the crowded districts of the cities were in any way adequate to the needs of the people. The Massachusetts Civic League has made an ex- haustive study of the playgrounds of Boston and its OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 191 vicinity, and its printed report contains many valuable suggestions. An examination of police reports has shown that the effect of the establishment of play- grounds is diminution of juvenile crime. The neces- sity for instruction in games has been demonstrated, and it has been proved that older men are glad to make use of a well-ordered playground.^ Reluctance to exercise domain as against the inertia of tenants, interests of landholders, profits of politi- cally influenced saloon-keepers, together with the ex- pense of buying property, have prevented a proper increase of parks in the crowded sections of some of our cities. Private philanthropy would arrange to guard these places were it backed by law. The re- demption of Mulberry Bend by Jacob A. Riis was the beginning and remains the ideal of the effort to pro- vide small parks in crowded districts. " From almost every point of view, adequate park system appears to be a city's gain. It creates an attraction for all classes. It adds to the beauty of a city, influences those who have acquired wealth to remain, and draws others to it. It cultivates public taste. It promotes health. It furnishes fresher air. Its trees absorb the poisonous gases and purify the atmosphere. ■ It extends the opportunity for rational enjoyment, particularly for the children of the poor. The exuberance of youth will find a vent, innocent, if circumstances favor, harmful if they do not. Nor must the value of open spaces as a quieting, reformative power in the case of adults be lost sight of. It is recognized that whatever 1 See report of Mr. Joseph Lee, Boston, Secretary of the Massachu- setts Civic League. 192 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. furnishes innocent recreation and amusement exerts a potent influence in checking crime, and the public square and playground must be given prominent place among the agencies favorably affecting the moral con- dition of society. Add to these considerations the unusually permanent value of this form of investment, the comparatively little management it requires, its freedom from all pauperizing or otherwise objection- able influences, and you have assuredly a form of philanthropic enterprise deserving the earnest and imdivided efforts of an association with no other pur- pose, and the cordial support of every public-spirited citizen." The value of these small parks as direct substitutes for the saloon is evident when we consider what they might offer to the public : a meeting-place for the men of the neighborhood, seats to rest on, ice- water fountains to drink from, free band concerts and other entertainments now and then, a spot with the social intercourse which the saloon offers and the cool- ness in search of which a man often leaves his home. Many of our larger parks are open to the rich and poor alike, and do they not go far to satisfy the needs of the people and to act as substitutes for the saloon ? They no doubt do, or ought to do, more in this direc- tion than any other one thing. An example of muni- cipal parks frequented by the people is Golden Gate Park of San Francisco. Golden Gate Park, which is noted the world over for its natural scenery, with its own wooded acres, the great stretches of wild land and the long beach beyond, is situated three miles from the centre of the city. A five-cent fare and a half hour's OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 193 time takes one from the noise and distraction of the one to the refreshing rest of the other. The beautiful sur- roundings, the luxurious growth of flowers, and the sea breeze combine to make the place by its very nature a great resort. That this park is appreciated is evident, for the average weekly attendance is fifty thousand ; on Sunday, the one day of the week when workingmen have both money and leisure, it is from twenty-five thousand to thirty-five thousand, and the park's value as a saloon substitute is more manifest when we learn that it is the only place of amusement in San Francisco which is over one hundred yards from a saloon, and that the saloons are open on Sun- day. There are many attractions besides the groves, flowers, and scenery. Music, a museum, a conserva- tory, an aviary, zoological garden, recreation grounds, speed tracks, drives, and walks help to draw the peo- ple. On Sunday afternoon from two to four, a band of fifty pieces gives a free concert to an audience of ten thousand scattered over the grounds or seated in the large auditorium. In the museum, there are some- times as many as three thousand people. There is the greatest freedom allowed in the park, and there are no " Keep off the Grass " signs. Notwithstanding the freedom, the police report very little disorder and almost no drunkenness. On a fair Sunday there are more working people at Golden Gate Park than there are at aU the clubs, reading-rooms, and benevolent in- stitutions of the city in one week. This great gather- ing of people in the open air is in striking contrast with the city, with its streets of saloons open day and night the year round, with its dreary houses, and with 194 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the constant smell and suggestion of beer. The chief reason for the success of Golden Gate Park of San Francisco lies in the fact that it is accessible, and that five cents covers the cost of reaching and entering it. Few busy day laborers, and that is what most men are, have time to go to the parks and resorts which are far from their homes and work-rooms. The magnificent parks of Minneapolis and St. Paul are distant from the heart of either city. The music provided by the city is given in them. White Bear and Minnetonka lakes, which are resorts for many business and professional men, are beyond the reach of by far the larger part of the population. The fare from St. Paul to White Bear Lake is twenty-five cents ; from Minneapolis to Minnetonka, fifty cents for the round trip. These figures are reasonable, but practically prohibitive to the man who earns even two dollars a day. It is true in this, as in other things, that men must have leisure to enjoy the outdoor life and the pleasures that come with it. Left in the city, the workingman, if he be without other resources, is thrown on the saloon for the satisfaction of the social instinct. Belle Isle Park of Detroit is a park that all enjoy. The beautiful island can be reached from almost every part of the city for a fare of three cents, and all of the attractions of the park are free to every one. The pic- nic grounds, woods, and bathing-houses are open to rich and poor alike, and make it truly the people's park. Beer is sold, but its sale is so restricted as to make in- toxication practically impossible. On a pleasant con- cert evening, it is hard to count the people who crowd OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 195 about the music pavilion. On a holiday in winter, thousands of men, women, and children use the ice on the well-kept artificial lakes. Here is the man who to-morrow will be in his place at the factory, and one day of healthful bodily exercise and the vigor gained from a few hours spent in the open air will do much both for him and for his work. Many other municipal parks could be mentioned as going far to solve the outdoor problem. Druid Hill Park of Baltimore is one which people from all parts of the city frequent. The parks of Denver are pecul- iarly important, since outside the town limits there begins the brown, sun-baked, treeless prairie. At City Park the right to let boats, and the commission to sell light drinks and delicacies in the two pavilions is sold every year to the highest bidder ; still there is much that is free. As many as a hundred and fifty free con- certs have been given there in a summer. The major- ity of those who frequent the park in the evening or on Sunday are of the poorer people, and it must be of untold value to them, for not only are they offered a cool and delightful place in which to spend their time, but amusement impossible to find elsewhere, except at considerable expense. In trying to compete with attractions such as parks furnish, the saloons are at a disadvantage, and the number of toughs and idlers, chronic saloon attendants, who frequent the parks, tes- tify to what an extent their patronage must suffer in con- sequence. It may be argued that since the saloons are closed on Sunday, none of the Sunday patronage of the parks can be said to detract from the attendance on the saloons. But although there is a Sunday closing ordi- 196 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. nance in Denver, it is not rigorously enforced, and the city is often " wide open." The man with a thirst or the man in search of saloon sociability does not have much trouble usually in finding a hospitable back door. The pride of Memphis is a park of three acres in the very centre of the city. Central Park in New York offers rest and shade to thousands of people daily, and is well located to accomplish much for the city's mil- lions. Chicago has a system of parks of which it may justly be proud, but from the point of view of resorts for the laboring people, Chicago has no parks. The parks are so distant from the homes of the masses as to be practically inaccessible. The park system is de- signed for the rich, while it taxes the poor, and reminds one that " to him that hath shall be given." Just how much a system of parks that would include small parks located in the congested and wretched dis- tricts of the city would counteract the saloon is not to be reduced to mathematical calculation, but it is a need that every city should supply. It is probable that in any city small parks that are in the midst of the peo- ple will be a greater benefit than the elaborate and extensive parks so remote that they can be seldom vis- ited. They will furnish breathing-spots, promenades, and resting-places for adults, and playgrounds for young men and children. The necessity for open space within the crowded districts is becoming more and more impressed upon the public, and in many cities measures have been taken to secure them. It is a wise precaution to get possession of ground in the suburbs before the city grows out. Too often the open space OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 197 is merely a grass-grown triangle with a few benches, but even this is a welcome spot to the tired parent or child whose only other chance for fresh air is the street, the roof, or a seat on the fire escape of his tenement. Besides the municipal parks, there are private parks and resorts. Of course aU resorts where the saloon itself flourishes, and where there are other institutions worse than the saloon, can in no wise be classed as saloon substitutes. The nature of the place must de- pend upon the nature of the individual or individuals who control it. The roof gardens and beer gardens are often less demoralizing in their effect than the saloon proper. There is much to attract and give pleasure that neither stimulates a taste for drink nor is in other ways degrading. To be sure, it is the business of the keeper to sell beer, and if this be his sole object, these resorts are to be classed with the amusement saloons. Again, a company may establish a resort and be utterly indifferent to the surroundings, rather encouraging saloons to settle near by, there being an understanding that the one will send patrons to the other. On the other hand, many private resorts, however simple, may be of real practical use ; for example, the summer out of door theatre whose platform offers some scarcely elevating yet decent farce. A refreshment booth is put up ; swings and popcorn stands with " Sar- atoga chips " for sale make their appearance, and soon there is a resort which is attracting hundreds of people, and from which the car lines reap rich harvests. Willow Grove Park in Philadelphia represents a type of suburban resort maintained as feeders for trolley lines where the saloon is entirely absent. The increase 198 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. in the number of such resorts inaugurated and main- tained for commercial reasons only can be looked upon as an encouraging sign with reference to the problem of furnishing summer recreation for the masses of the population unattended with the generally disagreeable and almost inevitable feature of the saloon. They are the result of a commercial recognition of the value of an appeal to the aesthetic sense and the elimination of drinking in mixed crowds of pleasure seekers. The ethical sense of the community is not appealed to. What the trolley car company would say if questioned is : " We offer you a park where there will be no saloons, because saloons in public places, like parks, lead to dis- agreeable incidents, and disagreeable incidents multi- plied mean eventually the imparting of a semi-disrep- utable air to a place." The road from the centre of Philadelphia to Willow Grove Park runs through pretty rolling country, and the park itself has many natural and artificial attractions. There are groves with benches and fountains, many forms of entertainment and free concerts. Because of the fare, thirty cents, the park is unavailable to the poorest people, but it reaches many young men who have money to spend, and it offers them many ways of spending it, which, if the ways are good, is a benefit. Eeal estate companies often establish such resorts. Private philanthropy could ask no broader outlet than the establishment of parks of this kind, making them free to the people and accessible as well. L. P. Grant did well for the citizens of Atlanta by his gift of one hundred and fifty acres for a park, the only condition being that it should be open to blacks and whites alike. OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 199 There is almost no limit to the forms of entertain- ment which could be offered, for a pleasure-seeking people is not hard to please. Picnic grounds, springs, and benches are essential. Chutes, scenic railways and bicycle tracks, bowling-alleys, baseball, band con- certs, rustic theatres, dancing-halls, under careful management and control, furnish luxuries which the people may enjoy. They will have an influence for good, too, by demonstrating that more pleasure may be gotten from a given source when that source is not abused. An excellent example of what such a place can be is afforded by Norumbega Park, which is owned by the Commonwealth Avenue Railroad of Bos- ton. A large amount of capital has been spent to make the place attractive, and it has been proven that electric car service at a reasonable fare, combined with good bicycle roads and an attractive objective point, will draw the crowd. The daily average attendance is four thousand, reaching fifteen thousand on Sun- day. Ten cents is the cost of admission, but the cost of transportation is only five. Not only is it im- possible for a man to get drink either at or near the park, but he must be free from the influence or sugges- tion of liquor to get into it; and admission to it is worth something; namely, a clean evening's enjoy- ment. Contrast this with a park seven miles out of Cin- cinnati which is owned by the Cincinnati Street Rail- way, or another ten miles up the river owned by the Steamship Company. These parks in themselves are beautiful, the admission to them is free, and thousands of people frequent them, but the free sale of beer and 200 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the lack of discipline prevent their being classed as substitutes for the saloon. The free sale of beer at these and like resorts lessens the patronage of the ice cream pavilions and light drink stands, and in many cases leads to a misuse of the otherwise harmless at- tractions of the place. Men and women drink together, and the park that should furnish a healthful place for rest and enjoyment too often becomes, for the sake of the private gains of the owners, a spot with pernicious and unwholesome influences. Most cities have adjacent picnic grounds and subur- ban resorts, and excursions and picnics are a great resource as a means of outdoor amusement for the peo- ple, but too often these places are left in the hands of persons who destroy their usefulness. The municipal- ity should take this matter in hand and see to it that the park commission owns or controls the resorts of the city's people. A striking comparison existed between Revere Beach, north of Boston, which some time ago became ^ public reservation under the charge of the Metropolitan Park Commission, and Nantasket Beach, on the south side of Boston, which until recently was under private control. At the former, order reigned and the vices were partly banished, partly repressed. At the latter, the vices were obvious and uncontrolled. Now, by order of state legislation, Nantasket Beach is public domain. Merely from the landscape point of view, it is the finer of the two, and it will, no doubt, soon become the beneficent place which the other has long been. The Revere Beach Reservation, with its beach, shelters, band concerts, merry-go-rounds, and restaurants, attracts large numbers. These average OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 201 twelve thousand or fifteen thousand on week days and five or six times as many on fair Sundays. A corps of over a dozen Park Commission police efficiently man- ages this crowd. Only thirty-three arrests were made in 1897. It should not be enough to say of a resort that " one can see comparatively little rowdyism and so need not be disturbed." Nor is it effective to become disgusted with the place and to stay away. The rowdyism should be kept out. The resorts should be rivals to the city parks as means of healthful recreation, and they, too, shoiild be made accessible to the many by means of a small transportation fee. Excursions are common. Does the laboring man enjoy them ? The politician gives an excursion and in- cludes him, but it were better for him to have stayed at home, for the beer has flowed freely and likely his vote will pay for his fun. If the day comes when the municipality controls the lands, the means of transpor- tation, and the various attractions, the cooperation of these essentials may bring the resort within the wage- earner's reach. The growing custom among transpor- tation companies of distributing tickets, free of charge, is a commendable one. The most economical use of private gifts is the one that will bring the greatest good to the greatest number. The Randidge fund of fifty thousand dollars, which was left to the city of Bos- ton, has been used to establish a picnic ground at one of the city islands, and daily transports to and from this place three hundred poor children in the city steamer. Surely there should be established many large and small parks and resorts accessible to the people, offer- 202 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. ing the attractions of sociability and recreation which furnish clean and wholesome amusement under the supervision, if not the control, of the municipality, and offering to the laboring man a place of rest and refresh- ment outside of the saloon. Of equal importance as direct substitutes for the saloon are the outdoor gymnasiums and playgrounds for young men. Possibly the gymnasium is the most effective substitute ; it offers a definite aim to its habi- tues, something to work for, and it satisfies, at the same time, the primary social desire and the purely physical demand. Drinking combined with social re- creation is another instance of this double satisfaction. By refining the physical satisfaction, by changing it to one that is ultimately helpful to the body instead of harm- ful, an effective substitute is provided. One advantage of the gymnasium is that while often inaugurated un- der denominational auspices, its doors are open to all, even when other social activities are limited. Native athletic clubs are not numerous, and it is for philanthropy and the municipality to provide them. Recreation and physical exercise are fundamental to the moral and physical welfare of the people. The influence of such a place upon the community is de- monstrated in the history of the outdoor gymnasium connected with Seward Park, which was created by re- moving the tenements in the three blocks bounded by Hester, Norfolk, Division, and Essex streets, one of the most crowded regions on the East Side of New York. This place, filled with rubbish for a time, was the bat- tle-ground for many mimic wars which ended disas- OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 203 trously for the boys engaged in them. The Outdoor Reereation League appeared, and finally enough money was raised to clean the space out and fence it in ; but the victory was not yet, and every morning crates of rotten eggs and any quantity of spoiled fruit and garb- age would be found there. The grounds were formally opened June 3, 1898, and for the past two seasons thousands of people have used the grounds daily and have ceased of their own accord to misuse them. The league has found trouble in securing money for its gymnasium because, being a park property, they were supposed to receive assistance from the city. Now the prospect is more encouraging, and it is hoped that the city will make the needed improvements. The plans submitted to the Park Department by the league pro- vide a large amphitheatre which would be a valuable addition. Instead of one, there are to be two gymna- siums. The place could be flooded in winter for skat- ing and in summer be used for the people's mass meet- ings. An attempt was made to have Seward Park lighted at night, but only four electric lights were fur- nished, which proved inadequate, and the grounds have not been kept open after dark. There is not a large city in America that could not profitably support such places. The fruits of these out- door gymnasiums have already appeared in hundreds of young fellows who have acquired a knowledge, not only of the best methods of exercise and its benefits, but of the principles of order, decency, and fair play. What has been accomplished proves what the influence of provision for the physical development and recrea- tion of the people is in wiping out quarters of un- 204 SUBSTITUTES FOK THE SALOON. cleanness and leading their habitants to wholesome and happier lives. The Charlesbank Gymnasium in Boston furnishes an excellent example. It is located on the river bank extending from the Canal Street bridge to the West Boston bridge. This property, comprising ten acres, was acquired by the Park Department in 1883 at a cost of over three hundred thousand dollars. The water side of the West End, being a district crowded with large colonies of Negroes and Jews, affords, apart from its gymnastic aim, valuable breathing-space. At either end are the playgrounds. The men's gymnastic apparatus is inclosed within a running-track allowing five laps to the mile. There are pulley weights, giant strides, horizontal and parallel bars, and swings. Near by is the lavatory and locker building, where there are shower and spray baths and a large number of lockers. A woman's gymnasium is at the opposite end of the park. The patronage of the men's outdoor gymnasium averages over one thousand a day, drawn from widely separated classes. The grounds are inclosed by an iron fence, which is thronged nightly with interested specta- tors, many of whom are induced to enter. East Boston and South Boston have similar gymnasiums. The com- paratively small attendance at class-work need not dis- courage one, because it is certainly a positive influence in the lives of the young men who do come and for months at a time give up smoking, drinking, and late hours. There are thousands who occasionally use the apparatus, and many more who take pleasure in look- ing on, at the same time being invited to healthier and cleaner habits. The outlay need not be excessive. A running-track, pulley weights, swings, horizontal and OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 205 parallel bars, an inclined ladder, springboard, jumping- board, climbing-poles, and a punching-bag are sufficient apparatus. Other athletic sports are the bicycle meets and ball games. Unfortunately, gambling and drinking are often a part of these sports, but there is much that is desirable. If the ball fields were at a distance from the saloons, and if some rule were enforced which would keep out intoxicated men, it would be well. Were a real interest in the game the only motive that drew the crowds, it would be a most wholesome amusement ; and were the players desirous of carefully training well-developed physiques, it would be a means of in- creasing an admiration for sterling qualities among the people. For outdoor recreation, there is an ever increasing demand for space, and it is a legitimate use of the housetops and piers which can supply many of the benefits of the parks and gymnasiums. The Oriental custom of fleeing to the housetops is somewhat in vogue in the Hebrew quarters of New York, but comparar tively few roofs are open to the public, and these are not owned by the city or tenement proprietors. The Educational Alliance on East Broadway has opened the roof of its building to the people in the vicinity, and an average daily attendance of four thousand shows their appreciation. Eleven hundred of these are adults. Awnings are spread in the daytime, and there are seats and picnic tables. Soft drinks are sold, and there is a copious supply of ice water. Five evenings in the week there is music from eight to ten. It is hard to overestimate the value of open-air 206 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. concerts, for they not only draw but hold large au- diences. There is always an increased attendance at the parks when they are given, and it is a significant fact that saloons in the neighborhood often give up their musical attractions. The saloon-keeper has re- cognized the fact that music attracts the people, and the corps of musicians who play nightly in each of the better class of bar-rooms in most cases justify the extra expense by an increase in patronage. Some who frequent the saloon for the sake of the music find their thoughts are clearer, their hearts lighter, and their hardships forgotten more easily. It is these whom the open-air concerts draw from the saloon, and it is the laboring class as a whole who are furnished with an enjoyable means of spending an evening. The recreation piers of New York are built over ordinary wharves. They are roofed, and awnings are lowered over the sides in case of rain. They are open from seven A. M. to twelve p. M., and there is a chance for great benefit to be derived from them by many thousands of people. The privilege of setting up fruit and soda water stands is leased by the Dock Depart- ment, and notwithstanding the poverty of the patrons, trade is prosperous. Wooden benches line either side, and in the centre are the stands. Each evening a band of musicians plays. The wharves occupy the coolest and most picturesque part of many large cities, and they should be utilized for the comfort of the people. The details of administration must be carefully watched, and the thoroughfares leading to them must be well lighted and guarded, since they often run through the roughest part of the town. Besides the police and OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 207 matrons in attendance at the piers to maintain order, there should be other restrictions to avoid the evil that is liable to arise because of the location, the freedom, and the character of certain of the patrons. The piers and the wharves under them could be used more than they are for purely recreative purposes. Running- tracks and gymnastic apparatus might be arranged on the wharves. The city which is near the water's edge has other natural resources in its means for swimming and boat- ing, fishing and bathing. Some good settlement work has been done in interesting boys in boating and swim- ming as preparation for service in a life-saving crew. Many inland cities have natural or artificial lakes, and they furnish much recreation to the people if the use of them is brought within their means. Excursions by water are often more attractive than picnics on land, and many philanthropists have taken heed of this fact. Much has been accomplished by the different organ- izations of our cities in establishing public baths for the summer months. In this the cities with natural facilities for bathing have the advantage. The follow- ing is a quotation from a report of a committee of aldermen submitted in Boston as long ago as 1860. It recognizes the need of bathing for poor people and the difficulty of satisfying it in their own homes. " Con- sequently their baths are infrequent and of but partial benefit when taken. Then they become careless as to their persons and their apparel. Their respect for themselves and their class and their families diminishes. 208 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. They lose all interest in education and in refined man- ners. Their moral sense becomes more or less blunted, and degeneracy is the inevitable tendency." Boston was one of the first cities in America to recognize the importance of free baths for poor people, and deserves credit for having done much to meet the need. Under the direction of the Bath Department, a large number of bathing-houses, swimming-pools, and floating-baths are now operated. For children of school age every- thing, including instruction, is furnished free, except towels, for the use of which a charge of one cent is made. Adults are supposed to pay for bathing-suits, except at North End Park, at the rate of five cents a suit, but this is by no means insisted upon in the case of patrons known to be too poor to pay the fee. The total number of bathers in the bath establishments for the season of 1898, — Estimated 2,500,000 Expense of maintenance $35,000 Cost per bath Olf 3500 is the estimated number of children who learned to swim in free baths in 1898. The North End Park bathing-beach has been called "The Great City Bathtub." At either end of the beach, which is perhaps four hundred feet long, are the bathing-houses, the one for men including one hiin- dred and fifty-one closets and five hundred lockers. These are used daily by an average of six thousand men and boys. In the women's bathhouse there are one hundred and sixty-four closets for an average attendance of three thousand. These numbers show OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 209 the popularity of bathing and the problem of providing adequate accommodations. It is almost impossible to exaggerate the influence of this bathing-beach in its neighborhood. The crowded tenement district which surrounds it is noticeably cleaner, and the police report the number of arrests of boys for malicious mischief greatly decreased. An equally important and interest- ing bath is the large beach bath in South Boston, which attracts thousands from all quarters of the city. The following tables give the statistics of the Bath Department : — BOSTON BATH DEPARTMENT STATISTICS. 1898. Namb. Floating-Souses. Maiden Bridge Chelsea Bridge Border Street (2) Maverick Point Dover Street (2) Warren Bridge (2) Craigie Bridge West Boston Bridge Neponset Bridge Harvard Bridge Beach Baths. Charlestown Park North End Park Wood Island Park K Street, South Boston . . . L street, South Boston Commercial Point Neponset Beach Swimming-Pools. Orchard Park Cabot street River Both. West Eoxbury When Estab- lished. 1874 1875 1806 1870 1866 1866 1867 1898 1897 1898 1898 1866 1898 1868 Cost. f4,500 3,000 6,000 3,000 6,000 10,000 5,500 5,500 3,000 3,500 1,5* 3,500 1,500 3,500 1,600 temp'ry 3,500 4,600 2,800 Attend- ants. Average Daily Patronage. 500 600 400 400 750 700 2,500 800 300 2,000 6,000 2,000 4,500 1,500 400 600 1,300 175 250 200 200 660 660 700 200 1,600 3,000 1,200 3,000 1,500 200 300 210 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. TOTALS. Number of Establishments. Floating-houses 13 Beach baths 7 Pools 2 Eiver baths 1 23 Total Cost $72,300 Number of Attendants. Men 77 Women 46 123 Average Daily Patronage. City Baths, Men 25,450 Women 13,925 39,375 State Bath at Revere 1,500 City Point Bath 700 Total number of persons in average daily ) ^h k^k attendance at public bathing-places in Boston j ' For the sake of unity the " all the year round " bath is discussed here instead of in the preceding chapter. Facilities for bathing during the summer months have been within the reach of the wage-earner of some of our cities for a good many years, but it is only within the past five years that the provision for bathing all the year round has been seriously undertaken. The necessity for such provision from the point of view of the public health is made very apparent by the simple observation that the tenement houses in which live OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 211 vast numbers of the working people have absolutely no facilities for bathing, and that cleanliness of body is certainly as desirable during the winter as during the summer months. In New York only three hun- dred and six people out of the 255,033 considered by Mr. Gilder's committee, and only two per cent of the population studied by the Bureau of Labor, had access to baths inside of the houses which they occupied. It is true that to some the bath seems to be a summer pastime, and that in the winter months the average attendance at the public baths is lower ; and yet that the people desire to bathe during the colder months has been amply proved by the success of the winter baths already established. No municipality then will have discharged its duty, as Mayor Quincy has defined it, until it brings " within the reach of all, in winter as well as in summer, facilities for securing the physi- cal cleanliness that bears such close relationship to social and moral well-being." The cities that are discharging this duty are very few. The most are content to allow their thousands of toilers to go unwashed during at least eight months of the year. It is only since 1895 that the movement began in America, in imitation of very successful European models, and thus far it has reached only half a dozen of our American cities. The beginning was made in New York, where the Society for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor established an all the year people's bath at Centre Market Place, and a portion of the Baron de Hirsch Fund was used to locate another at Market and Henry streets. Besides taking the lead chronologically, New York has taken 212 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. another step far in advance of any other common- wealth ; for Mayor Strong's Committee on Public Baths, appointed in July, 1895, obtained legislation making the establishment of free hot and cold baths, open fourteen hours daily throughout the year, obliga- tory on the larger cities of the State. Already one large bath has been opened in Buffalo in a central location, and another is under construction in the most congested part of the city. For the one municipal bath in New York no less than two hundred thousand dollars was appropriated. Other cities followed New York's example. In Philadelphia and Baltimore the work was undertaken by private associations or individuals. The Public Bath Association of Philadelphia was organized on February 7 and incorporated on March 19, 1895, " for the purpose of establishing and maintaining public baths and affording to the poor facilities for bathing and the promotion of health and cleanliness." In April, 1897, the public bath on the corner of Gaskill and Leithgow streets was formally opened. Its con- struction cost approximately twenty-seven thousand dollars. It has been successful from the start. In the same summer in Philadelphia, 2,853,702 bathers were recorded in the seven public baths maintained by the city. There is no charge whatever in these, and bathers bring their own towels. That public baths can be run at little expense is proved by Baltimore, whose statistics show forty thousand baths to have cost only five hundred dollars, one eighth cent per bath. And yet not more than half a dozen munici- palities are providing for this need. OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 213 In Boston itself, it was not until the spring of 1898 that the city undertook the provision for indoor bath- ing. An indoor bathhouse has been erected on Dover Street, in the midst of a dense population and within easy reach of the outlying districts.^ On the first floor are separate waiting-rooms for men and women, together with the laundry and engine-room in the rear. On the second floor are bathrooms both for men and for women. There are thirty sprays and three tubs for men, and eleven sprays and six tubs for women. All the baths are inclosed. Each shower cabin con- tains a dressing-alcove, with a seat. A Gegenstrom apparatus is used, which permits the bather to regu- late the temperature of the water to suit himself. The following table for the winter of 1898-1899 shows its success during the first months : — NUMBER OF BATHERS AT THE DOVER STREET BATH DURING THE FIRST SEVEN MONTHS. Date. October (15 days) . November December January February March April Men. Boys. Total. Women. GirU. 4,156 1,460 5,616 669 581 6,837 3,907 10,744 2,465 2,323 7,659 3,812 11,371 2,812 2,535 7,646 3,780 11,426 2,633 2,988 7,733 3,664 11,397 2,641 2,354 9,796 4,341 14,137 3,791 2,866 12,535 5,637 18,172 4,314 4,017 Total. 