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II OUTLINE MAP OF BOSTON OMITTING SUBURBAN DISTRICTS THE LODGING HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON BY ALBERT BENEDICT WOLFE, PH.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY IN OBERIJN COLLEGE AND SOMETIME HOLDER OF THE SOUTH END HOUSE FELLOWSHIP IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY PUBLISHED FROM THE INCOME OF THE WILLIAM H. BALDWIN JR. 1885 FUND CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1913 COPYRIGHT, igo6 BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE .r^ LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CAIJFORNF, SANTA :- PREFACE THE material for this monograph was collected during a resi- dence of two years as Harvard Fellow at the South End House, Boston, 1902-04. The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebted- ness to Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Woods and to Mr. William M. Prest of the South End House, to Prof. J. Rose Colby of Normal, 111., to Prof. W. Z. Ripley of Harvard, and especially to Prof. T. N. Carver, editor of this series, for reading the manuscript and offer- ing valuable criticism. For whatever errors there may be, and for shortcomings in the results obtained, the writer and the extremely difficult conditions of investigation must alone be held responsible. If he has blazed a way into a problem which others will attack, in Boston and elsewhere, with resources more nearly in proportion to the task before them, he will deem his labor well spent. OBERLIN, November 12, 1906. CONTENTS I. Introduction i II. The historical evolution of the South End lodging-house section . . 1 1 III The lodging-house districts of Boston 20 IV. The economic structure of the South End lodging-house district . . 27 V. The house itself 34 VI. The change from boarding to lodging 38 VII. The lodging-house keeper and her problem 52 VIII. Trading in furniture and good-will 67 IX. The real-estate situation in the lodging-house district ... . . 72 X. The lodger: general characteristics of the lodging-house population . 81 XI. The lodger: occupation 86 XII. The lodger: economic condition 97 XIII. The lodger: his life and social condition 109 XIV. Vital statistics 115 Sec. I. Statistical data 115 Sec. II. Density of population 117 Sec. III. Influence of the lodging-house on distribution of population by sex 122 Sec. IV. Influence of the lodging-house on the age-grouping of population 125 Sec. V. Birth- and death-rates in the lodging-house district . . . .127 XV. Crime and prostitution 134 XVI. The problem of marriage 150 XVII. Summary and conclusion .... 167 APPENDICES A. Books and pamphlets bearing on the lodging-house question . .185 B. Movements of populations from the country to the city .... 188 C. Student-quarters in Boston 191 LIST OF CHARTS Outline Map of Boston Frontispiece I. Change from private residences to lodging-houses, Union Park, Bos- ton, 1868-1902 14 II. Map showing the general situation of the South End lodging-house district with respect to the rest of the city 22 III. Map showing the situation, boundaries, and types of buildings and institutions in the South End lodging-house district .... 24 IV. Map showing the economic structure of the South End lodging-house district 28 V. Plan of first and second floors of the typical lodging-house ... 34 VI. Percentage of lodging-house landladies who have husbands or other male relatives of the same name in the house geographical dis- tribution by precincts 54 VII. Fall of real-estate values, Union Park, 1868-1902 76 VIII. Geographical distribution by precincts of adult male lodgers engaged in professional service 88 IX. Idem, domestic and personal service 88 X. Idem, manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 92 XI. Idem, trade and transportation 92 XII. Density of population of Boston, 1900 (based on statistics by pre- cincts) 118 XIII. Density of population of male adult lodgers, 1902, South End lodging- house district 120 XIV. Distribution of population by sex, by wards, Boston, 1900 . . . 124 XV. Birth-rates by wards, Boston, 1901 128 XVI. Comparison of birth-rates and death-rates, by wards, 1901 . . . 132 XVII. Geographical distribution of students, Boston 190 XVIII. The new student-quarter in Boston 192 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION IN this study the term lodging-house is used both in a general and in specific senses. Genetically it means any sort of habitation, hotels excepted, where a person can obtain lodging, whether for a night, a week, or a month. Specifically it has two different applications: first to the cheap lodging-house of the Bowery type, secondly to a class of dwellings often known in other cities as rooming-houses or furnished-room houses. This investigation deals with the room- ing-house only, and with the mercantile employees and skilled mechanics whom it shelters. The distinction between the cheap, transient lodging-house and the rooming-house lies in the class of patrons, in prices charged, and in method of payment. The lodgers in a rooming-house pay by the week or month, those in a cheap lodging-house by the night. The "roomers" pay from one to seven dollars a week, and are both men and women; the patron of the cheap lodging-house pays from five to twenty-five cents a night, and is generally a man, although there are in the larger cities cheap lodging-houses for women also. The rooming-house may receive transients, but generally at a rate not below fifty cents, and often as high as one dollar a night. Inasmuch as this investigation deals almost exclusively with Boston, and as the term rooming-house is rarely or never heard there, it seems best to use the term lodging- house in these pages rather than the more specific terms rooming- house or furnished-room house. It should be understood at once, then, that the term lodging-house as used here, unless indicated otherwise, covers the class of dwellings in which live the great mid- dle class of clerks, salesmen, skilled mechanics, and miscellaneous industrial workers, who for the most part are unmarried and with- out other abiding-place in the city dwellings where men and 2 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON women are lodged upon payment of a sum of money weekly or monthly. 1 The lodging-house of any sort has claimed comparatively little attention in the literature of the housing question, and the room- ing-house specifically has fared still worse. The only definition we have been able to find, outside the dictionaries, is the following: "A lodging-house shall be taken to mean and include any house or building or portion thereof in which persons are harbored, or received, or lodged for hire, for a single night or for less than a week at one time, or any part of which is let for any person to sleep in for any term less than a week." 2 This is the definition given in the original New York tenement-house law of 1867 (chap. 908, sec. 17), and it has been continued through all the subsequent acts with- out change. It excludes the rooming-house, where the ordinary rental period is a week or a month, but which is commonly called a lodging-house, and in some cities is never called anything else. A definition so at variance with common usage is obviously defect- ive, and may be positively misleading. The cheap dormitories furnishing a bed at from five to twenty-five cents a night, which fall under the Tenement-House Act definition, have given the health officials and other authorities in American and European cities much trouble, and it is perhaps not unnat- ural that the official use of the term should differ from the broader popular use. European cities have long had large municipal lodg- ing-houses for the shelter of transients who at the time can afford nothing more, and even of whole families in need over consider- able periods of time. Municipal lodging-houses for dealing with the vagrant problem have also had some significance in this coun- try, notably in New York and in Chicago. 3 In England most, if not all, of the municipal lodging-houses are merely publicly owned "common lodging-houses," a type which perhaps corresponds most 1 The common term in Philadelphia is furnished-room house; in New York, Chi- cago, Cleveland, and St. Louis, rooming-house. 2 De Forest and Veiller, The Tenement House Problem, vol. ii, p. 331. See also E. R. L. Gould, Housing of the Working People, Eighth Special Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor, 1895, p. 27. 1 Municipal lodging-houses now exist in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, Washington, New Haven, Syracuse, and Chicago. Zueblin, American Municipal Progress, p. 102. INTRODUCTION 3 nearly to the cheap lodging-houses covered by the New York Tene- ment Law definition. In Great Britain, and on the Continent as well, common lodging-houses are of considerable importance in the hous- ing question. 1 In England, also, some large employers maintain lodging- or boarding-houses where their employees are compelled to live a practice known as "living-in." At least such was the case in the north of England a decade ago. 2 We may be thankful that this is 1 Of Great Britain we are told: "A very large section of the community knows no other home than that afforded by the common lodging-houses of our large towns and cities. This section includes a very considerable proportion of single men and women, who, either on account of the precarious nature of their work or the desire for the society which such a lodging-house provides, make no provision of a more permanent nature. As the places of work and the wages earned vary from time to time, so the situation and the character of their lodging change. Moreover, a very large proportion are ' tramps,' whose course is from one centre to another, and whose hotel is the common lodging-house, or very often the workhouse ward or tramp cell. Of the married people with families, who use the accommodation of the ' padden ken,' by far the greater proportion belong to the tramp class." These houses are sub- ject to inspection and license. The Public Health Act regulates them and provides "that no house shall be registered as a common lodging-house until it has been in- spected and improved for the purpose by some officer of the Local Authority." Bowmaker, The Housing oj the Working Classes, pp. 102, 103 (London, 1895). See also W. S. McNeill, Die Aujgaben der Siadtgemeinden in der Wohnungsfrage, Berlin, 1902, p. 24; and Fabian Essays in Socialism, pp. 49, 52. 2 See Dilke, Bulley, and Whitley, Women's Work, London, 1894, pp. 58, 59. " Another matter with regard to which discontent is rapidly spreading is the system of compulsory ' living-in ' which prevails widely in drapery and large outfitting estab- lishments. ... A drapery firm in the North of England, for example, employs 300 assistants of both sexes, and all are obliged to live in the house provided by the em- ployer. In shops where ' living-in ' is compulsory, board and lodging is usually valued at 40 per annum. It is a common complaint, however, among assistants that if after some years' service they obtain the privilege of living 'out' they only receive an allowance of 15 to 20 per annum. . . . For the sum charged by the employer the inmates of a large house ought to be comfortably fed and housed; but though in some cases the arrangements are all that could be desired, yet against the majority grave accusations are made with regard to overcrowding, bad food, and uncomfortable household arrangements. The bedroom accommodation is said to be insufficient, and the furniture scanty; the food provided is often poor, and sometimes uneatable. Sundry small filchings in the shape of blacking boots, use of piano and library, are also strongly resented. There is seldom any provision for social life, perhaps because there would be no time to enjoy it. Usually the two sexes are lodged apart, but some boarding-houses are apparently mixed, for in one set of house-rules it is stated that talking in the dining-room during meals is 'strictly prohibited,' that young men are 4 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON one type of lodging we have escaped in this country. While it is possible to define the lodging- or rooming-house in a specific sense, it is impossible to find a good definition that will be descriptive of all the forms of habitations or institutions to which the term lodging- house is applied, even in the United States. The various varieties of lodging-house merge into one another so gradually that no hard and sharp line of demarkation can be drawn. At one extreme are the cheap, transient houses for men, already mentioned, often dens of "yeggmen" and other criminals; and at the other the comfort- able, highly respectable, and oftentimes luxurious bachelor apart- ments which are to be found in every large city. Between these extremes is the rooming-house or (as called in Boston) the lodging- house, which in the United States has become a great distinct type in itself. While there may be difficulty in classifying certain houses, the lodging-house of this study is a fairly distinct type, and the most important one in numbers and in social and economic influence. The problem of the middle-class lodger or roomer, however, is wider than the realm of the out and out lodging- or rooming-house. Many persons living in apartments let certain rooms to cut down expenses. The same is true of many tenement families, but here of course we merge into another problem, that of the tenement- lodger evil, which in cities of compact tenement districts like New York and Boston, is one of the serious sides of the whole tenement- house problem. This is true also in England and on the Continent, especially in Germany, as is attested by the attention given the evil not permitted to enter the young ladies' sitting-room, and visitors are not allowed in the house. At most establishments only twenty minutes or half an hour is allowed for dinner, and the assistants are liable to be called off if required in the shop. . . . "When Sunday comes round a diametrically opposite policy is followed, and after being kept in close confinement during six days of the week the unhappy assistant finds himself or herself put outside the door on the seventh. Either the boarders are given to understand that their presence is not desired within doors, or else no meals are provided, and the assistants are left to shift for themselves as best they may. No doubt the best -conducted houses are careful of their assistants' comfort on Sundays. Extreme cases in which the assistants are absolutely shut out are probably rare; but some are known to exist, and the tendency to make Sunday an uncomfortable day for those who remain indoors appears to be pretty general. The disastrous conse- quences of throwing female assistants often mere girls upon their own resources upon the day of the week when respectable means of shelter and refreshment are least accessible can easily be imagined." INTRODUCTION 5 in German housing- question literature. In Boston, this particular evil, while not so great, is still serious. "Frequently lodgers are crowded into tenement- rooms of scant dimensions. Small rooms with no outside windows and even parts of rooms are let for lodgers, and in this way a single man can get sleeping accommodations for fifty cents a week." 1 The lodger evil of the tenements, a part of the tenement-house problem, will not be touched upon by us. But lodgers in apartment suites and in private families where only a room or two is rented are to be found in considerable numbers and should be taken account of in a full consideration of the lodging-house problem. The lodging-house must be distinguished once for all from the boarding-house. The lodging-house never gives board. The lodger is not a boarder. The boarder eats and sleeps in the same place. The lodger or "roomer" sleeps in one place and "takes his meals out." 2 The lodging-house must also be distinguished from the apartment-house on the one hand, and from the tenement on the other. Both the apartment and the tenement are family houses, their rooms are rented in suites and are fitted for housekeeping; but the lodging-house is cut up into separate rooms to be rented to single men and women or to childless married couples of limited means, who are willing to undergo the inconveniences of life in one room and meals at a corner "cafe." 3 Neither the apartment dweller nor the lodger (or roomer) has been the subject of much study. The voluminous English, Con- tinental, and American literature on the housing question deals almost exclusively with the tenement and the tenement classes. The great army of mercantile employees and skilled mechanics the 1 Bushee, Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston, p. 34. See also The City Wilderness, pp. 34, 35. 