1,260 4,788 5,347 5,621 4,995 6,657 8,331 Whole number 119,852 Largest number of bathers in any one day 2,045 The swimming-pools of Orchard Park and Cabot Street will be made available for the winter months, since all that is necessary is to heat the water in the 1 Free Municipal Baths in Boston, by W. I. Cole. 214 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. tanks. The Bath Department contemplates having an- other large bathhouse at the North End, the outlying sections to be accommodated by baths connected with gymnasiums. Chicago has at present three or four all the year round baths operated by the city, but outside of the cities mentioned there are few that have free public bathing- houses. San Francisco has two magnificent bathing establishments, but the fee of twenty-five cents shuts out the man who needs them most. It would be a good plan for San Francisco to purchase the Lurline Baths, which are centrally located, and throw them open to the public. Denver has a pool natatorium in summer ; nothing in winter. The price of admission is twenty-five cents ; even so the bath is inadequate for the city's population of 135,000. In Cincinnati, where river bathing is against the law, a bath costs fifteen cents at the " Swim," at the Young Men's Christian Association, or at the Cincinnati Gymnasium. And so the story goes. If every State would imitate the legislature of New York, or every city follow the policy of Boston, we would have cleaner, healthier men and women in our cities, fewer victims of disease and of intemperance. Experience, then, has taught these lessons in regard to the winter baths : First, that the baths should be free, and to this end controlled and operated by the city. Second, that a " considerable number of estab- lishments should be furnished designed for local use rather than one or two on a large scale at central points. In other words, the people of a given neigh- borhood should not have to go far in order to avail OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 215 themselves of such facilities. If the bath is within half a mile to a mile of the home, it will be readily or extensively used ; if it is two or three miles away, its use will be very greatly restricted." Third, that not the pool but the shower bath is the best form of in- door bath. The Gegenstrom apparatus has been most widely adopted, by which the water is made to strike the shoulders first and the temperature can be regu- lated to suit the bather. Fourth, that twenty thousand dollars is sufficient to erect and equip a bathhouse with a capacity of eight hundred daily. It has been suggested that when the people look upon the bath as a necessity, and when it ceases to be a luxury, its direct influence upon the saloon will be smaller. More likely it will work the other way. The public bath open all the year round should rank as one of the most important municipal agencies for the improvement of the condition of the people. Inland cities suffer a disadvantage, but in working out the problem of substitution for the saloon, they may be assured that the institution which offers the fun of swimming with the luxury of cooling off is an impor- tant one. Here again physical enjoyment is combined with recreation, — a place to get cool with a place for social pleasure. The bath is closely allied with our subject both from the point of view of recreation and of cleanliness, the one counecting it directly, the other indirectly, with the saloon substitute problem. CHAPTER IX. LUNCH-EOOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. The saloon is primarily a drinking-place ; its real business is to satisfy the desire for intoxicating liquors. When, therefore, we turn to consider the possibility of meeting the saloon in open competition on its chosen field, we face a more difficult problem than we have yet met, a problem which, strictly speaking, is incapable of solution. There is no substitute for the saloon as a drinking centre because there is no substitute for alcohol. This is the very citadel of the liquor dealer, from which he looks down with reasonable and well- founded indifference upon all substitutes. His confi- dence is not misplaced. It rests upon the deepest physiological foundation, for it is ^ot the normal thirst alone which alcohol satisfies. Beyond it is that morbid craving for a sensation which as yet alcohol alone has been able to produce. AU. other soft drinks are " kindergarten " affairs, which the drinking man views with good-humor and contempt. Other reasons, beside the physiological, increase the difficulty. Alco- hol whets but does not satisfy the thirst. Hence it is a means of retaining the customer. Once awakened, the desire for alcoholic stimulants becomes habitual, more and more exacting and imperative until it demands daily a frequent gratification. Once a saloon patron always a patron. But "soft drinks" exert no such LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 217 continuous hold. They satisfy, do not excite the thirst. The demand for them is intermittent and irregular. Again, alcohol is a stimulant to sociability. It warms the cockles of the heart and promotes good cheer. Tea, coffee, and ginger ale in any quantity cannot rival in this respect a single glass of beer. And when we con- sider that if the demand for temperance drinks really becomes considerable, there is nothing in the license of the saloon-keeper which prevents him from adding them to his own stock in trade, the problem seems truly hopeless. It will not do, then, to overestimate the influence of temperance drinking-places. The most that can be said of any attempt to rival the saloon upon the ground of drink alone is that it is a palliative, not in any sense a cure. Where soft drinks alone are furnished, with- out any other inducement, their effect is that they offer a means for satisfying the normal thirst without the necessity of entering a saloon. Where other induce- ments are offered, they and not the soft drinks are primarily the cause for the patronage. But it may be true that in the course of time an habitual use of non-intoxicants will take the place of the abnormal craving for alcoholic drinks. Thus all kinds of places for retailing soft drinks have their place, and, within the limits that have been suggested, exert a wholesome influence. The places where non-alcoholic drinks are on sale in any city are almost innumerable. Nearly every drug- store has its soda fountain, frequently with attachments for serving hot chocolate or beef tea. To these must be added the confectionery stores and the lemonade 218 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. and spring- water stands. The patronage of these places during the warna months is enormous ; and if it may be claimed that few saloon patrons are applicants at the soda fountain, it may with equal confidence be affirmed that without the soda fountain the saloon patronage would be largely increased. A member of one of the largest wholesale drug and chemical firms in Boston said that he believed more was being done for the cause of temperance by the introduction of large soda fountains in city pharmacies than by all the societies and pledges which had been devised. An effort was made some years ago to secure a rough esti- mate of the extent of the soda-water traffic in the city of Boston. The method followed was to obtain from the wholesale soda manufacturers an estimate of the amount of soda water furnished to the retailers of the city. The wholesale soda-dealers are comparatively few in number, and their business is so systematized that an estimate of the number of fountains supplied, and the frequency of the replenishment, can be accu- rately given. The majority of the fountains contain ten gallons, some of them running as high as fifteen. In reducing the calculation to glasses, one half a pint of the soda water was allowed to a glass, which is prob- ably an overestimate. The returns of the six manufac- turers, in terms of glasses per day, give approximately 85,000 as a patronage for which they can account. By taking all the variety of temperance drinks which do not contain soda water in their composition as an addi- tional figure, it was estimated that 100,000 was the probable daily patronage during the summer months of the soda fountains and street booths of the city. LUNCH-EOOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 219 This was just about one half of the estimated total saloon patronage. And it is probahle that for every two who visit the saloons during the summer, one at least will satisfy his thirst at a temperance drinking- place. Now it is evident that so large a consumption of temperance drinks must keep some at least out of the saloons. The proprietors of temperance drinking- places, without doubt, find that their returns are appre- ciably greater on holidays, when saloons are closed, than on days when they are open. When beer, that is, cannot be had, a milder drink becomes a good substi- tute. In addition to these establishments for the sale of soft drinks are the public ice-water fountains. In New York, the Church Temperance Society has placed nine of these fountains in crowded portions of the city, generally in connection with some church or mission. In Boston, the city has provided the fountains, thirty- two of them being maintained at public expense during the summer, in addition to a few others supported by private gifts. Here is a convenient and practical form of municipal enterprise. At slight expense much com- fort and satisfaction can be given, and a positive cor- rective to the saloon be provided ; for it is impossible to suppose that of the hundreds of workingmen who daily stand in line waiting their turn for a drink of cold water some at least would not otherwise find their way to a saloon. The cost of a substantial fountain is about one hundred and fifty dollars. It should consist of a strong wooden chest, covered on the bottom and sides with iron pipe, and with a cavity in the centre capable of holding three hundred pounds of ice that 220 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. has to be added daily. The cost of operating such a fountain for six months of the year, allowing for repairs, will be about seventy-five dollars. It is hard to conceive how so small an amount of money could perform a greater amount of good. On the ground of satisfying a natural thirst for drink, then, these temperance drinking-places are exert- ing a large influence. Unhappily, however, where the morbid appetite for liquor begins, this competition ceases, and the superior attraction of the alcoholic drink can be met only by the provision of other attrac- tions of such a kind and variety that they wiU overcome the single appeal to appetite. Such, in a word, is the philosophy underlying the coffee-house, the tea saloon, the temperance tavern, and all similar institutions. As against the bar with its beer and whiskey, there is a bar with its temperance drinks, and in addition a well- stocked reading-room, a billiard-room, a bowling-alley, and perhaps good lodgings and wholesome food, — re- sources that can satisfy not only the normal thirst, but the normal desire for recreation and sociability as well. One reason, then, for the failure of American temper- ance drinking-places has been that they have attempted the unequal contest of meeting the saloon with temper- ance drinks alone without adding any forms of attractive amusements. The inevitable result has been that the demand for the drinks has not been sufficient to warrant keeping the places open, to say nothing of paying expenses. An interesting illustration is furnished by the coffee-house movement in Boston. The original intention was to offer coffee as a substitute for beer, and simple forms of amusement were to be provided ; LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 221 but the demand for coffee was so small that its sale was discontinued, and at present the coffee-houses are merely social gathering places for the neighborhood in which they are located, where smoking is permitted, and occasional lectures are given. Upon the basis of drink alone, it must be repeated, no successful competition with the saloon can be expected. . Another point has been conclusively proved by Ameri- can experiments, and that is that any charitable or religious motive which may lie behind such attempts as these to rival the saloons must be kept well in the background. To indiscretion in this particular the failure of more than one well-intentioned enterprise may be attributed. The Church Army has made inter- esting attempts to provide temperance drinking-places in avowed rivalry to the saloon. Its most successful establishment is in New Haven, where at the present time two coffee-rooms are in operation. The first of these is on Gregson Street, in the mercantile section of the city, the other on Grand Avenue, a poorer busi- ness district. At both of these places is a coffee bar, where for five cents one gets a good cup of coffee, a plate of beans, and two slices of bread.^ Two hun- dred and fifty such meals are served daily at Gregson Street, and about half that number at Grand Avenue. Both also have lodgings connected with them, the former called Sherman's Hotel. Lodging for a night is furnished at fifteen cents, single rooms are rented by the week at one dollar and twenty -five cents. There is a social and smoking room, and there is also a small chapel, where daily evening services are held. 1 New Haven report. 222 SUBSTITUTES POR THE SALOON. The success of this institution can be attributed to the advantages that it offers : good food at low prices, and good lodgings. The temperance drinks are not by any means the most important feature of the enter- prise. This bears out what has already been said. In addition to the receipts, one thousand dollars has been needed for rent and help, which has been contrib- uted from outside sources. A feature of the institution of the Church Army is the union of the religious and of the social ideas. In New Haven this has not proved to be offensive, but when all allowances are made it will be found unwise to connect the religious activities with an experiment of this kind. The ill results of this combination became apparent when an effort was made to repeat this experiment in New York City, where a tea saloon was formally opened on Allen Street. Cakes, pies, or sandwiches, in addition to the tea, were served without extra payment. This experiment re- ceived a good deal of advertisement. It was announced as an open rival to the saloon, and at first its patronage was considerable. But the enterprise did not pretend to be a business venture merely. It was to be a benevo- lence. Its name. Church Army Tea Saloon, was hung out in brilliant colors on a large sign ; tea missionaries were to teach the neighborhood how to brew the best tea at the least expense. Religious services were held every evening from eight to nine o'clock, conducted by :i chaplain of the Army, or his assistants. The effect of the benevolent and religious features was not helpful. The church aspect of the affair was too apparent. In a few months the patronage of the place had consider- ably fallen off, and at last the plan was abandoned. LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 223 Another obstacle in the way of the permanent success of these experiments has been the matter of finance. No one of the establishments that has been mentioned has been even in a fair way of paying its expenses. The price of drinks has been put so low that no profit has resulted from which to pay the rental, the salaries of employees, and the expense of varied attractions which, as we have seen, are essential to their success. In a word, every one of these experiments has been a charity, in that it has depended upon private gifts for its support. A determined effort was made a few years ago in the city of Washington to see if one of these institutions could not be placed upon a paying basis. The results of this experiment are especially important, since both of the obstacles above referred to were carefully avoided. It was assumed that the patronage of the place would depend in large measure upon attractions other than the temperance drinks to be offered, and it was to be a business and not a bene- volent or religious enterprise. The experiment was intended, in the words of its promoter, to test the ques- tion whether a temperance saloon could be made to pay a moderate return on the capital invested, or if not, whether such a saloon could be even made to pay ex- penses. In order that fair conditions should prevail throughout, a central location was chosen, and nothing on the exterior indicated that this was other than an ordinary bar-room. No effort was made to create a " high-toned " atmosphere within. A regular barkeeper in his shirt-sleeves stood behind a bar of ordinary pat- tern, and behind him were shelves covered with bottles and all the attractive furnishings to be found in bar- 224 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. rooms elsewhere. Tables were scattered around, papers and games were supplied. No attempt was made to improve the language or morals of the customers ; the only perceptible difference between this and any other bar-room lay in the fact that no alcoholic liquors could be procured. Two pool tables were provided, for using which a small charge was made. The experimenter him- self very rarely visited the saloon, lest he should be re- cognized and customers should be made to fear that they were being patronized, or that some effort was being made, under religious auspices, for their moral improve- ment. It is not believed that up to the present time the frequenters of the saloon have any idea that it was other than an ordinary commercial venture. AU ex- travagances of expenditure were avoided. The initial cost was necessarily somewhat large. Several hundred dollars were expended in order to make the place at- tractive, the only second-hand articles being the pool tables. The place at first was looked upon in the light of a curiosity, but in time it came to be regarded as a fixture in the community, and had its own regular client- age. Because of the lack of all restraint, the language at first was unsavory. This was greatly changed, but it was a change worked by degrees. Some of the fre- quenters were known to be men who had formerly patronized regular bar-rooms, but apparently enjoyed the clearer and cleaner atmosphere found within this saloon. One fact appeared which was regarded as more than a mere coincidence : a bar-room two doors away which had been doing business for years was closed because its patronage had fallen off to such an extent that the business proved unprofitable. The LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 225 saloon has proved a success in keeping a certain num- ber of young men away from ordinary bar-rooms and giving them a place where their evenings could be innocently spent. But keeping in mind the fact that the whole object of the experimenter was to find whether a temperance saloon could be made so commer- cially profitable as to invite capital and naturally supersede the saloon, it must be said that the results have not been encouraging. There have been periods of a month or two when the receipts were sufficiently large to cover the expenses and to give a slight profit, but such months have been the exception. Indeed, without the pool tables, the experiment must have come to an end some time ago. The demand for soft drinks has never been large, and the gain from selling them is very small. On alcoholic liquors in the ordinary saloon the profit is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred per cent, but it seldom exceeds fifty per cent on soft drinks. Here is the root of the financial diffi- culty. The profit from temperance drinks alone does not more than pay expenses. The results of this experiment must probably be accepted as decisive, since every condition looking towards independence was carefully met. The further question remains to be answered : Is it possible to discover a non-alcoholic beverage that will make a profit, or an alcoholic drink which will not cause in- toxication ? Several of these beverages have been invented and placed on the market. Of non-alcoholic drinks we have Kop's Ale, an English mixture. Of alcoholic drinks we have French coca wine or the cheap Alica beer containing not over one per cent of alcohol, 226 SUBSTITUTES FOK THE SALOON. whicli is consumed in large quantities by the natives of the North End, Boston. Other drinks have been devised from time to time by temperance workers in the hope of solving the problem. The most interesting of these experiments has been the Home Salon, conducted by Bishop Fallows in Chicago. His institution, like the Washington tem- perance saloon, was a purely business enterprise, but in addition a beverage was sold which he trusted would meet the conditions of the problem. All the attractive features of the saloon were retained except alcoholic beverages. Indeed, the location selected was a room formerly occupied by one of the notorious saloons of the city. The wine-rooms in it were torn down, but the other appurtenances, such as the bar and shelves, were allowed to remain. A kind of drink composed of pure malt and hops carbonized was pro- vided after careful experiment by competent chemists ; it was absolutely non-alcoholic. It sustained the same relation to the ordinary beer that unfermented wine does to the vinous substance. AU the so-called soft drinks were furnished besides tea and coffee. A good luncheon was served at a moderate cost. At one end of the Itmch-room men could smoke if they desired. There were newspapers, magazines, games, with occa- sional music. Such was the Home Salon, but it failed. The " Bishop's beer," as the drink was called, proved after protracted trial that it must be used within a week or two after manufacturing to be perfectly free from the traces of alcohol. This was not always possi- ble, and so it proved to be just alcoholic enough to require a license. Bishops Fallows himself ascribes LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 227 the failure of the experiment, aside from the cause that has been given, to poor management. He was unable himself, on account of absence from the city, carefully to supervise the affair, which was turned over to some young men to be carried on in another part of the city ; but without capital they were unable to carry on the business. The experiment, at any rate, did not succeed in evolving a beverage which wiU pay a sufficient profit without being alcoholic. To sum up, then, the lessons taught by these attempts to provide attractive temperance drinking-places as substitutes for the saloon, we find the essentials for the success of any such enterprise to be the following : 1. A large variety in the drinks and other attractions, such as reading and pmoking facilities, billiard tables, cheap food, and even lodgings. 2. The absence not only of a religious but of a benevolent aspect from the enterprise. 3. A capable business manager who shall conduct the establishment so as to place it upon a pay- ing basis if possible. 4. A sufficient initial investment of capital to cover the losses of the first few experimen- tal months, and to start a number of establishments, in order that the losses from some of them may be made good by the gains from others. When these conditions have been realized, such establishments may expect to pay all running expenses, but hardly a dividend on cap- ital invested. Another plan has been suggested. It has been pro- posed that temperance saloons recognize the demand for alcoholic stimulants as legitimate and provide good beer and light wines to be sold with discretion and with no attempt to make a profit. This plan has been advo- 228 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. cated by some most interested in temperance reform, and is already in operation in England. An account of this English experiment is given in the next chapter. But the saloon is not only a drink establishment; it has become a food depot as well. It satisfies daily not only the thirst but the hunger of thousands of people. The truth of this proposition is entirely independent of the vexed question of the nutritive properties of alco- hol. It is true that a hard drinker subsists on a mini- mum of food, which is readily supplied by the free lunch. It is also true that the food provided at home for the wage-earner is often of a quality which predis- poses him for the taste of liquor. Those who have had the best opportunities for observing the conditions of living of the poorer classes are unanimous in their belief that men whose wives are intelligent and capa- ble women are much less apt to frequent the sa- loons. Wholespme and tasteful food at home will do more to promote temperance among wage-earners than any number of tea saloons or coffee-houses. But the poorer workingwomen often know little or nothing about cooking. Fried food and strong coffee form the bulk of the American workingman's diet. This causes indigestion, and of itself fosters a thirst for stimulants which the saloon readily supplies. At the beginning, this must be a work of education. Fortunately the materials for popular instruction upon the most nutri- tive and wholesome food products and the best methods of preparing them are already at hand. The United States government is interesting itself in the question of the diet of the people ; private philanthropy has LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 229 been busy with its investigations, its cooking classes, and its model kitchens. Of all this activity it need only be said that it'is attacking the saloon at a most vulnerable point. Churches, settlements, and aU other benevolent agencies can do no more radical and funda- mental work towards the solution of the temperance problem than by promoting scientific instruction upon the selection and proper preparation of food for the wage-earner. One has only to refer to the discussion of the saloon free lunch to become convinced of the extent to which the saloons in all our large cities operate as food dis- tributing establishments. It is unnecessary to repeat the demonstration at this point. The popularity of the free lunch lies in the fact that one can obtain sufficient food, and drink besides, for the same price that the simplest meal would cost at any cheap restaurant. Even where the free lunch is the least abundant and attractive, it still provides sufficient nourishment to satisfy the hun- ger of multitudes of workingmen. It is evident, then, that temperance eating-places begin to operate as saloon substitutes only when they offer food of such a quality, or at such a pi^ice, or under such conditions, that the added attraction of the drink is more than counter-bal- anced in the mind of the purchaser. This statement would preclude from the list of direct substitutes all lunch-rooms and restaurants which offer no such induce- ments, or whose patronage is drawn from that portion of the population which do not frequent the saloons. Of cheap lunch-rooms and restaurants every city has an abundance. As a rule, they are of two classes : either they provide good meals, well cooked and decently 230 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. served, at the usual rate of twenty-five cents, or at a minimum of fifteen cents (only in rare instances ten cents) ; or else they attempt to offer sufficient food to satisfy the hunger at even a lower rate, but invariably under conditions so repellent that the ordinary saloon seems very attractive in comparison. Now it is evident that neither of these classes of restaurants can be called in any legitimate sense a saloon substitute, for neither will attract saloon patrons to it : the first, be- cause its price is too high ; the second, because its food is too poor. Thus it may be seen how little is the real competition that exists between the saloon and the cheap eating-places, and how securely the saloon holds the field as the feeder of all who have acquired the taste for liquor and have thus become patrons of the saloon. On a single street in Chicago, frequented by wage-earners, there are, in a distance of four miles, but eight restaurants for poor men, and all of these are unattractive. In the same four miles there are one hun- dred and fifteen saloons, nearly all of which furnish free lunches, together with all the other attractions of the Chicago saloon. Standing at a street corner near large business or factory establishments at a noon hour one may count the number of men that go straight from their work to a saloon for luncheon. They will outnumber, ten to one, those that enter any eating- house in the vicinity. There are a few restaurants, however, in at least some of our cities which may be regarded as saloon substi- tutes. Occasionally five-cent eating-places have been found which offer enough food to satisfy the hunger under sufficiently attractive conditions. Five years LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 231 ago such places could be found in Boston when the Bos- ton Lunch Company was doing business. This was partly a philanthropic and partly a business enterprise. The idea was to furnish a substantial lunch for five cents under pleasant conditions, and yet in such a man- ner as to exclude the thought of charity. To provide good food and comfort, with plants, pictures, and, most difficult of all, a little good cheer, and music, if possible, was the purpose of the promoters of the enterprise. The experiment continued for over two years. Estab- lishments were opened in different parts of the city. The patronage was uniformly large, often estimated as high as fifteen hundred a day, but the- experiment has not been a financial success, and the concern has since discontinued its business. Denver has two lunch- counters where for five cents one can have a hot meat pie or pork and beans with a roll, a bowl of soup or of oat-meal and milk with bread, two eggs fried or scram- bled, or any kind of sandwich. The average daily pat- ronage of these places, according to the estimates of the proprietors, is 1785. One could hardly fail to class them among the effective saloon substitutes existing in Denver. In San Francisco the situation is very pecul- iar. Here the saloons, by virtue of their free lunch, have really become restaurants, and the restaurants, in order to do any business, have taken to selling liquor. On account of the comparative cheapness of meat and vegetables, it is possible for saloons to offer a substan- tial meal with a five-cent drink. Hence it seems im- possible for a man to obtain as much for his money in any eating-place as he can in the saloon. Temperance restaurants in San Francisco, then, are not so easy to 232 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. find as one might imagine. When they do exist, they feel keenly the competition of the free lunch, and really offer less for the same amount of money. The only apparent exception is the well-known New Economy restaurant, which probably deserves the distinction of offering more good food for the money than any other restaurant in San Francisco, if not in America. The proprietor owes his success to the fact that he is a well- known character, and his large patronage enables him to make a profit. The following five-cent dishes are served with coffee, tea, or milk : small steak, small hamburger, pork and beans, corned beef hash, ham or bacon. These few lunch-rooms may be saad to compete with the saloon on account of the low price of the good food they offer. A few others may be put in the same class because of other attractions that "they offer with the food. It is very rare in any city of the country to find restaurants with reading-rooms or smoking-rooms at- tached. The reason is evident. There is no gain to the proprietor in having his customer linger after his hunger has been satisfied, for his place is needed for the next comer, and no inducement is held out for him to remain. Indeed, the rapidity with which food is con- sumed is a characteristic of our American eating-places. A premium seems to be put upon haste. The idea ap- parently uppermost in the mind of a man entering an American restaurant is to see how quickly he can make his escape. The element of sociability is very rarely found in eating-places of any description. Among the foreign population of our cities, however, restaurants are frequently social centres. In the Italian quarters LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 233 of any large city may be found small lunch-rooms where no stronger liquor is sold than bottled tonics. Cigars, light drinks, lunches, oysters, and fruit form the stock in trade. A room on the ground floor with plenty of chairs and tables makes the place seem not unlike a saloon except that the beer odor is not present. Here in the evening and late afternoon the men loaf and smoke and play cards. These places are run for profit, and the aim is simply to provide a loafing-place, with temperance drinks and a cold or hot lunch, and in this they succeed. They are not conscious rivals of the saloon, and a majority of their patrons are probably saloon patrons as well ; but at least they suggest how the problem is to be met by adding the element of sociabil- ity and comfort to the bare provision of food. Occa- sionally local conditions produce a restaurant of this kind. In New York, for example, the bakery restau- rants not infrequently add social features. Most of them are plain in their appointments. On Grand Street there are a few which are more elaborately furnished. These are particularly well patronized after the thea- tres close at night. There are others which cater par- ticularly to the noonday trade, and again others where breakfast is the only meal of much account ; but all of them provide tables, where one may smoke or talk or read in peace. In Denver a single lunch-room was discovered which provided for the social needs of its patrons ; but although a most unpretentious place, it furnished, for the section of the city in which it was located, almost the only social centre apart from the saloons. Separated from the lunch-counter by sliding curtains is a reading-room. The condition of the tat- 234 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. tered papers and mutilated books testifies to the vigor and frequency with which they have been used. There is usually only a small number of men present during the daytime, but their number increases about six o'clock, and an hour later the room is full, and from that time until ten or eleven o'clock the capacity of the little reading-room is strained to accommodate all of its patrons. An interval of two miles separates this little reading-room from the nearest temperance resort of any kind, in spite of the fact that the section of the city is very populous. Yet within half a block are four sa- loons which seem to owe the greater part of their trade to the lack of other social centres to compete with them. It may be seen from this review how few are the eat- ing-places which ever offer food at low enough prices or under attractive enough conditions to make them real rivals of the saloon. It is also apparent that un- der normal conditions the free lunch cannot be success- fully combated and at the same time a margin be left for profits. It is the sale of liquor which enables the saloon to offer food to its patrons. In order to make a living, the restaurant-keeper is obliged to place such a price upon the food or to serve it under conditions so unattractive as to leave the free lunch practically un- rivaled. But if the element of profits can be elim- inated, then the price can be lowered and the attrac- tions made sufficient to overcome the advantases held out by the saloon. The food can then be sold prac- tically at cost, and the greater cleanliness and supe- rior service at the restaurant make themselves felt. Sometimes these advantages exist separately ; some- times they are combined. In either case, the eating- LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 235 places so conducted become formidable rivals to the saloon as food centres and social centres as well. Very frequently eating-places of tbis character are conducted by missions of different kinds, where the chief attraction is the low price of the food offered. In Boston, for example, at the West End there is a mis- sion which conducts a low-priced restaurant as a part of its establishment. The room itself, which is below the line of the sidewalk, is bare and dingy ; there is no attempt at decoration. The floor is covered with saw- dust, and the deal tables are without cloth. Cleanli- ness, however, is noticeable throughout, and it is the absurdly small price which attracts its large patronage, a patronage sufficient in this case to pay the expenses, including the rental of the room and the salary of the superintendent. Another institution of the same kind is carried on by the Helping Hand Mission of San Francisco. Here vegetarian meals are served to an average of three hundred men a day. Each article on the bill of fare costs a cent, and for five cents a hungry man can be filled. Again, the patronage is accounted for by the extremely low price of the food. In Philadelphia, we find conspicuous illustrations of this type of restaurant which have been conducted on a larger scale and for a longer time than elsewhere in the country. The oldest one is Bailey's Coffee House, which has been in existence for twenty - five years. Before the advent of the cheap restaurant, Mr. Bailey served in his two establishments as many as six thou- sand people a day. The patronage of the present coffee-house is about one thousand. No attempt is made to secure a profit. Everything which goes into 236 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. the place is paid out again in food of the best quality, which is neatly served and in large orders. The superior quality and quantity of the food and the attractive con- ditions under which it is served have succeeded in giv- ing the place a very large constituency. Mr. Bailey himself is of the opinion that four conditions are neces- sary for the success of such an enterprise. First, it must be so placed as to compete for a large custom ; second, it must be run by one person, or, at most, by a small board of managers ; third, the philanthropic character must be kept out of sight ; and fourth, no attempt must be made to make money. Another in- stitution of the same kind existing in Philadelphia is the Star Kitchen, at first conducted in connection with a settlement, but now under separate management. Here again the object is to attract from the saloons by offering food of such a quantity and at such a price as to overcome the added attraction of liquor, and once more the idea of profit has been given up in order to make this a possibility. The dining-room is attractive, well lighted and ventilated, and spotlessly clean. There are some good pictures on the wall ; a fireplace and a sideboard filled with dishes give the place a homelike appearance. Pretty blue china and all needful accessories make the table service thor- oughly attractive. The principal waiter is a German who has been in the hotel business for twenty years, who knows the people in the neighborhood, recognizes them, jokes with them, and makes them feel at home. Thus the good food, the attractive surroundings, and, above all, the good service, are gradually appealing to the people, and compete directly with the saloon lunch ; LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 237 but it is not at present even upon a paying basis, the deficit being made up from outside subscriptions. The Lighthouse, which has been mentioned in another con- nection, also offers attractive meals at cost, for the neighborhood. It does not run for profits, and has no rent to pay and no taxes, and hence it has succeeded in drawing from the neighboring saloons hundreds of men who now take their meals at a temperance res- taurant. Two other interesting and successful experiments have been made by the Church Temperance Society of New York. In both of them it will be seen that the idea of cash profit has been abandoned, but in each case the running expenses have been easily paid. A few years ago the liquor dealers of that city tried to obtain two hundred all-night licenses on the ground that conditions of life in a great city made such re- freshment as the saloon affords a necessity during the night hours. This suggested the propriety of estab- lishing temperance refreshment places to meet just this need, and the night lunch wagons were the result. These wagons cost flOOO each, and were placed in locations where cheap restaurants were scarce, and where large numbers of men passed going to work very early or very late. The experiment has con- tinued now for ten years and has been most successful. The customers have come from all classes and trades, — hackmen, printers, laborers, clerks, messengers, and from the large floating population to be found on the sti'eet at nighttime. The average amount expended has been ten cents, and in 1899, from the six wagons in operation, 205,000 of these meals were supplied 238 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. from January to October. The bill of fare included hot veal, steak and oyster pies, hot or cold beans, frank- forts, sandwiches, with coffee, tea, cocoa, milk, or soda for drinks. No endeavor was make to undersell the ordinary cheap restaurants. The experiment has proved a financial success. During the first year and with only one wagon, the expenses exceeded the in- come by nearly ilOOO, but as the number of wagons was increased, and as they came to be better known, the deficit became a surplus. The other experiment is even more interesting. It was suggested to the offi- cers of the society that from November to May, when large numbers of entertainments were given in the city of New York, coachmen and cabmen necessarily waited for many hours during the late night or early morn- ing for whom the open saloon provided an attrac- tive shelter. To meet this, a Coachmen's Coffee Van was provided, supplying them with hot coffee and sandwiches to be paid for by the host. A second and more convenient van is being built which will enable the society to provide hot coffee gratis for motor-men during snowstorms and blizzards. Let it be accepted, then, as thoroughly demonstrated that so soon as the idea of profits is abandoned, a well- conducted lunch-room of any kind can compete directly and successfully with the saloon free lunch. This fact is of itself a great encouragement, and ought to stimu- late without any delay activity in this branch of tem- perance work. It will fall to churches, temperance organizations, and private philanthropy, that are not looking for a return on capital invested, to form lunch- room or coffee-house associations, and plant these res- LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 239 taurants in locations where saloons are abundant and the saloon free lunch is drawing all the trade. An illustration of what may be done at any time in this direction was furnished a year or two ago in the city of Cleveland. A woman passing through one of the great factory districts noticed multitudes of men going at the noon hour into the neighboring saloons. All of them were advertising a hot lunch, which was offered free with two glasses of beer. She deter- mined to open a lunch-room and compete with the saloons for this trade. The lower floor of a double tenement house next door to the largest saloon was rented ; long wooden tables covered with white oil- cloth, chairs, and flags for decoration were the only furnishings. A sign, " The Flag Coffee House," was put up outside, and the next day twenty-three men passed the saloons and entered the new restaurant. The number increased until the saloons began to furnish a good dinner consisting of soup, meat, veg- etables, and pie, free with two drinks. To meet this move, the " Flag " advertised a " Hotel Dinner for Ten Cents," and the next day within five minutes after the factory whistle blew, every seat was filled. The patron- age continued to increase until standing room was at a premium. Men would run for a seats Steaming pitchers of hot coffee, and good bread and butter were placed on the tables, and the men were invited to help themselves to any quantity. In addition, a meal was served consisting of a bowl of soup, one kind of meat, two vegetables, and a simple dessert. The conduct of the men was uniformly good, and in this case the run- ning expenses were paid, including the rent. Here, 240 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. then, is conclusive proof of what can be done in the way of saloon competition. It shows plainly that it is the lunch which attracts hundreds to the saloon, and that this patronage can be drawn away by offering an eating-place and a sufficient quantity of good food at saloon prices. But the most encouraging experiment that has been made in this direction remains to be mentioned. The development of the ethical side of factory management has been spoken of in another place, but nothing that the manufacturers of the country have done for their employees has exceeded in practical usefulness the provision by the company of good meals at low prices. By this simple means the comfort and morals of the men have been noticeably improved, and often saloons in the neighborhood have been literally forced out of business. In no city of the country has this beneficent experiment been more successfully tried than in Cleve- land. It began, it may be interesting to note, in the very section where the large coffee-house had done so well. The Sherwin-WiUiams Company was the first to try this plan.^ Two years ago a room was fitted up in their factory for this purpose. It is clean and well lighted and furnished with tables and chairs. An employee can get a hot cup of coffee free ; he can buy the rest of his meal at the very moderate rate of from six to eight cents, or he can bring his own food and eat it at one of the tables. Other firms have adopted a similar plan during the last year. The list of such places now includes the Cleveland Hardware Co., the Cleveland Twist Drill Co., the Cleveland Ship-Build- 1 From the Cleveland report. LUNCH-ROOMS AND COFFEE-HOUSES. 241 ing Co., the Cleveland Window Glass Co., the Root & McBride Co., and the National Wire Works. The chief objection that any manufacturer will urge is lack of space, but this problem has been solved by the Cleveland Hardware Co. They had no lunch-room, but opened a kitchen in one of their smaller unused buildings. Folding tables are now provided to each set of six or more men who apply, and these are set up in different corners of the factory behind machines and benches. These six men appoint a monitor, who takes the order from the other men, goes to the kitchen, and receives the different lunches in baskets, which he takes to the tables. The monitor is allowed to stop work five minutes before the whistle blows, and in this way a great rush is avoided. By this means about four hundred men are served a day, and as a rule the serving is done within ten minutes after the whistle blows. Nothing is served free. A pint of coffee is given for a penny, however, and on this money is lost, as the finest coffee that can be found is used. The balance of the bill of fare is as follows : Sand- wiches, all kinds, two cents each ; hamburg steak, one slice of bread, two cents ; pork sausage, one slice of bread, two cents ; pork and beans, one slice of bread, three cents ; half-dozen crackers and cheese, two cents ; pie, all kinds, three cents a slice ; tablespoon- ful mashed potato, one cent ; meats, with one slice of bread, six cents ; puddings, three cents ; oyster soup (on Friday), five cents per plate ; other soups, two and three cents. A single illustration will show how all this activity has affected the saloons. A man who formerly spent as much as twelve dollars a fortnight 242 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. at a near-by saloon now says he scarcely spends a cent. When one or two of the other large concerns in the vicinity adopt the same plan, the saloon will be obliged to leave the neighborhood. It is impossible to compute the good which this simple practical experi- ment has already accomplished. It ought to be re- peated by every manufacturing establishment where the employees are at present spending their money in the saloons. This, then, closes an examination of practical meth- ods of combating the saloon from the side of food and drink. The conditions in our American cities do not warrant the assertion that temperance eating and drinking places can successfully compete with the saloort as it now exists and still give a profit on the capital invested. On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that the saloon can be successfully met, and great good result from the establishment of such places by capital which does not look for a profit if conducted on the principles that have been sug- gested. CHAPTER X. ENGLISH TEMPEEANCE HOUSES. No method of competing with the saloon has been more successful in England and on the Continent than that of providing coffee-houses and similar resorts. This movement has attained such dimensions and from every point of view has been so successful as to merit special attention in a discussion of this branch of tem- perance reform. In Russia, the government has un- dertaken the establishment of tea taverns. One of the most interesting exhibits at the Paris Exposition was that of the Russian temperance movement, aided by the imperial government, which aims to supplant the fiery vodka by less dangerous drinks, while supplying the need of sociability, which is the stronghold of the saloon everywhere. A model tea-house, just as it exists in numberless Russian villages, shows how the work is done. It is a room fitted up with a " bar " at one end and a counter at the other for papers and periodicals, with bookcases against the wall, the ever present Rus- sian samovar, or huge brass tea-urn, and in the middle, tables at which the tea or barley-brew (Jcvass) may be drunk at leisure over a game of dominoes or checkers. The price of tea, sugar, the slice of lemon indispensable in Russia, and a kettle of boiling water is about two cents. In 1899 the government spent one million dol- lars in support of these temperance taverns. 244 SUBSTITUTES FOK THE SALOON. The temperance drinking-places provided in Norway and Sweden in connection with the Scandinavian method of controlling the saloon have been uniformly successful, but it is in England that the coffee-house movement has had the most conspicuous career and has exerted the widest influence. It is difficult to give an authoritative statement in regard to the history and present development of the English Coffee-House System, because the leaders of the movement have not chosen to summarize their operations or to issue statistics.-' The development of the movement has been so rapid that it has precluded the possibility of doing so with exactitude and authori- tativeness. Then, too, while there is a spirit of cordial cooperation between the different companies, the work in the main is done with pronounced independence. Competition is becoming more and more sharp, so much so that the National Association has come to protest against any charitable enterprises that sell below cost and so drive to the wall those conducting commercial enterprises for financial profit. The first coffee-house in Great Britain was probably the Workingmen's Coffee House of Dundee, Scotland, founded in 1853, when for the first time we find a com- bination of reading-room and refreshment counter. 1 The authorities for this description of the English Coffee House Movement are the volume of Dr. Bode of Berlin on Wirtshaus reform ; a paper hy William Wilkinson, Esq., Secretary of the Irish Temperance League, originally read at the World's Temperance Congress in London in 1900, reprinted in the Irish Temperance League Journal for July 2, 1900 ; papers furnished by William Peskett, manager of the Liverpool British Workingmen's Public House Company, Limited, and manu- scripts sent by H. A, Short of the Birmingham Coffee House Company. ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 245 Next in chronological order comes the establishment of the Great Western Cooking Depot, founded by Thomas Corbett in 1860. His object was to supply working people with good meals at from twopence to four and one half pence. Stimulated by Mr. Corbett's success, many similar institutions were promoted in different parts of the country. These establishments were the real pioneers of the present temperance refreshment houses which are so numerous throughout the country. It was in 1869 that Mrs. Hind Smith started the British Work- men's Public House at Leeds. Here the idea of lec- tures, " Free and Easys," and debates were made a part of the public house scheme. This experiment was imitated so that in 1873 there were in addition to eight in Leeds, eleven at Cardiff, six at Bristol, and many in other cities. The coffee palace movement was very much on the same lines, but on a larger scale, one of the most exten- sive being the Edinburgh Castle, in the East End of London, in connection with Dr. Barnardo's work. Edinburgh Castle had long been famous as a gin palace when Dr. Barnardo bought it and converted it into a coffee palace and a people's mission church. On February 14, 1873, it was opened by Lord Shaftes- bury. Shortly afterward Dublin Castle was purchased and similarly transformed. Simultaneously with these movements Mr. Simon Short of Bristol successfully agitated for the establish- ing of cocoa-rooms. In his youth, Short was a poor workman who had inherited from his father a craving for drink. He was converted and became a sailor 246 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. missionary. The idea occurred to him to set up a good restaurant for the sailors and laborers of Bristol. He was supported by some good Quakers, and the result was a small coffee-house established in 1870, where coffee and cocoa could be had for fourpence a pint, besides good luncheons at cheap prices. Other similar houses were planted, always where a large company of laborers were engaged. " Simon Short may well be called the father of the cocoa-house and coffee-house movement." Another one of the early pioneers who should be mentioned is Mr. John Pearce, who started what has been known as the Gutter Hotel, which has grown into the wonderful establishments of Pearce & Plenty and the British Tea Table Company, in which upwards of one hundred thousand meals are served every day. It is well known that the name of Dwight L. Moody is associated with the English coffee-house movement. In 1875, while holding services at Liverpool, he be- came impressed with the needs of the dock laborers. A Liverpool clergyman. Rev. Charles Garrett, took up Mr. Moody's suggestion that temperance houses be furnished as a corrective to the saloon. The result was the establishment of the Liverpool British Work- men's Public House Company, Limited. Mr. Garrett went to Bristol to investigate Simon Short's coffee- houses, and when he returned brought Mr. Short with him. As a result, the company prospered and to-day has seventy-two establishments, which during the year 1896 accommodated no less than 175,320 guests. In 1874 the Irish Temperance League opened their ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 247 first coffee-stand on the streets of Belfast, and Dublin and Londonderry imitated their efforts with marked success. In Ireland at the present time the work is performed not by private companies, but by Temper- ance Leagues. In London the coffee-house movement was not taken up so readily as in the provincial towns. The work, when it was begun in London, was of a somewhat different character. Prior to 1874 cheap restaurants were practically unknown. Indeed, for some years after that time there was no place within a short dis- tance of the House of Commons where a cup of tea could be had unless on licensed premises, and then only by paying one shilling for tea and bread and butter. To-day no less than fifteen hundred persons are proprietors of people's restaurants, and thirty-one persons are owners of one or more temperance hotels. The most important of the restaurant companies are The Aerated Bread Company, Lockhart's Cocoa Eooms, Pearce & Plenty's Temperance Hotels, Pearce's Din- ing Rooms, British Tea Table Co., The Temperance Catering Co., Limited, The Golden Grain Co., The Ex- press Dairy, The Mecca, The Ossington Coffee Tavern Co., Slater's Restaurants, J. Lyons & Co., Johnston's Cocoa Rooms. All of these are purely business enter- prises much like Dennett's and others in America, although upon a much larger scale. They all pay profits anywhere from eight to fifteen per cent. The temperance hotels of London are another impor- tant feature of the movement. The Rowton Houses are the best known of these, but in addition there are at present twenty other temperance hotels, some of them 248 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. hardly less palatial. In these hotels cheap meals, clean beds, and good reading-rooms are provided, much after the pattern of the Mills Hotels in New York. In many of the provincial cities similar institutions are conducted, some of them under the direction of the Coffee-House Company, as in Birmingham, Bradford, Liverpool, and Hull. One of the most famous of these is the Cobden Hotel of Birmingham, with its under- ground refreshment room and one hundred and fifty guest rooms. There are then, in general, these three kinds of tem- perance refreshment houses : coffee-houses without the drink, restaurants without the drink, and inns without the drink. Some are a combination of aU of these, some of two ; the trade is known as temperance cater- ing. There is a national organization which publishes a paper called " The Temperance Caterer." We may form some idea of the extent of this indus- try from the number of these temperance houses of one grade or another, and from the amount of capital invested. Liverpool, with its 607,000 inhabitants, has no less than sixty-five houses of all grades, of which nine are large caf^s and ten provide lodgings. They have their own bakery and aerated water manufactory. The capital is £55,000, £40,000 of which is in £1 shares. The patronage amounts to 30,000 daily, and the company gives employment to nearly 500 persons. The declared dividend has seldom been less than ten per cent. In Manchester, 380,000 inhabitants, the work is carried on by Mr. Frank Short. Here there are fifteen establishments, one of them a new and large hotel. Besides the Tavern Company, there is a Ware- ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 249 housemen and Clerks' Cafe, and other smaller compa- nies. In Bradford, 235,000 inhabitants, the Coffee Tavern Company, with Mr. Joseph Bentley at its head, conducts thirty-four houses, and possesses in addition a mineral water factory, a bakery, a butcher-shop, and a laundry. The company employs 220 persons. Here the capital is about £32,000, of which £20,000 are in shares. The dividend in the last few years has been at five per cent. The Bradford Company, in addition to the regular trade of the coffee-houses, caters for family gatherings and public occasions, often at a dis- tance from Bradford. In Birmingham, there is a large company which controls eighteen restaurants, two hotels, a mineral water factory, and a bakery. The company pays twelve and a half per cent. From the following list some idea of the trade in other English cities may be obtained.^ Leicester, 12 houses, 4 per cent (6 per cent 1897) ; Lincoln, 1 house, 7^ per cent ; Hull, 19 houses, 10 per cent ; Grreat Grimsby, 5 houses ; Northampton, 3 houses ; Wellingborough, 5 houses ; Shrewsbury, 4 houses ; Wolverhampton, 13 houses ; Southampton, 4 houses ; Ashton-under-Lyne, 4 houses ; Bury, 4 houses, 15 per cent ; Kochdale, 7 houses ; Stalybridge, 5 houses ; Derby, 5 houses, 6 per cent ; Sunderland, 10 houses; York, 3 houses, 12| per cent; Halifax, 8 houses, 10 per cent. It would be a mistake to imagine that aU of these houses are large and well appointed. The criticisms which are constantly being made in the English papers almost invariably speak of the dinginess of many of the 1 W. Bode, Wirtshausrefarm, p. 23. 250 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. temperance houses. All that their promoters claim is that, " taking them house for house, temperance estab- lishments will compare most favorably for cleanliness, comfort, good order and moderate charges with licensed houses situated in similar localities." The interior furnishings are usually in light-colored woods ; often colored glass is used, and flowers are not an unusual ornament. A small cafe in Bradford spent £600 in interior furnishings. The comfort of the guest is looked after. A smoking-room is always provided, and often a billiard-room as well if space wiU permit. The York Company takes in yearly £90 from its billiard tables alone. The Liverpool Company does not permit billiards in any of its houses and has not felt the need of this attraction. Other amusements like draughts, domi- noes, and chess are found, and are very popular. Cards are generally excluded. The reading-room is a great feature in nearly all of the houses. The London and local dailies and often popular magazines are to be found. The Liverpool Company expends over £400, and the Bradford Company £180 yearly for papers. Sometimes coffee concerts are given, admittance to which, with coffee or tea, is two, four, or six pence, ac- cording to seats. Better still, these coffee-houses do the work which American saloons often perform at pre- sent of offering accommodation to the fraternal and secret societies, many of which meet each week in the different branches of the coffee-house companies. The Liverpool Company has been particularly successful in this respect. A feature of nearly all the refreshment houses, with- out respect to grade, is the service. The food or drink ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 251 is almost always quickly and neatly served. Waitresses are employed, and the girls receive sums varying from 13 shillings a week to £1. No tips are allowed. Changes are frequent, but there is no difficulty in fill- ing the places. The Sunday closing rule of the temper- ance houses has sometimes been criticised, but it is the belief of the leaders of the movement that Sunday should be a family day, and they do not care to compete with the public houses in this respect. During the week days, every effort is made to meet the convenience of the workingmen, and some of the houses are open continu- ously from five in the morning until eleven at night. Although the refreshment houses are known as coffee- houses, tea is the common beverage and is consumed in large quantities. Coffee comes next, and then cocoa, the consumption of which seems to be on the increase. Soft drinks, such as lemonade, and ginger ale, have a large sale in some places, but in others are not much in demand. In Liverpool, for example, there is little call for them, but in Bradford and Birmingham the trade is so large that the companies operate their own mineral water manufactory. In addition much atten- tion has been given to the preparation of non-intoxicat- ing beverages containing a small percentage of alcohol. Some of these so-called temperance drinks are undoubt- edly intoxicating, the difficulty being to keep the per cent of alcohol below the required percentage. The Brewers' Journal in 1895 asserted that the results of forty tests had shown that on an average these drinks contained no less than four and eight tenths per cent of alcohol, and " Science Siftings " declared that total abstinence patrons of so-called non-alcoholic drinks 252 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. eventually consume as much alcohol as moderate drink- ers. " The Temperance Caterer," 15th of March, 1895, declared against many of these drinks, asserting that there were enough beverages that contain only one to two per cent of alcohol to leave no excuse for the sale of others by temperance houses. Kop's Ale and Kop's Stout are favorite drinks for abstainers. Other English beers are so strong that these are doubtless temperance drinks, although they are hardly more so than a soft fresh-brewed beer. However it is not true that these drinks play a large part in the English temperance house movement. The success of the houses seems to be wholly independent of them. They are useful chiefly for confirmed drinkers, who crave something stronger than tea or lemonade. Mr. Benfcley at Brad- ford is constantly experimenting in new drinks which are finding a large sale. At first not so much attention was given to the pro- vision of food as of drink, but of late this feature of the coffee-houses has been very prominent, and now in nearly all of them clean and suitable food can be ob- tained at very low prices. The amount of the patron- age of some of the companies may be estimated from the fact that they operate their own bakeries, the Liver- pool Company employing fifty hands day and night. The consumption of meat is always large. Provision is made for laborers who choose to bring their own luncheons. They can go to the coffee-houses, spend a halfpenny on a cup of tea, coffee, or cocoa, and eat their dinners in comfort. Of course there is a great variety in the matter of the provision of food. Lockhart's, for example, in London, represents the class of houses ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 253 where very cheap and simple tariffs prevail, a halfpenny mug of hot cocoa, tea, or coffee being the most popu- lar item. Other places, like the A. B. C. of London and the B. T. T. (British Tea Table), do a superior kind of catering. In general, it may be said that the provision of cheap cooked dinners is a growing part of the work. An idea of the prices charged for both drink and food may be gathered from the following tables : ^ — I. DRINK. Class A. Wobkingmen's Repkeshment Houses. Tea, Id. to 2d. CofEee and cocoa, the same. Milk, Id. Lemonade in bottles, Id. Ginger ale. Id. Ginger beer. Id. Class B. Fok Clerks, etc. Tea, Ijd., 3d., or 6d., according to amount. CofEee, IJd. to 6d. Chocolate, 2jd. Glass of milk, Id. Soda water, 2d. BouiUon, 2d. to 4d. Class C. Highest Gkade Houses and Hotels. Tea, 2d. to 3d. Coffee and chocolate, the same. Milk, IJd. Eggs and milk, 3Jd. 1 W. Bode, Wirtshausreform, p. 26. 254 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Slater's in London offers in addition: Russian tea, 2d. Cadbury's cocoa, 2d. Co£Eee, 3d. Lime juice and soda water, 2d. to 3d. Anti-Burton Bitter Ale or Stout, 2d. Soda water, 2d. II. FOOD. Class A. Wokkingmen's Rbfebshmbnt Houses. Bread and butter. Id. Cakes, pies, or puddings. Id. Warm beef, 4d., 5d., and 6d. Beefsteak pudding, 4d. Beefsteak, 6d. Ham, 2d., 3d., and 4d. Corned beef, 2d. Sausage, 2d. Pickles, Jd. Vegetables, Id. The amount of meat is always large ; the Bradford Com- pany boasts of its 6d. dinner : Soup, Id. ; herring, 1^. ; beef and potatoes, 2d. ; pudding. Id. ; bread and butter, J^d. Class B. For Clerks, etc. Bread and butter, 2d. Poached eggs, 5d. Cold beef, 3d. Ham, 3d. Tongue, 4d. Chicken, 3d. to 7d. Ham sandwiches, 4d. to 7d. Mock turtle or ox-tail soup, 2d. to 7d. ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 255 Warm steak pies, 2d. Fish, 6d. Cheese, Id. Custards, Id. to 2d. Class C. Highest Grade Houses and Hotels. Beef, 6d. Ham or tongue, 4d. Steak pies, 3d. to 4d. Sausages, 3d. Bread and butter, 2d. Sandwiches, 3d. to 6d. Eggs, 2d., etc. Some of the causes of the success of this English experiment are the following : — 1. The great need of some substitute for the public house. We have seen how prior to 1874 the field was unrecognized, the cheap restaurant being practically- unknown. , 2. The sound financial footing upon which the experi- ment was based from the first. " These establishments have been owned and worked by joint stock companies with liability, the shares, usually of the value of one pound, being bought and sold like any other stock. These shares have always been in demand, explained by the fact that dividends have been steadily paid for years past. The shares of nearly all the concerns are sought after by the investing public with confidence." ^ 3. The absence of any religious and benevolent aspect of the enterprise. The association is not con- nected with any temperance party, the abstainer being merged in the general public. 1 Quotation from Mr. H. A. Short's letter. 256 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. 4. Effective business management, the economic pur- chase and preparation of food and drink. This is seen in thei control of the houses, and in the effort to meet at all points the demand of the public. Full freedom is exercised by the houses in any one locality, the only universal rule being the exclusion of intoxicants. 5. The English fondness for tea and coffee and meats, which makes the problem of providing temper- ance refreshments simpler than it might be elsewhere. The results of the English experiment have been most beneficent. Intemperance still prevails to a fright- ful extent in English cities, but it can safely be claimed that conditions are not so bad as they otherwise would be, that the people are more sober and thrifty. The total abstinence movement in England is educating a larger and larger number of young people to refrain altogether from the use of intoxicants. The temper- ance refreshment houses are to play in the future an even more important part in the social life of England than they do at present, and to-day the reproach has been removed from many of the most important Eng- lish cities that only the drink-shops are open for the people's refreshment. To the questioner who asks why may not this bene- ficent movement be duplicated in America, several considerations present themselves. For one thing, the cheap restaurants are already performing in part the work of the English coffee-houses. In England, the cheap restaurant and the temperance house movement have been combined from the beginning. In America, the former began an independent existence, and has been accomplishing much good without being nominally ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 257 a temperance agency. A coffee-house in America to-day competes not only with the saloon, but with these restaurants. Again, the English fondness for tea and coffee makes possible a large consumption and considerable profit. The free lunch competition is not felt in England, and it is precisely the free lunch which so complicates the problem in America. As far as the temperance hotels are concerned, it has already been demonstrated that these American houses can be as successful as their English models, and the near future will probably see all American cities provided with lodgings after the Mills Hotel pattern. Finally, it is yet to be proved that an establishment after the best of the English types cannot be conducted so as to yield a profit. The attempt was made a year or two ago by the Church Temperance Society of New York, which estab- lished its Squirrel Inn on the Bowery. Unfortunately, the Tammany building inspector refused to permit the society to have lodgings in the building, and without these the inn has not been able to meet expenses. If the experiment could be made under right conditions, it is probable that financially it would be successful. Attention has been called to a conclusion to which many interested in temperance reform have slowly been tending, that the hope of prohibition must be dismissed, and the effort be made to sell liquor under right condi- tions. The methods of state and governmental control have already been described. But in England prac- tically the same plan has been followed by individuals who, without waiting for further legislation, have applied 258 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. for licenses, and have retailed liquors in such a way as to avoid excesses while satisfying the demand for intoxi- cants. A description of this interesting experiment is contributed by Professor Francis G. Peabody : — Certain large industrial undertakings in England, in the interest of their own employees, have taken into their hands the control of the drink traffic, and have devoted themselves to checking excess and encouraging other forms of recreation. One of the most notable instances of such industrial monopoly is the village of Elan, in Wales. This is a temporary settlement constructed for the " navvies " employed in building the aqueduct of Birmingham. More than a thousand workmen are housed at this isolated spot, which is reached by a bridge across a stream, where an official watches for smuggled liquor. The company maintains both a place of sale and a place of refreshment. In the place of sale beer may be bought, but may not be drunk. Sales are forbidden to minors or to non-resi- dents, and the amount which may be bought by one purchaser is limited. In the place of refreshment the hours of opening are from noon to two, and from half past five tiU nine o'clock (Saturdays from one to nine o'clock), with no Sunday opening. No women and no boys under eighteen years are admitted. The regula- "tions prohibit cards and games of chance, and demand good order. The manager gets no personal profit from increasing sales, but loses his position if the discipline of the canteen is relaxed. Profits of the business are applied by the company to maintain a reading-room, a library, a gymnasium, a hall for entertainment, a school, and a hospital. ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 259 " Individually," wrote the secretary of the Birming- ham Water Department in 1895, "I am a total abstainer, but I am perfectly certain that we are serv- ing the interests of temperance far better in providing wholesome liquor under proper regulations than we should be did we attempt to prohibit the traffic alto- gether, leaving it to be conducted in the usual way by persons interested in encouraging the sale, or driving the men to illicit practices to obtain supplies." ^ A more considerable attempt to apply the Scandi- navian principle without legislative authority was begun in 1897 by the Bishop of Chester and others. This group of influential persons, having failed to obtain legislation permitting the formation of a company system, proceeded to organize the " People's Refresh- ment House Association." The aim of this associa- tion is to permit public house reform independently of further legislation, by giving facilities for the wider adoption of the system of management without private profits. With this object it seeks to lease existing public houses, to acquire new licenses at places where the growth of the population obliges the licensing magistrates to create new ones, and to establish can- teens and refreshment bars where required at large public works, at collieries, and elsewhere. In each house a carefully chosen manager is placed. The salient features of the system introduced into the public houses managed by the association are as follows : — (a) In order to remove aU temptation to the manager 1 The Canteen at Elan Village, published for the People's Refresh- ment House Association, 1899. W. Bode, Wirtshausreform, p. 52 S., with illustrations. 260 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. to push the sale of intoxicants, he is paid a fixed salary, and is allowed no profit whatever on the sale of alco- holic drinks. (6) On the other hand, to make it to his interest to sell non-intoxicants, in preference to beer and spirits, he is allowed a profit on all trade in food and non-alco- holics. (c) To enable the customer to get tea, coffee, tem- perance drinks or light refreshments just as easily as beer or spirits, these are made readily accessible at the bars, and are served promptly. In this way the beer and spirit trade is deposed from the objectionable pro- minence into which, from motives of profit, it is pushed in the ordinary public house, the aim of the associ- ation being to maintain the house in a general sense as a public house, but to conduct the trade on the lines of a respectable house of refreshment at popular prices, instead of those of a mere drinking bar. (cT) To guard against the evils of bad liquor great care is taken that everything supplied is of the best quality. The capital which is from time to time wanted to carry on the society's increasing business, is offered for subscription to the public in the form of shares entitled to a dividend out of profits at a rate not ex- ceeding five per cent per annum, after payment of which, and making provision for a reserve fund, the surplus profit is devoted to objects of public utility, local or general, as the president and vice-presidents in consultation with the council may determine. This scheme of moderate reform, therefore, accepts the situation which exists in many parts of Great ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 261 Britain, and instead of protesting against the public house attempts to reduce its evils. Many leaders of public opinion participate in the undertaking. The vice-presidents of the association for 1899 include the Earl of Stamford, the Bishop of Rochester, Lord Chelmsford, and Cardinal Vaughan, and among its adherents are seven other bishops, the Duke of Bed- ford, Earl Grey, Lord Tennyson, and many others. The operations of this association began in 1897, with a single inn in the village of Sparkford in Somerset. In 1899 seven, and in June, 1900, twelve public houses were under its control. The net profit of business in 1899 was £281, of which there were Placed in reserve fund £35.29 Dividend on stock at 5 per cent 76 Distributed for objects of public relief . . . 112 Carried on 58 £281.29 The administration of these resorts is regulated by instructions to managers of which the following are illustrations : — " The manager placed in charge of a public house belonging to the association must bear in mind that he has been appointed by the council to conduct the management on certain fixed principles. These princi- ples are : — " 1. That the general arrangement and management of the house shall be on the lines of a house of refresh- ment, instead of a mere drinking bar. " 2. That food and a variety of non-intoxicants shall be as easily accessible to customers as beer and spirits. 