2 In England lodgers have meals served in their rooms, but the strenuous life of the American does not permit of such indulgence. 3 While the point does not strictly concern us here it may be of interest to remark upon the difference between the tenement-house and the apartment -house. While the distinction is a broad one it is one of degree rather than of kind, and it is often difficult, sometimes impossible, to draw a sharp line between the two. The difference is usually fixed more or less arbitrarily, according to the number of rooms in a suite, the rental rate, sanitary equipment, and the like. In practice the distinction very often turns on the presence or absence of a bathroom for each suite. 6 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON clerks, salesmen, bookkeepers, stenographers, dressmakers, mil- liners, barbers, restaurant-keepers, policemen, nurses, and the un- married journeymen carpenters, painters, machinists, electricians, etc., are commonly supposed to live in wholesome surroundings. As a matter of fact little is really known of the life of the ''unat- tached " men and women, and still less has been put in published form. Something has been written concerning the shop-girl, but generally to the effect that she lives at home, receives "subsidiary wages" or "pin-money" for her work, and thus renders the lot of the girl who has to earn all her own living very hard. Then the latter girl is forgotten, and it is thoughtlessly supposed that because the mercantile employee dresses presentably, and the skilled me- chanic gets high day- or piece-wages, the conditions in which they live when not at work are presumably not bad. A few persons have long known that the lodging-house and the life of the lodg- ing-house population, in Boston at least, constitute a grave and far-reaching social problem. But the exact nature of that problem, its extreme complexity, and its numerous ramifications have not been precisely clear, nor have data been at hand upon which to judge what solution, if any, can be found. The lodging-house population is an appreciable part of the total city population. The "boarders and lodgers" of Boston ten years ago numbered over 54,000, l and the number now must be between 70,000 and 80,000. This includes boarders and lodgers of all classes anywhere within the corporation limits of Boston. The popula- tion of the thirteen precincts covering the South End lodging-house district the one in which this investigation is centred is shown in the following table: TABLE i. POPULATION OF THE SOUTH END LODGING-HOUSE DIS- TRICT, BY PRECINCTS, IQOO AND 1905 1900 2 1905* Ward 9 Precinct 5 3,073 2,951 Ward 9 Precinct 6 2,849 2*894 Ward 10 Precinct 3 2,161 1,773 1 Massachusetts State Census, 1895, vol. ii, p. 554. 2 315* Annual Report Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1900, pp. 58, 59. 8 Population and Legal Voters, Census of Mass., 1905, pamphlet issued by the Bureau of Labor, pp. 911. INTRODUCTION 7 Ward 10 Precinct 4 2,129 2,028 Ward 10 Precinct 5 1,688 1,342 Ward 10 Precinct 6 2,065 I >947 Ward 12 Precinct i 3,633 2,953 Ward 12 Precinct 2 3,024 2,468 Ward 12 Precinct 3 2,276 2,640 Ward 12 Precinct 4 3,45 2,610 Ward 12 Precinct 5 2,779 2 >97* Ward 12 Precinct 6 4,910 4,453 Ward 12 Precinct 7 3,614 3,643 Total 37,606 34,673 l Just how many of these people live in lodging-houses it is impos- sible to state, since there are a number of short tenement-house streets and a few apartment-houses and private residences in the district. On the whole it is probable that the lodging-house popu- lation of these thirteen precincts by itself would aggregate between 25,000 and 30,000; but this must be taken only as a rough estimate. It is evident that a district of so large a population, and one the inner life of which is so little known, is worthy of study. Further- more, while this study will apply specifically to the lodging-house district of the South End of Boston, the conditions found must be taken in the main as typical of conditions existing or rapidly com- ing into existence in nearly every large city. The extent of the lodging-house population, as well as the dan- gers to which it is subject, is undoubtedly closely connected with 1 The decline of nearly 3000 (7-8%) in the population of these thirteen precincts in five years comes as a surprise. The Bureau of Labor, in a personal communica- tion, attributes it "to the fact that these wards [wards 9, 10, and 12] are becoming more and more devoted to business purposes, and residences are being demolished or transformed into business offices." It is true that the first stories of houses on the lower part of Columbus Avenue (below Massachusetts Avenue) are being remodeled into stores in considerable numbers, and that a similar though much less noticeable movement is in progress on Tremont Street (between Dover Street and Massachu- setts Avenue) a movement similar to that which is transforming Boylston Street and Huntington Avenue, and which will undoubtedly attack other Back Bay streets, but as yet it scarcely seems that this can be sufficient cause for the noticeable decline in population. The fact that one census is Federal, the other State, probably must be taken into account. And it may be, also, that a greater number of persons who have to board or lodge are finding accommodations in suburban districts than was the case five or six years ago. Boston's constantly improving transit service would help toward this end; and if such a movement is going on, however slowly, it is a hopeful sign. 8 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON the trend of population from the country and smaller towns to the metropolitan centres. The mobility of our American population, and this tendency to flock to the cities, are well- recognized phenom- ena. 1 The strength of this great movement is apparent when we re- member that there has been an increase since 1890 in urban popu- lation, for the country as a whole, of very nearly 37 per cent, as com- pared with an increase in total population during the same period (ten yea^s) of not quite 21 per cent. 2 The large number of new- comers in Boston at any given time is indicated by the fact that in 1895 tnere were on May i, 10,861 persons ten years of age and over who had lived in Boston only six months or less. About half of this number were foreigners, the rest were native-born Ameri- cans. 3 The State Census shows that the recruits to city life are chiefly over twenty years old, and that the number of native-born migrants is far in excess of the foreign-born. In Appendix B will be found an analysis of the nativity of the population of Boston for the years 1885, 1895, an d 1900. The large percentage of the popu- lation of great cities not native to the city named is shown in the following table: TABLE 2. NATIVITY OF POPULATION OF THE FIVE LARGEST CITIES* Born in the U. S. Total Born in but not For- born city in city eign- outside named. named. born of city. 55-0% 8-0% 37-o% 45-0% 45-3 20.1% 34-6% 54-7% 65-3% H-9% 22.8% 34-7% 55-8% 24-8% 19-4% 44-2% 5-9% 14.0% 35-i% 49-1% New York Chicago Philadelphia St. Louis Boston 1 See, for example, the Twelfth U. S. Census, Population, part i, pp. Ixxxi-xc. Cf. also, Webber, Growth of Cities ; Ross, Foundations of Sociology, pp. 331-333 and passim ; and for German theory and conditions, Hansen, Die Drei Bevolkerrungs- stufen, 1889, Ammon, Die naturliche Auslese beim Menschen, 1893, Die Gesellschafts- ordnung und ihre natiirlichen Grundlagen, 1895, and Kuczynski, Der Zug nach der Stadt, 1897. 2 Twelfth U. S. Census, Pop., part i, p. Ixxxvii. 8 Massachusetts State Census, 1895, vol. ii, pp. 790, 791. 4 Compiled from the Twelfth U. S. Census, Pop., part i, pp. clxvii-clxix. INTRODUCTION 9 Nearly one half the present population of Boston, it appears, was born outside the city. It is impossible to say what proportion of these new-comers find their way to boarding- or lodging-houses, but the lodging-house class is recruited chiefly from them, and the more pronounced the movement from country to city, the larger will be the lodging class, and the more pressing the lodging-house problem. The very fact, however, that the movement from country to city has seemed so commonplace and natural has been well calculated to leave us with little appreciation of its significance until the stat- isticians put it before us in precise figures. Even then the corollary that in the lives of a very large part of these young people who are drifting cityward the lodging-house, for a long time at least, supplants the home has escaped recognition at anything like its full importance. But it is not alone the young men and women who come to the cities for the first time to work who help fill the lodging-houses. Both one of the causes and one of the results of the wonderful economic efficiency of modern industrial organization lies in the large number of skilled mechanics who are ever ready to be up and moving to some other place on short notice, liter- ally "journeymen" with no fixed place of abode, no strong family ties, little effective social instinct. So strong is this tendency that some trade-unions, notably the cigar-makers, have revived the old custom of providing an insurance fund for men out of work and traveling from one place to another ("going on tramp," as it used to be called) in search of employment. The skilled mechanic, in many trades, is likely to be sent almost anywhere. Especially is this true in building-trades, transportation, and certain kinds of domestic and personal service. Modern industry demands large sacrifices of home and comfort on the part of its servants. The movement toward the cities has been regarded as mainly economic in its motive. 1 It will not do, however, to throw too ex- clusive an emphasis upon purely economic forces. " Opportunity," which every city seems to spell in capital letters, must be taken in a wider sense than that for employment merely. Sentimental con- siderations cannot be left out of account. Men and women flock to the cities to work and to live. To those who come for industrial reasons must be added those who come driven by dreams of "liv- Cf. Richard T. Ely, The Coming City, p. 26. IO THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON ing in the city," and to these in turn all the students, the tourists, and the great number of old and shipwrecked persons who seem naturally to gravitate thither. Opportunities for work, and for amusement, excitement, and variety, the attractive force of the un- known, the hypnotic influence of the color and movement and energy of the crowd, all help to draw men and women to the cities. Primarily, nevertheless, the reasons for the existence of the lodger or roomer are economic. The world's work has to be done and people flock to the cities to do it. To the lodging-house increasing numbers of the middle class gravitate in those years of struggle which in ever lengthening array must elapse between the time they leave the home of their fathers and reach the home of their own. It is the lodging-house (or rooming-house if it is so called in your city) which shelters these young people while they gain an education or a " footing" and earn their own living. Certain causes thus produce in the city a multitude of homeless persons who must have some place to eat and sleep. The demand thus created affords a means of livelihood to a sec- ond class of persons, chiefly women, who could be economically productive in scarcely any other way than by keeping lodgers. The lodging-house keeper, or, as she is familiarly known, the "land- lady," constitutes a class of her own. Her economic and social status are considered at length in chapter vm. The third element in the lodging-house question is a real-estate problem. Large population migrations from one urban district to another take place in the history of every city. The expansion of business districts, changes in lines of transportation, improvements in suburbs, and, more potent and least explicable of all, changes in the fashionableness of various districts, may depopulate a fine residence section, and leave there a vast area of old dwellings which become forthwith white elephants on the hands of their owners. Still too good to be "made down" into tenements, the invariable fate of these houses is to be turned over to the tender mercies of the lodging- or boarding-house keeper. The combination of the problem of these three classes, the lodger, the landlady, and the owner, forms the groundwork of the eco- nomic, social, and moral conditions with which the following chapters will have to deal. CHAPTER II THE HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH END LODGING-HOUSE SECTION THE existence of a compact lodging-house district demands his- torical explanation. Why does it happen to be here rather than else- where? How long has it been here? What were the forces that placed it here? The explanation is found in those typical intra- urban migrations, mention of which has just been made in the pre- ceding chapter. 1 Previous to about 1790 the North End of Boston had been the most desirable residential section, but at that time the West End, Beacon Hill, and part of Washington Street were occupied by equally well-to-do families. 2 Soon after this time, however, the American families began to desert the North End and to turn toward the Fort Hill and Pearl Street district. With the passing of the North End as a residential district, there were for a considerable period in the early part of the nineteenth century two residential sections, namely, that of Fort Hill, and that of Beacon Hill and the West End. Before 1850, however, signs of momentous change were already apparent. Two forces seem to have been active, rendering new popu- lation movements inevitable. The business of the city was rapidly expanding, and the situation of the Fort Hill district was such that it must soon be demanded for business purposes. Nothing so quickly "kills" a locality for residential purposes as the resistless encroach- ment of trade and coirimerce upon its borders. The phenomenon may be observed in any large city to-day, and it is invariably ac- companied by real estate and social changes that make it worthy of far more study than we can here give it. In the second place Beacon Hill and the West End had become so completely built-up and so compactly populated that a swarming of the young couples 1 It is not necessary here to enter upon a detailed account of the earlier history of the South End. This may be found to some extent in Shurtleff's Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, and in a condensed form in The City Wilderness. 2 F. A. Bushee, Growth of the Population of Boston, in the Publications of the Amer- ican Statistical Association, June, 1899, p. 246. 