262 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. " 3. That the licensing laws enacted by Parliament for the regulation of public Louses and the promotion of temperance shall be most strictly carried out in every particular. " 4. That a holder of a license is in a sense a servant of the public, and that he must study the comfort, well-being, and health of his customers ; that his house must therefore be scrupulously clean, and that the rooms most used by the public must be comforta- bly arranged, well warmed in winter, and weU venti- lated. " 5. Special attention is to be given to the making of tea, coffee, and cocoa, so as to make them as attractive and palatable as possible. Tea must always be freshly made for every customer. " 6. Those light refreshments in the way of food best suited to the tastes of the customers frequenting the house, such, perhaps, as biscuits, cakes, hard-boiled eggs, meat sandwiches, bread and cheese and sausages, should be conspicuous in the bar, and arranged appe- tizingly to attract custom." The sale of food and non-intoxicating beverages is a source of profit to the manager, and on sales of aerated water he receives one quarter of the profit. Each man- ager is provided with pamphlets of " hints for encour- aging the sale of non-intoxicants and food," some of which are as follows : — " Of course you must keep the usual stock of aerated waters, tea, coffee, cocoa, cheese, biscuits, butter, jam, and so on, like any common public house ; but as we want to encourage the consumption of non-intoxicants and food more than is done usually in public houses. ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 263 look through the following list, and make a selection of those things most likely to be appreciated by your customers, and get in a stock, only a small stock to start with, until you find how they sell. NON-INTOXICANTS. Ginger Ale. Hop Ale or Bitter. Kop's Ale. Lime Juice (Crosse & Blackwell's is best). Lemon Squash (Crosse & Blackwell's). Still Lemionade. Bovril or Fluid Beef. Milk, plain. Soda and milk. Syrups (with hot water they make a good winter drink). LIGHT EErEESHMENTS. Bacon or ham. Eggs, plain boiled. Hard-boiled eggs (served cold in the shell on a plate with salt) . Poached eggs on toast (anchovy or bloater paste on the toast is very good). Fried eggs, plain or with ham or bacon. Fried or poached eggs on tomatoes (cut the tomatoes in halves and fry. Canned tomatoes do very well). Sandwiches, meat or ham, or with potted meat, or eggs hard-boiled and cut in slices. Potted meats (served with bread). Corned beef (makes good sandwiches). Tongue. Sausages (hot or cold). Sausage roUs. 264 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. Pork pies. Bloater or herring, fried. Soused mackerel (cooked in vinegar). Salmon, canned, served with vinegar. Sardines. German sausage. Cake to sell by the slice. Buns or cakes. Biscuits in variety. Salad, lettuce or radish. Soups (can now be bought in packets ; easily made). " If you have a suitable shelf or counter make as good a show as you can of your non-intoxicants and food : it will pay you to do so. Keep a well-arranged assortment of show cards about, and change them from time to time and according to season." Important as has been the support of this scheme in England, it has been, of course, a subject of severe and sometimes of bitter criticism. In particular should be mentioned the comments of a recent volume of most painstaking and intelligent inquiry which, while warmly commending the general intention of the People's Re- freshment House Association, takes issue with its method in one detail.^ " With the main principle," it remarks, " underlying the Bishop of Chester's pro- posal, namely, the elimination of private profit, there can be nothing but cordial agreement ; . . . but the practical proposal for associating recreation with the sale of intoxicants is . . . calculated to hinder rather than to facilitate the object it seems to maintain." The ' Rowntree and Sherwell, The Temperance Problem and Social Re- form, 1899, p. 389 ff. ENGLISH TEMPERANCE HOUSES. 265 authors of this important book accept, therefore, as the solution of the drink problem the municipal or corpo- rate monopoly of the traffic together with the detach- ment of the sale of liquor — as in Bergen — from all recreative elements, and the application of profits, as in Norway, to forms of popular amusement and instruc- tion which tend to counteract the drink habit. It is very interesting to observe how nearly this last proposal of competent inquirers coincides with the Bishop of Chester's scheme. Indeed, it can hardly be said that there is any radical hostility between the two proposals. Either plan has obvious difficulties. On the one hand, there is the social risk of restoring the drink traffic to respectability and of failing to check the flow of popu- lation toward the saloon ; on the other hand, there is the practical risk which comes of vesting an extremely valuable monopoly in the hands of town councils or char- tered companies. The Bishop of Chester's scheme is highly individualized, and is in the way of being devel- oped so as to avoid the perils of any wholesale or pre- cipitate movement. The public house under this system should not be reestablished as the social club of the community, but should be utilized to establish social resorts of a more elevating character within the commu- nity. The canteen at Elan illustrates this use of monop- oly. The Bishop of Chester's scheme begins in a small way, and does not call for any legislative revolution. It deals with a community just as it is, and proceeds to that degree of prohibition or counter-attraction which the case j)ermits. In short, it is a halfway measure which dismisses the idea of immediately abolishing the saloon in a community thoroughly wonted to its use, 266 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. and anticipates that partial reform may open the way to greater changes. As has been already stated, no scheme of this nature can have any interest for those who without discrimina^ tion or practical intention cast an unavailing vote for prohibition, and then regard their duty to temperance as fulfilled. There are those, however, who remain dis- satisfied with sentimental protests, and who are ready to use such partial and preparatory reforms as are open to them, cherishing the hope that a moderate change of sentiment prudently directed may lead to radical re- form. If they cannot abolish the traffic, they will be glad to have it diminished. If they cannot stop expendi- ture for liquor, they will direct that expenditure from ways of personal profit to ways of public utility. If the saloon must exist, they will try to have it managed so that the taste for strong liquor will be discouraged, and the taste for harmless drink and nutritive food wiU be stimulated. Liquor dealers are, for the most part, completely indifferent to the violent oratory and inef- fective vote of those who give themselves to the impos- sible task of abolishing the drink habit. They are keenly observant of any practicable plan which looks to the removal of the traffic from the sphere of private profit and tends to make the saloon itself an agent of temperance. CHAPTER XI. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. A FREQUENT objection is heard, whenever clubs and amusements for the working people are discussed, that there is more harm than good in all these, that they must tend to the disintegration of the home. A few years ago, when a movement for working people's clubs in New York was contemplated, energetic statements appeared in the press to the effect that all such clubs were beside the mark ; that if a few dollars were spent upon each of ten thousand homes of the poor, the results would be better than if the same amount were spent upon any single charitable clubhouse. The two points of view do not stand in opposition. True, the home is of first importance. But it will probably be found that a wise provision of other substitutes will have a favor- able influence upon the home. As Mr. Eiis has pointed out,-* " the higher standards now set up on every hand, in the cleaner streets, in the better schools, in the parks and clubs, in the settlements, and in the thousand and one agencies for good that touch and help the lives of the poor at as many points, will tell at no distant day, and react upon the home and upon its builders." It was a realization of this truth which led the New York Tenement House Committee of 1894 to include in its recommendations the establishment of > A Ten Years' War, p. 21. 268 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. small parks for the East Side of New York, for suita- ble playgrounds in connection with the public schools, and for recreation piers. Sanitary laws and building codes will not do the whole work. The home is built from within, not from without. A standard must be set, and this standard is set by all substitutes that are conceived in the right spirit. A man who is careful of his habits in his clean clubroom, will think more of being careful in his own home. The members of work- ing girls' clubs will appreciate the necessity of tidy homes, and will know how to make them so on little means. The sight of flowers, books, and pictures wiU create a demand for them in the home. Social agencies of the right kind are not substitutes for the home, but creators of ideals which, when they are perceived and become operative, wiU themselves help to make the home what it ought to be. But all this cannot happen until the home has be- come at least inhabitable, until the elementary demand for sanitation, privacy, air, and space is made possible. The first step, then, in providing for the home life of the wage-earners of America is to find them homes to live in which are sufficiently large for those who occupy them, which admit the sun for at least a part of the day, have some clean court or space or yard for the children to play and the older ones to breathe in, and make some adequate provision for bathing and sanitary conveniences. In the majority of our cities ^ the tenement house 1 Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws in Leading American Cit- ies, a special report of the New York Tenement House Commission^ prepared by Lawrence Veiller, Secretary. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 269 problem is unknown. In most of them, too, the hous- ing problem has not yet become acute, the evils of overcrowding have not become felt. The working peo- ple live in small wooden houses, one or two stories in height, containing anywhere from three to eight rooms. For the most part only one family lives in a house, rarely more than three families in a two-story dwelling. Often these houses are owned by their occupants, and when a rental is paid, it is not out of proportion to the average wage. As a rule, these houses are not set too close together, and some space at least is left in front of the buildings. This is true even in the largest cities. In Philadelphia, for example, there are no tenement houses. The great majority of the working people, even the very poor people, have homes of their own, in most cases with land around them. " The experience of Philadelphia offers ample evidence that a system of tall tenement houses is unnecessary in any of our large cities." The experience of other cities leads to the same conclusion. It has been estimated that not over five per cent of all the houses in Cleveland are occu- pied by more than one family ; that not over fifty large tenement buildings are to be found in the entire city of Buffalo. In the very worst portion of Baltimore not more than one thousand families could be found living in houses containing more than three families. In San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver, St. Paul, and Minne- apolis and even Chicago, tenement houses are practi- cally unknown. But because the evils of the tenement house system and of overcrowding are not felt, it does not follow by any means that the homes of the working people are 270 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. all that they should or may be. All that this means is that the essential conditions for an adequate home en- vironment are present ; it does not mean that the right kind of a home has been even imperfectly realized. Cleanliness is often at a discount, even when external conditions are favorable, and bathing facilities are never equal to the necessities of a working people's neighborhood. One has only to compare the tidy, plea- sant looking homes of some factory employees, or the cottages of building associations, with the dirty, squalid wooden buildings, acres of which meet the eye in almost any city, to see how great is the need that still remains. The municipality might do much by a syste- matic improvement of adjacent property ; land owners and landlords might do more if human sympathy were~ added to an eye for business ; and neighborhood asso- ciations, friendly visitors, church guilds and other benevolent agencies might do, are already doing, much to impart some elementary knowledge of sanitation and hygiene, to create ideals and demands which, sooner or later, must be made visible in the homes of the poor. This is said in order to impress the truth that the real problem of an adequate home life only begins when the tenement house problem and the problem of overcrowd- ing have been solved. But in some of our cities even the elementary obsta- cles to good homes have yet to be overcome. Over- crowding is plainly visible in some cities where the ten- ement house is unknown. It is visible in New Orleans, where, in some of the old dwellings formerly occupied by wealthy people, many poor families are too often crowded ; it is plainly visible in Pittsburg, where in THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 271 certain sections overcrowding is growing worse day by day. In Chicago, the rear tenement prevails, and the cellar dwellings, the dilapidated wooden houses, and the overcrowding of building lots have created a pro- blem of no mean proportions. Cincinnati is worse off than Chicago, and Boston than Cincinnati. As far as can be ascertained, the majority of the working people in Cincinnati live in tenements arranged for more than three families each, a considerable number of them living in large brick tenement houses. Only a small number of the working people live in separate houses. " One of the worst tenements in Cincinnati is the noto- rious building known as ' Rat Eow,' the rear of the building being located on the river front, and the char- acter of the tenants being of the very worst. The building contains over one hundred rooms, occupied chiefly by Negroes and low whites, and is continually under police and sanitary surveillance. Up to the pre- sent time little has been done to remedy the bad hous- ing conditions." Boston is said, after New York, to have the worst tenement house conditions of any American city. Until recently it tolerated the old wooden tenement house of the poorest type. Every one remembers the rookeries on Lincoln Street which resisted until the very last the advance of trade. Others of the kind still exist in the North and West ends, fronting on narrow alleys, crowded with many foreign families. The number of these buildings, however, is being constantly decreased, and those which are taking their places are of a much better type. Those that do exist are not so bad by far as the New York tenements in that they 272 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. are not so high, do not cover so much of the ground, and do not harbor so many people. Aside from the tenements, however, the housing conditions are often very poor.^ Thus in the South End, where large tene- ment buildings do not exist, the working people live under conditions detrimental alike to their health and to their morals. There is not sufficient space. The sanitary arrangements are poor. There are no bathing facilities, and occasionally a house intended for the occupation of one family contains from four to eight. Of late years considerable effort has been put forth, especially under the auspices of the Twentieth Century Club, to improve these housing conditions. That an improvement was imperative, the figures of the Tene- ment House Census of 1891-92 plainly proved. It was shown that " fully one fourth of the tenement house population of the (South End) district live under spe- cially objectionable sanitary conditions." New York City stands in a class by itself. A study of New York's tenement house problem shows that there is practically no limit to the mischief which cupidity and neglect can accomplish when they are left to travel hand in hand. In 1834 and again in 1842, while many of our great Western cities were forests or swamps, attention was called to the evils of overcrowding and of bad housing conditions in New York. But nothing was done. Dr. Griscom, the head inspector, who made the report in 1842, found that there were then 1459 cellars being used as resi- dences by 7196 persons. The number of victims of consumption among those living in incessant dampness 1 The City Wilderness, pp. 63-70. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 273 was found to be very great. He recognized also the evils of overcrowding, and estimated that as many as 6618 different families were living in courts or rear buildings. He pointed out at that early day the grave moral evils resulting from overcrowding, and urged the city legislature to take action.^ If action had, been taken, Manhattan Island would not be to-day the worst place, in America, if not in the world, for laboring people to live.^ When the first legislative commission was appointed in 1856, it was given seven days to make its report. When its members asked for a further extension of time, it was denied them, and when they spent all summer, at their own expense, in preparing a report, which for thoroughness and far- sightedness has never been excelled, the legislature failed to adopt their suggestions. One of the sugges- tions of 1856 would have settled the whole problem. It has just been urged again, in the Eeport of the Commission of 1900. This suggestion is that a perma- nent Tenement House Commission be created, which shall have the power to visit, enter, and inspect any tenement house ; if it is in improper condition, to direct the owner to repair it within a specified time ; and if it is decreed untenantable, to forbid it to be occupied and to have it destroyed. If this measure had been passed in 1856, New York would have been spared thousands of lives and millions of dollars. The rest of the history of commissions and their reports is one story 1 Annual Report of the Interments in the City and County of New York, for the year 1842, by John H. Griscom, M. D. ^ Tenement House Reform in New York, 1834-1900, by Lawrence Veiller. 274 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. of legislative evasion, halfway measures, and double dealing. Tlie results are well known. In 1857 the commis- sion discovered twelve families residing in one building, some of them occupying one close unventilated apart- ment, persons of both sexes huddled indiscriminately together. The overcrowding increased steadily year by year.i " In 1880 the average number of persons to each dwelling in New York was 16.37 ; in 1890 it was 18.52 ; in 1895, according to the Police Census, 21.2." In 1880 the East Side, the most crowded section in the world, contained 432.3 persons to the acre. In 1890 there were 522 to the acre, and in 1895, 643.08. The block between Sixty-first and Sixty-second streets. Tenth and Eleventh avenues, contains 3580 people or 974.6 to the acre. Year by year the great tenement houses, with their deadly air-shafts, have gone steadily up, standing so close to one another that sunshine and pure air are shut out from the majority of the rooms, and into them families have been crowded together under conditions utterly subversive of all phy- sical and moral well-being. In a typical tenement, Mr. Riis counted forty-three families where there should have been sixteen. The most discouraging feature of the whole story is the discovery that those who have meant to better the con- ditions have more than once succeeded only in making them worse. It was the " model tenement " which the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor erected on Mott Street that later became one of the worst tenement houses in the city. It was the " prize 1 A Ten Years' War, p. 34. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 275 plan " of the Tenement House Competition of 1879 which produced the " double-decker dumb-bell tene- ments " which are so much worse than the old ones. The whole history of tenement house reform in New York shows how hard it is to get out of such a trouble, when once involved in it. The economic and moral results of bad housing have, in all these years, been made increasingly clear. It has become apparent, for one thing, that there is a direct loss in economic efficiency. Sir James Paget, the distinguished physician, estimates that the surely preventable loss inflicted upon English wage-earners amounts to fully fifteen millions of dollars annually. Some years ago the Board of Health in London insti- tuted an inquiry to see how much time was lost from work among the people of the East Side, not by sick- ness, but by exhaustion and inability to work. " It was found that upon the lowest average every work- man or workwoman lost about twenty days in the year from simple exhaustion." ^ There can be no doubt that the same results would be found to be true in New York during all these years. Yet this is only the beginning of a terrible story of human wreckage and waste. » As for the mortality in these New York tenement districts, let the figures tell the story.^ At a time when the general death rate was 24.63, the rate in ninety- four tenements was 62.9. When some of the worst of these tenements had been cleared away, the death rate of New York came down from 26.32 in 1887 to 19.53 1 The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, p. 326. 2 A Ten Years' War, pp. 71, 77, 79. 276 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. in 1897. The infant mortality in the tenements, as might be expected, is appalling. The Tenement House Committee has rightly called the rear tenements " slaughter houses," for there more than one babe in every five born is condemned to death. The exact figures are 204.54. And while the general infant death rate for the whole tenement house population in 1888 was 88.38, the rate for the Mott Street Barracks was actually 325 per 1000. When people are herded together without any possi- bility of privacy as they are in the tenements, the moral standards are gradually lowered, and finally dis- appear. Prostitution, thieving, and murder thrive in these dark haunts. Death rates are often but a feeble index to the evils of congested tenement life. There is no death so sad as the death of ideals, the deaden- ing of at least a desire for better things. As for poverty and disease, the recent tenement house exhibit presented the most startling evidence. The " Poverty " and " Disease " maps were doubtless the most impressive feature of the whole exhibition. It was shown that there was hardly a tenement house in the entire city which had not furnished five families, and some had provided as many as seventy-five which, in five years' time, had been applicants for charity. As for tuberculosis, nearly every tenement house had had one case of it in these five years, and some as many as twelve. It is to be regretted that no similar maps were planned to show the close relation existing between drunkenness and bad housing conditions. It has long been felt that it is by no accident that the saloons are THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 277 crowded thickly in the tenement house districts. " It occurs too often to be only that. The most congested districts of New York are also the regal domains of liquordom. In one place 148 saloons are all located within a space 514 yards long by 375 yards wide."^ In the Annual Report of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor for 1853 is included the report of a committee on the sanitary condition of the laboring classes, which thus describes the relation of drunkenness to bad housing conditions : " The dread- ful depression consequent in ill health tempts these poor creatures, with a force which we cannot adequately appreciate, to have recourse to stimulating drink. . . . The wonder is not that so many of the laboring classes crowd to the liquor-shops, but that so many are found struggling to make their wretched abodes a home for the family. . . . The depressed and low condition of health in which these people are found induces habits of intemperance unfortunately so com- mon among them. To which may be added the obser- vation of an employer who says : ' It may be taken as an axiom, that if you make the workingman's home comfortable, he will give up the public house and its ruinous consequences ; and that when the workingman's home is little better than a pigsty, that man will always be an inhabitant of the public house or beer- shop.' " An investigation into the relation of overcrowding to drunkenness in England brought out clearly the fact that in the most congested portions of England drunkenness is most prevalent. In their report the ^ E. R. L. Gould in the Municipal Affairs Magazine, March, 1899. 278 SUBSTITUTES FOE THE SALOON. Royal Commissioners said : " The strictest caution is necessary not to let regret and disapproval of the ravages of intemperance divert attention from other evils which make the homes of the working classes wretched, evils over which they never had any control. . . . Drink and poverty act and react upon each other. Discomfort of the most abject kind is caused by drink, but indulgence in drink is caused by overcrowding and cognate evils, and the poor who live under the conditions described have the greatest difficulty in leading decent lives, and of maintaining decent habitations." ^ And Mr. Riis has tersely put the case in this form : " Any- body, I should think, whose misfortune it is to live in the slums might be expected to find in the saloons a refuge." ^ Thus the experience of New York is a warning, on the one hand, of what greed and neglect can accom- plish in the way of bad housing conditions, and, upon the other hand, of the terrible results of such conditions on the health and happiness of the working people. Yet it would be too much to say that no good has come out of all this evil. If, for one thing, our other Amer- ican cities are made to realize, by the experience of this homeless city, in whose forty thousand tenement houses more than half of its population are doomed to live, the possible dangers to which the cupidity of landlords and civic indifference expose them, even so severe a lesson may have held a blessing in disguise. But another good has come out of it. In spite of all the mistakes of the past fifty years, the study of the eondi- ^ The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, pp. 598-600. 2 A Ten Years' War, pp. 104, 105. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 279 tions in New York has borne its fruit, and we have to-day conclusive scientific testimony not only to the evil results of bad housing conditions, but to the possi- bility of overcoming these conditions, and of housing the wage-earners of any city in wholesome and comfort- able homes, at the same time leaving to the landlord a suitable interest on the capital invested. By this is not meant that such conditions are immediately realiz- able in New York. That city must pay for its neglect of the past by having, as a result of the best obtainable legislation and concerted effort, buildings which, while they are not a public nuisance and a menace to the very lives and morals of the community, still fail to furnish even a passable home environment.^ But, in general, the terms upon which good home conditions may be purchased have been definitely determined, and the results of this economic experience are at the dis- posal of those interested in municipal conditions. A summary of these results must now be given. They will be found valuable whenever any community /faces its housing problem, — the problem of overcrowd- ing, unsanitary conditions, relieving congested districts, doing away with wretched buildings, and putting in their place suitable homes for those upon whose in- dustrial efficiency, morality, and happiness depend the prosperity of the nation. Sanitary reform is the foundation of any effort to provide suitable homes for the working people. Ex- perience has conclusively shown that this cannot be surely and expeditiously brought about by the regu- larly constituted authorities alone. Cooperation of ^ Report of the New York Tenement House Commission, 19C0. 280 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. public-spirited citizens, sanitary aid societies, and other associations is very desirable.^ Some of the funda- mental requirements of a sanitary code are : — 1. Provision for periodical inspection of tenements, in addition to visitation expeditiously made after com- plaint. 2. A thorough whitewashing, at least twice a year, of districts where low-grade houses are found. 3. A large enough force of inspectors to permit fre- quent night visitations, with a view to prevent over- crowding. 4. Making overcrowding an offense involving exem- plary punishment of the offender. 6. Requiring the owners of houses sheltering six families or more to maintain a janitor on the premises. 6. The power summarily to close houses unfit for human habitation simply by mailing a notice to the proprietor or agent at his last known address and posting a warning upon the house itself not less than twenty-four hours before ordering vacation. 7. Ticketing houses in which overcrowding is cus- tomary, on the same plan as is adopted by the Glasgow Board of Health. 8. Expropriation of irremediably insanitary property. One thing in connection with any health or building regulations is sure. It will not do to leave anything " to the discretion " of the health officer or building inspector. The New York law of 1895 permitted the Commissioner of Buildings at his discretion to allow, in special cases, as much as seventy-five per cent of a lot to be built upon, instead of only sixty-five per 1 E. E. L. Gould, Municipal Affairs Magazine, March, 1899. THE HOUSING OF THE JVORKING PEOPLE. 281 cent, which was to be the rule. The result was that every case became a special case and all new tenement houses were permitted to occupy seventy-five per cent of the lot. It has also been definitely determined that whenever the housing problem becomes acute, the only remedy lies in the method of ticketing or licensing houses which have too large numbers of families, vesting in the specially appointed officers absolute authority to close buildings, arrest the offenders, and to expro- priate evidently unwholesome buildings. Until such a statute has been enacted little real progress can be expected. It is interesting to note that the city of Washington has already an ordinance analogous to the Glasgow system. The health officer is permitted to put a placard on or near the door of crowded houses, stating the number of occupants allowed to such a building, and to prevent a greater number of persons than that specified to occupy any room as a sleeping- room. The influence of rapid transit in relieving the con- gested districts has already been great and is doubtless destined to be even greater. Yet it cannot be expected that this means will prove sufficient of itself to solve the problem. It is, however, of first-rate importance that the city should refuse long and unlimited fran- chises of its transportation facilities to private com- panies without having special regard to the cheapening of fares. When the city does not control its own street railroads it should require of the management that during certain hours, when the working people are going to and coming from work, all persons shaU be 282 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. transported, on the presentation of fare tickets which are sold at a reduced rate. In Toronto, these tickets are sold at the rate of eight tickets for a quarter of a dollar. Ordinances seeking to regulate the construction of new tenement buildings will have regard to breathing space, sunlight, fresh air, fire escapes, sanitary and bath conveniences, and to a prevention of overcrowd- ing. The report of the New York Tenement House Commission of 1900, just appearing, contains a sum- mary of the best possible legislation governing the erection of tenements. To it the reader must be re- ferred. It is the last deliverance of experts on the housing problem.^ ^ In order that the value of this report shall he fully appreciated, the following analysis of the contents of the full report is given : — I. General Report of the Commission. II. Summarized Statement of the Proceedings of the Commission. III. The Code of Tenement House Laws and other Speciiic Legisla- tion recoramended. IV. Result of Inquiries or Investigations made hy the Commission, or at its instance, which have been made the subject of special reports. These special reports are as follows : — (1) Tenement house reform in New York 1834-1S300 ; (2) history of tenement house legislation in New York 1852-1900; (3) housing con- ditions in Buffalo ; (4) housing conditions and tenement laws in leading American cities ; (5) housing conditions and tenement laws in lead- ing European cities ; (6) a statistical study of New York's tenement houses ; (7) non-enforcement of the tenement house laws in New York in new buildings ; (8) tenement house iires ; (9) tenement houses and fire escapes ; (10) back to back tenements ; (11) results of an investigation of the sanitation of typical tenement houses ; (12) small houses for workingmen in New York ; will the housing problem be solved by their erection ? (13) financial aspect of recent tenement house operations in New York ; (14) the speculative building of tene- ment houses; (15) tenement houses as seen by the tenants; (16) THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 283 In philantliropic or semi-philanthropic provisions for the housing of the laboring people, the first step is a scientific differentiation of the various divisions. It is coming to be felt that for the lowest divisions of the social strata, separation is the only possible method whereby, the drunkard, the incorrigible, the criminal, and the unfit can be kept from polluting their envi- ronment. There must be some special method for housing such characters under surveillance, detaching the children for education and proper training. Such a method has not yet been discovered, and it would be difficult to secure the enactment of such a law in a country where the suffrage is given to nearly all adult males. Above this division, there is the great number of the shiftless, and the irregular rent payers, of those who are deep in debt and who have lost health. With these the best plan is the well-known ^ Octavia Hill method of rent-collecting, whereby personal visitation and encouragement is productive of the best results. It is not essential to Miss Hill's plan that houses should be acquired. Yet this is often done. The essential thing is that trained workers collect the rents, and by their tact and good advice bring about a new tenement houses as seen by the inspector ; (17) tuherculosis and the tenement honse problem ; (18) the relation of tuberculosis to the tene- ment house problem; (19) prostitution as a tenement house evil ; (20) policy as a tenement house evil ; (21) tenement house labor ; (22) public baths ; (23) parks and playgrounds for tenement house dis- tricts ; (24) a plan for tenements in connection with a municipal park ; (25) foreign immigration and the tenement house in New York City ; (26) the tenement house and poverty. '■ Eighth Special Rgiort of Commissioner of Labor, 1895, pp. 161-164 284 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. order of things. The only regulation insisted upon at first is that no lodgers shall be allowed to room with the family. Habitual drunkards are forced to leave if their rent remains unpaid. But in only a few cases has this extreme measure been necessary. Miss Hill's success has caused her plan to be followed on the Continent and in this country. Her " rent-coUecting scheme occupies a significant place in the housing problem." Dr. Griscom in his report, already referred to, pointed out how uncertainty of tenure kept the ten- ants from any effort to take proper care of their rooms. " Why should I clean out to-day," said one tenant, " a place from which to-morrow I may be cast out?" From a pecuniary point of view alone, sympathy will be found to pay. " The experience of a landlord in Mulberry Bend, New York City, demonstrates that even the worst persons, with careful watching, can be made good tenants. The success which has attended Miss Hill's efforts furnishes hope, if not certainty, that practically all but social incorrigibles may come within the purview of remunerative effort." College settle- ments have already taken this work up. It is an at- tractive and feasible method of social service which ought to appeal to many individuals and organizar tions. It is for city dwellers with moderate stipends and steady habits that the model tenements will be pro- vided. Here the outlook, as is well known, is most favorable. And the chief encouragement is this, that improved housing pays, not only in the results accomplished, but in dollars and cents. Dr. E. R. L. Gould summarizes the experience of the past in a table THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 285 showing the rates of dividends paid and the net profits earned by thirty-four commercial and sixteen semi- philanthropic enterprises for promoting improved housing in American and European cities of 100,000 inhabitants and upwards. This table was printed in the Eighth Eeport of the Commissioner of Labor. It appears that in America, out of the avowedly com- mercial enterprises engaged in furnishing improved housing facilities, but one paid less than five per cent. Of the two American semi-philanthropic housing cor- porations mentioned, both earned up to the fixed limit, namely, four per cent, and in addition from three fourths to one and one half per cent for reserve. In Europe but six per cent of all enterprises failed to pay. All the rest were successful. An analysis of the economic experience of all companies engaged in providing good housing facilities for the poor shows that " about five per cent in dividends and a safe re- serve can be earned ou model tenement dwellings any- where, charging customary rents, provided the total cost of the completed property does not exceed $500 per room." The principal American enterprises are The Improved Dwellings Co., and the Astral Apart- ments, Brooklyn, N. Y., where Mr. A. T. White, a pioneer in such work in America, demonstrated at the start that model tenements are not only a safe but a profitable business investment ; the Robert Treat Paine Co., and the Improved Dwellings Association of Bos- ton, and the Tenement House Building Co., and the City and Suburban Homes Company of New York. The City and Suburban Homes Company began in New York with a capital of one million dollars, which 286 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. has since been raised to two million. The principle upon which it is founded is that the housing problem can be solved only by economic methods, that there is a middle ground between pure philanthropy and pure business, — investment philanthropy. Dividends are limited to five per cent, any surplus to be devoted to an extension of operations. It recognizes the principle of the differentiation of wage-earners, and by fixing its shares at the low denomination of ten dollars, in- vites the wage-earners themselves to invest their means for useful ends. At the present time it is operating nine buildings on the West Side and a block on the East Side, while one hundred suburban homes have been created on the property owned by the company in the borough of Brooklyn. " A good idea of the type of buildings constructed by this company can be gained from the following sketch of the buildings on First Avenue between Sixty- fourth and Sixty-fifth streets. The broad central courts, thirty feet square, and the recessed court from the street, eighteen feet wide, disseminate abundant light and ventilation through all parts of the building. Staircases and stair walls are entirely fireproof. Walls of the first story and the dividing walls between each group of apartments are also fireproof. Halls and stairways are well lighted and steam heated. Every apartment is a complete home in itself, with private hallway and water-closet well ventilated, with water supply from tank, stationary washtubs and sink of large size, hot water supply from central boiler system, gas fixtures and gas ranges, clothes-closets, dressers, and mantelshelves. The buildings also contain dumb- THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 287 waiters, shower baths on the ground floor, and tub baths, particularly for the use of women and children, laun- dries, wood and coal closets, storage rooms, and dust chutes. The two-room apartments, of which a some- what unusual number have been provided, contain ex- actly the same conveniences as the three and four room apartments." ^ They are especially adapted to small families with very limited incomes, and to aged couples living by themselves. The rents are a little lower than for much poorer quarters in surrounding tenements. The rent collector is a woman, generally a welcome visitor, and her relar tion with the tenants often leads to helpful words and acts. Her advice is sometimes asked about the arrange- ment of the furniture, the care of the children, and other domestic matters. In one case a kindergarten was asked for, and the company paid one half the rental of the required room. The lessees are largely clerks, mechanics, motormen, policemen. A considerable per- centage are unskilled laborers. One of the houses, containing forty-five apartments, was set aside at the beginning and has been maintained for the tenancy of self-supporting women. Another is to be constructed for the exclusive use of Negroes. Such are the model tenements in one of our great cities, and they are one of the best business investments to be found in New York. For skilled laborers and others earning from |1200 to f 1500 a year, there is a further step possible. As rapid transit facilities increase, a larger number of working men and women will live at a distance from 1 E. R. L. Gould, Municipal Affairs Magazine, March, 1899. 288 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. their work and should have homes of their own. To make this possible, more than one company has built cottages and allowed the tenants to pay for them in monthly installments, in lieu of the usual payment of rent. A life insurance policy, made out to the com- pany until the indebtedness has been canceled, will guard from possible loss by death, and the purchaser pays fire insurance and taxes. By allowing as many as twenty years in which to pay the purchase price of the house, such an arrangement is placed within the reach of many wage-earners. Such, then, is the encouraging experience with this important branch of social economics. Whenever it becomes necessary to provide good homes for the labor- ing people of any city, it is a comfort to think that this can be done, and at the same time an investment of cap- ital be offered which pays its five per cent and much beyond. It must be remembered that the houses, not the homes of the working people, have been discussed in this chapter. The steps leading to a discussion of the home would be from the outward environment, the four walls, the cleanliness and sunshine, to the questions of domestic science and all that it involves of hygiene and thrift, and thence to the only foundations of a real home. The unselfish love of that which is holy, the steadfastness of purpose which holds one close to the fulfillment of his ideal, and the willing sacrifice of all that stands in the way of its realization, — these are the elements of a home, wherever that home may be. Fundamental and personal as these essentials are, it is THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 289 by no means in vain that one tries to reach and strengthen them. All that is done to purify, to educate, and to cultivate the ideals reacts upon the character and fulfills its highest aim when the man, thus rein- forced, takes the product of his enlightenment into his home. The same refinement due the man is even more an obligation to the woman, who is the real maker of the home. It is her personality that creates the home atmosphere, and upon her strength of character depend, very largely, the nature and the power of the home in- fluence. One argues that a man must be educated to be able to take his part in the practical affairs of life, but there is nothing more practical than the duties of a home, nothing requiring more forcibly clear judgment and insight, the resources of a trained mind and hand, or the ennobling influence of high ideals. It may be just to say, " What can one expect of a man when his home is what it is ? " It is equally just to say, "What can one expect of a woman when her resources are what they are ? " It is clear that the housing of the people does not solve the problem of home life, but in so far as externals are favorable, they do help to raise the standards of living and to increase the self-respect of the home makers. A branch of the housing problem which has received little attention until recently is the lodging-house for single men who are not living at home. Until within a very few years the lodging-houses for single men have been more inadequate, unwholesome, disreputable, than the family tenements. To-day it has been demon- strated, both at home and abroad, that cheap working- 290 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. men's hotels can be erected in the most substantial and scientific way, need charge no higher price than the lodging-house, and can still earn enough from the cap- ital invested to pay at least three per cent dividend after making deductions for repairs and other contm- gencies. It may be well, before speaking of these recent ex- periments, briefly to pass in review the ordinary lodg- ing-houses as they exist in any of our large cities. In- formation in regard to the cheap lodging-houses for men has been difficult to secure. No registration is necessary in many cities, and official statistics are there- fore unavailable.^ The police station lodgings are the lowest and last resort for homeless men. A large base- ment room in the Hammond Street Police Station of Cincinnati, for example, is known as the Hammond Street Bum Room. This room is very large, and with the exception of a table and a chair, it is without fur- niture. In one corner there is a great iron cage for disorderly lodgers. The Bum Room is free to any man who may happen to be without the means of securing a lodging elsewhere, and furnishes sleeping-room for about two hundred men. In bad weather, when the place is crowded, the men lie in four rows upon the floor, one row with heads to each side baseboard, and two rows, head to head, along the middle of the floor. It is sometimes necessary to " wedge " the men, to turn ^ The following mformation is taken from an article on " Working- men's Hotels," by John Lloyd Thomas in Municipal Affairs Magazine for March, 1899, from a special report by Bryant Venable on Cheap Lodging Houses in Cincinnati and other cities, and from the material given in the reports from the different cities. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 291 them upon their sides, in which position they occupy less floor space than when on their backs. Such are the police station lodgings. They are inexcusable. The abolishment of the police lodging-room should be immediate and final. In New York it has gone. " That awful parody on municipal charity . . . after twenty years of persistent attack upon the foul dens, years during which they were arraigned, condemned, indicted, by every authority having jurisdiction." ^ In their place there should be a clean, carefully con- ducted municipal lodging-house to take proper care of the homeless, under right conditions. New York has such city lodgings. The men must bathe, their clothes must be fumigated, a record of the attendance is kept, and work is assigned, so far as is possible. They are provided with a frugal supper and breakfast, and clean, separate beds. It is safe to say that few " dead beats " escape the vigilance of the officials. Other cities are trying the same plan, and the result is uniformly suc- cessful. Well-ordered, attractive municipal lodging- houses are a present necessity. When a homeless laboring man has money to pay for his lodging, he wiU turn to the cheap lodging-house. The house he will go to will depend on the amount of money he has. Five cents is enough for at least a roof over his head. The five-cent "doss house" is com- monly known as a "flop," and its patron is a "flopper." The men sleep on the rough and dirty floor ; there is no bedding. Lodgers occasionally come supplied with newspapers, but as a general thing they sleep upon the bare floor, or on the benches or tables. The shoes are 1 A Ten Years' War, p. 16. 292 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. often rolled up in the coat and serve as a piUow. When the rooms are crowded, lodgers are requested to lie in rows so as to economize space, but at other times they " flop " wherever they can find a convenient place on the floor. The ten-cent house is in many respects better. Here we have come to the bunks, which are generally arranged in tiers of two or three. Mattresses and pil- lows are provided. These rooms are generally crowded, as many as one hundred men being lodged in a single room. The men retire without undressing, and the condition of the beds and room is sometimes appall- ing. For fifteen to twenty-five cents a separate com- partment is furnished, the lower priced ones containing two or more beds, the higher priced ones, a single bed. Each room is just large enough to accommodate the beds without any additional furniture. The frame partitions between the stalls are usually frail, and the compartments themselves close, warm, and oppressively odorous. Such, then, are the cheap lodging-houses as they exist in our large cities. It is not always easy to ascertain the number of these lodging-houses in any community. In Boston, the total number is twenty. They are allowed by regulations to accommodate 1283 persons ; five of the houses have baths. The ordinary price per night is eighteen cents, the lowest price being five cents. Lodging-houses with saloons in the same or adjoining building are four in number. In Denver the number of cheap lodging-houses is thirty-eight, of which some are of the best, and none are of the worst. Their average daily patronage is 1411. In New York the figures are as follows : — THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 293 Total number of lodging-houses .... 112 Total number of lodgers allowed in these by- Board of Health 15,233 Minimum air space per lodger 400 cu. ft. Total number of houses with baths ... 57 Total number of lodgers allowed in these . 8,861 Total number of baths with hot water . . 56 Free baths 54 Average daily use of baths (total) .... 546 Total number of houses without baths of any kind 55 Total number of lodgers allowed in these . 6,372 Lowest price for lodgings per night . . . 10c. Ordinary price for lodgings per night . . . 15c. Lodging-houses with beds in separate com- partments, charge 20 to 30c. Saloons in same building 33 " on one side 22 " on both sides 2 Entrance through saloon 3 In Chicago the total number of lodging-houses is 85. Of these there are 30 that have a capacity of from 1 to 50. 18 that have a capacity of from 50 to 100. 24 that have a capacity of from 100 to 250. 13 that have a capacity above 250. Ten, fifteen, and twenty-five cents are the ordinary charges. Three houses vs^ith saloon attachment ofEer free accommodations, and three charge but two cents. Twenty-five lodging-houses sell liquors, fifty-eight are in good, and twenty-seven in bad sanitary condition. Chicago has now a new sanitary law which prescribes at least four hundred cubic feet of space to one sleeping- 294 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. room, limits the number of occupants in one sleeping- room to six, and requires a register to be kept. The general conclusion to be drawn from an investi- gation of these cheap lodging-houses is that " they are deficient in everything that tends to clean and healthful living, physically and morally." In estimating their influence, it must be remembered that even when the sanitary arrangements are good, and the room fairly clean, the whole atmosphere of the place may be and very often is depressing and sad. A man may sleep without losing his self-respect or impairing his health, and still find little to keep him within his lodging- house during his waking hours. With very few excep- tions, it may be asserted of the ordinary lodging-house for men in any of our great cities, that where they are not positively bad, they are uninviting and even repel- lent. They furnish nothing but the barest necessities, and leave the desires for certain comforts and pleasures entirely out of account. No extended homily is needed to show the relation of such lodgings as these to the saloon. They are the regular rendezvous of the saloon patron, and their whole atmosphere, positive and negative, is calculated to swell the saloon attendance. What is wanted is a lodging-house which not only provides decent accom- modation for the night, but makes some provision for a man's leisure hours during the day. The ordinary cheap lodging-house does not do this, and neither, of course, do the municipal lodging-houses and those chari- table institutions whose mission is to supply only the immediate demand for food and shelter. Some benevo- lent enterprises seek to make the place attractive during THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 295 the day as well as at night. The more ambitious of the Salvation Army shelters, for example, are known as workingmen's hotels, and provide reading and social rooms on a separate floor. Every man is required to be out of the bedrooms by nine o'clock in the morning, but the social rooms are open all day long. The last report (1899) showed that the Army operated forty-nine such shelters for men, with an accommodation of 5311. Other missions which furnish lodgings occasionally make provision for the social comforts of their patrons. An illustration of the best work of this kind is fur- nished by the Bethel of St. Paul. This mission occupies two floors of a building, of which the first is divided into a reading-room and office and a large dining-room, which is conducted on the English coffee- house plan. Very cheap rates are charged for the food, and a clean single room, with a single bed, is offered at twenty cents a night, or one dollar a week. Loafing-rooms are always open, and everything is kept clean. The income from the restaurant and lodgings meets all the expenses. The work of providing cheap lodgings has been suc- cessfully undertaken also by the churches. Olive Tree Inn, in New York City, is a lodging-house for men, being a department of the Galilee Mission and Coffee House of Calvary Episcopal Church. It contains about one hundred beds, partly in dormitories and partly in private rooms. The dormitories are light and airy. The prices range from fifteen to twenty-five cents, the latter being the charge for single rooms. The weekly rates are slightly below the nightly prices. The lodgers have several accessory advantages. They 296 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. can procure five and ten cent meals in the Galilee Coffee House ; they can use the mission reading-room, which contains a circulating library, and where smok- ing is permitted. It is advisable for all missions and churches which undertake to provide cheap lodgings to avoid the selling of ticket books to societies and individuals to be given to applicants for aid instead of coin. A knowledge that these tickets are issued cannot help becoming known, and is certain to repel the class of self-respecting workingmen who object to anything that savors of charity. This plan may be adopted by municipal lodging-houses, but hardly by any lodging-house which hopes to succeed as a finan- cial enterprise. The MiUs Hotel management has dis- tinctly declared against the issuing of tickets. Origi- nally the Hatfield House, situated at 46 and 48 Ridge Street, New York, was the property of the Seventh Presbyterian Church. Since 1895 it has been leased to its resident manager. This is a small, comfortable lodging-house which has its regular clientage, and charges from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars a week. The furnishing of cheap lodgings for men is a legitimate church enterprise which, if rightly conducted, should become financially independent at once. But the movement to provide model lodging-houses for self-respecting and self-supporting wage-earners has in our day become a commercial enterprise, a paying investment. The experiment began in Europe about ten years ago. In Hamburg, in Glasgow, and in Lon- don, large and finely appointed lodging-houses for single men were erected, and without exception they became at once commercially profitable. The most THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 297 famous of these houses in London are the " Rowtons," five of which are already in operation. The latest of the " Rowtons " has provision for over eight hundred men, each of whom, for sixpence a night, enjoys the full advantages offered by an outlay of £50,000. Lord Eowton's scheme pays in actual cash. Rowtou Houses, Limited, is one of the most successful concerns in Lon- don, " a philanthropy that pays five per cent," to quote Lord Rosebery. It is to be doubted if anywhere else in England so much comfort can be obtained for six- pence as in these handsome and spacious hotels. Whether model lodgings have been conducted by the municipality or by private individuals the results have been the same. The congestion of population has been reduced, lodgers have been given not only a good night's rest, but a place of comfort and recreation, at no higher price than would be charged at an ordinary cheap lodging-house. The condition of lodgers morally and physically has been bettered, and best of all, a radical improvement in all lodging-houses has been effected which previous attempts by way of sanitary, registration, and inspection laws had failed to bring about. In America, with one or two notable exceptions, there has been little effort made to imitate these successful attempts at solving the problem of housing the single workingman. Several years ago a beginning was made in Baltimore by Mr. Eugene Levering, whose model lodging-house is still in operation. It is located at the northwest corner of Front and Fayette streets. Beds, clean and comfortable, are provided for one hundred and fifty men. The prices charged vary from ten to 298 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. twenty-five cents according to accommodations. The house is open all night. There is a reading-room, sup- plied with a few games, magazines, and papers, and a smoking-room. During the winter about one hundred and twenty-five men on an average sleep there. A din- ing-room is run in connection with it, where from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty meals are served daily. The prices are ten and fifteen cents a meal. Since its erection the Capacity of the building has been doubled, and a comfortable per cent of profits is being realized over and above the expenses and improvements. A similar enterprise in Philadelphia owes its exist- ence to John Wanamaker. The Friendly Inn is the only model lodging-house in Philadelphia. Mr. Wana^ maker purchased for this purpose the Pinney Hotel, situated on Ninth Street. He expended about 160,000 on repairs, alterations, and refurnishings. The build- ing is sixty feet front and ninety feet deep, and accom- modates one hundred and fifty guests. On the lower floor are the office, the smoking-room, and in the rear a comfortable and spacious parlor and dining-room. Above are six floors with sleeping apartments. In the basement are the kitchen, lavatories, and bathrooms. Throughout the building the greatest attention has been paid to heating and ventilation, and especially to sanitary arrangements. Meals are served at ten cents each, that is, at cost, and are of excellent quality, equal to any twenty-five cent restaurant, which must make rent in profits. The price of a single room is twenty- five cents ; with two or more beds, the price is fifteen cents. Reading matter is provided for the guests, and an employment bureau is carried on to help a man to THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 299 get work without cost. Only self-supporting, deserv- ing workingmen are allowed to enter. It is not in any sense a charitable institution, and its nightly patronage is one hundred and twenty-five guests. This experi- ment, too, has been a financial success, and each year there has been a steady profit from the investment. New York had seen model lodging-houses before the advent of the Mills Hotels, but the " American Row- tons " have set the standard for similar enterprises in other cities. They have conclusively proved what everybody was inclined to believe before any one was willing to make the venture, — that the experience of Europe might be repeated in America, that a large hotel for single wage-earners could both accomplish a beneficent work and make money for the investor. These hotels have now been running long enough to have passed the experimental stage. They have been filled since they were opened. They have forced the better class of Bowery lodging-houses to make needed improvements. They have reached the men for whom they were intended, have kept scores of men from the cheap lodging-house, have offered a most attractive substitute for the saloon, and besides all this they have yielded a profit on the investment of $1,500,000. Mr. Mills himself says : " I have been able to do a good many things for which I have been glad, but this is the most satisfactory thing I ever did." The Mills Hotel, No. 1, has 1554 rooms, and the average number of lodgers for twelve months was 1559, a few rooms being rented by day to night workers, and rented again at night for day workers. The charges are twenty cents a night for lodging, and meals can be had for 300 SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON. five, ten, and fifteen cents. There is steam heat in both hotels, electric lighting, shower bath, reading and writing rooms. Mills Hotel, No. 2, has 600 rooms, but in other respects is similar to Mills Hotel No. 1. The baths are free of charge, and their use by the guests shows that they are appreciated. Nine hundred baths have been given in one day in the larger hotel. There are tubs also in which a man may wash his own clothes, which are quickly dried in a steam drier. The bedrooms are all separate, about seven and a half by six feet in size, and contain a single iron bedstead, with the best mattresses, pillows, and linen. A strip of carpet is on every floor, and a chair and a closet com- plete the furnishing of the room. A man may retain the same room as long as he pays for it. No intoxi- cated man is ever admitted, even if he has paid for his room. In case a man has secured a room and in the evening returns under the influence of liquor, he is sent to the office, receives his money back, and is compelled to leave. As a result this twenty-cent hotel harbors self-respecting men. Bedrooms must be vacated from 9.30 A. M. to 5.30 p. M., but the reading-rooms and smoking-rooms of the hotel, as well as the restaurant, are open all day long for the use of guests. In the restaurant a good meal, well served, can be had for fifteen cents. That they are appreciated is shown from the fact that both houses have been full from the day they were opened.^ Here, then, are model lodgings for two thousand at least of the homeless and self-respecting wage-earners of one of our American cities. Just what the profit on 1 Municipal Affairs Magazine, p. 89. THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. 301 this investment is at the present time is not known. It is probably over three and under seven per cent. At any rate, it has been demonstrated that model lodging- houses can accomplish an inestimable service to any community and at the same time pay a generous divi- dend on the investment. If the pressing necessity and practicability of such provision for the needs of the woi-ldng people has been demonstrated, nothing pre- vents those who want to invest their money in some- thing that will do more than return dividends to them- selves from planting similar hotels in any of our large cities. APPENDIX. I. ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS TOWARD THE SALOON. It is not, of course, to be expected that organizations formed with primary reference to securing good wages and a reasonable length of working day should emphasize their attitude upon other issues, however important many of the members may deem them to be. It is quite customary, for example, for the constitutions of trade unions to forbid the discussion in union meetings of ques- tions of a religious or political character, such as might create divisions in the organization. In entering upon this investiga^ tion, consequently, the writer did not expect to find very much in trade-union activity which would have a bearing directly upon the temperance question. The result, however, while showing nothing startling, has been a pleasant surprise, for it has shown that the unions are a greater factor in developing temperate liv- ing than had been supposed. The following table gives the membership of the nine trade unions, so far as reported, in 1900 most active in their opposi- tion to the saloon or in their general claim of moral influence : — Table I. Teadb Unions claiming a Strong Antagonism to THE Saloon. Kame of Organization. Members. Journeymen Bakers and Confectioners International Union 4,200 Order of Railroad Conductors 23,500 Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen 31,500 United Garment Workers of America 10,000 International Seamen's Union 4,000 Switchmen's Union of North America 2,000 Journeymen TaUors Union of America 6,217 Order of Railroad Telegraphei-s 15,000 International Typographical Union 35,000 Total 131,417 304 APPENDIX. One of the officers of the Bakers and Confectioners Union writes from their headquarters iu Brooklyn: "We are opposed to the saloon, especially when a ' Baker's Home ' is connected therewith. Whenever possible we establish employment offices ourselves, to give work free of charge to our members." Libra- ries are also established in the branches of the union. The offi- cers state that before the establishment of the national body the local unions would hold meetings in the saloons, but that now this custom is very much changed. The Order of Kailroad Conductors, according to its officers, is " absolutely opposed to the saloon, and it is incorporated in our laws that a man cannot engage in the traffic of intoxicating liquor and remain a member of the organization." Mr. F. W. Arnold, of Peoria, 111., secretary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, writes : " Our brotherhood opposes the saloon to the extent that it will not tolerate a member being con- nected with the sale of liquor," and the laws of the order forbid any lodge from deriving revenue from the sale of intoxicating liquors at any of its balls, picnics, excursions, or other entertain- ments. Mr. Arnold declares, as do the secretaries of most of the unions mentioned in the above table, that their lodges do not meet in halls located over or back of saloons. Mr. Henry White, New York City, general secretary of the United Garment Workers, writes : " Our organization is decidedly opposed to the saloon influences, and wherever possible our local unions mieet in halls not connected with a saloon. Our national and local unions have strongly advocated Jhe passage of favorable factory legislation, particularly such as would mitigate the sweating evil. Many of the members have been actively identified with social reform movements, and it has been the training and education received at the meetings of the unions which have enlarged their ideas and created an interest in public questions." Mr. W. Macarthur, of San Francisco, secretary of the Inter- national Seamen's Union, writes that the different branches of this organization, particularly the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, have established reading-rooms well equipped with papers and books, particularly those dealing with economic subjects. Temperance is also encouraged, "by constantly enjoining sobriety upon the ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS. 305 members, by providing punishments for members falling in their duty to their employers through drunkenness, and by refusing to publish advertisements of saloons, etc., in the official organ." This union is making great effort to free the sailors from subjec- tion to employment agencies and disreputable boarding-houses, to secure better food and better treatment from their officers, and to put an end to imprisonment for leaving vessels before the expiration of their contracts. Mr. M. J. Ford, Jr., editor of the " Journal " of the Switchmen's Union, writes: "In our obligation there is a clause which states, ' I will not recommend any one for membership in this organiza^ tion whom I know to be a common drunkard.' I myself am a total abstainer, and likewise, also, are the Grand Master, the Grand Secretary and Treasurer, and the Vice Grand Master. I visited some of the subordinate lodges this summer, and at every place I spoke against the use of liquor. I have also written against it in our official organ." Mr. John B. Lennon, of Bloomington, 111., general secretary of the Journeymen Tailors, writes : " There are very few of our unions that meet in haUs connected with saloons. They only do so in cities where it is impossible to secure anything else, — nota- bly Chicago and New York, where there are practically no other halls to be had; and even in those cities they have been and are decidedly anxious to seeure places not connected with saloons." He also makes the following strong statement : " Our organiza- tion has not officially taken any stand upon the liquor question. Since we have had an organization, however, the change of habits of the Custom Tailors is something marvelous as to this one habit. I can well remember when there could be found in no city, from Sunday until Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week, any tailors who were sufficiently sober to work at their trade, or if any, they were very few. I believe most earnestly that organization has been the cause that has cured and elimi- nated this evil. You can now go to the same cities where our unions have existed from ten to twenty-five or thirty years, and you will scarcely find a single member of the organization that is an habitual drunkard. The officers of our organization, myself included, are decidedly opposed to the use of intoxicating liquors 306 APPENDIX. as a beverage, and I have not failed, whenever the opportunity- has presented itself, to declare myself upon this question." The constitution of the Telegraphers reads : " The use of alco- holic liquors as a beverage shall be sufficient cause for rejecting any petition for membership." The International Typographical Union passed a vote, in its convention in 1894, calling for " the state and national destruc- tion of the liquor traffic." As the matter has not come up since in any meetings of the organization, it is uncertain how much weight is to be attached to this vote, but its passage has at least some significance. Although some of the other unions have not taken as direct a stand on this subject as have those just quoted, they have had much to do with increasing the temperate habits of their mem- bers. It used to be said that carpenters, cigar-makers, iron- workers, printers, shoemakers, and tailors were always drunk on Mondays. Such a remark is now rarely heard. Mr. George E. McNeil, of Boston, the oldest and one of the most esteemed leaders of the American labor movement, and its historian, testified recently before the National Industrial Com- mission that the social condition of labor, as well as its wages, had been much improved by the trade union. " It is an educa- tional society. The men who go into trade unions and find other men there capable of discussing these questions have their minds affected and stimulated. It has tended to beget self-respect, not only in the matter of clothing, but in habits. The offensive drunkenness of certain classes of laborers of years ago has been greatly lessened. I do not say that there are not as many peo- ple who drink, but the drunkenness that swallowed up the farm of the farmer and the house of the mechanic has been reduced. The drunken man means a low wage man. Every trade union is trying to get high wages, but if it has a drunken constituency it cannot succeed. It must elevate the habits of the laborer that he may rise to the wages he demands, and drunkenness has been diminished and wages have been increased through the influence of organized labor." We will next consider a group of six trade unions, with a mem- ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS. 307 bership of 113,074, whose leaders are in general opposed to the saloon, but where the opposition has taken a leas pronounced form than in the unions mentioned in Table I. Tablb II. Tbadb Unions kepokting Some Opposition to the Saloons. Name of Organization. Members. Brotherhood of Boiler Makers and Iron Shipbuilders . . 2,874 Carriage and Wagon Makers International Union . . 1,200 Retail Clerks National Protective Association of the U. S. 10,000 National Brotherhood of Electrical Workers of the U. S. . 5,000 Knights of Labor of the United States of America, perhaps 30,000 United Mine Workers of America 85,000 Total 134,074 Mr. William G. Gilthorpe, secretary of the Brotherhood of Boiler Makers and Iron Shipbuilders, states that about one third of the branches meet in halls connected with saloons, but that the removal from such meeting-places is being advised. The Carriage and Wagon Makers Union does not allow any liquor dealer to be a member. This is likewise true of the Retail Clerks National Protective Association. No branches meet in any hall connected with a saloon. The secretary of the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Rochester, N. Y., writes that the organization has opposed the saloon by starting reading-rooms and lectures, and adds : " The trade union has a good moral effect on its members. Better wages make better men, better men make better homes, better homes make a better country, and the better the country the better its people." The Knights of Labor, as is well known, have from the begin- ning refused to allow saloon-keepers to become members, and have made large claims of exerting a broad educational and moral influence, especially through what for a very long time was a feature peculiar to this organization, — the devotion of a portion of each meeting, known as the educational hour, to the discussion of general, social, and economic questions. But the organization, after giving birth to many of the best features of the American labor movement, and after having trained most of 308 APPENDIX. its leaders of to-day, has fallen upon troublous times, and now has probably not more than 30,000 paying members in good and regular standing. Mr. W. C. Pearce, secretary of the United Mine Workers of America, which has a membership of 85,000, writes from their headquarters at Indianapolis : " A great many of our members are opposed to the saloon and never patronize such a. place. Very few of our local unions meet in halls connected with the saloon. The officers of the United Mine Workers of America discourage in every respect saloon business." We will next consider the situation in the following twenty unions, embracing an American membership of about 180,000 and a total membership of 308,561. These figures, as well as others in the article, are taken from the letters to the writer while preparing this article, or from those received while prepar- ing the one on the " Benefit Features of American Trade Unions," in the " United States Bulletin of Labor." The figures for two or three of the railroad brotherhoods are taken from the membership as quoted in 1896 or 1897, in an article in the " United States Bulletin of Labor," by Dr. Emory R. Johnson, on " Relief and Insurance of Railway Employees." Table III. Tkade Unions whose Tempekakce Attitude is seen in the constitutions of theik benefit ok insurance Departments. Name of Organization. Members. Journeymen Barbers International Union 4,000 International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths 300 Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners .... 