12 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON to some other part of the city was necessary. The young people who were growing up, marrying, and establishing homes of their own, had to cut themselves away from the old residence district, however much they may have disliked to leave. The Back Bay marshes were not then filled-in and indeed there was as yet scarcely any thought of such a measure. Otherwise it is safe to say that the movement would have been a gradual overflow of families from the Hill down onto the flats to the west of the Public Garden. Nor was there any communication to speak of with the suburbs. In fact it is almost an anachronism to speak of suburbs during this period. There were surrounding towns, more or less distant, but as a rule people who had permanent business in the city lived in the city. From almost the beginning of the century, circumstances had so developed that the South End was perforce destined, as time went on, to become the Mecca of well-to-do families in search of a desirable, fashionable locality in which to "build" and establish homes. Beacon Hill and the West End continued to hold their old families down to the modern period characterized by the building- up of the Back Bay, but they poured forth their surplus population into the South End. The South End speedily claimed the popu- lation of the old Fort Hill district also. Thus it came to pass that the South End became the great well-to-do residential section of the city. 1 Several influences determined this location. In the first place the fact that the land in the South End was made from good solid material brought by rail from the upland country of Needham and other towns, and not from slime and mud pumped from the bottom of the Charles River (the present method), seems to have been an attraction. But a far stronger influence was the street rail- way. As pointed out in "The City Wilderness," "the development of the street railway at the opportune moment determined the loca- tion of the new residential section of the period from 1855 t 1870 in the South End. The Metropolitan Railroad procured its charter in 1853, and opened its line from Scollay Square to the South End 1 All but a small portion of the South End is built upon made land. The filling- in of the marshes of the South and Back Bays within the present limits of the South End was in progress from about 1800, and was not completed until the end of the '6o's. Meanwhile building operations had been rushed forward during the '50*3. Lack of space forbids our tracing,, even in outline, this earlier development of the South End, full of interest as it is. EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH END DISTRICT 13 and Roxbury late in 1856. For the next fifteen years the South End was the growing and popular quarter of the city ; street after street was built up with rows of swell-front brick houses, which are still the dominant feature of the architecture of the district." l In the third place it is well to point out, also, that with the exception of South Boston, the South End was the only new part of the city open to occupancy. East Boston, Cambridge, and Charlestown were miles away across water and mud marshes, the Back Bay was an artificial lake, and South Boston itself, which otherwise might have been a beautiful residence district, was cut off by the waters of the South Bay and Fort Point Channel. Continuous growth could take place only along the line of the Neck and the filling to either side of it. The street railway undoubtedly facilitated the expansion of the district, but it seems probable that the South End would have been chosen anyhow. And once the tide of fashion had set in that direction, nothing could stop it. Fashion decreed its favor to the South End, and that settled the matter. Every effort was made to make the district attractive. The houses were extremely well built for that period, and no expense seems to have been spared to make them elegant, and in many instances even luxurious. 2 Provision was made for parks, and some of the pret- tiest places in Boston to-day are the little parks and "squares" of the South End lodging-house district. Especially may be mentioned West Chester Park, Worcester Square, and Union Park. For al- most a quarter of a century liveried coachmen and white-capped nursemaids airing their charges were a common sight on Tremont Street and other thoroughfares, while the cross-streets were gay with the voices of children. 8 The South End, then, was once a city of private homes; now 1 The City Wilderness, p. 30. 2 The Building Department of the City of Boston was not organized until 1873. Previous to that there were no restrictions on building, other than those contained in the deeds to the land. There is therefore no record of building operations in the city until 1873, and as most of the South End, with the exception of Columbus Avenue, was built before that date, we are thrown back upon the "oldest inhabitant" for information. 3 We cannot agree with the writer in The City Wilderness when he says, "The history of the South End is almost devoid of dramatic incident or picturesqueness." Page 31. 14 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON it is a wilderness of factories, tenements, and lodging-houses. Fully five sixths of the old residences are now rooming-houses. Built in the fifties and early sixties they served their proper function for an allotted time, and then a transformation came which was almost startling in its suddenness. Fashion, which had dealt kindly with this section of the city, changed. For some time the South End struggled to keep up appearances, to retain its gentility, but the forces of city growth were too strong for it. Style changes in real estate as in dress, and, comparatively, just as quickly and erratically. It is said that the first faint whisperings of impending change were heard soon after the Civil War. But the storm did not break over the real-estate situation in the South End till Reconstruction days were past, and the crisis of '73 had begun to work out its effects. The immediate occasion for the change seems to have been the real-estate situation on Columbus Avenue. This street was put through as far as Northampton Street about 1870, and was imme- diately built up with a somewhat cheaper style of houses than those on the older streets. Most of these new houses were built on mort- gages, and after the panic of '73 had broken over the city most of them were in the possession of the banks. The banks sold them for what they would bring, and the result was an acute drop in the value of Columbus Avenue real estate, and in the character of the imme- diate locality. The shock thus felt on Columbus Avenue with such sudden force gradually had the effect of disturbing the equilibrium in the rest of the South End. It soon became evident that the palmy days of the district were over. Men's eyes were turned towards a new Mecca. The Back Bay flats were being filled-in, and for vari- ous reasons they looked attractive. A few families, leaders in resi- dential fashion, as it were, broke the ice, sold or rented their South End homesteads, and erected new mansions on Beacon, Marlbor- ough, Newbury, and Boylston streets and Commonwealth Avenue. The movement gained strength, slowly at first, and then, as the con- tagion of change struck deeper, with an almost appalling rush. As one person put it, "The people got out of the South End like rats." It is not possible to assign any definite date for the exodus. All we can say is that it began in the seventies, gained momentum during the early eighties, and was practically finished before 1890. By 1885 the South End had become dominantly a lodging-house section. UJ .CXOJ 37 *t*ya 3 ^o^sAi"> i i ma i m i BH tay i ^a a '-IS! II F^ II Rl i fil Hi 1 El t nil IIB1! Bll EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH END DISTRICT 15 The progress of the exodus and of the change of houses from pri- vate residences to lodging-houses is illustrated by Chart I, which represents conditions as they existed on Union Park from 1868 to 1902. This chart may be taken as typical of the whole district, except that many blocks could have been selected that would show no private residences left, and also with the possible exception that the change took place somewhat earlier toward Dover Street, and later toward Massachusetts Avenue. Each black line repre- sents an individual house during the time in which it was a private residence ; its continuation in a light line represents the period dur- ing which it has been a lodging-house. The chart indicates that the period of fastest transformation was in 1884-85. It is constructed upon data secured by a laborious search of the city assessors' books. The period of most rapid change, in the middle of the eighties, was accompanied and followed by unusual activity in real-estate exchanges in the South End. People moving away from a declin- ing district, and perhaps anxious to disengage money from old pro- perty in order to build new residences, were anxious to sell, all the more so because real-estate values were declining at a prodigious rate. 1 The accompanying table shows this increased activity for Union Park. TABLE 3. NUMBER >OF REAL-ESTATE TRANSFERS ON UNION PARK, i868-i902. 2 1868-69 4 1885-86 7 1869-70 4 1886-87 5 1870-71 i~] 1887-88 7 1871-72 6 1888-89 6 1872-73 4 > 16 1889-90 6 1873-74 4 1890-91 5 1874-75 ij 1891-92 7 1875-76.... 3^ 1892-93.... 2 } 22 1876-77 o 1893-94 2 1877-78 i \ 6 1894-95 6 1878-79 i 1895-96 6 1879-80 ij 1896-97 6 i88o-8i....oS 1897-98.... 5 f 22 1881-82 5 1898-99 5 1882-83.... 3 \ 15 1899-1900.. o 1883-84 4 1900-1901.. 5 1884-85 3] 1901-1902. .5 1 See Chart vn. 1 Data from city assessors' books. 1 6 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON It is significant that the number of transfers more than doubled in the five years 1885-1890, over the number in the preceding five years. The obverse of the shield the darker aspect of which for the South End in this period showed thus a great exodus of private fam- ilies, increase of real- estate transfers, decline in real- estate values, and an incoming of the lodging-house is to be seen in other places in the filling, building, and populating of the Back Bay, and in an enormous increase of the population in the suburbs. Back of the call of fashion, which demanded that the rich and well-to-do families should migrate to the wind-swept, mud-filled, and treeless flats of the Charles River, lay certain more rational motives. The houses of the South End were not yet old, but they were of an old type. Business was creeping in on the north, and factories were beginning to belch smoke on the east. Above all, however, the open- ing-up of the Back Bay lands gave opportunity for the people who had once migrated from Beacon Hill and the West End to return and be near their old friends and relatives. The West End was de- clining, to be sure, just as the South End was, but families were simply moving out onto the newly made land, and the South End families made haste to join them. "In all growth, great or small, central or axial, the vital feature is continuity, the universal tend- ency being to add on buildings one by one, of the same general character as those which preceded them," says a recent authority. "Lack of continuity, from whatever cause, explains many of the greatest disappointments in anticipated real-estate movements." l This fact was admirably illustrated by both the South End and the \ Back Bay. The South End, lacking continuity with the older resi- J dence district, could not hold its own when that continuity was i established between Beacon Hill and the Back Bay. Another reason, almost as strong, for the exodus was the growing popularity of the suburbs. The cheapness of land and building material for frame houses outside the city attracted many persons. The expansion of the park systems, the improvement of thorough- fares, and the great natural beauty of many of the city's suburbs attracted others. Thus towns like Milton and Brookline drew the rich and the ultra-rich. What counts for more, however, the expan- 1 Kurd, Principles of City Land Values, p. 74. EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH END DISTRICT 17 sion of the street railway systems, and the improvement of the sub- urban service on the steam roads, enabled people of moderate means to live in the suburbs with some degree of comfort. Rapid transit has done much to change the configuration of most cities. Just as the introduction of the horse-car had been an influence drawing people to the South End, so now the electric car was a force attracting more and more people away from the congested inner circles. 1 That some connection existed between the growth of the suburbs and the exodus of families from the South End is evident from Tables 4, 5, and 6. Table 5 includes the inner suburbs which are practically continuous with the city, and which can be reached by a five-cent fare. Table 6 includes outer suburbs which fall within a radius of approximately twelve miles from the State House. TABLE 4. 2 POPULATION AND INCREASE OF POPULATION, BOSTON, 1870-1905 1905 1900 1890 1880 1870 Population 595,380 560,892 448,477 362,839 250,526 Increase (numbers) 34,488 112,415 85,638 112,313 Increase (per cent.) 6.1 25.0 23.6 44-9 TABLE 5. POPULATION AND INCREASE OF POPULATION, INNER SUBURBS, 1870-1905 1905 1900 1890 1880 1870 Brookline 23,436 19,935 12,103 8,057 6,650 Newton 36,827 33,587 24,379 i6,995 12,825 Watertown 11,258 9,706 7,073 5,426 4,326 Cambridge 97,434 91,886 70,028 52,699 36,934 Somerville 69,272 61,643 40,152 24,933 14,685 Medford 19,686 18,244 11,079 7,573 5,717 Maiden 38,037 33,664 23,031 12,017 7,367 Everett 29,111 24,336 1 1, 068 4,i59 2,220 Chelsea 37,289 34,072 27,909 21,782 18,547 1 For some statistics of the Boston Elevated Railroad Company, see Publications, Am. Acad. of Pol. and Soc. Science, no. 345, p. 124. 3 The data for this and the two following tables are taken from the U. S. Census for 1870 and 1880, Tenth Census, Pop., vol. i, pp. 208, 290; for 1890 and 1900, Twelfth Census, Pop., part i, pp. 199-201. The figures for 1905 are from the advance sheets of the Mass. State Census of 1905 pamphlet entitled Population and Legal Voters. Includes: Boston proper, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, West Roxbury (annexed 1872-3), Brighton (annexed 1873), Charlestown (annexed 1873), and Roxbury. i8 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Revere 12,659 io,395 5,668 2,263 i,i97 Winthrop 7,034 6,058 2,726 1,043 532 Arlington 9,668 8,603 5,629 4,100 3,261 Hyde Park i4,5 10 13,244 10,193 7,088 4,i3 6 Milton 7,054 6,578 4,278 3,206 2,683 Totals 413^75 37i,95i 255,314 I7i,34i 121,080 Increase (numbers) 4i,3 2 4 116,637 83,957 50,261 Increase (per cent.) ii. i 45-7 48-9 41-5 TABLE 6. POPULATION AND INCREASE OF POPULATION, OUTER SUBURBS, 1870-1905 1905 1900 1890 1880 1870 Lexington 4,530 3,831 3,i97 2,460 2,227 Winchester 8,242 7,248 4,861 3,802 2,645 Woburn 14,402 14,254 13,499 10,931 8,560 Burlington 588 593 6 I7 711 626 Melrose 14,295 12,962 9,5i9 4,56o 3,414 Stoneham 6,332 6,197 6,155 4,890 4,513 Wakefield 10,268 9,29 6,982 5,547 4,135 Reading 5,682 4,969 4,088 3,i8i 2,664 Saugus 6,253 5,084 3,673 2,625 2,247 Lynn 77,042 68,513 55,727 38,274 28,233 Swampscott 5,!4i 4,548 3,i98 2,500 1,846 Nahant 922 1,152 880 808 475 Hull 2,060 1,703 989 383 261 Hingham 4,819 5,059 4,564 4,485 4,442 Weymouth 11,585 11,324 10,866 10,570 9,090 Braintree 6,879 5,98i 4,848 3,855 3,948 Quincy 28,076 23,899 16,723 10,570 7,442 Randolph 4,034 3,993 3,946 4,027 5,642 Canton 4,702 4,584 4,538 4,5i6 3,879 Dedham 7,774 7,457 7,123 6,233 7,342 Westwood * 1,136 1,112 Wellesley 6,189 5,072 3,600 Weston 2,091 1,834 1,664 1,148 1,261 Waltham 26,282 23,481 18,707 11,712 9,065 Belmont 4,360 3,929 2,098 1,615 i,5i3 Needham 4,284 4,016 3,035 5,252 3,607 Totals 267,968 242,085 194,097 143,635 120,027 Increase (numbers) 25,883 47,988 50,462 23,608 Increase (per cent.) 10.7 24-5 35-i 19.6 In view of the facts brought out by these tables we are constrained to differ with the writer in the " Publications " of the American Sta- 1 Organized from Dedham town since 1890. EVOLUTION OF THE SOUTH END DISTRICT 19 tistical Association who says, "the greatest growths of the suburbs have usually taken place contemporaneously with the greatest growths of the city." 1 A comparison of the percentage of increase for the three decades shows exactly the opposite fact: TABLE 7. PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE OF POPULATION, BOSTON AND SUBURBS 19001905 (half-decade) 1890-1900 1880-1890 1870-1880 Boston 6.1 25.0 23.6 44.9 Inner suburbs n.i 45.7 48.9 41.5 Outer suburbs 10.7 24.5 35.1 19.6 The period of greatest growth for the city, 1870-1880, was that of the least growth for the suburbs, while the period of least growth of the city, 1880-1890, was that of the greatest growth of the sub- urbs. The five years 1900-1905 also show a much faster rate of growth of the suburbs than of the city. There is no doubt whatever that the decade 1880-1890 was one of reaction against crowded city conditions, and of expansion of suburban life. In thirty years the city and outer suburbs doubled their population; in the same time the population of the inner suburbs trebled. The fact we wish to emphasize is that this movement of the decade 1880-1890 was con- temporaneous with the exodus from the South End. The people who left that section of the city went partly to the Back Bay, partly to the suburbs; and their places in the South End were taken by an army of lodgers and lodging-house keepers. There was an ele- ment of the dramatic in this sudden transformation of a whole dis- trict, in the turning-over of houses full of associations and family history to the tender mercies of indifferent strangers. Everywhere in the South End to-day we are reminded of a departed glory, and there is something of sadness in the plaint of such old residents as still remain: "The South End is not what it once was!" In the chapters that follow we shall gain some idea of what the South End is like to-day. 1 F. A. Bush^e, The Growth of the Population of Boston, in Publications, A. S. A., June, 1899, p. 259. CHAPTER III THE LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICTS OF BOSTON Section I. The South End THE lodging-house district of the South End of Boston is probably one of the most compact and characteristic, if not also the largest to be found in any city. Its boundaries cannot be described on every side with absolute precision, however, for the reason that the main central area, the unmistakable region of lodging-houses, in places gradually merges out into other districts occupied either by apart- ment-houses or by tenements. The general situation of the district as regards the rest of the city is shown in Chart n. Roughly speaking the district extends from Dover and Berkeley streets on the north to Northampton on the south, a distance of about four fifths of a mile; and from the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (between Columbus and Huntington avenues) on the west to Washington Street on the east. The situation of the district within the South End, and the details of boundary are shown in Charts HI and iv. The boundaries on the north and west are clearly cut and definite. On the west side there is the great apartment- and lodging-house district which stretches from Copley Square out Huntington Avenue; but be- tween this and the South End is the railroad, which is an effectual barrier between the two districts, preventing them from having much in common. On the north side Dover Street separates the district sharply from a very compact and crowded tenement- house section, which intervenes between the lodging-house district and the downtown business section. On the south the lodging-house section fades out quickly, but not all at once, into the tenement- house district of lower Roxbury; but even here and far up toward Roxbury Crossing, on the cross- streets, the sign "Rooms to Let" meets the eye at not infrequent intervals. On the east the limits are somewhat harder to fix. Southeastward the district stretches across THE LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICTS OF BOSTON 21 Washington Street, and is brought summarily to a stop by the grounds of the City Hospital. But further north are a number of cross- streets, Stoughton, East Newton, etc., which are lined with houses that look like lodging-houses, but which for the most part have under- gone one more stage of degeneration and been "made down" into tenements. Some are still lodging-houses, however, and many of the tenements take in lodgers. The boundary on the east, therefore, has to be located somewhat arbitrarily. It is to be noticed that the district is surrounded on three sides the north, east, and south by great tenement-house areas, which respectively separate it from the business section, from the waters of the South Bay, and from the outlying regions of Roxbury and Dorchester. As will be seen by Chart n, most of the district is within easy walking distance of downtown, no part of it being more than a mile and a half distant from the business district. Transportation facil- ities are excellent. At least three thoroughfares traverse the dis- trict from downtown Washington Street, with its surface lines and the elevated, Tremont Street, with surface cars either way al- most every minute, and Columbus Avenue, with scarcely less fre- quent service. A few surface cars also run on Shawmut Avenue. Facilities for communication across the district are not so good. Practically no car service exists between the South End and the Back Bay. Like the Back Bay the South End is almost a dead level, rang- ing only from twelve to eighteen feet above tidewater. The street plan of the district (see Chart in) shows three features. First, the four longitudinal thoroughfares already mentioned, radiating from the business district through the lodging-house section to Rox- bury and beyond. Second, the cross- streets, which run from the railroad through the district to Harrison Avenue and beyond. And third, several small parks and squares, of which the combined Franklin and Blackstone squares have the greatest area. The most characteristic external feature of the district is its houses. The first impression is one of insufferable monotony in the style of architecture. The architects of fifty years ago seem to have lacked creative imagination, and apparently could conceive of but one form of city residence. The cost of buildings frequently rose to $25,000 and sometimes as high as $40,000, but they were all of 22 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON the same type pressed brick, trimmed with brown or red sand- stone with "swell fronts" and "high stoops," granite steps and an oppressive amount of ironwork in balustrades and the fences with which the little six by ten front grass-plots were religiously inclosed. Looking down a street of these edifices, one sees a series of swell fronts, three or four stories high, a battery of high front steps, and a skyline scalloped by the tops of the fronts and notched by the dormer windows of the attic rooms. Many of the cross- streets are shaded, chiefly with elms, which in summer afford a grateful relief from the heat which, on the main thoroughfares and the unprotected side streets, beats down un- mercifully upon the brick walls and macadam pavements. The trees of Union and West Chester Parks and of Worcester Square do credit to the civic thoughtfulness of the builders of the South End. These oases of green in an endless desert of brick and mor- tar, mere swellings in the streets as they are, are due to private en- terprise of the past. Property owners on them bore the expense of their maintenance, and had the chief enjoyment of their use. On Union Park each householder carried a key to the gate of the cen- tral park area. In two or three instances what were once semi- private parks of this sort may be found tucked away in the middle of a block, and reached at present only by a narrow and unsightly alley. The yards in the rear of the houses are larger than would be the case with modern real- estate property. When they are well kept they are not unattractive, and the writer has seen two or three lodg- ing-house back yards which would not greatly shock the taste of the most fastidious. In many of the yards are fruit and other trees, with here and there a lilac bush to remind us of the past. In the spring, along many of the alleys blossoms and green buds are not lacking to apprise the rear-room lodger of the season. The poorer parts of the district, however, approach more nearly tenement-area conditions. The alleys themselves, like many of the yards, are not too well kept, and the writer is inclined to think that the streets of the lodging-house district on the whole are not kept so clean as those of the tenement regions, especially where the city in the latter has put down asphalt pavement. No part of the city assumes a more deceptive outward appear- ance than the South End lodging-house district. One can pass CMART-I or THE: SOUTH eNB 1 ^ WEST D1STHICT3 50UTH E.NJ)., WEST E.NP. THE LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICTS OF BOSTON 2$ through most parts of it in any direction with eyes wide open and senses alert, and yet get scarcely an inkling of the nature of the life that goes on within the clean and genteel exteriors of these elegantly sombre and dignified old houses. They look like the mansions of the moderately rich and well-to-do. True, there is that in them which speaks of decline, but touched up with a few repairs, they might be the residence place of "old families." Only the tell-tale "Rooms to Let" sign informs us to the contrary. The mansions are lodging-houses, their mistresses are "landladies," and the men and women who carry their latch-keys, to let themselves in and out when they will, are lodgers. We saw in Chapter n that nearly every house has become a lodging-house. The general compactness of the South End as a lodging-house district is shown in Chart in. Private residences are so few and so scattered that they could not be represented on the chart. There are many miscellaneous features in the district, some of which have nothing, or very little, to do with its life. Such are the churches, the grammar schools, the Latin and English high schools, and a number of charitable and philanthropical institutions. The more important of these are indicated in the chart. During the working hours of the day the cross- streets are almost deserted, only the main thoroughfares presenting the varied life of many persons coming and going on their countless individual missions. The lodging-house population works, and the houses are cleared by eight o'clock in the morning. But when the business day is over and the downtown offices and shops pour forth their living stream of tired humanity, the district assumes a new aspect. Every passing car drops at each crossing its quota of men and women; through the streets flows a continuous procession of pedestrians, wending their way to rooms or cafes, spreading out through the side streets, filtering into the great lines of lodging-houses as far as Northampton Street, like a river flowing through a delta with many mouths. Then the deserted rooms put forth light after light, until by eight o'clock half the windows are illumined, some dimly, some brilliantly. Meanwhile the cafe's and dining-rooms are hav- ing their second busy season of the day (the first being in the morn- ing), and do not quiet down till after eight o'clock. 24 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON On a summer's evening the scene is shifted a little. There are fewer lodgers in the district, all who could having betaken them- selves to Winthrop or some other near-by resort, anywhere out of the heat, the dust, and the dead air of the city. Those who remain seem to prefer the evening on the front steps to the seclusion of their rooms. There is more sociability in the spring and summer. Groups on the steps of nearly every house linger the evening through, dis- cussing nothings or the price of board at the latest new cafe". Section II. Beacon Hill and the West End There are two typical large lodging-house districts in Boston, the South End, and Beacon Hill, including a portion of the West End. Although this inquiry is concerned chiefly with the lodger problem as presented in the South End, it will not be amiss to say a word about the West End and about the smaller aggregations of lodging-houses which exist here and there in the city. The Beacon Hill and West End district is far less compact and homogeneous than the South End. In the West End we have a heterogeneous mass of tenements and lodging-houses mingled on the same street in the most haphazard manner. We find character- istic lodging-house streets, also, sandwiched in between streets of tenement-houses, and vice versa. Beginning at Bowdoin Square a more or less well-defined belt of lodging-houses extends north- ward and westward, taking in portions of Green, Lynde, Cham- bers, Eaton, McLean, and Allan streets. But the main body of lodg- ing-houses lies to the south and southwest of Bowdoin Square, in the direction of the State House, the Common, and Beacon Street. Here are lodging-house streets like Hancock, Temple, and Bow- doin, almost as compact as those of the South End, stretching up Beacon Hill nearly to the State House. The streets down the west- ern slope of the hill are also more or less thickly occupied with lodg- ing-houses. These include portions of Joy, Russell, Myrtle, Revere, West Cedar, Pinckney, Mt. Vernon, and Chestnut streets. The history of the South End district can be summed up in one or two epochs marked by violent changes in the character of the district. For the West End and Beacon Hill no such sharp-cut and characteristic periods can be distinguished. To quote from "Amer- icans in Process": THE LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICTS OF BOSTON 25 "During most of the nineteenth century the West End was a dis- trict splendidly representative of Anglo-Saxon American life. Upon the summit of Beacon Hill were the finest residences of the city, rapidly increasing in number after the completion of the State House in 1798; and upon the streets just behind the State House to the east, Hancock, Temple, and Bowdoin streets, lived some of the most distinguished men in Boston's history. . . . "The first enemy of the home life of the West End was not the one that earliest attacked the older district [the North End]. It was the outcome not of foreign immigration, but of increase in native population drawn in by the growth of the city's trade. Boarding- houses, and not tenements, here put the homes to flight. Lads from sixteen to twenty-five, leaving the farm for the larger opportuni- ties of the city, demanded shelter. Widows and spinsters of the West End opened their doors, thankful for this new means of bread- winning at a time when needlework and teaching were the only occupations for American women." l Whatever may have been the beneficial offices of the boarding- house in its day, it is now, in Boston at least, an institution of the past. "Its less worthy successor, the lodging-house, still marks the advance of irresistible forces that at last are pushing all the earlier types of American life entirely outside the confines of Boston." * The West End is now a great conglomerate of tenements, apart- ments, and lodging-houses, together with numbers of small retail shops creeping up the streets, and the few private residences which still cling tenaciously to their old locations on the western slope of Beacon Hill. While the change from private residences to lodging- houses was taking place, the external appearance of the district was also suffering change. Whole sections have gradually sunk to the tenement-house level; and with the slow certainty of a dread dis- ease the ugly, cheap brick front of the tenement is creeping up the sides of Beacon Hill, and appearing in blotches here and there in otherwise healthy looking streets of fine old residences. Thus re- sults the present heterogeneous appearance of the district. It is a mixture of many different elements, not like the South End, where every house is a lodging-house, and each one an exact copy of its neighbor. 1 Elizabeth Y. Rutan, in Americans in Process, pp. 35-39. 