1,625 United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners .... 39,845 Cigar Makers International Union of America .... 28,000 Coremakers International Union 1,430 Amalgamated Society of Engineers about 1,600 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers 30,309 Glass Bottle Blowers Assn. of United States and Canada . 3,000 Granite Cutters National Union 9,765 United Brotherhood of Leather Workers on Horse Goods 476 Iron Holders Union of North America 18,000 ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS. 309 Brotherhood of Painters and Decorators of America . . 5,500 Pattern Makers National League of North America . 1,800 Quarrymen's National Union of United States and Canada 2,000 Cotton Mule Spinners Association 2,600 National Tobacco Workers Union of America .... 5,000 Brotherhood of Railroad Trackmen 1,250 Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen 22,326 Typographia 1,100 Total 179,925 If the membership of the Amalgamated Engineers in all coun- tries were included, its numbers would have been given in the above table as 83,564 instead of 1,600; and so the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners would similarly be stated at 66,634 members instead of 1,625, and the total would have been raised to 308,561. But the American membership of the unions given in the table is about 179,925, as indicated. The distinguishing feature of these twenty unions is that, while so far as discovered they have enacted no special legislation against the liquor traffic, they do have insurance or benefit fea- tures exceeding the amount spent upon strikes but open in most cases only to those of temperate habits. Sick relief especially is refused to those whose illness was occasioned by intemperance. Extracts from a few of the constitutions of these organizations will make this matter clear. The constitution of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers provides for a sick benefit for any member "when visited by mental disease, bodily sickness or lameness not occasioned by drunkenness or disorderly conduct or any disease improperly contracted." This organization of stationary engineers, machin- ists, smiths, and pattern-makers, with its 83,564 members through- out the English-speaking world, spent in 1898 less than 10 per cent of its income of $2,253,635 upon trade disputes, while it spent in benefits $1,541,556. It had a balance on hand in De- cember, 1898, of $1,040,607, or over $12 per member. The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners places among its qualifications for admission, good workmanship, " steady habits, and good moral character," and refuses to give 310 APPENDIX. sick benefits when sickness or lameness is occasioned " by drunk- enness, disorderly pr improper conduct." This organization spent upon trade disputes, as did the engineers, less than 10 per cent of its receipts, while it expended most of the balance in various forms of relief. The Iron Holders Union ot North America gives its sick relief of $5 per week " provided that such sickness or disability has not been caused by intemperance, debauchery, or other im- moral conduct." These exact words also appear in the pro- visions for sick and death benefits in the constitutions of the Journeymen Barbers International Union of America, and in that of the Cigar Makers International Union of America, which has the best developed system of benefit features of any Ameri- can labor organization. Many of the railroad brotherhoods copy substantially the con- stitution of the Grand International Brotherhood of the Loco- motive Engineers in its provision that no person shall become a member " unless he is a white man twenty-one years of age, and can read and write, and is a man of good moral character, tem- perate habits, and a locomotive engineer in good standing and in actual service as a locomotive engineer when proposed, and has had experience as such at least one year." It remains to give some facts about ten other unions with 86,390 members which have reported on the saloon question, but which for one reason or another have either not attempted very much directly in opposition to the saloon, or do not claim to have accomplished much save as the general improvement in the con- ditions of the craft has improved the standard of life and morals of its members. Table IV. Tbadb Uhions making Few Claims of Direct Oppo- sition TO THE Saloon. Name of Organization. Members. Boot and Shoe Workers Union 13,000 National Union of United Brewery Workers 16,000 Coopers International Union of North America .... 3,100 American Flint Glass Workers Union . 7,400 ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS. 311 The Window Glass Cutters League of America .... 850 United Hatters of North America about 6,000 International Association of Machinists 20,000 American Federation of Musicians 9,152 International Wood Carvers Association of North America 1,388 Amalgamated Wood Workers International Union of America 9,500 Total 86,390 Mr. Charles F. Bechtold, secretary of the United Brewery- Workers, writes from their headquarters in Cincinnati : " I can assure you that the Brewery Workers do not oppose the saloon, as this would he a suicidal act. We have made no efforts against the saloons. Most of our local unions meet in halls connected with saloons." Yet this union boasts as one of its achievements the fact that it has abolished the necessity that workmen should obtain the recommendation of saloon-keepers before securing employment in a brewery. This demoralizing necessity is said to have formerly prevailed among all workmen in this business and to still obtain where there are no unions. Mr. J. A. Cable, secretary of the Coopers International Union, writes from Kansas City : " I have opposed the evils of intoxi- cation by endeavoring to attract our members to nobler thoughts. . . . Our meetings are an education to each other from the fact that difEerent questions affecting our welfare are discussed from different points of view." Mr. George Preston, secretary of the Machinists, writes from Chicago : " We have never been troubled to any large extent with the saloon business. An organization of the character of ours generally finds enough to interest its members in the work of organization, which consequently takes their attention from the lesser attraction offered by the saloons. There is not at pre- sent to my knowledge a single branch of our organization that holds its meetings connected with a saloon. Of course there may be such an instance, but if there is I am ignorant of the same. Where lodge halls are situated over saloons, there is generally an independent passage made whereby the members can reach the hall without having to enter by way of the saloon." 312 APPENDIX. Mr. Jacob Schmalz, secretary of the American Federation of Musicians, writes from Cincinnati : " We have not had one mem- ber in any penal institution of the country, not one in the work- house, . . . not one in the poorhouse, and not one ease of matri- monial scandal. As a general rule throughout the country our branches have separate halls from the saloon, and the tendency is favorable to a separation, for the reason that private interests do sometimes interfere with that of the union.'' Mr. Frank Detlef, secretary of the Wood Carvers Associa- tion, writes from Brooklyn that about one half of the branches of his association meet in places connected with the saloon, but adds : " It seems to me that most of our branches would meet in places where there is no saloon if it were not for the fact that very high rents are charged." Very suggestive is the letter of Thomas I. Kidd, secretary of the Amalgamated Wood Workers, as follows : " Most of our active workers opposed the saloon when they were young mem- bers of the organization, but experience with the work of the union was responsible for a radical change in their views. It is difficult to secure suitable meeting-places not connected with saloons in some way. Many unions meet in halls in the rear of saloons, while others meet over saloons. In many instances no rent is charged. There has never been any attempt, so far as I know, to offset the social influences of the saloon. This institu- tion is looked upon by the vast majority of workingmen as their club. When out of employment the workingman can get a free lunch and meet a congenial soul to cheer him in the saloon when there is nothing but discouragement for him elsewhere. Prob- ably seventy-five per cent of our unions meet in halls in the rear of or over saloons." The remaining four unions of Table IV., the Boot and Shoe Workers, Hatters, Glass Cutters, and Flint Glass Workers, report that no special efforts have been made to counteract the saloon influence, although the three first named report scarcely any branches that meet in halls connected with saloons. We have thus far examined 45 unions, with a total mem- bership of 531,804 outside of 137,000 more members of other brandies of the two unions whose chief membership is in Great ATTITUDE OF TRADE UNIONS. 313 Britain. 1 We have seen that almost all the unions have taken some steps against the influences of the saloon, and that all but one of the unions have probably indirectly exerted a great influ- ence in ways likely in the long run to make their members more temperate and better citizens. Every union that has been heard from has been included. The reports above given cover nearly two thirds of the American unions having a national organization, and more than two thirds of the membership of such organiza^ tions, so that the data may be taken as representative, save that the unions not heard from are probably less interested in the sub- ject than those here represented. All who are interested in the general upbuilding of the labor movement will surely be pleased to find how much quiet work for temperance is being done even among the trade unions, which are very naturally organized for and chiefly interested in strength- ening their bargaining power with their employers. It has long been found that better wages and fewer hours mean better food, more education for children, better tenements, better compan- ionship, consequently, for the children, more time at home and more interest in the home by the husband and father, and in every way less temptation to patronize the only place of recrea- tion and sociability open to most of the very poorly paid in our large cities. Edward W. Bemis. Sureau of Mconomic Mesearchy Mount Vernon, N. Y. 1 Since these data were secured the membership of most of these organizations has much increased. n. BOYS' CHJBS. The first Boys' Club in America was started in 1876, with the organization of the club still occupying rooms at 125 St. Mark's Place, New York City. In 1883 the Boys' Free Reading Eooms were opened in the same city. The next year the Kev. John C. Collins, of New Haven, Conn., organized a club in that city. Through his influence others were started in some of the manu- facturing towns of New England, about twenty in all. Since his plan has been the model of many of the large clubs, particularly in New England, it is important in this paper to describe its sa- lient features. Any boy in the city could be admitted to the club. The paid workers were the doorkeeper, the librarian, and the superintendent. During the club session the superintendent of necessity walked about the room as t moral policeman. Occa- sionally visitors from the various churches came to assist, by play- ing games with the boys. Later a few industrial classes, such as carpentry, wood carving, cobbling, typesetting, etc., were added. A Penny Savings Bank was the leading feature of this sort of club. The club was also a field for religious effort on the part of the church visitors and the superintendent. The superintendent visited the Police Court, often taking charge of boys placed on probation, work which in our larger cities is now done by the oiScers of the various children's aid societies. The equipment included, among other things, a piano, books, games, and a gen- erous supply of tables and benches. It will thus be seen that the boys' club of twenty years ago was a very simple affair. It should further be added that the type of club to which it belongs has not been materially modified. This plan certainly has the virtue of being clean-cut, practical, inexpensive, and business- like. Mr. Collins estimated that the annual expense of such a club would be about .$2000. It has not been difficult, because of BOYS' CLUBS. 315 the very definiteness of such a club, with the programme all prearranged, to secure young men of moral earnestness and business push as superintendents. Finally, with this plan it is possible to have an exceedingly large membership. This in itself is a strong feature in the minds of many. Of all the clubs patterned after Mr. Collins's plan, the one at Fall River has been perhaps the most fortunate. Three years ago a building was erected at a cost of $85,000, the gift of a mill owner. It contains a reception-room, a reading-room, class- rooms, a theatre, a small gymnasium, bowling-alleys, shower baths, and a swimming-tank. The educational work includes classes in carpentry, printing, cobbling, elocution, and parliamen- tary law. The principal sources of amusement for the club are the swimming-tank, the gymnasium and bowling-alleys, the game- room, and the Saturday night entertainments. The house is open every night, and on Sunday afternoon for choral singing. The Boys' Club of 125 St. Mark's Place, New York City, is not only the oldest, but is also the largest club in America, having an enrollment of over five thousand boys. It has therefore influ- enced the character of many boys' clubs in New York City. By another year this club will have its own house. It will be five stories high and elaborately fitted up. Another New York club, run on lines somewhat similar, occupies rooms at 112-114 Uni- versity Place. This organization, known as the Boys' Free Read- ing Rooms, under the auspices of the Loyal Legion Temperance Society, was started, to use the language of the society, " to provide a counter-attraction to the saloons for the tempted boys of the city." The club was organized in 1883. It has 500 members. New members are selected from a waiting list pre- pared by the superintendent. The only dues are " Good be- havior ;" the only rule, "Be a gentleman." St. George's Church, New York City, has a very well-conducted boys' club of several hundred members. The club is composed entirely of boys from the Sunday school. It is in this particular a church club. There is no religious instruction, however, in the club itself. The boys have a constitution, in part originated by themselves. Further- more, the greater part of the discipline is in the hands of the boys. At eighteen the boys are eligible for the St. George's 316 APPENDIX. Men's Club. In St. Bartholomew's Parish House, New York City, there is a boys' club of oyer 600, composed of boys from eleven to eighteen years old. Unlike the club at St. George's, boys of all creeds are received. The club, therefore, while sup- ported by the church, is by no means a church club. There is no religious instruction. The club-rooms, containing a wealth of games and reading matter, are in charge of a superintendent and two assistants. The foregoing examples are fairly characteristic of the various types of large clubs and their methods. They are mostly located in New York City and the manufacturing towns of New England. With the advent of the university settlement, a new plan of club came into being. During the past ten years these settlements have multiplied very rapidly. Consequently, largely through their influence, the majority of boys' clubs throughout the country are now being formed on what may be termed the " Settlement Club Plan," or on some modification of it. It differs from the old plan radically in that the club is always very much smaller. The most characteristic plan of the " Settlement Boys' Club " is this, — a group of boys, from seven to ten in number, usually of the same gang, therefore of about the same age, all coming from the imme- diate neighborhood. Such a group usually meets once a week in charge of a leader. Vacancies are filled by election, as it is extremely important to get boys together who are congenial. In form the group club is thus very simple. Its very simplicity, however, gives such a club a wide range of possibility. Games, in starting a club, are well enough, also in helping to piece out an evening ; but a really successful group club is always held together by some serious interest. What this interest shall be does not really matter. A person with a loving knowledge of almost any subject can gain the interest and enthusiasm of «, group of boys. It is perfectly certain, for instance, that a great deal can be done in such groups with a microscope, provided your scientific leader adds to his knowledge enthusiasm and a simple reverence for nature. A great many groups of older boys have been held together quite easily by theatricals. This interest has proved especially successful at Hull House, Chicago, and Den- nison House, Boston. Some of the other subjects occupying BOYS' CLUBS. 317 the time of these little clubs successfully are the study of Amer- ican history by the picture method, picture pasting, passe-par- tout work, the making of hammocks, doll furniture, hemp rope mats, etc. The group club, because of its lack of machinery, depends for its success upon the personality of the leader. The leader of such a group must be intimate but not familiar with his boys ; com- panionable and sympathetic but never condescending ; just and without partiality, even in little things ; firm but always gentle. A group of boys offers a great moral opportunity to such a person. If the leader is interested alike with the boys in what is being done, there is just that lack of consciousness which brings about the most natural and delightful relationships. It is work done together, enjoyed together. Consequently there is a fellowship of work. The leader is natural, the boys are natural, and the little group meeting, therefore, brings all the charm of intimacy. After a while such a leader has the right to call upon the boys, for he really knows them and likes them, and they feel friendly toward him. He does not go as a " district visitor ; " he visits them as a friend. He is received as a friend. Occasionally little excursions are planned to some museum or interesting factory, or perhaps an outing to the parks or country on a Saturday after- noon or a holiday. Thus, in all sorts of little ways the leader gradually gets a firm grip upon the boys, and becomes to them both friend and guide. The whole drift of boys' clubs lately has been towards smaller clubs. The legitimate aim of the large club is to keep as many boys as possible off the street, giving them a cheerful room, witv- books, games, etc. The aim of the settlement is more personal, — to form a small group, and through a refined, tactful leader " with a social soul," as one man expressed it, moralize these boys by the power of friendship. The group idea, therefore, marks a distinct advance in the boys' club movement. The old type of club has, however, features of strength which should not be lost in the new plan. The esprit de corps of one hundred boys, for instance, is different from the esprit de corpn of ten. A place where a lot of other " fellers " go is fascinating to the small boy. The larger club is naturally richer in tradi- 318 APPENDIX. tions. There are the achievements of the baseball nine, the orchestra or glee club, the annual picnic or excursion, the summer camp, the club yell, and other features which peculiarly belong to the big club, all making for tradition, and thus having a ten- dency to hold the interest of boys in thrall. Then there are the various lessons of cooperation which can be more effectively taught in a large club. A combination of the big club and group club, therefore, seems the wisest form of organization. As a matter of fact, some of the large clubs are beginning to sub-divide for special purposes ; notably, the Boys' Club at St. Mark's Place, already mentioned. This club now has 500 boys, divided into small sections, each representing separate interests. The plan for the enormous Club House which they are constructing includes many group club- rooms. On the other hand, many settlements, starting group after group, as fit leaders are found, have eventually evolved some scheme of confederation : it may be simply to bring all the boys together occasionally for games, perhaps preceded by a business meeting ; or it may be for a monthly entertainment. It should be said that lying midway between the large club and the group club, there are a great many examples of clubs having a membership of fifty, more or less, connected with churches, settlements, industrial schools, town halls, or under the manage- ment of volunteer workers. For instance, there is a. club of this sort at tlie Social Union, Cambridge. Another example is the Ellis Memorial Club, Carver Street, Boston. There are also two at East Side House, New Tork City, and two at Goodrich House, Cleveland. These are only a few of the clubs of this type. The natural clientage of the boys' club is largely made up of boys living in the poor quarters of our great cities, and the boys in factory towns, boys peculiarly dependent upon some such scheme for their social well-being. The group club, alone, as some critics have pointed out, meeting once a week, does not offer a sufficiently steady, consistent influence in the lives of these boys. In providing boys' clubs, some place should be furnished if possible for the tens of thousands of boys who, as a matter of fact, spend nearly every evening outside of their homes. The big BOYS' CLUBS. 319 club open every night, with reading and game rooms, does in a measure meet this need. But the settlements go a step farther than the large boys' clubs, pure and simple. It seems hardly wise, and in the long run not good for the boy himself, to organize with him alone in view. The father, the mother, the sister, in short, the family, should be taken into account. Boys' clubs have frequently been criticised as weaning boys from their homes. This principle of making the family the unit of organization is growing into a fairly clear and strong conviction in the social work movement. The boy has a greater interest and respect for his own club when he sees a minstrel show, under the auspices of the Young Men'.s Club, or goes to the theatricals of the Young Women's Club, or when he learns that his father has gone to a lecture at his club, or that his brother and sister have gone to a dance given by their clubs. His own club seems better, and he respects it more because he feels the atmosphere communicated by all these other functions going on under this same roof. This we believe to be the ideal setting for a boys' club. We have spoken of the important place the programme occu- pies in group clubs. The occupation of boys in large clubs is a matter of no less vital concern. The club run merely, "to keep the boys off the street," a classic phrase, not only undervalues its opportunities, but invites disaster by simply importing street conditions. The gymnasium, with its competitive drills and indoor meets, its basket ball, boxing, fencing, single stick, etc., the theatricals, orchestras, glee clubs, choral singing, minstrel shows, military drills, vaudeville entertainments, reading, games, — all these and other features have proved important factors to the success of many clubs. A large interest which, in the estimation of the writer, is a legit- imate field of boys' club effort is handicraft work. To this we wish to call special attention. The making of baskets, hemp rope mats, hammocks, fish nets, scroll saw work, wood carving, and many things of a handicraft nature have been taken up, with more or less success, in numerous group clubs. Industrial classes were planned by Mr. Collins for his club twenty years ago. Of neces- sity they were crude. The writer has something in mind a long way in advance of all this. St. George's School and the Baron 320 APPENDIX. de Hirsch School, New York City, are examples showing the possibilities of this work. At St. George's there is a first-rate system of hand work for boys of different ages. The spirit of the school is fine : interesting occupation (always the most effec- tive sort of discipline) insures order. The boys are no different in appearance or in character from any of the boys found in the New York boys' clubs. Indeed, they are excellent types of what may be termed the " boys' club constituency.'' Furthermore the splendid fellowship which pervades the place makes it little dif- ferent, socially, from a boys' club. At Lincoln House there is an ascending scale of creative work in arts and crafts, supplementing the gymnasium and the social programme of the clubs. Next year this house hopes to have a new building of four stories, exclusively for this work. It has been found quite as popular here as the gymnasium. The boys are attracted to the shops, both at St. George's and at Lincoln House, not only because of their interest in making things, but because of the social spirit which prevails. Teachers have been carefully selected with social capacity, as well as manual skill, tactful in trusting boys much, wise in building up a " shop fellowship " and pride of craft. The work is not work, but play. No finer sight can meet the eye than these boys at work. Their energy is employed in making things : they are happy. The fine glow of enthusiasm from free creative work is on their faces. A new dignity is bred, for no boy can make things, real to him, without added self-respect. The boys are allowed to chatter and laugh as much as they please, so long as they keep at work. There is no coercion. Each boy is there because be wants to be there. Each boy is eager to show his work, happy when it earns praise, — sufficient evidence of its reality for him, of its power to mould his spirit. There is another important fact to remember : the boys not only like to make things, but they like to possess them when made. The value that the boys place upon these things is a good criterion of the value of the work itself. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 321 in. EBPOET ON SUBSTITUTES FOB THE SALOON IN BOSTON. [This report indicates the sort of material which has formed the basis of the preceding: chapters.] Ik this report under " substitutes for the saloon " are included, first, whatever agencies are meeting one or more of the needs and desires to which the saloon ministers, except, of course, the appetite for strong drink; and, secondly, by a more liberal con- struction of the phrase, such agencies as operate to keep men from resorting to the saloon either through preventing them from acquiring the saloon habit, or through correcting the habit after it has been formed. Therefore, among the " substitutes for the saloon " described here are some that in their nature are rather deterrent, counteractive, preventive, or corrective than substitu- tionary in the strict sense of the word. In this report, also, " substitutes for the saloon " are viewed in their relations to the saloon and, when possible, from the point of view of the saloon. For this reason a few words in regard to the saloons in Boston seem necessary by way of introduction. In Boston, as in other cities, the saloons fall into various groups according to their size, equipment, general appearance, and the character of their patronage. A bar-room of the lowest grade is usually small, bare, and dingy, showing little if any attempt at embellishment. A full view of the interior may be had from the street, in accordance with the police regulation forbidding obstructions of any sort in the win- dows of licensed driuking-places. The floor is sprinkled with sawdust, which is allowed to become quite foul before it is re- newed. In the limited space outside the bar there is no furni- ture of any kind, with the exception, perhaps, of a pile of casks in one corner. A shelf at the side of the room or in the extreme 322 APPENDIX. end contains a bowl of crackers; for every saloon is required by its license to supply food with drink on request. In some drink- ing-places of this class the dish of crackers may be supplemented by dishes of salt fish and pickles, or even a meat stew may be served free occasionally. On the wall back of the bar a mirror in a showy frame may give a touch of brightness to the place; but, as a rule, the only ornamentation consists in the orderly arrangements of bottles on the shelves. In the evening the room is lighted by a number of flaring, unshaded gas jets. Bar-rooms of this general type are to be found chiefly along the water front in the vicinity of the wharves, and in the meaner quarters of the tenement house districts. They are frequented, as one would expect, by the poorer and rougher elements of the region in which they are situated. While they may have each a tolerably well-defined constituency, especially when established near the homes of the working people, they can hardly be called meeting-places, except for the intimate friends of the proprietor. The lack of room outside the bar, together with the absence of seats, forbids much loitering. Indeed, one rarely sees in them more of a gathering than a line of men ranged along the bar, each with a glass of beer or liquor in his hand. During certain periods of the day these places are practically deserted. But saloons of this general description, which are little more than drinking-stands, pure and simple, are less numerous than those belonging to the grade next higher. These constitute the ordinary bar-rooms of the city, and are distributed through every section where the saloon exists. The arrangement behind the bar especially is often quite elaborate, mirrors, pictures, and rows of bottles containing variously colored liquors combining in a decora- tive effect. A hot-water apparatus for supplying beef tea, simi- lar to that in the drug-stores, frequently occupies a prominent place. The purpose of the saloon in offering this drink is not, as one might suppose, to compete with temperance spas, but to enable its customers to gain some additional nourishment in con- nection with their beer drinking. A laborer dropping in on his way to work might have no appetite for food, and yet feel the need of more nourishment than beer contains. In such a case a cup of beef tea would be taken along with his glass of beer. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 323 The free luneh may not differ essentially from that in the saloons of the grade below, or it may include baked beans or steamed clams; but in either case it is served usually with much greater neatness. In a few saloons of this class one or two tables and several seats are provided, which give an air of sociability to the place. In rare instances, where the room is large enough, a pool table has been introduced through a special police concession. Patrons of the saloons of this general character come, for the most part, from the ranks of the working people. The man with the dinner pail is a frequent figure among them. Many of the customers, however, especially where there is a pool table, repre- sent that semi-criminal class who have no regular employment. A third order of saloons comprises those that are patterned more or less after the German model. In these much of the floor space is occupied with tables, around which patrons may sit and talk, smoke, eat their lunch, and perhaps play cards or other games, as well as drink. The free lunch is supplemented quite often by a lunch-counter, where sandwiches, sausages, cheese, and cold meats are sold at moderate prices ; or, less frequently, by a kitchen in an adjoining room, from which a regular meal may be had. In two or three of them, by permission of the police, a piano or other music is provided as an additional attraction. While saloons of this type are comparatively common, they are not so numerous as those devoted exclusively to drink. Their patronage, on the other hand, is somewhat more varied than that of the ordinary bar-rooms, men resorting to them for food as well as for liquor. Another kind of saloon which is largely represented in Boston, unlike the German saloon, is practically without tables and chairs, but differs from the usual drinking-place in the richness of its decorations and furnishings. Costly mirrors and, perhaps, paintings adorn the walls; the ceiling is studded with clusters of electric lights ; and the floor is of marble. Drinking-places of this class are to be found in the business section of the city and along some of the more important thoroughfares, especially in the vicinity of the theatres. They are frequented by the well-to- do and prosperous of the business and sporting worlds, and in 324 APPENDIX. the character of their patronage rank next to the bar-rooms of the leading hotels. In these, as indeed in the majority of places where liquor is sold, the free lunch is quite insignificant. Of the truly magnificent saloon there are but two or three examples in Boston. One of these, however, is of so extraordi- nary a nature as to deserve a special word. Overhead is a ceil- ing of deep concave runs lined with puffed blue satin and sepa- rated one from the other by narrow panels of mirrors. The rail of the highly polished bar is a huge glass tube filled with artificial flowers, in the petals of which gleam tiny electric lights of differ- ent colors. On the wall back of the free lunch-counter, which is on the opposite side of the room from the bar, is a country land- scape, in the middle foreground of which real water flows over a miniature dam and turns the wheel of a rustic mill. A sunset effect can be produced over the scene by means of concealed electric lights. Across one end of the room, and extending around the walls of a room adjoining, is a series of stalls separated from one another by plush draperies and screens of brass and crystal. Each stall contains a mahogany table and several deep- seated armchairs. A revolving wheel of colored electric lights is reflected in a great mirror opposite, where it produces a, kaleidoscopic effect. But this saloon is interesting not only because of its gorgeous- ness, but as the only bar-room in the city where one can make a satisfactory meal of the free lunch. Sandwiches, olives, pickles, baked beans, crackers, cheese, and cakes, of excellent quality and neatly served, may be had in abundance with one's drink. It should be said, however, that the price of a drink here is greater than in most bar-rooms of the city outside the hotels, — a glass of beer, for instance, costing ten cents. Moreover, the poor man, for whom such a free lunch would have an especial attraction, would be out of place in a saloon of this character. Indeed, he would not be made welcome, even should he be able to pay for a drink. As to the social and recreative opportunities aif orded by the saloon in Boston, it is apparent that these vary with the character of the saloons themselves and their constituencies. In saloons of the lowest grade, as has been seen, the social element is inconspicuous. The proprietors, of course, are on SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 325 friendly terms with their customers, as in har-rooms of every class; hut loitering is not encouraged, partly for lack of room and partly for prudential reasons. Idlers would increase hut little the financial returns and might cause a disturhance at any time. What a saloon-keeper most fears is some disorder in his place of business that would attract the attention of the police and lessen his chance of a license another year. The ordinary bar-room and that of the same general type but more richly fitted up are pervaded by more or less of a social atmosphere. Patrons are permitted to linger and, in the few in- stances where a pool table is provided, are expected to do so. But saloons of this general order are drinking-places first and last, as the almost universal absence of seats shows; and unless there is a pool table, customers remain but little longer than the time necessary for consuming their beer or other drink. The only saloons that afford any real opportunity for fellowship are those of the German type. Here, as in other licensed drink- ing-places, however, occasional patronage of the bar is the un- written law. One with no glass or an empty glass before him would soon be made to feel unwelcome. But for the price of a few drinks a man may pass a comfortable evening in company with his friends and acquaintances, which is not possible in any other kind of saloon. With few exceptions, no saloon in Boston has additional rooms on the same floor or on the floor above in which liquor may be served. The " screen law," by requiring that the windows of every licensed drinking-place shall be unobstructed, would take away all privacy from such rooms on the ground floor. The ex- ceptions are two or three saloons in the West End which have upstairs rooms for women, it being forbidden by a police rule to sell drinks over a bar to women. So far as can be learned, no saloon has connecting rooms which are rented to clubs, lodges, or societies of any kind. The various labor organizations and politi- cal clubs all meet in rooms apart from bar-rooms. Few of the Boston saloons make any special provision for the amusement of patrons. In one or two, as has been said, music is provided when space warrants it; in several a pool table has been introduced; and a slot-machine or a "ticker " may be found here and there among others. 