26 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Section III. Miscellaneous Small Districts Returning to the South End but still outside the lodging-house district proper, we find scarcely a street of any length in this whole part of the city where the "Rooms to Let" sign is not displayed. There are numbers of isolated lodging-house streets, like Rollins, Asylum, and Davis. Even on semi-tenement streets like Stoughton and East Brookline, and in densely packed tenement regions like the district between Dover and Castle streets, rooms may be had. Lower Harrison Avenue between Chinatown and Castle Street is lined with room-signs, as are also Tremont Street from Castle Square to Pleasant Street, St. James Avenue, and parts of many other streets in the city. Around Madison Park in lower Roxbury is another cluster of lodging-houses. The apartment-house region about Huntington Avenue and St. Botolph Street is practically a lodging-house district, but of a dif- ferent and higher type than the two already described. Nearly every flat and apartment in this district, which lies roughly between Boyls- ton Street and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, offers rooms to let. They are taken very largely by students, artists, musicians, and business-men of comfortable income. In the streets between Symphony Hall and the Fens another large student quarter is found. Newbury Street in the Back Bay for almost its whole length is rapidly becoming a lodging-house street. While this in- vestigation is concerned chiefly with the South End, therefore, it must not be forgotten that lodging-houses and lodgers are to be found in many other parts of the city. It comes the nearest to ubi- quity, perhaps, of any type of city dwelling. CHAPTER IV THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE SOUTH END LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICT IT would be strange if a district so distinctly differentiated from its surrounding neighbors as we have seen the South End lodging- house district to be had not a definite internal structure. The pri- mary division of the South End streets into horizontal thorough- fares radiating through the district from the downtown business section, and the cross- streets, marks also a fundamental division of economic function. The key to the economic structure of the lodging-house district is the grouping and localization of mercan- tile industries. The cross-streets are devoted almost entirely to lodg- ing-houses, but the main thoroughfares are lined not only with lodg- ing-houses but also with all the variety of shops and local industries that can cater to the wants and whims of forty thousand people. Nearly all the cafes, dining-rooms, laundries, tailor- shops, and drug- stores are grouped primarily on the three main lines of communi- cation, Tremont Street, Washington Street, and Columbus Avenue, with a secondary grouping on certain parts of Dover and Dart- mouth streets and Shawmut Avenue. The situation of the various business establishments which de- pend for support chiefly upon the lodgers is shown in Chart iv, which represents conditions as they existed in October, 1903. Only the main and the more numerous kinds of establishments are indi- cated. The map includes 87 cafe's, 65 basement dining-rooms, 41 saloons, 24 liquor- stores, 27 drug-stores, n pool-rooms, 70 tailor- ing establishments, 78 laundries, and a number of real-estate offices. The eating- establishments, to a total of 152, stand out with great- est prominence both numerically and as features of the district, with the laundries and tailor- shops as prominent seconds. These local industries may be grouped broadly, first into those which provide food, second those which provide drink, amusement, and recreation, third those which look after the clothing of the peo- 28 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON pie, fourth those concerned with the health of the people, and fifth miscellaneous. Under the first group establishments which feed the people fall the cafes, dining-rooms, and quick lunches; the bakeries, delicatessen establishments, and cooked-meat stores ; the grocery and provision stores, and the fruit-stands. There is some difference between the cafe" and the dining-room. The cafe ordinarily serves meals a la carte and semi-table d'hote. The dining-room serves only table d'hote, is usually managed by a woman of uncertain experience, and is invariably located in the basement of some lodging-house. A glance at the map will show that the cafe's are scattered thickly along Columbus Avenue, along Tremont Street between Massa- chusetts Avenue and West Brookline Street, and along Washing- ton Street. Basement dining-rooms can also be noted here and there upon the cross- streets, but like the cafes they tend to group upon the main streets. Prices charged and kind of food served are de- scribed in Chapter xiv. Scattered all over the district, but chiefly on the main streets, especially on Tremont Street and Columbus Avenue, are small bake-shops and delicatessen depots. They carry a light line of " ready - to-eat" groceries, bread, cake, crackers, cookies, cream and milk, pickles, olives, etc. Many of the cafes also sell light provisions of the cake and pickle variety. No attempt is made to locate the deli- catessen establishments on the map. Their number, however, and the business they do, are suggestive of the amount of cracker and cheese diet that must be indulged in by the lodger class. These shops are always open late at night, especially on Saturdays, when they are crowded with customers. They are open, also, on Sunday mornings. The second class of establishments includes the saloons, pool- rooms, dance-halls, theatres, and one beer-garden. These may all be classed together as among the agencies which help to satisfy the pleasure-loving and social instincts. About a dozen pool-rooms are situated within or near the limits of the district, but they evi- dently rely only in part upon the lodging-house population for their patronage. The law in Boston does not permit saloons to run pool- rooms. The two classes of establishments are therefore distinct, although they here and there appear to centre in the same locality. ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT 29 The separation is undoubtedly a good measure; there will not be so much drinking when one has to sally out, into the rain maybe, and walk half a block to a corner saloon, as there will be when it is only a step or two from the pool-table to the bar in the same room; nor will there be so much playing for the drinks. Partly for these reasons, no doubt, the pool- rooms of the lodging district are as a rule quiet and inoffensive, and undoubtedly afford welcome relief to many a male lodger from weary evening hours in which he does not know what to do with himself. At the same time, while "2% cents per cue" does not seem an exorbitant charge, the patron of the place can easily make away with money in the course of an even- ing, or of several evenings a week, which a rational economy would demand for expenditure in other directions. In fact, it is perhaps a general criticism on the lodger or the unmarried mercantile class that the men (not the women) spend a disproportionate share of their income for amusement. This is no doubt natural, consider- ing the humdrum character of their daily work and life, their some- what limited field of interests, their non-acquaintance with the higher standards of art and literature and drama, and their gen- eral lack of knowledge where to find in the city, full as it is of oppor- tunities, chance for better amusement and more cultivated avoca- tions than standing about a billiard-table and puffing at a 5-cent Cremo, or lovingly breathing forth the fragrant smoke of a Turkish Trophy. The intersections of Dover and Washington, and of Washing- ton and Northampton streets are distinguished by the number of pool-rooms and saloons there located. At both these corners there is an elevated railroad station, and at both many surface-car lines intersect. This undoubtedly makes them good locations for saloons and pool- room trade. The saloons are without exception near tene- ment-house districts, upon which they probably depend in the main for patronage. Certain hotels in the district, however, are provided with bars, which are frequented by the more "sporty" type of lodger. The row of saloons on Dover Street is more in the district than of it. These places cater to the tenement-house population in the compact blocks just below Dover Street. Car-lines converge upon this section through Washington and Tremont streets from downtown and from Roxbury, through Berkeley Street from Cam- 30 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON bridge and the West End, and through Dover Street from South Boston, and the saloons are situated where the laborer on his way to and from his work must pass them. The same is true of the Northampton Street group. The liquor- stores supply the wants of a somewhat different class of customers. They carry a full line of beers, whiskies, wines, and other liquors for the most part bottled goods besides more or less elaborate stocks of fancy light groceries for which with liquor there is a joint demand. There is little doubt that these stores are patron- ized to a great extent, though not exclusively, by a clientele which is also in one way or another closely connected with the divers forms of prostitution which exist in the district. Some of them are clean, well-ordered, and attractive in appearance, the proprietors evidently recognizing the business expediency of these qualities. These latter stores carry also the higher grades of groceries. One hotel during the summer conducts a beer-garden, which does a fairly good business and attracts a characteristic patronage. It is situated in the northern part of the district near some of the poorer and "shadier" lodging-house streets, and within conven- ient distance of the theatres of the section. In Boston such resorts are almost sure to be places of assignation, openly or secretly. The law that no liquor shall be sold after eleven o'clock p. M. is rigidly observed both here and in the saloons, which no doubt does some- thing to prevent the "all-night living" characteristic of New York and Chicago. In the dance-halls, however, of which there are several in the dis- trict, merriment may continue till well toward morning. Dances begin at eight o'clock and last till two A. M. or later. It is not un- common for young men and women to dance these hours nearly every night and work all day betweentimes. What the effect must be on their labor efficiency is evident. But we cannot pass any whole- sale condemnation on the dance-halls, any more than we can on the saloon. They have a function to perform. The fact that they perform it ill, or that it is distorted into excesses, is another thing. Change from work, amusement and relaxation, gratification of the social and gregarious instincts, if not had in one form will be sought in another. It devolves upon the social director not to deprive peo- ple of opportunity for these things, but to change the conditions ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT 31 under which such instincts are satisfied, to see that moderation takes the place of excess, to see that healthy social processes are substi- tuted for pathological ones. Probably he can abolish neither the saloon nor the public dance-hall until he provides a worthier sub- stitute. Meanwhile much can be done toward mitigating the evils of both. In Boston dance-halls are not run in connection with sa- loons, a practice which is a curse to Chicago and Cleveland and doubtless many other cities. By far the larger portion of the habi- tue's of the club-dances and public dances in the halls of the South End come from the tenements, rather than the lodging-houses, but the halls are in the lodging-house district, a part of the environment of the lodger, either an open opportunity to him of amusement, or one of many reminders of his isolation from social companionship which others may enjoy, as the case may be. There are four theatres in the district, three on Washington Street and one at Castle Square. All but the Castle Square Theatre pro- duce cheap melodrama or vaudeville. In the summer of 1905, how- ever, one of the Washington Street houses was producing Yiddish drama. The Castle Square Theatre, under good management, with a hard-working stock-company, and producing standard plays, enjoys a full patronage, and must be reckoned as one of the social forces, in the main for good, within the district. The third group of establishments includes the tailor-shops and laundries. Seventy tailoring-establishments look after the raiment of the male lodgers, and such of the women as can afford to patron- ize a "ladies' tailor." Like the other shops the tailors depend mainly on the lodgers for support. They attract attention by mere force of numbers. The shops are small, cheap, often dirty, and in many cases are little more than places for repairing and pressing gar- ments. Sometimes the suggestive sign "Dress-Suits to Let" is seen. "Pressing neatly done," "Garments turned, repairing done," etc., are characteristic legends. Prices are low; trousers are pressed for ten or fifteen cents, a suit sponged and pressed for fifty or seventy-five cents, and suits sold for as low as twelve dollars. Some of the ladies' tailoring-shops are patronized by a good grade of customers from without. One customer brings another, the advan- tage being that the prices charged are lower than on Boylston and other fashionable shopping streets, a fact due to smaller rent and 32 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON less desirable quarters and situation. After a time these tailors may acquire such custom as to warrant their moving over to the more fashionable locations, as several in recent years have done. Next to the eating-establishments, the laundries occupy the most prominent place on the map. Seemingly every other corner is occu- pied by a Chinese laundry. To the man or woman interested in the variegated phases of human existence, the life and industry which shows itself superficially through the broad windows of these Chinese shops will be not without its interest. These Chinamen are said to be the riffraff and outcasts of their own race; they are a class of men singularly slight of stature and to all appearances weak in physique, but they are the embodiment of patience and industriousness. It is hardly possible to pass by a Chinese laundry shop so late at night as not to see some of its inmates diligently at work. In a description of the lodging-house district they could not be omitted; for they are not only in the district, but they have a part to play in the life and experiences of the lodger. Concerned with the health of the people are the doctors and drug- stores. There are about 175 physicians in the district, some of them among the best in the city and a few taking rank among the most disreputable quacks and criminal operators. The drug-stores, as in any district, occupy an important place among the local mercantile establishments. The exact nature of their trade is problematic. It is doubtful if many of them could live but for their cigar, soda, and candy sales. The patent medicine business is killed by the department stores and the cut-price drug- stores. Mention should be made of the considerable number of fakes and social parasites that are scattered up and down Tremont Street, Shawmut Avenue, and Washington Street. Just why so many palm- ists, card-readers, business mediums, trance-artists, astrologers, and the like should congregate in the South End, would be hard to say, but they are there and constitute an unpleasant feature of the district. They have rooms in the lodging-houses where they ply their trade. Some are no doubt conducting places of prostitution in disguise. Among the miscellaneous industries supported by local patron- age are upholstering-shops, tin and hardware stores, painters' and ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF THE DISTRICT 33 plumbers' establishments, new and second-hand furniture stores, many of which curse the district with sales on the installment plan, notion and small dry-goods stores, small jewelry-shops, and "gent's" (never "gentleman's" or "men's") furnishing-stores. Such is the variety of business enterprise which gives life and color to the district. The localization of industry catering to a spe- cific and characteristic population group is a fine example of the value of location in the business world. It is also the salvation of real-estate values on the main streets, which is of more than theo- retical importance. It is of interest to us, however, chiefly because in some suggestive external respects it mirrors the life of the lodger. Without some idea of the environment in which the lodger lives, we can gain but an imperfect idea of his economic and social con- dition. The lodging-house itself, to which we now turn, constitutes the intimate essence of this environment. CHAPTER V THE HOUSE ITSELF As shown in Chart v, the rooms of the Boston lodging-house are divided into "square" and "side." In other cities the side rooms are commonly known as hall bedrooms. Both square and side rooms are designated as "front" and "rear" according to their position in the house. In the basement are the dining-room and kitchen, sometimes let together to a couple for housekeeping or to a base- ment dining-room proprietor, sometimes retained as living-rooms by the landlady herself. On the first floor are the two parlors, front and rear, and generally a small rear side room. The parlors are high-ceiled, with the large amount of stucco-work which characterizes the houses built fifty years ago. They have elaborate white marble mantelpieces, imported at some expense when the houses were built, and some of them still contain fine large mirrors which have come down to the lodging-house contingent from the palmy days of the past. The front parlor is so large and high that it is rarely a pleasant room, in spite of the fact that the best furni- ture of the house generally goes into it in an effort to make it the " show room" and to get a high rent for it. The rear parlor is smaller and easier to rent. The two parlors are connected by sliding-doors, which are sometimes hidden by tapestry which makes an impro- vised closet. On the second floor are the bath-room, a front side room, and two large square rooms, each of which has a spacious closet and running hot and cold water. On the third floor are two square and two side rooms, and on the fourth two square and two side rooms, or sometimes only two square rooms. All the square rooms below the fourth floor are heated, but generally none of the side. The heat is furnace heat, except in a few instances where steam or hot water has been installed, and is often inadequate. In general the houses are without fire-escapes. CHART V. Plans of First and Second Floor of the Typical Lodging-House. THE HOUSE ITSELF 35 The furniture of the typical side room is necessarily scant. There is not much room for it. It consists ordinarily of a single bed or couch, a small dresser, a chair, perhaps a small wardrobe, and a picture or two. With the square room somewhat more liberality is shown. The bed is iron, either single or double, or some sort of a folding contrivance, often big, unwieldly, and unsightly. Carpets are either of ingrain or some form of brussels, more generally the latter, and generally much worn and covered by cheap rugs of out- rageous combinations of color and pattern. A small table or two, a dresser, various kinds of chairs, and some cheap pictures complete the equipment. The windows are supplied with shades and encum- bered with lace or muslin curtains. The furniture is for the most part old, having come down from the indefinite past, through many vicissitudes of ownership and mortgage foreclosure. Some houses, however, in the better sections, have been supplied with new fur- niture of modern type. In a comparatively few houses the old plush armchairs and rockers have been discarded and their place filled with comfortable Morris chairs and willow or grass rockers; the marble-topped centre-tables have given way to neat weathered oak, the wooden folding-beds to iron, and the thick microbe-filled car- pets to clean, cool, and attractive mattings and rugs. There is even an improvement in the pictures. The chances are that such a house will have a public parlor, and that its lodgers will know something of each other. It is decidedly more homelike than the ordinary type. The lodging-house, like the tenement, has a sanitary problem, but one far less pressing and of a different nature. It is a question whether the unsanitary conditions of the tenement do not result, in the long run, perhaps quite as much from the character of its inhabitants as from the nature of the tenement itself. In the lodg- ing-house, on the other hand, the problem comes mainly from the house and its unsuitability for the purposes to which it is put. The great sanitary deficiency of the lodging-house, almost with- out exception, is the lack of proper bathing facilities. There is almost never more than one bath-room in a house, whether the house has nine rooms or eighteen, and six lodgers or twenty. It is gen- erally on the second floor, taking the place of a rear side room. When so situated it is well lighted and can be well ventilated. Sometimes, 36 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON however, in houses which deviate from the general plan, it is an inner room, practically without light, and devoid of outside venti- lation. The tub, except in the very best houses, which have put in modern plumbing, is of tin or copper, oftentimes rusty, corroded, and dirty. The brass faucets are generally in the same state, and the washbowl while perhaps not actually unclean has the appear- ance of being so, owing to the long use of the marble. In general the whole room has an unattractive appearance. The towel supply is rarely adequate to the needs of the house. Hot water is a rare commodity, and the lodger is supposed to use it sparingly and with circumspection, that his fellow lodgers may not be cheated from their meagre share. During the warm months of the spring, sum- mer, and autumn, there are weeks together, in many houses, when not a drop of hot water goes through the pipes. The customary plan, however, in the summer months, is to supply hot water once or twice a week, say on Saturdays and Sundays. In many cases the bath-room looks like a general store-room for dirty linen, brooms, and other household utensils. It is clear that one bath-room for a dozen to a score of persons is not enough. In fact, many of the smaller houses on out-of-the- way streets have no bath-rooms at all. There should certainly be two bath-rooms in every house, one on the second, the other on the third floor. If the bathing facilities were better, lodgers might ac- quire what as a rule they have not at present the habit of taking an invigorating plunge every morning. The water-closets are frequently old-fashioned, with a scant flush- ing supply. In many instances this undoubtedly makes them a nui- sance, and a menace to the health of the occupants of the house. Open plumbing is a rarity; and numerous are the complaints of landladies about the trouble and expense they are put to by care- less or ignorant lodgers. The houses are often damp, owing to the water in the cellars and to insufficient heat. The furnace fires are allowed to die down dur- ing the day when the lodgers are nearly all out, and are started up toward evening in time to get the rooms heated before their return. Ventilation is poor. The lodger is no exception to the rule that human beings taken generally are afraid of fresh air, especially at night. The old plush furniture, the hangings, rugs, and carpets serve to THE HOUSE ITSELF 37 catch and hold the dust with which the air of the South End is well freighted at nearly all seasons of the year. The great amount of traffic on the main streets, and the macadam pavements on the side streets produce so much dirt and dust that it is impossible to keep a room free from it. It blows through streets and alleys, swirls up the sides of buildings, and settles in attic windows as much as in parlors and basements. The houses are not all free from vermin; the first thing the sophisticated lodger does in looking over a new room is to ex- amine the bed very carefully. There are some houses in the South End which are pleasing to enter because of their immaculate clean- liness, where no speck of dust shows on furniture or woodwork, and linen and muslin window draperies shine white and fresh. Such houses are, unfortunately, exceptions; in most of them one will find that the landlady has daughters or other persons to help her in the work of the house. Again there are houses upon the best streets the uncleanliness of which can scarcely be described, from the slatternly dress of the landlady to the greasy stairs and the soiled and ragged bedspreads. CHAPTER VI THE CHANGE FROM BOARDING TO LODGING LITTLE has been said of the boarding-house, because that institu- tion is practically non-existent in Boston. Certain statistics are available which go to show a pronounced change from boarding- houses to lodging-houses. Certain other data, also, give us the pro- portion of boarding- and lodging-houses to the total population of the city, thus showing something of the relative importance of the lodging-house problem in various cities. Let us first examine the statistics bearing on the ratio of boarding- and lodging-houses to total population, which is shown in the following table: TABLE 8. BOARDING- AND LODGING-HOUSE KEEPERS IN THE TEN LARGEST CITIES, IQOO 1 M "5 o oj ^^ ^ S H H P4 .S js 148 1,423 i,54i 560,892 357 2 3 155 178 118,421 665 22 72 94 104,963 1,115 6 7 185 252 94,969 377 45 134 179 68,513 5 11 16 83 99 62,442 630 49 128 177 62,559 352 13 105 118 62,059 525 Boston Worcester Fall River Lowell Lynn New Bedford Lawrence Springfield So much for boarding- and lodging-houses. Their number gives some idea of the number of boarders and lodgers, but only indi- rectly. Unfortunately the United States Census gives no statistics for boarders and lodgers. We cannot compare, therefore, Boston with other large cities in this respect, a fact to be regretted, since 1 Care has been taken to ascertain that there was no change in the census defini- tion of "boarding- and lodging-house keepers" between 1880 and 1900. The Census Office "has simply tabulated from the schedules of the enumerators the number of persons returned by them, with these occupations. No special instruc- tions, or definition of these occupations, was furnished the enumerators in 1880, 1890, or 1900." 42 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON such comparison would throw considerable light on the relative numbers of persons in different cities who are condemned to lodging- or boarding-house life, certainly no small percentage in a great city like New York or Chicago. We can, however, compare Boston with other cities in Massachusetts, seven of which, excluding the immediate suburbs of Boston, have a population of over 50,000 each. Data for this comparison have been found in the Massa- chusetts State Censuses for 1885 and 1895, in the tables showing "relation to head of family." Turning to the last column of Table 12, we find that only one Massachusetts city had a greater proportion of boarders and lodg- ers than Boston. That was Lowell, with 10,516, or 12.4 per cent, of its total population, a high percentage due probably to the young men and women engaged in the textile industries there. Fall River shows the lowest percentage, 5.5, which seems due to the fact that nearly half the population is foreign, and that foreigners marry and go into homes of their own, however poor, earlier than Ameri- cans. TABLE 12. BOARDERS AND LODGERS, CITIES OF MASSACHUSETTS OF OVER 50,000 POPULATION, 1895 l 2 *^ *"" o rt bo o -a A 1 Compiled from Mass. State Census, 1895, vol. ii, pp. 554-569. * Idem, vol. i, p. 50. and ula- | _- rA C CJ g B M ft.-Z Sa M c-o __ c u C 3-Q C .l g 2 3 *? ^, u t ^^ CJ U 0, O O C/3 2 u 15 >u o -e c u cS -o ^ "X c fe*s ! PH H 73 between twenty-five and forty-four, 592 between forty- five and sixty-four, and 103 sixty-five years and over. Ninety-one per cent., that is, were between twenty-five and sixty-four, and 7.2 per cent, were sixty-five or over. As to nationality, 489 were native- born whites, 656 were foreign- born, and 55 were negroes. These 1 The Census of 1900 (Occupations, pp. 494, 498) shows 148 male "boarding- and lodging-house keepers" in Boston to 1423 females, a proportion of one male to every nine and a half females engaged in the business; but as by far the greater number of these men are engaged in the cheap lodging-house business, the census figures do not apply directly in our problem. THE LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER AND HER PROBLEM 53 latter are found chiefly around the Back Bay station, where there is a large negro colony. The Census gives us (for females) : Persons of native parentage 535 Persons having either one or both parents born in Ireland 397 Russia (Russian Jews) 10 Canada, English 217 Italy 7 Great Britain 117 Austria-Hungary 3 Scandanavia 27 Other countries 9 Canada, French 19 Mixed foreign parentage 68 Germany 14 The largest single division is the native-born. Most of these come from New England. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont northern New England seem to unite with Canada in sending a steady stream of people to Boston to fill its lodging-houses, either as lodgers or as landladies and housekeepers. The large number of Irish land- ladies is noteworthy, but the writer is inclined to think that their number in the South End is exceeded by the Canadians. 1 1 The nearest statistics we have for a district smaller than the whole city are given in the following table, taken from the Massachusetts State Census of 1895, vol. iv, pp. 1007 and ion, representing conditions, be it remembered, as they were ten or twelve years ago. It covers a much larger territory than the lodging-house section, and in fact somewhat more than is usually included in the term "South End," but it is not without some value as indicating the age, nationality, and literacy or illiteracy of persons engaged in the " Boarding and Lodging" occupation. It includes not only landladies but restaurant- and cafe"-keepers, which makes the numbers larger than those of the census of 1900. TABLE 19. PERSONS ENGAGED IN THE " BOARDING AND LODGING " OCCUPATION IN THE SOUTH END 15 but under 20 but 60 and Total 20 under 60 over Illiterates Males Native-born 750 23 709 18 n Foreign-born 300 10 281 9 4 Total 1,050 33 990 27 15 Females Native-born 857 45 757 51 9 Foreign-bom 973 72 868 33 37 Total 1,826 117 1,625 84 46 The Bureau of Statistics of Labor, in a letter to the writer, defines the South End district of the State Census as follows: "The so-called South End District lies be- 54 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Of more importance than the nationality or age of the landladies is their conjugal condition, and also what may be called their pre- vious condition of servitude ; for not all landladies have been trained in the lodging-house business all their lives. Very many have come from the hill farms of New England and Canada, some have risen from the tenement-house, and not a few have seen better days. Here, for instance, is one whose husband used to be a prominent shoe manufacturer, but lost his money in the stress of competition and then died; now his widow is making an heroic and successful struggle, amid conditions which she has had absolutely no train- ing to meet. Here is a widow whose husband was a sea captain, another whose husband was a newspaper editor; and so the list goes. We should undoubtedly be surprised could we ascertain the number and sterling character of the women whom misfortune of some sort has condemned to keeping roomers. Most of them take it philosophically. It speaks well for feminine fortitude when a kindly faced old lady, who used to have servants of her own, tells you with a smile that keeping lodgers "is very pleasant work, if you don't mind the little things." A very large proportion of land- ladies, but not all, are widowed or divorced. The Census of 1900 shows 353 married, 324 single, 50 divorced, and 696 widowed. Only one quarter (24.8 per cent.) were married. But this is no sure cri- terion of the number of landladies who may have more or less help from some male relative. Table 20, compiled from the annual Pre- tween the South Bay (Fort Point Channel) and a line drawn through the centres of the following streets and railroads, beginning at Bristol on the north: Bristol, Harri- son Avenue, Dover, Berkeley, Albany Railroad, Providence Railroad, Northamp- ton to the centre of Columbus Avenue; thence diagonally across the blocks to the corner of Hammond and Tremont streets; thence through the centre of Hammond Street to Shawm ut Avenue; thence easterly nearly to Fellows Street, beyond Harri- son Avenue; thence easterly across the blocks to the centre of Northampton Street; through the centre of Northampton Street to Albany Street; and thence through the centre of Albany Street to Massachusetts Avenue; and by the centre of Massa- chusetts Avenue to the water line along the canal." If the writer may venture a criti- cism, he would suggest that this is a type of very poor division for statistical purposes. It includes both a great region of tenement -houses and a vast area of lodging-houses, two districts totally different in population, in economic structure, and in social significance. Adding the two together in statistical columns is like adding pianos and turnips in the same sum. The result means little for most purposes. The table here given is unfortunately the nearest approach we can yet make to the statistics needed. CHART VI. of lodging house landladies who have husbands or other male relatives of thesawe I name irtthe house. wheae dependence probably is not, therefor*. solely in the keeping of lodgers. THE LODGING-HOUSE KEEPER AND HER PROBLEM 55 cinct Lists of Male Residents l for 1903, which also gives the names of the landladies in lodging-house districts, shows that about half the landladies are either widowed or single, and that the other half, where not married, at least have some male relative of the same name in the house, upon whom they could perhaps rely, if need be, for assistance. A total of 1389 houses are included in the table. The results by precincts are shown graphically in Chart vi. TABLE 20. NUMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF LODGING-HOUSE KEEPERS WHO HAVE, AND OF THOSE WHO HAVE NOT, HUSBANDS OR OTHER MALE RELATIVES OF THE SAME NAME IN THE HOUSE. * 3 I S ES 4 a * -aJS 11 * si *- s tfi E I", 1, S ~ E -; rfi (0 tfi -M (/] even allowing for the pecuniary disturbances of the Civil War and the '70% speaks for itself. The average value of each house in 1875 was $17,846; in 1902 it was only $11,568, and in 1905 only $10,896. The decline in thirty years was thus nearly 38.4 %. 