326 APPENDIX. The bar and its appurtenances are relied on mainly by a major- ity of saloons for drawing in customers. In the case of the Ger- man saloons the lunch-counter or restaurant reinforces the bar. In no bar-room is an entertainment possible or allowed. The police regulations restricting the social opportunity of the saloon re- strict at the same time its recreative opportunities, and for the same reason, — to preserve order and quiet. The increasing exactions of employers in regard to the char- acter of their workmen, on account of industrial competition, have taken away from the saloon almost completely its oppor- tunity for securing work for its patrons. Indeed, the recommen- dation of a saloon-keeper would rather lessen than increase a man's chance of employment, especially in those industries re- quiring a clear head and steady nerves. Until within a few years the saloon-keepers supplied from among their customers most of the help to the breweries of the city, but now the brew- eries employ only union men. Thus in no sense can the saloons in Boston be called labor exchanges. In passing in review the " substitutes for the saloon " in Bos- ton, one naturally begins with drinking fountains, stands for the sale of non-alcoholic beverages, and temperance spas; for these seem to compete directly with the saloon on its own special ground of meeting the demands of thirst. It should be borne in mind, however, that there are two kinds of thirst: the natural thirst, which may be satisfied in the ordinary way, and the morbid craving for alcoholic stimulant. The temperance drinking-place and the saloon, therefore, are rivals only on the ground of sup- plying the natural desire for drink ; at the point where the saloon begins to minister to the morbid appetite for liquor, the rivalry between the two ceases. Nevertheless, whatever provides an opportunity for quenching thirst outside the saloon is an impor- tant temperance agency. Thirty-two drinking fountains are maintained at public expense during the summer. These are placed at convenient points throughout the city. A year ago an apparatus for chilling the water was connected with each fountain and operated for the entire season. This apparatus consists of an underground tank, through which the pipes joining the water main to the taps are SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 327 passed in many coils. When ice is packed in about the pipes, the temperature of the water flowing through them is reduced by many degrees. Probably nothing that Boston has done for the people has given so much comfort and satisfaction, for the expense involved, as this offering of " a cup of cold water." Unfortunately, however, the city government which came in at the beginning of last year has made no appropriation for sup- plying ice to the tanks, with the exception of one hundred dollars to be used in this way on the Fourth of July. Thus a drink of cold water has been placed in the same category of municipal luxuries with fireworks ! In addition to the city drinking fountains, several ice water fountains are maintained by private philanthropic entei'prise at points where great crowds congregate or pass. The places where non-alcoholic drinks are on sale are almost innumerable and of all possible descriptions. Every drug-store has its soda fountain, from which a variety of cooling drinks are dispensed in the summer time. Most drug-stores are supplied also with an apparatus for serving hot chocolate and beef tea when the weather is cold. With few exceptions the candy and fruit stores, of every grade down to even the sidewalk booths, include among their furnishings a soda fountain, or at the very least a " cooler " for bottled ginger ale, birch beer, and " tonic." A number of out of door stands for the sale of lemonade and temperance beverages are erected each summer in the business portions of the city. Two temperance spas on Washington Street rival in their appointments the most elegant of the bar-rooms in the city. Great fountains of marble, with rows of silver taps, and surmounted by mirrors, tower up behind the long marble- topped counters or bars; the walls and ceiling are richly deco- rated, and the floors are of marble. An almost endless variety of refreshing and delightful drinks, hot and cold, is offered to the thirsty. The bars, however, divide the enormous patronage of these places with the extensive and well-furnished lunch-couu- ters, which occupy the greater part of the place. The prices of the ordinary " soft drinks " are surprisingly uni- form throughout the city. A glass of soda water, for instance, is five cents nearly everywhere. In a few of the candy and fruit 328 APPENDIX. stores in the poorest parts of the city it may be had for three cents, or even two cents. Ice cream soda varies in price from fifteen cents to five cents. Last year the Salvation Army made the experiment of selling lemonade at a minimum price of one cent a glass, the purchaser being allowed to pay whatever he wished over and above this. It was found that while the demand was very great, the receipts, had each purchaser paid only the regular charge, would have fallen short of the expenditures. In other words, good lemonade could not be furnished profitably at so small a price. Next in point of apparently direct rivalry with the saloon are the lunch-rooms and restaurants where one may obtain food with- out coming in contact with liquor selling. The direct competition of these places with the saloon, however, is even more restricted than that of the drinking fountains and temperance spas of various kinds. Although all bar-rooms provide a free lunch, their purpose in this, aside from compliance with the terms of their license that food shall be served with liquor on request, is not to compete with temperance eating-places, but to enable customers to drink the more, it being a well-known physiological fact that one can con- sume a larger amount of liquor in a given time if he accompanies his drinking with eating. Moreover, the free lunch itself is com- posed, as a rule, of such articles of food as especially induce thirst, and with few exceptions is of the simplest description ; often consists merely of a bowl of crackers or pop-corn. Where very much more than this is demanded a lunch-counter from which food is sold has been introduced, or a fully equipped restaurant is carried on in connection with the bar. It is with these lunch- counter and restaurant saloons, which are comparatively few in number, that temperance eating-places are competing directly. And yet what was said of the non-alcoholic drinkiug-stands may be said, in substance, of the temperance lunch-rooms and res- taurants. In keeping men in search of food from going where liquor is sold, they are serving as " substitutes for the saloon.'' Temperance eating-places are almost as numerous and varied as temperance drinking-places. Indeed, many of the candy and fruit stores of the lower grades, which sell soda and tonic, make a pretense of serving food, especially on Sundays. This is done. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 329 mainly, however, to come within the law permitting Sunday open- ing, very little if any food being sold. Small and low-priced lunch-rooms abound in all parts of the city, excepting, of course, the more prosperous residential sections. In any of these eating-places a sandwich or a piece of pie or three good-sized doughnuts may be had for five cents. Coffee and milk are five cents a cup or glass. A plate of beans or a small meat pie costs ten cents. Still lower prices obtain in the cheap restaurants, which are to be found along some of the main thoroughfares and in the poorer lodging-house districts. In these a " combination " breakfast or snpper may be had for fifteen or even ten cents; a " seven-course dinner " for twenty-five cents. Special dishes also are ofEered at correspondingly low prices : a boiled dinner for ten cents ; three eggs with bread, tea or coffee, ten cents ; pudding, five cents. One of the largest and most successful of these low- priced establishments is carried on in connection with a mission at the West End. The room itself, which is below the line of the sidewalk, is bare and dingy. There is no attempt at decoration save a few scriptural mottoes on the walls. The floor is thickly covered with sawdust, and the deal tables are without cloths. Cleanliness, however, is noticeable in the preparation and serving of the food. Here the charges are absurdly small when the size and quality of the " orders " is taken into account. A large dish of oatmeal and milk costs five cents ; a pint bowl of coffee with bread and perhaps a, doughnut, five cents; a boiled dinner, including bread, coffee, and pudding, ten cents. As many as eighteen hun- dred men have been fed here in the course of a single day. Low as the prices are, the place is self-supporting and provides, in addition, the funds for carrying on the mission, including the rent of the rooms and the salary of the superintendent. The bread, cake, and pastry served in these cheap lunch-rooms and restaurants are uniformly of a good quality, coming from great central bakeries. Careful milk inspection keeps the milk sold in any part of Boston well up to legal requirement. If oleo- margarine is used, it has been purchased outside the State, its sale within the borders of Massachusetts being forbidden by law. In the mission lunch-room described the bread and cake are the slightly stale product of one of the best bakeries of the city; and 330 APPENDIX. the coffee is what has been left over in the various coffee-houses conducted or supplied by the Oriental Coffee Co. It does not appear that the temperance eating-places are re- garded as rivals by the saloons with the possible exception of those carrying on a, lunch-counter or restaurant. The saloons compete with one another to some extent on the basis of the free lunch, but evidence is wanting to show that they, as a rule, are trying to compete with the temperance agencies for supply- ing food. Indeed, it seems to be true that the saloons understand too well their own distinct field — that of meeting the demand for alcoholic stimulant — to fear seriously the encroachment upon it of the temperance lunch-room and restaurant. None of the temperance eating and drinking places afford the social and recreative privileges of many of the saloons. The reasons of this are not far to seek. Hunger and natural thirst are soon satisfied, while the morbid desire for spirituous liquors increases with indulgence. Therefore, the proprietor of a soda fountain or a lunch-room, unlike the saloon-keeper, would have nothing to gain by inducing his customers to remain. Then, too, soda water and ginger ale lack that stimulating quality of alcoholic beverages which promotes the feeling of sociability and good fellowship. As a result, one does not care to linger long after he has finished his " soft " drink or eaten his food. Indeed, to sit around a table in the ordinary lunch-room or restaurant for an entire evening would give neither excitement nor pleasure. Other agencies that in some way are offsets to the saloon are free reading-rooms, coffee-rooms, boys' and men's clubs, the pub- lic library, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Boston Young Men's Christian Union, and the two great workingmen's organizations, — the Wells Memorial and the People's Institute. A number of free reading-rooms have been opened in church buildings and mission rooms. Although well situated and quite attractive, they draw in but few outside the church or mission con- stituencies. A certain large mission reading-room in the midst of a saloon district is often without other occupant than the attendant. On the other hand a detached reading-room on Hanover Street, the main thoroughfare between the centre of the city and East Boston, and lined with saloons, is filled afternoon and evening SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 331 with readers of the sailor and laboring classes. Like the church and mission reading-rooms this is supported from private sources. A reading and recreation room is maintained by one of the social settlements in a tenement house neighborhood thickly- dotted with saloons. Here games as well as papers and maga- zines are provided, and the men are permitted to smoke and keep on their hats. About fifty men, all of whom are saloon patrons, resort regularly to this place, while the total number of visitors is much larger. Besides the reading-rooms privately supported and controlled, there are the spacious newspaper, periodical, and general reading- rooms of the Boston Public Library, which are frequented by great numbers of men, women, and children. Sixteen of the twenty- eight outposts of the Library have reading-rooms connected with them, scattered throughout the city. Four so-called " coifee-rooms " are conducted by the Church Temperance Society, one at Roxbury Crossing, one on North- ampton Street, and two in South Boston. They were started and are still carried on in avowed rivalry with the saloon. Originally, cofEee could be had in them, but so small was the demand for it that its sale was finally discontinued. At the present time the rooms are merely attractive gathering-places, free to all, where smoking is permitted and lectures and enter- tainments are given at frequent intervals. During the summer months they are closed. Boys' and youths' or men's clubs are connected with each of the six social settlements in the city. There are also numerous un- attached clubs which are more or less self-managing. These independent organizations are especially common among the Jews at the North End. All of them are preventive or deter- rent agencies as regards the saloon, keeping their members from forming the saloon habit or furnishing those with whom it has become established with interests rivaling those of the bar-room. It should be said in this connection, however, that the Jews, as a race, have but little to do with the saloons. Although moderate drinking is quite common among them, it is carried on, for the most part, in the club or home. Until within a few years no Jew participated, at least directly, in the saloon business. At the 332 APPENDIX. present time there are several Jewish saloon-keepers in the city. One of these has two har-rooms near together, one under his Ger- man name and one under its English equivalent, and employs Irish bartenders to cater to the Irish trade and Scandinavians to draw in that of their countrymen. At Christmas time he decorates both places in a manner appropriate to the season. A detailed description of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion is unnecessary, as the objects and methods of the organiza- tion are so well known. The membership fee is two dollars a year, and entitles the holder to enter the evening classes, admits him and one friend to the course of twelve entertainments, and ofEers him the privilege of the library, reading-room, recreation- room, parlors, religious meetings, lectures, members' monthly meetings, trade discounts, and a summer camp. Ten dollars extra a year admits him to the gymnasium. The age qualifica- tion is fifteen years, and there is no religious test of membership. The rooms are open from eight in the morning until teu at night, including Sundays, excepting morning church hours. The total membership is about 3500. There is a branch of the Association in Charlestown with a membership of between 300 and 400. The Boston Young Men's Christian Union is similar in aims and methods to the Association. The fees, however, are some- what less, membership costing one dollar a year instead of two, and the additional charge for the use of the gymnasium after seven o'clock in the evening being four dollars and, at all times, seven dollars, instead of uniformly ten dollars. The building also is more centrally located, in the business portion of the city ; and the membership is of a more widely representative character. The total number of members is about 5500. Wells Memorial Institute carries on a work essentially similar to that of the Association and the Union, with the exception that it has no distinctively religious aim. Its rates, moreover, are cheaper and its membership is composed wholly of laboring peo- ple. Its avowed purpose is " to furnish workingmen the means of social intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral im- provement, and rational recreation." Membership privileges are now extended to women. The normal membership is 2000. The building itself, situated in the South End, is equipped with read- SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 333 ing, recreation, and class-rooms, lecture halls, library, bowling- alley, baths, and restaurant. By the payment of one dollar a year any man or woman with a trade or occupation may enjoy all the privileges of the Institute, with the exception of some of the educational and industrial classes, for which a small additional fee is charged. A Medical Aid Association and a Benefit Society, the latter for assisting its members financially when ill, are among the special organizations connected with the Institute. The People's Institute in Roxbury is under the same manage- ment as the Wells Memorial and aims, therefore, to furnish social advantages and intellectual opportunities for the thrifty class of working people. With a similar outfit to the parent institution it offers many of the same privileges. The number of members is about 1250, of which more than 400 are women. A system of extensive and beautiful parks lies within and about the city. Unfortunately, however, the nearest of these parks is far beyond walking distance from the homes of great masses of the people. Although ten cents, the price of a round trip by trolley car, is not a large sum in itself, it cannot easily be spared by those whose income often fails to meet the expenses of the barest sort of existence. But charity often provides the car fares necessary to enable the very poor to escape for a little while from the close and crowded neighborhoods in which they live to the fields and woods a few miles away ; and each summer the Elevated Railway issues a great number of free tickets for the same purpose. The bicycle has solved the difficulty for those above the grade of the very poor ; and every pleasant summer evening thousands of young men and women resort to the parks for recreation and pleasure. Two large parks are privately controlled and have been fitted up as business enterprises in connection with car lines running out of the city. Here no liquor is sold, and a great variety of excellent out of door attractions is offered at trifling expense to the seekers of amusement. As long ago as 1866 the sum of $10,000 was appropriated by Boston for " suitable places in South and East Boston and the city proper for salt-water bathing during the ensuing summer 334 APPENDIX. months." Six localities were selected — five for floating-baths and one for a beach bath. At the present time the system of out of door baths comprises five beach baths, twelve floating- baths, two river baths, and two swimming-pools. These are so distributed that no considerable quarter of the city is without its local bathing establishment. Some of them, because of their situ- ation or the conveniences that they afford, have a patronage from far beyond their immediate neighborhood. The L Street bath in South Boston, for instance, situated as it is on a beautiful natural beach, and easily reached by electric cars from all sections of the city and suburbs, draws from every part of Greater Boston. This seaside bath was the first municipal bath opened in the United States. A long, low frame structure provides a great num- ber of dressing-rooms, and an adjoining building is fitted up with hundreds of lockers for the use of boys. These buildings,together with a high board fence at each end, extending well out into the water, effectually shut in the bath from all outside observation. Next in point of popularity to the L Street bath is the bath at the North End Park. A flat-roofed, solidly constructed build- ing running along the westerly side of the park contains the dressing quarter for men and boys. On the easterly side of the park is a bath-house for women and girls, so that bathing in the open water is permitted to both sexes at the same time. Five thousand bathers in a single day is not an uncommon number at this bath ; while at the L Street bath the daily attendance has occasionally reached 15,000. The total number of visitors at all the out of door baths during the season of 1898 was 1,900,000 and of 1899, 2,003,000. Besides the summer baths there is an all the year round bath on Dover Street, and combined baths and gymnasiums in East Boston, South Boston, the South End, Roxbury Crossing, and at the Charlesbank at the West End, — the latter under the charge of the Metropolitan Park Commission. The Dover Street bath is a simple but imposing structure, 43 x 110 feet, three stories in height, and constructed of granite and brick. The bathing apartments are on the second floor. The apartment for women is completely shut off from that for men, and has its own waiting-room and street entrance on the floor below. There are SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 335 thirty sprays and three tubs for men and eleven sprays and six tubs for women. Although but one cent is charged for a towel and one cent for a piece of soap, and bathers are allowed to bring their own supplies, more than one hundred dollars have been received for these articles in a single week. This indicates the extent to which the bath is patronized. In fact nearly 300,000 men, women, and children use this bath each year. The exercise hall of the gymnasium and bath in East Boston is one hundred feet long and eighty feet wide, and is well supplied with gymnastic apparatus. One corner may be shut off by mov- able partitions for hand-ball. In the bathing department there are eleven sprays with dressing-quarters and lockers. Two days a week the entire building is reserved for women and girls. Adjoining the South Boston gymnasium and bath is an area of cleared land, under the control of the city, which in time will be laid out in separate athletic fields for men and women. The building itself is of wood, in the English Gothic style of architec- ture. Here there are 1200 lockers and eighteen spray baths. A swimming-tank under a separate roof is a part of the original plan and will be added sooner or later. The gymnasium and bath at the South End was originally a mission chapel, and that at Eoxbury Crossing is still used as a ward room. Both have been fitted up and opened to the pub- lic within the year. None of the agencies described are doing more to counteract and lessen the influence of the saloon than these baths and gym- nasiums. Aside from what they are doing to promote public health, which of itself would constitute them " substitutes for the saloon " in the free interpretation of the phrase, they provide a variety of social and recreative opportunities to the very class most susceptible to the enticements of the saloon, and furnish a new and powerful motive not only to moderate instead of exces- sive drinking, but to total abstinence; for even an occasional glass of liquor interferes with gymnastic training. Instances are numerous where a man in his desire to excel in some line of ath- letics has given up all drinking, for a time at least. Statistical evidence as to the effect of public baths and gymna- siums upon the saloon is not to be had; but the evidence of obser- 336 APPENDIX. vation is not wanting: The police of East Boston, for instance, say that since the opening of the gymnasium in that division there has been a marked diminution in lawlessness. Instead of collecting at street corners and annoying passers-by, the young men in large numbers resort to the gymnasium and the baths. Moreover, their minds are diverted from plotting mischief and are turned to new and better channels. And yet the saloon-keepers seem to be quite indifferent to the possible inroads upon their business of these agencies. As a mat- ter of fact, the proprietor of two saloons was largely instrumen- tal in securing the gymnasium for South Boston, and is still its stanch supporter. This is but another illustration, however, of what has already been said as to the indifference of the saloon to all so-called " substitutes. " The morbid appetite for liquor the saloon can depend upon, and so long as it is allowed to minister to that, it does not concern itself seriously about deterrent, coun- teractive, or corrective agencies. Temperance societies of all kinds are to be found in the city, and should be numbered among the preventive and corrective substi- tutes for the saloon. The order of Good Templars is represented here by nineteen lodges, and that of the Sons of Temperance by five Division Meetings. Other organizations are the New England Department of the Church Temperance Society, with branches in many Episcopal churches; and the Unitarian Tem- perance Society, which has branches in churches and Sunday schools of that denomination. Both of the last-named societies aim to discover and remove the cause of intemperance, as well as to reform the intemperate. There is also a Catholic Total Abstinence Union comprising fourteen societies. Most of them are joined directly to some church of the Roman Catholic faith and constitute a part of its organization. Two or three are branches of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society. Reform clubs are numerous, some of which are connected with Protestant churches and missions or have an independent ex- istence. An important children's organization, under the direc- tion of the W. C. T. U., is the Loyal Temperance Legion, whose members pledge themselves to abstain from the use of alcoholic drinks and tobacco, and from profanity. Companies of the Legion meet in churches and homes. SUBSTITUTES FOR THE SALOON IN BOSTON. 337 The most directly aggressive temperance work is carried on by the rescue missions and the Salvation Army. Whatever may be thought as to the methods of these agencies, the correctness of the principles upon which they proceed must be conceded. To recover from deep-seated habits of intemperance, a man must undergo a change so radical that it can be likened only to a " change of heart." " Conversion " is the most exact term for expressing philosophically as well as religiously the process by which a confirmed drunkard regains self-control and a new manhood. But while the rescue missions and the Salvation Army are act- ing on the right hypothesis, they fail of such results as this might lead one to expect. Indeed, their efforts are more or less ineffective, at least in the long run, excepting in an isolated ease here and there. A review of the substitutes for the saloon in Boston brings out with more or less clearness the secret of the saloon's power. This does not consist, as a superficial observer might suppose, in the social and recreative opportunities of the saloon; for, as has been seen, many saloons are lacking in such opportunities. In- deed, some saloons are almost devoid of them. On the other hand, many places where one might find more or less opportuni- ties of a social and recreative nature are patronized but little by the frequenters of the saloons. The secret of the saloon's influ- ence consists in the opportunity which it affords for procuring alcoholic drink. Take away from the saloon its bar, or, more exactly, extract from its beverages all trace of alcohol, and at once it ceases to be a saloon. The secret of its power is gone. A " temperance saloon " is and can be but an imperfect substi- tute for the saloon. Therefore, if the saloon is to be abolished from a community, this must be done by the working together of restrictive and sub- stitutionary agencies, the former stripping it of all incidental enticements, and the latter drawing out, encouraging, and giving support to all tendencies that lead away from strong drink. William I. Cole. Kellogg Durland. South End House, Boston. rv. SDMMAET or REPORTS FROM TEN REPRESENTATIVE CITIBS. [Note. The following outlines of the reports give only statistical information. The full and detailed reports made for the committee are stripped wholly of inference, deduction, comment, generalization, and description, much of which has been embodied in the main chap- ters of the volume. Moreover, not all existing substitutes have been tabulated in each city, but only those most characteristic or most efEective.] ATLANTA (Spring, 1899). The report for Atlanta was made by and under the direction of Rev. Frank E. Jenkins. The population is 89,872, or with the suburbs about 120,000. There are 106 saloons, — 87 whiskey saloons, 19 beer saloons. There are boundary limits beyond which only beer licenses may be granted. The whiskey limit on Decatur Street is Butler Street ; on Marietta Street is Foundry Street. The license for whiskey saloons is $1200, and for beer saloons $500. Saloon-keepers are allowed to have these five cold articles of food on a counter or sideboard: cheese, crackers, pretzels, bologna, and pickles. No hot article of food can be had. Some saloons provide reading- matter. The following table indicates the principal features of the Atlanta saloons : — Saloons selling to white trade only 27 Saloons selling to Negro trade only 2 Saloons selling to mixed trade, Negro and white 77 Saloons serving Negro and white, same bar 9 Saloons serving Negro and white, separate bar 21 Saloons providing lunch 19 Saloons having chairs and tables 48 Saloons with reading-room connected 1 REPORTS FROM CITIES. 339 SUBSTITUTES. There are 54 lodges, 30 trade unions, a few social clubs, seven missions, of which one, the Barclay Mission, has a reading-room, and one, the Beacon Light, a "Laboring Men's Bureau,'' and the Y. M. C. A., which has in the railroad department 300 men enrolled. There are 134 lunch-rooms, — 94 conducted by Negroes, and 40 by whites. Of soda fountains there are 77, — 65 conducted by whites and 12 by Negroes. These lunch-rooms and light drink establishments present no more social features than are found in similar establishments in the North. There seem to be no special restaurants for workingmen or temperance coffee-houses. The number of lodging-houses of all kinds is 100, of which 90 are for white people and 10 for Negroes. Careful inquiry showed that : — Of the 90 white lodging-houses 49 have social rooms, 24 permit card-playing, and 33 are for laboring men. There are also a number of public pool-rooms not connected with saloons. Other substitutes appear in the tables which fol- low : — 340 APPENDIX. .g .-a g.S - m'^'S ffl S ai &■ f- 2 & .SP S h,l3 I .9 a 1 t3 3 .a a « 13 O c3 3 ® ^ « I- g 1 1^ =^ a a, o ^ o q U o o W3 o cTo Oh S w 1§-^ Fh ^ m S ^ S t^ >> • t»> ^ ■fi-a-s-a O O J o S Pnft-a a > be -FH s (0 bo ti ai o Pi i^ |1^ O ^ '5! |2; H £ if a: ■ " 60 S.B g o §1 a S i i 1 8 bo ° bo .9 "^11 boS bo 9 3.S MPh W M J3 O -ta 1'^ 9 bo bB ff .9 '-3 Ej bo "3 . g o o t3 .a 1 sS n a *S )5 pq CM >hJ €«■ R ^ 1 p-i." cq>3 I I S PL( C! PUi Ph 1^ Ah H .iJ REPORTS FROM CITIES. 341 BALTIMORE (July, 1899). A report of the conditions in Baltimore was made for the com- mittee by Mr. William L. Ross, of Johns Hopkins University. A careful division was made between the social agencies of the white and colored people. Further discrimination was made between temperance places and those where liquor might be obtained. The population of Baltimore is 508,957. The present number of saloons of all classes (1899) is as fol- lows : saloons and restaurants, 1889; clubs, 48; wholesale stores, 66; groceries, 35; hotels, 48; totals, 2086. The principal attractions of the Baltimore saloons are free lunch ; baseball and other sporting news ; newspapers, both daily and weekly ; music boxes ; occasionally dancing and singing ; graphophones ; moving pictures ; tables and chairs. Free lunch is abundant. Gambling is not at all uncommon. Many saloons have small gardens furnished with tables and chairs, where many men spend the hot summer days and evenings. Two sections of Baltimore are in sore need of substitutes. The southeast end of the city lying along and east of Broadway and south of Baltimore Street. Some good institutional work here could accomplish much. Perhaps it might be started with boat- ing as the feature and broadened gradually. Still more urgent are the needs of the colored quarter which may be said to centre at Druid Hill Avenue and Oxford Street. The best plan would be to acquire a large clubhouse with reading-room and gymna- sium. With the right kind of a manager this could not fail to do much good among the colored population of the city. SOCIAL SUBSTITUTES. These are indicated in the following tables : — 342 APPENDIX. o a o o •^ a Sao •6-S l-s 2 o § ^TJ .■a -slS fe^ ° S a * rt » " « s n S .g O Fh ^ Ei< CD Sill I « !r -'" l3 .2 r ^ ,2 .o J » .S'o g.a S so 2 » ago • » S a (D 3 -fS a II So REPORTS FROM CITIES. 343 s a HI'S 6 ^ « fa far)'T5 n S i J 5 P- aeons 11 = ^ ^ rt :3 ee CO hjD a*ni "■S S3 m gi ^ s ■b ^ '3 a i c i» ^ eg ^ . nH ^^ a) o 03 " * S o £■« ai CD ■39 f4 Si" M . ■< f 1 •^ - • o • • t4 . 6|: a ^d : 1 DQ to 4H?d : bi *: • 2 'a : M s 3 S S i> 5- a; gm & I'^g^ c3 ^►l M 1 o , 2 ^"i ^ 1« <1> 2 o .S " bp -3 1 II :§ fe.S & a P. are ' ordr jville 1 111 f^O > CP ffi 3 ^ s ^" 3 an g a g bo ^ a 4^ •IH trH -a o S -a u ^ a 1 .=8 1. 3 women, imbers es. men a heatres ned CQ ^ g m a ■*■' s> H P^ -s" l^i^ t< 1 fr- - "" : ^s • 3- - a • .2 "O^ nSio" "h B - ^ ni-13 - A4 3 08 ■ ici lO OO CTs :; «1 (MiH «^ m «4«4 . • o • ' 'S ', .3 ;■ 1 .a o %■■■ bOj § . 0) ■ .S a : " ' a <» a i^i demy of lie Hall. liday St Audito Monum Odeon. . Olympi eS 2 ™ O — 1 03 0) (D > bt 2 9. S S o V -gg^ < a 1 1 a > N 2 <" i» •w g H £• > •» s r= C :<» :W : ^^"coccH i ■^ ^ » s T J rt a) -J- (26 s 1 are bars, open ie g a, d P-i 2 f a) O) „ pd rt -^ F-< •a"S-^.^ T3 rS -s O) :g o S 0) £ ■*^ • « fr* fl 01 ir^i TJ a«5 g s s p rgOqsC .org fe < S" OT3 M >>_§ ■3 ^ e8 o 3 O . T3 1 S- § .2^ §1 S »; £ a ■C ^ o S _g ^/ l&lill .-S-a . h5 1 u a t! o< ^ 61 £ .g s :; j3 1 C8 -a 1 M H 2 M CO tH 00 tH a « d5 CO 01 r-i .^j 13 o 348 APPENDIX. BUFFALO (Summer, 1899). The investigation in Buffalo was made by Messrs. Walter Brown, Arthur Williams, Ludovic Jones, and Rev. C. J. Davis, under the direction of Mr. Frederick Almy, of the Charity Organ- ization Society, and by Mr. Levon Tchorigian under the direction of Westminster House. The present population of the city is 352,219, which includes a large foreign population, — Germans, Poles, Irish, and Italians. The saloons vary. The Italian saloons are clean and orderly. The German and Polish saloons sell chiefly beer, and little drunk- enness is visible. The police say that not one fifth of the arrests in the German districts are due to liquor. Billiard and pool tables are common in the saloons, but not much reading is done. Certain well-known club saloons have gambling rooms attached. Licensed drinking clubs occur on the East Side, and are worse than saloons. Worst of all are the music halls, the public dis- grace of the city, located on the East Side and on and near Canal Street. The following tables indicate the chief substitutes existing in the city : — REPORTS FROM CITIES. 349 m n P 350 APPENDIX. I o c3 a II I I a OQ O ? g g I §<^ s a-s d i 1-s i o a bjo *^ « O ID t< rt » 3 " OJ J- '^^^ Do fMM ■So o o^ a Ma® § g ■a g REPORTS FROM CITIES. 351 "3 2 I .a s o I a .a a ■•!?. C9 '3 3 1= to a o I I «8 103 S O •02 : ■ • : st»- - 3(M OTHt- OJ O 00 00 ■* P-lT-l IH .3 1^ w " I g ^-s >■ ■a o E So > > S p o o a M^ e3 eS felz; 0303 g a ^ bD a lod ffee. read * §Ti t-^i •ag-s ath, oils iUia 1- cQwm PQ ■ g * S : s a a liifii -^^■^'^^^ 00000 CO t- Ci >0 tH T-( tH rH ! S2|S iH ■ =8 ; •^■« d «o 00 OtH -*5 ■ . . cQ : ' * ^gH^3S§ . . j5 g . . . § :§| : • ' .3 .m'^ • :-S ope 1! Army R.R. dging ouse . estead Hear of H ation .C.A. ip Lo Horn Open 1 i ) 2 a \i i ^ s 352 APPENDIX. CHICAGO 1 (September, 1899). The investigation in Chicago was made by Koyal L. Melendy, of Chicago Commons. The saloon in Chicago is the most cosmopolitan of institutions. It differs in different portions of the city : in the workingmen's district, being a centre of social life ; in the business district, offering a place for appointments ; in the suburban districts often acting as a family rendezvous. The seventeenth may be taken as a representative ward of the working people, and the following enumeration of its attractions suggests why the saloon has become the club of a vast number of workingmen : — Number saloons 163 Offering free lunches Ill Offering business lunches 24 Supplied with tables 147 Supplied with papers 139 Supplied with music 8 Supplied with billiard tables 44 Supplied with stalls 56 Supplied with dance halls 6 Allowing gambling 3 Eighty churches are doing institutional work among men by means of clubs, outdoor sports, gymnasiums, and reading-rooms ; the Y. M. C. A. does similar work. There are eight hundred and twenty-three lodges offering infrequent social amusement, and there are club-rooms in four of the halls of the one hundred and twenty-six local organizations of the trade unions. There are twelve social settlements located in the most congested dis- tricts of the city. The following tables give certain statistics concerning saloons and substitutes in Chicago : — 1 This report was printed in full in the American Journal of Sociology, Nov., 1900, and Jan., 1901. REPORTS FROM CITIES. 353 Police Precinct. I.. 11. . III.. IV.. v.. VI.. VII.. VIII.. IX.. X.. XL. XII.. XIII.. XIV.. XV.. XVE.. XVII.. XVIII.. XIX.. XX.. XXL. XXIL. XXIIL. XXIV.. XXV.. XXVI.. XXVII. . XXVIII. . XXIX.. XXX.. XXXL. xxxn.. XXXIII. . xxxrv.. XXXV.. XXXVL. XXXVIL. XXXVIII. . XXXIX.. XL.. XLL, XLH., XLIIL. XLIV.. Population. 7,591 26,490 63,772 73,000 66,000 37,500 31,200 12,500 20,000 60,000 52,500 38,000 36,000 65,000 4,000 84,100 30,000 55,500 30,000 129,472 49,918 75,000 70,000 45,080 42,593 39,172 58,000 30,000 110,000 94,635 75,000 50,000 43,000 18,000 83,642 63,738 65,000 60,000 50,000 20,000 11,000 Saloon. 418 195 247 307 7 19 78 62 42 76 222 128 29 168 114 321 173 363 199 113 63 365 275 175 90 43 23 829 204 129 180 54 41 16 Total Patronage. 216,875 57,500 83,011 52,543 500 1,500 1,250 24,600 28,300 2,450 16,775 38,700 4,175 43,025 37,880 69,150 750 2,700 6,495 34,550 23,575 13,755 45,975 37,300 21,850 14,300 11,000 1,485 37,190 20,400 8,113 24,825 7,700 3,150 700 Average Attend- ance. 519 295 134 171 71 300 66 315 376 60 221 197 240 160 256 332 215 54 125 300 179 267 209 218 126 133 125 159 256 60 113 100 68 138 143 77 Ntunber ArrestB, Drunks, per Month. 23 44 25 32 4 105 1 2 29 21 29 71 1 24 9 106 1 229 61 42 3 354 APPENDIX. 5^ OQO^OOC I" lOOlOCOOlOOOOO-; OS r-l (M tN T-i OS (M CD O OS (N OS OS O OS OS OS £4 T— I tH r-< iH -i-l T-( iH tH t— I OSiOOOOOO (NiMOOOOO i-Tr-T-^Tiri-rr-r »-r oooooooooooo 000C<100000Q0 ^ S K^^^o^o O CO »o,cio »o T-T r-Tcc'o^'co'w CO T-Tc^ tH tH s g C3 O IS |a 0} CO a s .s a t s d a' 3 rt 0^ e8 w aj ;^ js Ji ft ^! jj t?- ►? ■si ■ s .»o CO Ot ^3 QQ • CO CO CO cc ^ w w OJ'^ III hj w o (Li o a t>-«i g REPORTS PROM CITIES. 355 a. t3 O O i il" Ss ■ii M .4 CO 35<) APPENDIX. The investigator in Chicago made a special study of lodging- houses. He visited 85 houses having accommodations ranging from 3 to 475. Only 2 had accommodations for as many as 400, and only 1 for a number exceeding that. The prices charged for accommodation also covered a wide range, — from 5 cents to $1 a night. The most common charges, however, were 10 cents and 15 cents : 30 places had a 10-cent minimum, 20 a 25-cent, and 12 a 15-cent minimum. For exceptions there were 6 that had a 5-cent minimum, 3 that charged 50 cents, and 2 that were free. The sanitary conditions of the boarding-houses were generally reported good ; in only 11 cases were they described as bad, and in 17 liquor was reported as being for sale. CLEVELAND (Decempeb, 1899). The investigation in Cleveland was made by Mr. Starr Cad- wallader, of the Goodrich House Social Settlement. Cleveland has 381,768 inhabitants, and 1978 saloons, open eighteen to nineteen hours out of every twenty-four. The fol- lowing lists show some of the attractions offered by the saloons : Common features : Free lunch ; tables ; chairs ; cards ; music boxes. Frequent attractions : Dice ; bagatelle ; pool ; billiards ; vari- ous gambling devices ; vocal and instrumental music ; dances ; cake walks and clog dances. Substitutes for the saloon appear in the following tables : — REPORTS FROM CITIES. 