1 Individual houses can be selected showing much larger declines. Chart vn shows graphically the facts of Table 25. The tremendous decline of South End real-estate values is an incontestable fact. We have said already that the decline began on Columbus Avenue and was due to the crisis of '73. Chart vn shows that in Union Park also the decline began soon after that year. The crisis was undoubtedly the prime cause for the deprecia- tion setting in. The impending opening-up of the Back Bay lands removed any hope of recovery. The exodus of the resident families only helped to intensify the fall in values. Such original owners as have retained their property have experienced a disheartening shrinkage in its value. The following are a few samples : TABLE 26. LOSSES SUSTAINED BY PRESENT OWNERS. (SAMPLES) Present owner has held since Selling price then Assessed valuation, 1902 Loss $24,000 $17,100 $6,900 13,000 11,700 1,300 21,500 12,500 9,000 19,000 10,800 8,200 22,000 12,100 9,900 1 Three corner houses, which have been remodeled either as apartments or by putting in stores, are omitted from these calculations. 76 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON It is but fair to remember, however, that such losses are not actually so great as they seem, notwithstanding that they would appear still larger could we judge of present value by market prices instead of assessed valuations, because the loss has been largely on the house, and was to some extent at least to have been expected. An old house is not supposed to bring a high price any more than an old coat. Some decline in values in the South End would probably have occurred even had it continued a residential section. This necessity of decline is well expressed by a recent writer: "When the public," he says, "have been educated to prefer light stone or brick houses to the old-fashioned brown-stone front, and modern interior arrangements, decorations, and plumbing to former styles of equipment, the old value of the house has about departed." 1 Furthermore, it is probable that the value of South End dwelling- houses has touched about its lowest point. The value of the land in the future should counterbalance the decline in the value of the house. The great losses have already been sustained by former owners and are irreparable. Present owners, whether they have held the property long or not, must accept the situation, and cannot reasonably expect to reap a rental income based on the former value of their property. In estimating the return that present owners are receiving we shall therefore reckon it upon present value, or, more conservatively, upon present assessed valuation. It is an old traditional rule in the real-estate business that a fair rent for a dwelling-house is ten per cent, annually of its value. This generally means from 6 per cent, to 7 per cent, net income on the investment. Opinions of real-estate men differ as to whether owners of lodging-house property are getting a fair return. The average rent of sixteen houses on Union Park, Upton Street, and West Canton Street was found by the writer to be a little over 9 per cent, of the assessed valuation. Whether this rate holds good over the lodging-house district as a whole we have no means of knowing, but we shall not be far wrong in assuming that it does. It means that a house assessed at $12,000 will rent for $1080. To derive the net income from this gross rental, we must deduct taxes, repairs, agent's commission, and a certain amount for depreciation. In 1902-3 the tax- rate in Boston was $14.80 per thousand. Agent's 1 Hurd, Principles of City Land Values, N. Y. 1903, p. 108. -$ REAL ESTATE IN THE DISTRICT 77 commission is generally five per cent, of the gross rent. On old but still substantial residences, like these, we should deduct from 4 to 5 per cent, for repairs, and about i per cent, for depreciation. 1 The annual account will then stand somewhat as follows : Rental income, 9% of Taxes @ $1480 per mille $177.60 $12,000 $1080.00 Repairs @ 5% of $1080 54.00 Agent's commission 54.00 Depreciation @ ij% of value 180.00 Total $465.60 Balance (Net income on as- sessed value) 614.40 $1080.00 $1080.00 Allowing for insurance this represents an annual net income of nearly 5 per cent, on the assessed valuation; and as these are above real value, it is safe to say that the net income is fully 5 per cent, of the real value. We have made ample allowance for the fixed expenses. As a matter of fact the average owner of lodging-house property will often do without an agent, and reduce the repair bill to a ridicu- lously low figure. Evidences of decay are apparent all over the district, and real-estate dealers state that owners are not keeping their property in good repair. Broadly speaking, then, it seems that the South End property-owner manages as a rule to reap a fair return upon the value of his property. Of the three classes involved in the lodging-house problem, the lodgers, the lodging-house keepers, and the owners, the latter seem to have least to complain of. Yet the landlords are to a great extent just the class who would object most strenuously to any curtailment of their moderate income. In part they are the heirs of the old residents. In large part, also, they are persons of moderate means who have invested a few thousand dollars in lodging-house property. Their ranks include dressmakers, clerks, carpenters, bakers, musicians, foremen, teamsters, cashiers, machinists, bookkeepers, physicians, jewelers, printers, bankers and brokers, florists, lawyers, real-estate agents, and various kinds of merchants and dealers. Of 270 houses 1 16 were found registered on the record of deeds in the names of women; but this does not necessarily mean that so large a proportion are 1 Hurd, Principles of City Land Values, pp. 127-8, 107. 78 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON actually owned by women, since the house often stands in the wife's name when the property really belongs to the husband. Some of these persons have undoubtedly been hoodwinked into buying lodging-house real estate at good round prices by unscrupu- lous dealers, and to such a reduction of rental income might come as something of a hardship. A considerable amount of crooked business is done in lodging-house real estate, though not so much as there is in furniture and good-will. Trading in equities and juggling with mortgages are common processes. Real estate of speculative value, like apartment-houses in course of construction, and property depreciating in value, like South End lodging-houses, are especially adapted to this kind of manipulation. Trading in equities is a process by which the unwary are made to pay highly for lodging-house real estate and often to lose all they invest. Sup- pose, for example, that Smith owns a house which he values at $16,000, but which on the market would not sell for anything like that amount. Suppose also that this property is mortgaged for $10,000. Suppose, further, that Jones, an individual entirely unacquainted with the tricks and turns of city real estate, owns a piece of land in the country which he values at $3000. Smith gets Jones into a "deal," and allows him to set the value of his land at $4000 provided the city property be set at $20,000. Jones assumes the mortgage of $10,000, gives Smith a second mortgage of $6000 to cover the balance of the $16,000, and deeds over the land to cover the additional $4000 of the $20,000. Smith is now the owner of land worth $3000 and he holds a mortgage of $6000 on the town house. Jones holds a house worth perhaps $14,000 mortgaged for $16,000, on which sum he has to pay interest. As time goes on, Jones may very likely be unable to meet his interest payments, the mortgages are foreclosed, and the house is sold at auction. It will not bring $16,000, but it will yield something over and above the $10,000 necessary to pay off the first mortgage, and this excess is pocketed by Smith. Jones loses everything, while Smith retains the land in the country and $3000 or $4000 in cash. What will be the future of real estate in the lodging-house district is hard to say. At various times real-estate dealers have thought they saw rays of hope. The Back Bay station was expected to create a centre of traffic and business, in what is now a negro lodging-house REAL ESTATE IN THE DISTRICT 79 district. The inconvenience of the noisy elevated road on Washington Street was expected to cause a shifting of real estate business to Shawmut Avenue, nearer the centre of the lodging-house section. But neither of these hopes was realized. At the present time a movement is on foot to modify the tene- ment-house law to permit the remodeling of lodging-houses into tenements without inserting steel beams, fireproof materials, and other expensive requirements which hitherto have made it econom- ically impossible to "make down" a lodging-house. At present the rules for first-class construction apply to such remodeled houses. On April 15, 1903, the mayor appointed a commission " to investi- gate tenement- house conditions in the city of Boston." This com- mission submitted its report May 18, 1904, and in it makes refer- ence to the peculiar needs of the South End. "The commission recognizes the justice of the complaint of many property-owners of the South and West Ends that present laws make it practically impossible for them to reconstruct dwelling- houses into four-story apartment-houses without incurring a burden of expense greater than the possible income will warrant. As a result most of these houses, no longer occupied as formerly by a well-to-do class of single families, have become boarding- and lodging-houses, and there has been a general depreciation in their value. It would seem both safe and wise to provide for the altera- tion of such houses into tenement-houses of second-class construc- tion by relaxing the requirements that they be ' plastered on incom- bustible materials throughout,' and removing the limitation of the number of families which may occupy each house. If the stair- ways are made fireproof and the rooms be properly lighted and ventilated, if also there be sufficient open area on the lot each house occupies, there will be no increase of danger in the recon- struction proposed." * And again in a minority report by Mr. Samuel M. Child: "Within the last thirty years the character and occupation of a large section of the city has materially changed; I refer especially to the West and South Ends, so-called, covered with substantial, well-built, brick houses on wide streets, and ample yard-room in the rear. Under the present building laws it 1 Report of the Commission appointed by the Mayor to investigate Tenement- House Conditions in the City of Boston (City Document no. 77, 1904), p. 3. 80 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON is impossible to remodel these buildings and adapt them to the changed conditions and needs of the community. There is no reason, in my opinion, why any existing brick building in the city limits, built as a dwelling for a single family, might not with safety be remodeled into suites a tenement on a floor, using second- class construction, so-called. This will house a large proportion of the community comfortably and within the means of the average wage-earner for many years." 1 There was thus unanimity of opinion in the commission that owners of lodging-houses, or old dwelling- houses, not more than four stories in height, should be allowed to remodel them into tenements without undergoing the expensive requirements of the present law. Should this be done, i. e., the rules for second-class construction made applicable, lodging-houses can be changed into tenement-houses or flats at moderate cost, or they can be remodeled so as to fill more satisfactorily than now the precise use of a lodging-house by having a large number of small rooms and more adequate sanitary equipment. It is to be hoped that this change will be made, as it would go far toward relieving the real-estate situation in the South End. 2 The demand for tene- ments and cheap apartments is much heavier than for lodging- houses. 3 The change would therefore help property-holders. It would be of social value, also, for it would create a supply of moder- ate-priced flats within easy walking distance of the down-town business district. It would break up the compactness of the lodging- house district, suggest home and family to the now too often callous lodger, and perhaps help greatly in solving the moral problem of the district. 4 1 Report of the Commission appointed by the Mayor to investigate Tenement- House Conditions in the City of Boston (City Document no. 77, 1904), pp. 46, 47. 2 Cf. Report of the aforesaid commission, pp. 3, 9, 41, 46, 47, 48, and 50. 3 Cf. Boston Transcript for December 10, 1903. 4 Cf. Chapters xvn and xvm. CHAPTER X THE LODGER: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LODGING-HOUSE POPULATION THE lodgers are numerically and in every other way the most important class with whom this investigation has to deal. We shall perhaps best gain a general notion of the class by first analyzing its sex and age, conjugal condition, nationality, and occupation, and by ascertaining as best we may whence the lodgers come and why they are lodgers. The South End lodging-house population was briefly and well described in 1898 in "The City Wilderness:" "They really compose those of the working classes who are single, with a few married couples who have not yet made themselves homes; that is, they stand for the large number of unmarried persons who have come to Boston from the distance to make their fortunes and have not yet made them." Naturally most lodgers have come from other cities and towns and from the country. Were they native to Boston, most of them would have had parents whom they would not have left till ready to marry and set up homes of their own. As stated in "The City Wilderness," the lodger class is not really characterized by nationality. Although we find representatives of almost every country, roomers are far more homogeneous racially than the tenement- house population. The houses of the West End contain a larger proportion of Irish than those of the South End, but with some few Germans and a sprinkling of Irish and English, the great mass remain Americans and Canadians. The Americans, who constitute by far the largest single ethnic element, are mostly from New England and New York. They are the farm boys and young fellows from rural New England towns, who come to the Hub with a film of glorious prospects before their eyes, to be clerks and salesmen, to enter business colleges and blossom out as bookkeepers at six dollars a week. They are skilled mechanics who come from other cities to help in the industries 82 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON of Boston. They are negroes of the South, who, attracted by wider opportunities than the conservatism of the South will afford them, and by an already extensive colony of their race, come to Boston in the hope of bettering their condition. They are young girls who come from rocky farms and hill towns to escape the irksome drudg- ery and monotony' of petty household duties; girls who have grown tired, very early in their lives, perhaps, of helping their mothers wash the dishes and pare the potatoes, and who have set their eyes to the city as a sort of Mecca for all in search of opportunity. They come to struggle along as clerks and stenographers, as milliners and dressmakers, as fancy-workers, nurses, and waitresses. Not a few come as students, to have their hearts gnawed at by homesickness, and to starve themselves on one meal a day, for the sake of an idea. The Canadians come mostly from the Lower Provinces, and as a rule do not intend to remain long in Boston. This is more espe- cially true of the girls, a large number of whom come as domestic servants, and who always have hosts of cousins and other relatives scattered about in the lodging-houses. Those who are not house- hold servants are manicurists, dressmakers, waitresses, and the like. The sexes seem about equally divided. According to the State Census of 1895, 65.1 per cent, of the lodgers were males, but as this applies to all conditions of lodgers, wherever found, whether in suburban districts or in the lowest cheap houses of the West End, it has little value for us. While the lodging-class is characterized, as we shall see, by the absence of children, and by an age-grouping in the productive period of life; while also it is characteristically a class of unmar- ried persons, on the one hand fairly homogeneous in nationality, and on the other extremely heterogeneous in occupation; still none of these traits would in itself so sharply differentiate it from other classes as does the fact that above all the lodging-house class is a floating population, or, as a noted French economist has called it, a population nomade. 