367 1 •I 11 o o o « .S s 3 a) fl p^ bo'-' Mix -I .a 8H m pq a •II |a 9 o ^ a 3 1^1 I s a O P3 MO Ms CO o *43 So; rt o ^1 w 02 I a o O 13 ►J O a jj » S T3 a e=« Jj fct ja c ^ -fl O O fl fl a s •43 ja s ^ SO) ^-^ •:;3 B S ? cq OT OK I 358 APPENDIX. i 1 a ■5- a. OS o B3 •I ^ S^ tn o E- S ^ ® 3 S 02 3 DQ e a^ a a a a "I a S .M . ^ OB bo o bo _4 MS s •43 ±" g g-S ^ oo oo 05(M *5 ^ I »o ■ -S ^ « S " g si ,o ;■§ 6 ^1 I s ,4 E! S p o -a (1> (H Frf (C I M I i i be ■E cq pq oO P5^ ato g-a ■2 S REPORTS FROM CITIES. 359 2 22 I O H ^ i ill -1 Whole Clean, of f lent Form • ^ : 1 i ii 1 & > ■ <5 : 23 : " S o • ^ ft o •"S S3 ■ « : § rS-g g 1 . *H o e8 ^ a •S .° s-a o fi i-8! « a Be, free Be, 1 et. oportio erate p tH t— :sg sgS.'« M uLci ■■6 6 g HH .^ i 0] ?• lSSO. Char. Work. . WUliamsPaint Co. d Twist DriU Co. . Shipbuilding Co. Window Glass Co. Carbon Works . . . d Hardware Co. . . A £1 Soeiet- Bethel A Sherwin- Clevelan National Clevelan Y.M.C. '■■% 1 ■.t' ' ' " Si .ji |2i i E J..:. I. 1° "—1 a) i i: 1- J o J B 1 a d 1 ^ T3 ^ 5 4" o a 1 g 1 !3- -O F^ V 3 "^ O ' O I— t I i .*H ,a 3 I— ( ^ ^ 1 ^el 7.^ o !g'5) s- - §"5 J- " :e3 it S"^ a 'O" " "S^ o S « O H o« iJ 1 REPORTS FROM CITIES. 361 DENVER (April, 1899). The report of the saloon in Denver and of the social substitutes offering recreation to the people was made by Robert T. Walker, Colorado College. The attractions which the saloons of Denver offer, beyond the sale of liquors, may be summed up briefly as follows : (1) Socia- bility and company. (2) Shelter and warmth. (3) Food, as provided by the free lunch. (4) Amusements, such as billiards, bowling, music, etc. The strength of the Denver saloon lies in the first attraction. The number of saloons varies, increasing in times of prosperity. During the period of the gold excitement, the mining towns sent large embassies to Denver, but now the saloons rely for their profit almost exclusively on home patron- age. Denver has a population of 133,859, and has 324 saloons. Some of the substitutes are set down in the following tables : — 362 APPENDIX. >1 T3 I .d s S ^ ^ « § s ^ .a -Q -!^ nS EQ 1 .9 1 a ^ « l| 1 bar. dues. iquor clu 1 private ee and ers. Li ngs. N month, » .*■ S-S as Two thirds hav or well-to-do, High initiation in one. A few wage-eai Infrequent mee 1 to 4 meetings u cc 03 w )3 g lo o or- • t- O tH T-H . ij .Q (N 05 (Ni-t . o 1 M tH' I M 1 -^ CM cocoo»j:3 tH lOCO IZi ■ O -i ■ S ', -p o i ill) I'd i2i • 1 3 -^ 9 != l« is 02 c D-S-l-g 1 II icyele oys' CI rade U ecret ai [Z < PC ff H!K 1 i eS o< s i S ed o -^ ^ 1 3 02 S "^ !ii ■a 1 ion of patra at night, and irregula . M., holiday! s O , « ^ ■ii "^^ Of T— I r.'^ O i il 2^ QO O ■^ t»^ S =3 <) Q o t) ■ s ,a lOOOOO-* H ^ ID 1 — 1 p< o « Ph S n -|j .a d ._H ^ .« 6dld? a a -^■43 °3 s TJ aSP .flo '00 ■ ao -loto • f| 1 U : ■5 i 1 ; ^ fS : CO CN tH O tH (M CO •s 3(2 364 APPENDIX. 13 ill i Qjnd" 1 5.^ ° ri A- Q-C E If [rt 1 1 025 1 P ® c3 ^ (4 B-g J S f ^ ^ t II tf T3 ^bo.a V - o. - 'c ■* S g g c 'S.S IT " S i« i .s n •3=!:_ 1 1 1 1 c Successf s riral o Lunch." K p^ _^ < s o >. o ^ !i o iC, lo 1 || r-T ?o § > i S| iHOt- 1—1 P fi o :-2 rt ? :S P? a bjo . f- f- p a i -2 c > : s • ■ a 1 & 2 )- ll- 1° ■■J 1 1 111 o t4 i, « t 5 1 1 1 i <« 1 Eh 1 E terial. Light Well. 1 1 3-1 >, 1 o 09 o ^ ^ *J3 ffl'T a . 1 o § 1 irs. lighted; r ith Day A tter. Salvatioi 3 expenses s leasa lodge well H3 P4 11^ e 1 1 g rHTH o o (>J w 'S o ^ ng' c o A fl ^ IC >o fc g'2 HH S-e O liS o -0 o ij ^ y ^ cc tH a o: s izi a 15 1 . I 1 c ja J» •E ) t "a t: e c [ ) ii ^ ^ t. t^ •E A- c i REPORTS FROM CITIES. 365 MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL (December, 1899). The report for these cities was compiled by Professor F. L. McVey, of the University of Minnesota. The combined population of Minneapolis and St. Paul is 366,350. In neither city are there large slum areas, and in both certain restrictive liquor laws are fairly well enforced. In Min- neapolis the system of high license prevails. The license fee is $1000, which has reduced the number of saloons to 336. St. Paul has a certain number of prohibitive districts, increased from time to time by action of the City Council, until at present there are ten such districts covering about forty per cent of the city. There are 298 saloons, most of them situated in the central part of the city. The total number of saloons for both cities is 634. 270 saloons have tables, from 1 to 15 in number ; 217 have card- rooms, from 1 to 9 in number ; 52 have gambling machines. The free lunch is elaborate in 3 saloons ; excellent in 8 ; good in 50 ; fair in 88 ; poor in 77 ; 56 saloons provide no free lunch ; the rest simply crackers and cheese. Of the 634 saloons in both cities, about 330 belong to the poorer, 200 to the medium, and the remainder to the higher class. The total patronage for both cities approaches 87,750 daily. The following form of schedule was used for saloon data : — 1. City and date 2. Name of saloon. 3. Location 4. Character of neighborhood . Semi-residential, 5. Interior — furnishings 6. Character of pictures . 7. Tables — number . . 8. Number of card-rooms 9. Gambling machines. . 10. Billiard tables .... 11. Free lunch — kind . . 12. Class of men in saloon. 13. Estimate of business done . $40.00. 14. Time of visit . . 15. Name of recorder Minneapolis, Oct. 28, 1899. 725 Third Street, S. Meagre. Objectionable. Four. Two. None. None. None. Workingmen. Two p. M. George H. Bragdon. The social substitutes for the saloon consist of a, few clubs, three settlements, three model lodging-houses, the Y. M. C. A., and a few churches and missions. The following tables summa^ rize these substitutes : — 366 APPENDIX. " ^-ig i inday mont on se: tlian J^ on Sk wicea ti-salo tener table. 1 eet usually ing. eet once or t apparent an Bver meet of week. isted in next a S ^2! a 1 ID . rt ffl ■TS g"3 '3 53 5 to m » V b . P-l-^ ID JH I ^- ^ la s6 o W "8 S .a I g S pq o a . S ■ S § tS ■s 3 as 368 APPENDIX. « s g « , CD o m c (D e^. « O a a .2 U o o 02 I H H CO O t— ( H o O m S si o. o s 0-43 g CO ca.a m 3 O oj en ■-;" "o S r e §s O fr- o 3 ^ A »> .■s^ • g • 0} ^J ^«3 w « 8"*! ■S"^ «,;(■> Hi— lO ■ a) « 02 PM 5- on P4 E3 11 !3 s Pi s' 1 fc W H ^ ^ J g OOiOO , lo lo j^-r- T-i T- on E O »0 WO »o rH rH •sss e^ ll 1 i -a- t» g t> a ts Iw ■I ^1 a a pqOOdiHoW REPORTS FROM CITIES. 369 I CD H iz; a Si o g & ^ 1 •g-g £> t3 <3 IP eH I ■ £ b I Ph m Sh9 2 « ■rt c3 I m g a iz; w CJ Q O « CO I O P3 >2^ o M M CO »0 m acjTj' O lO o O ■ o O M fe IlO K5 IN r o <1 TO ^^ O m ^£ 370 APPENDIX. NEW YORK (Summer, 1899). The report from which the following tables are drawn was made by Mr. Francis H. McLean, now general secretary of the Montreal Charity Organization Society. Of the New York saloons in general it may be said : — 1. That the interior furnishings are not as a rule elaborate. 2. That the Irish or stand-up type of saloon is holding its own against the German saloon with tables and chairs. 3. That the free lunch is not of great variety or abundance. 4. That the Raines Law has increased the danger of immorality in the lower class of saloons. 6. That the amount of excessive drinking in New York has been on the decrease during the past twenty-five years. COMPAEATIVB NUMBER OF ARRESTS FOE DElINKENNESS,i 1874 AND 1898. Total, including Disorderly Conduct. Male. Female. 1874 40,777 27,203 13,574 1898 22,981 17,526 5,455 The population of New York doubled within these years. If the ratio of arrests to population had been maintained, the arrests in 1898 must have approached 80,000. This decrease of arrests cannot be explained by less rigor in the enforcement of the law. It indicates a falling off in excessive drinking. 1 These figures are taken from the Annual Report of the Board of City Magistrates of the City of New York, October 31, 1898. REPORTS FROM CITIES. 371 w H O w i o m »-H H < H iz; w I O o H <1 s * 2 . r - 0,a ij ■ ^ • "W ..S ...2 to'g §3 H^ S3" a =8 CJ O -? 02 TS CO pq -S ea PQ ^ 1^ u IZi ^ m P5 J3 13 t3 <^ O «l1 02 -I 02 .a 00 iH -; g ffl « Brrj a g »-=^.3 §,3 ■3 13 □0 OD m P3 a ag © _2 "^ H CJ a -a M C3 t3 si 03 02 g ^<1 si = a ^ S £ J5 t>- -S ^ ^ _i § ^ -s o) a o '^'Sra a -a A 9 1 03 V 4^ 03 ii o o H o qC < S -a ' s a s a-S "S a S3 p:) C3 00 13 § <1 I O iH REPORTS FROM CITIES. 373 K O O P3 -0 I I o-i a o «« J a CQ CC 8 (i( o' <1, 9m ■ ■Si ^11 +5 fe o o "If - rt c8 o -*j Til ft- •9 a • ": iaica ©-■3 3 > =8 S CO g S (» _g p. T-t »0 13 3 Q 13 PI'S O 43 O ^ a S'So H Ph ^ 374 APPENDIX. & fe a •P 0) g ns Pd " H 2 ■■ !5 ■a ^ ■p n H is S •^ .2 s iz; S .g !!i 1 ^ tl> tiS Fh A hr S .S •a ^ a i •T3 ^Si" a-n g <& cd o ed o pq I H 0) o s o « * ^^ poo "^ - O CI) REPORTS FROM CITIES. 375 § 1 1 1 ' t 1 1 c8 1 i 1 id CO i ^ r-i O •t! 1 ■3 1 s 2 « - s" ^i 1 20 cents rooms, nnmn at 8 10 a-g> 'i i § ;?; —M pq mfe 1-1 CD K <» 5 1 00 s 0) „_ 3 3 2 - o < .-e ^ o o c 00 o IT) 00 s tH 03 CO ^ 1 s 13 (^tS 1 (C s S S >;> i C3 X ^ 43 • S S3 1 'Eh °r^ -= l"-!.^ 1 £ Q £i: w 00 1 (M 1-i tzi . g i :W ^ T-^ Oi w ^1 a i 6 6a ^ 0, 1 fc-'-s ww:i ij 1 si 1 a> 11 0^ 376 APPENDIX. PHILADELPHIA (Spring, 1899). The report for Philadelphia from which the data here given are taken was compiled by Mr. E. S. Meade, of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia has 1,293,697 population. The effect of the Brooks Law, which makes the annual license fee one thousand dollars, has tended greatly to reduce the number of saloons in Philadelphia in spite of the increase of population. This de- crease in number has so lessened competition that the social attractions are oompaiatively few and even the free lunch is in- ferior in quantity and quality to that of the saloons of other cities. Substitutes for the saloon are indicated by the following tables : — REPORTS FROM CITIES. 377 lO r,i M •« " § = i to =" a- 1^& 2 i .a 3 ^ t CJrO 5 S la Sec <1 6JJ .a ^ S on § ^§ S S g § g^ca J3 ffl g Em 3 Sm H 5 1— I "^ . s ■3 a "3 .a s s = rrj O i| § 2 n J! -S.SP c " bis be- ^ •a t^s s « 3 .itj S o fe 3. a o o bo a a> o . " a> B S ^-a ■= a P-te a «^ i a &0 ^ bo a o . 4} O t3 O-' ^a Sao I ■go tOpS pq § *^ bn ^ . a o w e ^ SO O m bu ■B cq B3 M 378 APPENDIX. a 03 .3-3 V g ^ bo pq o O -a O a w la's a ' ii H a fl ® ■^ ^ i ^ i a o EC .!h pi) p a p-ifei-^ IB H h4 B to 5 i o CO a o -tJ o a -? S s a w (D CD ?0 111 W o'-gcq 9 — © m CD Pi^ag* •3 o Si n .a ill I r s 03 tM ^ ^ M W .3 .a a h n o 1" C9 W ■C.SP f" 09 •I? e3 1m Mf CD 0) sa i Bj fan a d P i! ca3 9 "J S ja .Sr "^ cfl t* f3 gi C3 oj S ^ ■u , a a 1 "3) E a ^ bo » p .a -s li .5 ,o o 5< O 1 i 3. gbi s-i g 1 .= M. Brea M. , reading- del lodgin J 1^ 1^13 a i s i coco 2 , i Opens 10-oeni bure MS a o ^ |W i g § I^H T- o i' ' 1 OOOiO t- 1 1 . c r a' V a G<1 0(M co £ fS cs T-Hi-lrH t t .50 per w'k for room and meals. oo>o 2 i-lrt (M m ^ >. ' s J s h^ '^ & < a 1 t i 1 ^ 1 a M J * i 4 • o o -*i a i • w w 02 f . &J) ^co '^ • C 3 )- 1 ^ 1 cjv-i 2 ^ 1 1 3 11 II r 1 REPORTS FROM CITIES. 381 SAN FRANCISCO (March, 1899). The report for San Francisco was prepared by Mr. Dane Cool- idge, a graduate student of Stanford University. San Francisco has a population of 342,782. The number of saloons is given as 3032, or one to every 115 of the population. In addition, practically all of the 328 restaurants and hotels in the city serve liquor. Any merchant may sell liquor by the bottle, pitcher, or case without an additional license, and liquor dealers whose sworn sales amount to less than $600 per quarter are not required to pay a license fee. The fee for a retail dealer making sales of less than $15,000 a quarter is $21. From this it may be seen how little restriction is placed upon the distribution of liquor. This has a bearing upon the saloon question. The saloons are not so much drinking places, for those abound every- where, as social centres where men may gather in the evening and drink and treat in a social way. The free lunch is a remarkable feature of the San Francisco saloons. The following summaries will furnish some idea of its abundance and variety : — 1. Cold lunch free with a Jive-cent drink (beer or wine) : cold meat, sausage, salad, cheese, bread, pickles, crackers, etc. 2. Hot lunch free with a five-cent drink (beer or wine) : clam chowder, roast beef and other meats, hot Mexican beans, mutton stew and vegetables. 3. These hot and cold lunches combined free loith a five-cent drink. 4. Tzoo serves of the hot lunch free with a ten-cent drink. 5. " A Hot Commercial Lunch," or " Regular Dinner " of from three to five courses, together with any five-cent drink, for fifteen cents, 6r with any fifteen-cent drink, straight or mixed, for twenty- five cents. The subjoined tables indicate some of the existing substitutes for the saloon : — 382 APPENDIX. I a I a 2 a 8 3 rS.-S :3 c» S3 = S5q 5 =! - -3^' "5H- ^~' U 0) t^ OJ •- . _ W 0) u P M „^ ^ gc !/3*!l o ,. o -5 is »■§ " _ L, CO ,'" ^ " " K^a ■'='3 2 g ;: p-pn a g " S g - ft . tS'-i ca '^ Eh O hJ - s-a -* S S S uf.: I faO rf 03 o » " cj a ^ a =«£ « H » blf^ « cH '^ « OJ g S S O 3 • * M ■ t- la- « " s OJ-TS g S) b T oJ3 S ^ S " s Spa k'. S| s"| -g » s a g g § §■§ i's a K a a a a g-g I « s =« o arS 2"* 2 f S g g § g .a 'S a * a * ■" ■ ■ a a o CO t.^ 61 r pq 1— CD a a o o in lO I- IN t8 Hi ai T3 a I ce g C3 ' ho § .13 £■ l> OJ Ph "§ftW 3+^5 O « u +3 -is •« e+H k> 03 . j^ °^'^^ pq pq la C X o |l|.f . S ■» -a a "3 O s CO >,>;: pa !l p< g o 1^ i-> CO .2 a o .a v M oit! ^ CO ^ =P5_s^ pq M o ^ ?i 12! REPORTS FROM CITIES. 383 H O o "2 b-i aa> m "T- £ 5 "^ 2^ •ai '(^ H) O Ql -" 2 3 £ p> O (D g^ (]} U B '»' ■*■ oj w d rt o 2 gK^ i£^ o 2" - K O M Is i ^ 1^ V wt a 3 3*1 a -a o =« . 02 10 Si rSf -S a S p< la . 3 u ns " s: |l B Is > s. a M l-H CD O §£1 a .S3 ■^ s a 09 m a —a 2 . o^ 1 s § s-g a-g g gi g "^ ^-s;! W or O §J a [ft , CO « rt s « a S g g'g g 5^ o m O t^ rrj 'T^ £ ^ OJ „ 6c B t^.2 * .g "S .S £ nog ■" « to ■« .P ■ £5 a I CO 3 's* •I in n cq T-H -4J 25 So" So » H efl 0) Fh pq 05 »'S.^S"S 2 a £. " T3 h d a +? < P . ^ qT 1-5 J a w S a- tan % "Sja.S O Jo S Ml) f„ hS a .-a .u bo -I ^5 w ^ o n 9 2 <» ■S-a 18 ■" ■ o CO 1^ U •s ■''I Pii 'g-S •T5 r"^ * i"3 IS 381 APPENDIX. 1 If 1 g O C8 P ^ a-" ^ . £ M^ ^T) wed. Mc Germans, a acts. ; attended ow chang music. 1 g alio -to-do etweei able. , ; was sncy n good Not a people's theatre. cc cc cc CI (t cc No smoking or drinkin than men. Attendance largely well- allowed ; drinking b theatre ; very respect Used to give melodrama ing people. Constituc Smoking and drinking ; Sensational and low. g 9 Pd o F^ -4 6°" " "* o o o oo H *a "= W3 fl QC r-^^ 00 »0,CO D tH o^* l-H h-l o p. S o. : 1 h-l 03 - - - B ■ 3; "5 fl =8 3 i : ©^ *" jq .-H «© g ^ ^ > « ^ pC( i^-l c3 ■ ; : J 1* r 1 . ■• » 4,322-S -3 ^ .§3 E ? Ph >■ : S : : 0} . . i 0" :g >!! c 1 'e iz 1 J 1 < 5 Tivoli Opera Hot Morosco's Grand House. Orphenm Mid-Way Plaisan. REPORTS FROM CITIES. 386 15 z m "a . g (B rt p a g a 2 £ 18 S 4-i S.a op 0) &c rt fS 9 ^ rrt S ® &3 -HT) S S a'3a-» S 4J OOOlQ Ti g ^1 1^ td O a =8 0^-^l-5CQ .Q-3 (^j3 a 32 1 1^ ■5 ; : s i :&^, to"™ SQO ' CM O r-ili3 CD 10 -^ tH rt % 2 « ?r w I V. DIAGRAMS ILIiUSTEAHNG DISTKIBUTION OF SALOONS. The following diagrams show the number and location of saloons in thickly populated quarters of New York, San Fran- cisco, and Buffalo. E.HOUSTON STANTON HVINOT ON ■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ i-Bil m I- -^"t -<■ ■■ U) o u u . CPAND ST • , ■ ■ ■ 1 I ■ 1 ■ ■ • 1 ■ ■ • ■ ■ ■ ■ • 1 ■ ■ a ■ ■ 1 ' I • i4kfiVi ! ;■: DISTRIBUTION OF SALOONS. 387 nr ■ ■ /ST. ■ww\ rrmr K «0 2/VD. u. TTf o to V: n -a. □ ir s □□□.n la. ■^ '5rd. kLUU O 5 bu o m I.U rin ■ 1 • 1 1 n — ■ ■ ULB B 1 1 ■ I 1 ri-m ■ 1 ■■ n rr 1 1 I III m ■ ■ i o to 4 th. 388 APPENDIX. V> 5ECTI0M or BUFFALO. NjV^^f 3 3 □GnmDDnDnnDDE VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY. American Charities. Amos G. Warner. T. Y. Crowell & Co. A Municipal Programme. Macmillan & Co., 1900. An Experiment in Altruism. Elizabeth Hastings. Macmillan &Co. A Practical Socialism. Canon and Mrs. S. A. Barnett. Long- mans, Green & Co., London. A Ten Years' War. Jacob A. Riis. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. A Wonderful Factory System. Ohio Labor Statistics, 1896. Bulletins 46, 52, 55, United States Department of Agriculture : Dietary Studies in New York, Pittsburg, and Chicago. Club-Land of the Toiler. T. S. Peppin. J. M. Dent & Co., London. Commons, The. A monthly record devoted to aspects of life and labor. Chicago Commons, Chicago. Diminution of Drink in Norway. Earl of Meath. Nineteenth Century, 1891, pp. 933-938. Drink Problem and its Solution, The. David Lewis, 1881. Drink Question, its Social and Medical Aspects. Dr. Kate Mitchell. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1891. Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem. Houghton, Mifflin &Co. English Poor, The. T. Maekay, 1899. English Social Movements. R. A. Woods. Scribner's Sons. Factory People and Their Employers. E. L. Shuey. Lentilhon & Co., New York. 390 APPENDIX. Facts and Figures for Social Reformers. W. Tweedie & Co., London. Food and Drug Inspection. Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, 1896. Gothenburg System of Liquor Trafdc, The. E. R. L. Gould. Fifth Special Report of the Commissioners of Labor, 1893. Gothenburg System of Public House Licensing, The. Church of England Temperance House Society, 1893. Housing Problem, The. Eighth Special Report of the Commis- sioners of Labor, 1895, E. R. L. Gould. Monographs on American Social Economics in our American Cities, The, Law- rence Veiller. Municipal Affairs Magazine, 1899, E. R. L. Gould. How the Other Half Lives. Jacob A. Riis. Charles Scribner's Sons. How the Poor Live. Pictorial World, London, 1883. Hull House Maps and Papers. T. Y. Crowell. Influence of the Liquor Traffic. Twenty-Sixth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor. Legislative Aspects of the Liquor Problem. Houghton, Mifflin &Co. Life and Labor of the People in London. Charles Booth. Mao- millan & Co., London, 1889-97. Municipal Baths in Boston. W. I. Cole. Municipal Movements and Social Progress. Monographs on American Social Economics. Neighborhood Guilds. Dr. Stanton Coit. Swan Sonnenscheiu & Co., London. New York Charities Directory. Norwegian Company System, The. Why should Massachusetts adopt and test it ? Geo. H. Ellis, Boston, 1895. Norwegian System, Report on the. Massachusetts House Doc. No. 192, 1894, pp. 187. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 391 Philanthropy and Social Progress. T. Y. Crowell. Popular Control of the Liquor Traffic. E. R. L. Gould. The Friedenwold Press, Baltimore. 1895, pp. 102. Religious Movements for Social Betterment. Josiah Strong, D. D., 1901. Report of the New York Tenement House Commission, 1901. Salvation Army, The Social Relief Work of. Commander Booth Tucker. Monographs on American Social Economics. Social Settlements. C. R. Henderson. Lentilhon & Co., N. Y. Social Wreckage. Francis Peek. WUliam Isbister, London. Substitutes for the Saloon in Boston. Francis G. Peabody. The Forum, July, 1896. Temperance Caterer, The. London, Eng. Temperance Movement in Russia, The. Nineteenth Century Magazine, vol. v., 12, p. 439. Temperance Problem and Social Reform, The. Rowntree and Sherwell. Thomas Whittaker, N. Y. Temperance Refreshment House Movement. British Almanac Companion, 1880, pp. 38. Universities and Social Reform, The. J. Knapp. Rivington, Percival & Co., London. Working People's Clubs. Robert Graham. Lentilhon & Co., New York. Young Men's Christian Associations, History of. H. S. Ninde. Monographs on American Social Economics. L. L. Doggett, Ph.D. INDEX. Amotements, indoor, 156-186; outdoor, 187-216. Art galleries, 123, 184, 185. Art, necessity of, 123, 124. Association for Improving tlie Condition of the Poor, 274, 2T7. Astral Apartments, the, 285. Athletic dubs, 49, 161, 343. Atlanta, summary of report from, 338- 340 ; saloons in, 17, 338 ; theatres in, 340 ; parlcB in, 198, 340 ; lunch-rooms in, 339 ; lodging-houses in, 339 ; T. M. C. A. in, 339. Baltimore, summary of report from, 341- 347 ; baths in, 212 ; saloons in, 14, 16, 341 ; readmg-rooms in, 120, 121, 344 ; church work in, 344 ; clubs in, 342, 343 ; theatres in, 345 ; pool-rooms in, 156, 347 ; settlements in, 345 ; libraries in, 347 ; T. M. C. A. in, 142, 344 ; trade unions in, 343 ; fraternal societies in, 343; parks in, 195, 346 ; tenement houses in, 269 ; mission work in, 344 ; model lodgmga in, 297, 298. Barnardo, T. J. 245. Barnett, Canon S. A., 82. BasebaU, 188, 205. Baths, public, 207-215, 268, 283, 333-335. Beer gardens, 20, 187, 197. Beneficiary societies. See Fraternal So- cieties. Bicycle clubs, BO, 205. Billiard-rooms, 156-159, 347 ; in parish houses, 131. Boston, report from, 321-337; saloons in, 16, 29, 321-326, 337; popular concerts in, 178, 179 ; gymnasiums in, 179-183, 204, 334-336; coffee-houses in, 220, 221, 331; playgrounds in, 190, 191, 199-201, 208 ; lunch-rooms m, 231, 329, 330 ; baths in, 207-210, 213, 214, 333-335 ; clubs in, 97, 331 ; soda fountains in, 217-219, 327, 328 ; ice water fountains in, 219, 326, 327 ; free lectures in, 107, 109 ; boys' clubs in, 317, 318, 320, 331 ; tenement houses in, 271, 272 ; billiard- rooms in, 157 ; lodging-houses in, 292 ; reading-rooms in, 330, 331 ; Public Li- brary in, 331 ; T. M. 0. A. in, 332 ; tem- perance societies in, 336 ; Salvation Army in, 328, 337 ; parks in, 333. Bowling-alleys, 158. Boxing matches, 161-163. Boys' clubs, 47, 48, 74, 75, 76, 77, 188, 314r-320, 341, 360, 365 ; beginnings of, in I America, 314 ; large clubs, plans of, 314- ' 316 ; cost of, 315 ; aim of, 317 ; advan- , tage of, 318 ; industrial classes in, 314, ■ 315, 319, 320 ; settlement clubs, 316- 320; aim of, 317; advantage of, 317; leader of, 316, 317 ; relation of, to the home, 319 ; relation of, to other clubs, 319. Brewers, relation of, to the saloon, 7, 18, 100, 326. British Tea Table Co., 246. British workingmen's public houses, 245, 246. Brooks Law, 376. Buffalo, summary of report from, 348- 351 ; saloons in, 348 ; clubs in, 349 ; trade unions in, 61, 349 ; fraternal societies in, 349 ; church work in, 128, 350 ; set- tlements in, 350 ; mission work in, 350 ; restaurants in, 351 ; lodging-houses in, 351 ; Y. M. C. A. in, 350, 351 ; baths in, 212 ; tenement houses in, 269. Canteen, the, 258, 259, 265. Carnegie libraries, 38. Charlesbank gymnasium (Boston), 204. Chester, Bishop of, 259 sq., 264, 266. Cliicago, summary of report from, 35^ 356 ; church work in, 128, 352 ; frater- nal societies in, 352 ; trade unions in, 352 ; settlements in, 352 ; theatres in, 354 ; lunch-rooms in, 230, 355 ; lodging- houses in, 293, 356 ; free lectures in, 107 ; parks in, 196 ; coffee-houses in, 226 ; baths in, 214 ; clubs in, 52 ; boys' clubs in, 48, 317 ; billiard-rooms in, 156, 158 ; saloons in, 8, 12, 14, 18, 23, 27, 48, 352, 353 ; Y. M. C. A. in, 142, 143, 145 ; tenement houses in, 269, 271. Church, the, 229, 238, 344, 345, 350, 352, 367, 377, 378, 382, 383 ; the modem con- ception of, 125 ; relation of, to social needs, 125, 126 ; Roman Catholic, 127 ; Protestant, 127, 128 ; institutional, 127 ; the parish house, 129 ; gymnasiums, 129 ; reading-rooms, 130, 1^1, 330 ; social rooms, 131 ; clubs, 131, 132, 133 ; boys' clubs, 315, 316; lodging-houses, 295, 296 ; settlements, 133 ; missions, 132, 133; relation of, to the home, 270; 394 INDEX. Church Army, the, 221, 222; Church Temperance Society, the, 219, 237, 238, 257, 336. Cincinnati, saloons in, 14 ; parks in, 199 ; baths in, 214 ; police lodgings in, 290 ; tenement houses in, 271 ; clubs in, 50 ; church worlc in, 128. City and Subiu-ban Houses Co., 285-288. Cleveland, siunmary of report from, 356- 360 ; saloons in, 12, 356 ; clubs in, 357, 358 ; T. M. C. A. in, 357 ; church work in, 128, 357-359 ; boys' clubs in, 318, 359 ; reading-rooms in, 359 ; libraries in, 113, 359 ; evening schools in, 359 ; clubs in, 357, 358 ; lunch-rooms in, 359, 360 ; factory lunch-rooms in, 239-242, 360 ; lodging-houses in, 360 ; coffee- houses in, 239 ; tenements in, 269. Clubs, 45-100, 156, 342, 343, 349, 357, 362, 377, 382 ; genesis of, 46 ; liquor in, 60-63, 86, 87, 89 ; defects in, 70 ; federa- tion of, 75, 76, 78-80 ; among wage ear- ners, 80, 81, 342, 343 ;phiIanthropic, 90- 100 ; necessity of, 45, 46, 96 ; church, 131, 132; athletic, 48, 161; and the home, 267, 268. Club-rooms, need of, 46, 52, 60, 61, 63, 72-75, 89, 160, 312. Cocoa-rooms in England, 245. Coffee-houses, American, 216-229, 239, 267, 331, 363 ; necessity of attractions, 220, 221 ; finances of, 228, 224. CofEee-honses, English, 244-257 ; in York, 250 1 in liOndoff, 247, 252, 253 ; m Liver- pool, 246, 248, 260, 251, 262 ; in Man- chester, 248, 249 ; in Bradford, 249, 250, 261, 262 1 in Birmingham, 249, 251 ; in other cities, 249 ; furnishings of, 249, 250 ; amusements in, 250 ; service in, 260, 251 ; Sunday closing, 251 ; bever- ages in, 251, 252 ; food in, 262, 254, 255 ; drink in, 253. 254 ; success of, 265, 256 ; finances of, 255 ; religion in, 255 ; busi- ness management, 256 ; results of, 256. Coffee palace movement, 245. Coffee vans, 238. Company system, the, 33, 34. Concerts, popular, 178, 179. Coolsing classes, 229 ; importance of, 228. Cooper Union, 108, 116, 116, 121, 142. Corbett, Thomas, 245. Denver, summary of report from, 361- 364 ; saloons in, 361 ; clubs in, 362 ; trade unions in, 362 ; boys' clubs in, 362 ; fra- ternal societies in, 362 ; libraries in, 362 ; reading-rooms in, 117-119, 362 ; parks in, 195, 363 ; theatres in, 363 ; lunch-rooms in, 231, 233, 364 ; lodging- houses in, 292, 364 ; baths in, 214 ; bil- liard-rooms in, 166 ; tenements in, 269. Detroit, parks in, 194. Dietary, investigation, 228; instruction, 228, 229. Dime museums, 163, 164. Dispensary System, the, 31-33. Drink, attractions of, 1, 3, 216, 217, 3S7. Druid Hill Park (Baltimore), 124. East Boston Athletic Club, 94, 180. Education, 101-124, 185 ; intemperance and, 101, 102 ; need of, 102 ; teachers, 102, 103 ; aisthetic, 123, 124, 185 ; mu- sical, 124, 177 ; the saloon and, 124 ; in Y. M. C. A., 141 ; dramatic, 177, 178 ; cooking, 228, 229. Educational Alliance (N. T.), 108, 121, 189, 190, 206. Elmira Reformatory, 40, 41. England, substitutes in, 36 ; temperance and coffee houses in, 243-266 ; indus- trial monopoly of liquor traffic, 268 ; in- temperance in, 256 ; temperance reform in, 256 ; tenements and drunkenness in, 277 ; workingmen's clubs in, 83-88, 97, 98. Excursions, 79, 86, 201, 202. Expropriation, necessity of, 280. Factory methods, modern. 96-100, 112, 113, 120, 121 ; lunch-rooms, 240-242, 360 ; liquor monopolies, 258 ; em- ployees, homes of, 270. Pall River Boys' Club, 315. Franklin Institute (Philadelphia), 121. Fraternal societies, 63-69, 250 ; number of, 64 ; development of, 64 ; social fea- tures of, 65-67 ; saloon and, 68, 69, 325 ; relation to liquor business, 67, 68 ; in- fluence of, 69. Gambling, in saloons, 14, 15 ; in biUiard- rooms, 158 ; at baseball games, 205. Glasgow, People's Palace in, 184 , tene- ment regulations of, 280 ; working- men's hotels in, 296. Golden Gate Park, 192-194. Great Western Cooking Depot, 245. Gymnasiums, 129, 141, 186 ; in Boston, 179-183, 335, 336 ; municipal, 181, 182 ; benefits of, 183, 202, 203 ; outdoor, 202- 205. Halls, social, 159, 160 ; intoxication in, 160 ; need of, for club-rooms, 312. Hartley House, 38. High license, method of, 28-30. HiU, Miss Octavia, rent-collecting scheme of, 283, 284. Hirsch, Baron de, fund, 211. Historical museiuns, 185. Hollyn-ood Inn, 91-93. Home, the, 45, 71, 111, 114, 116, 187, 228, 267, 268, 288, 289, 319. Home Salon, the, 226, 227. House of Commons, reports of, 36, 37. Housing of the working people, 267-301. Ice water fountains, 192, 219, 220, 326, 327. Improved Dwellings Company, 285. Ireland, coffee-houses in, 247. Irish Temperance League, 246, 247. Jersey City, saloons in, 37 ; substitutes in, 38. Juvenile crime, 181, 191, 209. INDEX. 395 Kindergartens, 101, 287. Kiugsley House, 38. Kop'sAle, 225,262, 263. Lectures, free, 105-111, 368, 379 ; libra- ries and, 107, 109 : finances and, 109, 110; educational value of, 110, 111. Legislative restrictions of the saloon, 25- 35,40. Libraries, 111-114, 119, 359, 302, 368, 373, 379 ; as saloon substitutes, 111 ; im- proved methods, 111, 112, 114 ; branch, 112 ; park, 113 ; traveling, 113 ; circu- lating, 114. " Lighthouse," the, 94, 95, 360. Liquor problem, solution of, 26, 40, 265, 337. Liquor traffic, state control of, 31-33, 257 ; government control of, 35, 257 ; private reform, control of, 257, 258 ; in- dustrial monopoly of, 258 ; municipal monopoly of, 40, 265. Lodging-houses, 289-301, 351, 360, 364, 358, 363 ; police lodgings, 290, 291 ; mu- nicipal, 291 ; cheap, 291-294 ; mission, 294, 295; church, 295, 296; model, 295-301. Low license, method of, 27, 28. Lunch-rooms, 216, 229-242, 334, 343, 347, 363, 308 ; as saloon rivals, 230, 234, 235, 238, 328, 330. Lunch wagons, 237, 238. Lyceums, Catholic, 127, 344. Maine, intemperance in, 31 ; lack of sub- stitutes in, 31. Massachusetts, saloons in, 8, 12 ; Civic League, 190. Memphis, parks in, 196. Metropolitan Park Commission, 200, 201. Mills Hotels, 248, 257, 296, 299-301. Minneapolis, St. Paul, summary of report from, 365-369 ; saloons in, 8, 365 ; clubs in, 366 ; boys' clubs in, 366 ; fraternal societies in, 360 ; trade union in, 366 ; church work in, 367 ; T. M. C. A. in, 367 ; mission work in, 307, 369 ; settle- ments in, 365, 367 ; night schools in, 104, 368 i libraries in, 368 ; theatres in, 368 ; parks in, 194, 352 ; lunch- rooms in, 369 ; lodging-houses in, 295, 369 ; tenements m, 269. Missions, 134^138, 345, 350, 351, 360, 367, 378, 383 ; rescue, 134 ; manual labor m, 134, 135 ; for saUors, 135, 136 ; reading- rooms in, 117, 136, 330 ; restaurants in, 235 ; lodgings m, 294-296. Municipal liquor control, 40, 265; lodg- ing-houses, 291 ; resorts, 200, 201 ; transportation, 281 ; meeting-places, 72, 73. Music, educational value of, 124. Music halls, 165, 348. Nantasket Beach (Boston), 200. National Cash Register Company, 98- 100. New Haven, saloons m, 14 ; trade umons in, 59; boys' club in, 314 ; coffee-house in, 221. New Orleans, saloons in, 17, 18 ; tene- ments in, 269, 270. New York, summary of report from, 370-372 ; saloons in, 10, 12, 15, 16, 21, 22, 30 ; substitutes in, 38 ; drunken- ness in, 370 ; playgrounds in, 190, 202 ; parks in, 189, 190, 196 ; baths in, 211; clubs in, 81, 97, 267; billiard- rooms in, 157 ; boys' clubs in, 315, 316, 318, 320 ; trade unions in, 59, 62, 63 ; tenement houses in, 272-279 ; recrea- tion piers in, 206, 207 ; libraries in, 1 1 3- 115, 373 ; free lectures in, 105-108, 356 ; ice water fountains in, 219, 220 ; the- atres in, 374; lunch-wagons in, 237, 238 ; police lodgings in, 290, 291 ; cheap lodging-houses in, 293, 375 ; model lodging-houses in, 295, 296, 299-301 ; coffee vans in, 238 ; coffee- houses in, 222, 257 ; evening schools in, 103, 104 ; chiu-ch work in, 128, 129. North End Park (Boston), 208, 331. Norumbega Park (Boston), 199. Norway, substitutes in, 36, 244. Norwegian System, the, 33, 34. Ohio Mechanics' Institute, 121. Outdoor Recreation League, 190, 202, 203. Paine, Robert T., Co., 285. Parks, pubUc, 187, 191, 192-198, 333, 340, 346, 363 ; private, 197-200. Pennsylvania, saloons in, 8. People's Choral Union, the, 124; sing- ing classes, 124. People's Institute (Boston), 333. People's Institute (N. T.), 81, 108, 121. People's Palaces, inEngland, 184, 185 ; in America, 185. People's Refreshment House Association, England, 259-266 ; administration of, 261, 262 ; food and drink in, 262-264 ; criticisms of, 264, 265. Philadelphia, summai? of report from, 376-380 ; saloons m, 16, 376 ; baths in, 212 ; parks in, 197, 198 ; boxing matches in, 161 ; clubs in, 60, 133, 377 ; religious work in, 378 ; educational work in, 379 ; billiard-rooms in, 157 ; lunch- rooms in, 380 ; free lectures in, 107, 109 ; lodging-houses m, 298, 299, 380 ; Ubra- ries in, 114. Picnic grounds, 199-201. Pittsburg, substitutes in, 38 ; tenements in, 270, 271. Playgrounds, 74, 187-192, 268, 283. Pleasure resorts, 192, 201, 346. Political clubs, 54, 343. PoUtics and the saloon, 10,11, 54. Pope Manufacturing Company, 98. Popular opera, 174, 175. Population of cities, 39. Portland, saloons in, 31. Prohibition, 2, 30, 31, 257, 259, 265, 266. Prospect Union (Cambridge), 121, 122. Public squares, 192, 196. 396 INDEX. " R," The, 94, 377. Rainea hotels, 15. Handidge fund, the, 201. Rapid transit and the tenement house problem, 281. Reading-roomB, 114-120, 330, 332, 3B7, 383 ; as a saloon substitute, 115 ; best methods of, 117 ; in churches, 130 ; in missions, 117, 136, 138 ; in settlements, 154, 186. Recreation piers, 206, 207, 268. Restaurants, 19, 20, 229-242, 256, 267 ; and liquor selling, 231 ; as social cen- tres, 232, 233; as saloon rivals, 230, 234, 235 ; in missions, 235. Revere Beach (Boston), 200, 201. Eiis, Jacob A., 267, 278. Roof gardens, 197, 205. Rowton Houses, 247, 248, 297 Russia, substitution in, 36, 36 ; tea tav- erns in, 243. Saloon, the, as a social centre, 1-24, 25, 27, 41, 42, 118, 194, 196, 312, 337, 353, 376, 381 ; the poor man's club, 8, 9, 25, 45, 48, 266, 312 ; lowest type of, 5 ; Irish, 6, 7-19 ; pictures in, 7 ; furni- ture in, 8, 321 ; cosmopolitanism of, 8 ; as labor bureaus, 9, 326 ; as athletic clubs, 10 ; as political clubs, 10 ; as amusement resorts, 12, 22-24, 164- 167, 186, 186, 324 ; card-playing in, 12 ; newspapers in, 12, 13 ; music in, 13, 23, 206 ; sporting news in, 13, 14 ; gambling in, 14, 30 ; free lunch in, 15- 19, 228, 229, 231, 234, 239, 257, 321, 324, 370, 376, 381 ; toilet-rooms in, 19 ; location of, 26, 42, 386, 387, 388 ; Conti- nental, 9 ; social vice in, 15, 30 ; busi- ness men's, 20, 22 ; boulevard, 20, 21 ; German, 20, 22, 323 ; Italian, 20 ; Hun- garian, 20 ; Polish, 20 ; number of, 26 ; private control of, 30, 33, 34 ; the- atres in, 23, 164-167. Saloon-keeper, the, 1, 10-12. Saloons in the North, 17 ; in the South, 8, 17 ; in the West, 8, 14, 18, 22, 24 ; in the East, 14, 22 ; in the Southwest, 119. Salvation Army, the, 136-138, 295, 328- 337. San Francisco, summary of report from, 381-386 ; saloons in, 18, 19, 27, 381 ; baths in, 214 ; parks in, 192-194 ; clubs in, 81, 382; boys' club in, 76, 382 ; reli- gious work in, 383 ; theatres in, 384 ; lunch-rooms in, 231, 386 ; tenements in, 209. Sanitary aid societies, 279. Sanitary code, 280. Sanitary reform, 279, 280. Sanitation, need of, 268. Scandinavian System the, 33, 34, 259, School buildings, use of, 74, 104, 105, 189 ; playgrounds and, 190. Schools, 102 ; municipal evening, 103-106, 359, 368, 379 ; trade, 121 ; industrial, 123. Screen law, the, 12, 29, 321, 326. Secret societies. See Fraternal Societies. Settlements, 63, 77, 78, 113, 114, 116,127, 133, 148-166, 207, 229, 236, 284, 331, 345, 360, 367, 378, 383 ; and temperance re- form, 148 ; influence of, 149 ; and adult men, 150-153 ; boys' clubs in, 316-320 ; entertainments, 161 ; and substitution, 164, 166. Seward Park (N. Y.), 190, 202, 203. Shooting-galleries, 158, 163. Socialists' clubs, 66, 56 ; and the saloon, 56. Social Reform Club (N. T.), 81. Soda fountains, 217-219, 327, 328, 339. Soft drinks, 42, 43 ; value of, 216, 217 ; profit on, 226 ; in English coffee-houses, 251-263, 266, 262, 263. Squares, public, 196. Squirrel Inn (N. Y.), 257. St. Louis, saloons in, 10, 14, 18, 22, 28; Provident Association, 123. Streets as social centres, 187, 188; as playgrounds, 188. Substitution, 6, 36-44 ; drink and, 42, 43, 133, 194, 195, 197, 200 ; coSperation in, 42 ; financial aspects of, 39, 40 ; saloon- keepers and, 41, 183, 336 ; philanthropy and, 39, 41 ; settlements and, 163, 155. Suburban houses, 288 ; resorts, 200. Sunday closing ordinance, 195. Sweden, substitution in, 244. Tea saloons, 220, 222. Tea taverns in Russia, 243. Temperance in England, 256. " Temperance Caterer, The," 248, 252. Temperance drinks. See Soft Drinks. Temperance hotels in England, 247, 248, 267. Temperance houses in England, 243-266. Temperance societies, 256. Temperance taverns, 220-266. Tenement House Building Co., 286. Tenement House Commissions, reports of, 273, 274, 276, 282, 283. Tenement houses, problem of, 269; in American cities, 269-279 ; overcrowd- ing in, 273, 274; double-decker, 274; loss of economic efliciency in, 275 ; mortality in, 275, 276 ; immorality in, 276 ; poverty in, 276 ; drunkenness in, 276, 277 ; relation of saloons to, 277 ; expropriation, necessity of, 281 ; licens- ing, 280, 281 ; rent collecting in, 283, 284. Tenement houses, model, 284-288 ; finances of, 285 ; in Europe, 285 ; in America, 285-288 ; description of, 286, 287 ; rent collection in, 287. ' Theatre, the, 164^178, 340, 346, 363, 368, 374, 384; and the saloon, 164-167; for the working people, 167, 168 ; in France, 176, 177 ; vaudeville, 16S-172 ; melodrama, 172-174 ; opera, 174, 175 ; municipal, 177, 178 ; summer, 197. Trade unions, 56-63, 82, 303-313, 343, 349, 352 ; relation of, to the saloon, 56, 68, 69, 61, 62, 303-313, 326 ; life of, 67 68 ; social features of, 69, 60, 304, 307 ; INDEX. 397 mfluence of insurance beneats, 58, 309, 310 ; need of good club-rooms, 61, 63, 312. * Transportation and pleasure resorts, 199, 201 ; municipal ownership of, 281. Turn Verein, the, 180. Twentieth Century Club, the, 272. University extension movement, 107, 108. University Settlement (N. T.), 63, 78, 153. Wage earners, diSerentiation of, 283. Wagner Institute (Philadelphia), 109. Warner Bros. Mfg. Co., 98. Washington, coffee-house in, 223-225 ; tenement ordinance in, 281. Wells Memorial (Boston), 330, 332. Whittier House, 37. Willow Grove Park (Philadelphia), 197, 198. Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 118, 119, 165, 336. Working girls' clubs, 268. Workingmen's clubs, 80-100, 377 ; in England, 83-88, 97, 98 ; philanthropic, 90-100 ; in factories, 96-100 ; in churches, 133. Workingmen's Coffee House, 244. Workingmen's hotels in England, 247, 248, 296, 297 ; in America, 289, 297-301. Young Men's Christian Association, 53, 180, 332, 339, 350, 357, 368 ; beginnings of, 138, 139; in America, 139; devel- opment of, 140 ; present extent of, 140 ; property of, 140 ; social and educa- tional features of, 140, 141 ; railroad department, 141, 142 ; in United States, 142 ; amusements in, 146, 147 ; new methods of, 146, 147 ; and the church, 147; and the wage-earner, 142-146. Young men's clubs, 48-53, 76-80, 181, 331 ; saloon and, 50-52. Young Men's Institute (R. C), 127. (Stfte BibEtiSitre ptegg Eleciroiyped and printed by H. O. Houghton &' Co, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A.