1 The following table is instructive on this point: 1 Leroy-Beaulieu, in Repartition des Richesses. See post, p. 105. THE LODGER: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 83 TABLE 27. NUMBER OF ADULT MALE LODGERS, (A) WHO CHANGED, AND (B) WHO DID NOT CHANGE THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE BETWEEN MAY I, 1902, AND MAY I, 1903 NOTE. The column headed "Here" includes all lodgers who were in the same house at both dates; that headed "Out of Boston" those who on May i, 1902, were living outside the city; that headed "In Boston" those who were living in the city, but at some other address; and that headed "Unknown" those whose addresses on the earlier date could not be ascertained by the police, who made the canvass. Out of Total Here Boston In Boston Unknown Ward 12, Precinct i 737 383 115 164 75 Ward 12, Precinct 2 843 440 99 195 109 Ward 12, Precinct 3 454 225 57 129 43 Ward 12, Precinct 4 873 450 132 222 69 Ward 12, Precinct 5 600 278 95 174 53 Ward 12, Precinct 6 514 302 63 115 34 Ward 12, Precinct 7 285 180 20 68 17 Ward 9, Precinct 5 1039 450 165 309 115 Ward 9, Precinct 6 852 400 119 234 99 Ward 10, Precinct 3 674 311 195 93 75 Ward 10, Precinct 4 631 301 209 71 50 Ward 10, Precinct 5 549 259 92 in 87 Ward 10, Precinct 6 790 358 233 93 106 Totals 8,841 4,337 1,594 1,978 932 Per cent, of total 100. 49.03 18.04 22.38 IO -55 Total per cent, known living elsewhere 40.42 Total per cent, living elsewhere 5-97 A word of explanation will make clear the meaning of this table. The Annual Precinct Lists of Male Residents give not only the name, age, occupation, and present address of each man twenty years old or over, but also his address a year previous, where it could be ascertained. The table shows that, out of the total of 8841 lodgers included, only 49 per cent, had not changed their place of abode during the year. There is no reason to suppose that the facts would appear differently for women lodgers, had we any data wherewith to judge their case. To make this matter perfectly clear it may not be out of place to see at a given date what the distribution was a year before of 84 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON lodgers in a few individual houses, taken at random. In one house, for instance, out of a total of fifteen male lodgers, only five had been there as long as a year. In a house on Columbus Avenue nine male lodgers had been distributed as follows: a furniture dealer and a librarian had been there as much as a year, two musi- cians had come from other addresses in the city, a student from Georgetown, a bookkeeper from New Hampshire, another student from Michigan, another from Dedham, and a merchant from a previous address unknown. In a house on Concord Square, with six male lodgers, none had been there a year before; two, a clerk and a reporter, had come from Worcester; a draftsman came from Maine, a polisher from .Duxbury, and two salesmen from some other part of the city. In a house in Waltham Street, which had an unusually large number of male lodgers, twenty-three in all, eight had been there a year or more, a steam-fitter, a fireman, a dancing-master, a brick-layer, a printer, and an elevator- man; seven had lived elsewhere in the city a photographer, a painter, a collector, a carpet-layer, a foreman, a mason, and a janitor. Of the remaining men, a waiter had come from Lynn, a bartender from Ireland, a brakeman from Montana, a provision-dealer and a clerk from Nova Scotia, a salesman from Waltham, a carpenter from New York, and a machinist from Quincy. Such a list could be extended indefinitely. It is interesting also to note in this connection that out of a list of the addresses of nearly three hundred and fifty members, kindly furnished us by one of the city's largest organizations for young men, we found that probably two thirds had been changed within eight months. One of the largest churches in the South End has a card catalogue containing the names of some five thousand lodgers. The pastor says he would be glad if half the addresses were correct. The fact that nearly 20 per cent, of the lodgers now in Boston were a year ago living outside the city is merely a phase of the great movement, the constant flow, of population from country to city, which we have mentioned in an earlier chapter. Various causes may be assigned for the great amount of moving from place to place within the city. Dissatisfaction with rooms and room-mates, the idea that some other place is better, or at least not so bad, pure restlessness under distressingly irksome surroundings, change in place of THE LODGER: GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 85 employment, change of landladies, or discontinuance of the house in which they lodged, are all causes of an incessant ebb and flow of lodgers from one house and one locality to another. This extreme fluidity of the lodging-house population makes it a difficult one to manipulate for any one but the ward politicians, who find it much to their taste. A difficulty scarcely less important, in the way of social betterment, is the heterogeneity of occupation, to which the following chapter is devoted. CHAPTER XI THE LODGER: OCCUPATION LIKE most other urban statistics, those of occupation are published by wards only, and not by precincts or blocks, as would be necessary for a segregation of the statistics of occupations for lodgers. We are therefore forced to resort to other data. The only source from which it seems possible to derive any statistical information whatever for occupations is the series of Precinct Lists of Male Residents. Any one sufficiently acquainted with the minute local geography of the lodging-house district can use these voting-lists to reach some estimation of the vocational constitution of the lodger class. By an intelligent use of the lists we can exclude persons living in apartment- and tenement-houses and in private residences, and have left as a basis of calculation only those living in lodging-houses. We can then estimate the relative number of the lodgers engaged in the various occupations and branches of employment, compare these proportions with the proportions shown for the city as a whole, note any tendency of lodgers of the same occupation to congregate in the same locality, show the variety of occupations represented in typical lodging-house streets and in typical individual houses, and finally analyze the effects of lodging-house life upon the labor efficiency of the men and women subject to its influences. It must be understood, however, that the data furnished by these lists apply only to adult males. For male lodgers under twenty years of age we have no statistical data. But first-hand acquaintance with the lodging-class shows that the number of male minor lodgers is small. Nor have we any statistical information for that half of the lodging-house population which consists of women. This is greatly to be regretted. Attention in this chapter should be directed not so much to the absolute numbers given as to the percentages derived from them. In a calculation of this kind we obviously cannot hope to include all the lodgers living within the district covered. Only such houses THE LODGER: OCCUPATION 87 have been included as were, according to all evidences, almost certainly to be classed as lodging-houses. Tenement-houses, apart- ments, private residences, and in some cases whole streets, have been excluded, and with them undoubtedly many persons who in a regular census would be classed as lodgers. Most fairly viewed the statistical method we have been compelled to use is that of sampling. 1 While perhaps the absolute numbers do not mean much, we are confident that the percentages would not differ materially in a complete enumeration. The total number of male lodgers included in our calculations in this chapter is 7631. Their distribution among the four great branches of employment is shown in the following table, which is based on data for the thirteen precincts constituting the South End lodging-house district. 2 TABLE 28. BRANCHES OF OCCUPATION, ADULT MALE LODGERS Branch of Employment Number Per cent, of total Professional service 951 13.5 Domestic and personal service 1303 17. Trade and transportation 349 45-5 Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 1887 25 Total 7631 loo. The striking fact in this table is the very large percentage engaged in trade and transportation. Most of these men, as we shall see, are clerks, salesmen, and small dealers. Together with the skilled workmen, who make up the mass of those engaged in manufactur- ing and mechanical pursuits, they lend the lodging-house population its characteristic tone. The percentage of domestic and personal servants is swelled by the great number of negro waiters living about the Back Bay Station. Turning to the census of employments for all Boston in 1900, we find that there were 180,052 males ten years old and over engaged in the four great branches of occupation above tabulated, dis- tributed as follows: 1 Cf . Bowley, Elements of Statistics, p. 308. 2 Agriculture of course is not included. Certain miscellaneous employments, represented by only a few men each, which could not well be classified under any of the four heads, are excluded. 88 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON TABLE 29. OCCUPATION OF MALES, TEN YEARS OF AGE AND OVER, BOSTON, 1900 1 Branch of Employment Number Per cent, of total Professional service 10,866 6.5 Domestic and personal service 37>749 20.5 Trade and transportation 79*667 38.5 Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 61,770 34.5 Evidently this is a somewhat more even distribution than that of the lodgers. A comparison of Table 29 with Table 28 will show whether the lodging-house draws its clientele proportionally more heavily from one branch of occupation than from another. 2 TABLE 30. OCCUPATION OF MALE ADULT LODGERS, AND OF MALES IN ALL BOSTON Males ten Male lodgers years old Per cent. 20 years old, and over, excess (+) for Branch of Employment and over all Boston lodgers Professional service 13 .5% 6.5% 6.0% ( + ) Domestic and personal service 17.0 20.5 3.5 (-) Trade and transportation 45.5 38.5 7.0 ( + ) Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits 25.0 34.5 9.5 (-) It is evident that proportionally a larger number of professional men and of men following commercial pursuits (trade and trans- portation) than of skilled workmen or of domestic and personal servants, live in lodgings. The most striking difference appears in the professional service class. Here the proportion in lodging- houses is almost twice that in the professional class at large, and in this case no part of the difference can be due to the difference in age limitations in the two sets of percentages, since there are prac- tically no professional men who are under twenty years of age. That 950 out of some 7600 lodgers should be engaged in professional callings is a noteworthy fact. The presence in lodging-houses of so 1 Compiled from the Twelfth U. S. Census, Population, part ii, Table 94. 2 It is well to point out, however, that Table 29 includes males between the ages of ten and twenty, who were not included in the table for lodgers. While this fact theoretically renders the two tables incomparable, it seems probable, as already stated, that the number of male lodgers under twenty years of age is in fact too small to alter the results materially. THE LODGER: OCCUPATION 89 many men of this class is to be explained by two causes. First, professional men are under great expense for their education and technical training, and are slower in gaining a footing than men in other employments. They cannot marry and establish homes of their own so soon, and in consequence the lodging-house naturally becomes their abiding-place for a time. Secondly, a considerable number of physicians, dentists, and the like, men whose employ- ments are to a great extent necessarily localized, are doubtless drawn to the lodging-house district to be near their patrons and clients, actual or hoped-for. A large number of engineers and electricians also add to the ranks of professional men in lodgings. 1 The larger relative number of clerks, salesmen, etc., in lodging- houses than in the city as a whole is to be expected. The average shop-girl lives at home with her parents or relatives, in the city or the suburbs; but the ordinary clerk or salesman, earning often not so much as the average skilled mechanic, yet feeling himself on a higher social plane than the latter, is for a long time unwilling to marry and assume the responsibility of home and family, and con- sequently remains indefinitely in his lodging-house. Turning to the skilled workman we find an excess percentage not on the side of the lodgers, but on that of the population as a whole. Here again the use of the same age limit in both tables might increase slightly the number in lodgings, but on the whole it seems that the skilled mechanic does not take to the lodging-house as a semi-permanent abode with quite the same freedom as does the mercantile employee. Two reasons are to be assigned for this also. First, the workman does not like to live too far from his work, and there is but one factory district within easy walking distance from the lodging-house district of the South End. 2 Secondly, it is probable that skilled workmen marry earlier than mercantile employees. Of men engaged in domestic and personal service we find also a larger proportion in the population at large than in the lodging- 1 By the United States Census, engineers and electricians are classified as profes- sional men. It would seem that electricians would be more properly classified as skilled mechanics. 2 Cf. R. F. Phelps, South End Factory Employees and Their Homes, Boston, 1903. (Published by the South End House Association.) 90 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON houses, but the difference is not great. That it is not greater is due largely to the large number of negroes in the lodging-house district immediately contiguous to the Back Bay Station. That it is so large, on the other hand, is perhaps due to the fact that the percentage for the whole city includes a great number of day laborers, who are classed by the census as domestic and personal servants, and few of whom are to be found in lodging-houses. We have now to consider whether any tendency is evident for lodgers of the same general occupation to congregate in the same locality. Occupation is one of the strongest bases of sociability. It strengthens sympathy and the "consciousness of kind" between individuals by giving them a strong community of interest. This, together with variations in incomes and standards of living in different employments, should lead us to expect some tendency toward a geographical grouping by occupation. The distribution of male adult lodgers is shown graphically in Charts vui, ix, x, and xi. The geographical divisions are precincts. Table 31 gives the data from which these charts were constructed: TABLE 3I. 1 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, BY OCCUPATION, AND BY WARDS AND PRECINCTS, OF MALE ADULT LODGERS, SOUTH END LODGING-HOUSE DISTRICT, 1903 Ward 9 Ward 10 Ward Precinct: 5 634561234567 Total per cent. Branch of occupa- tion Prof. serv. . . . 10.8 9.0 6.8 6.5 6.3 8.1 12.0 13.3 5.7 10.4 4.4 4.6 2.1 too Bom. and pers. . 10.7 5.7 8.8 12.5 15.5 15.2 4.7 3.9 3.7 6.8 4.9 4.5 3.1 100 Tr. and trans. . . 10.0 9.0 7.9 5.5 4.6 8.9 9.9 n.6 4.7 10.7 7.6 6.4 3.2 too Mfg. and mch. 213 122 7.5 6.3 3.2 5.7 52 5.5 5.5 9.9 6.4 6.4 4.9 100 Percentage of total number of lodgers (7631). 13.0 9.2 78 7.0 63 9.0 8.0 9.0 4.8 9.8 6.6 6.0 3.5 100 The significant facts brought out by this table are the concentra- tion of professional men in Precincts i, 2, and 4 of Ward 12, and in Precinct 5 of Ward 9; the very pronounced concentration of domestic and personal servants in Precincts 4, 5, and 6 of Ward 10, together with a secondary grouping in Precinct 5 of Ward 9; the grouping of persons engaged in trade and transportation in Pre- cincts i, 2, and 4 of Ward 12; and finally, the heavy concentration of skilled mechanics in Precincts 5 and 6 of Ward 9. 1 Summarized from Tables 32, 33, 34, and 35. THE LODGER: OCCUPATION 91 Let us look for a moment at each branch of occupation separately. 1. Professional Service. Table 31 and Chart vm show that the professional men are strongly centralized in a district in Ward 12 bounded roughly by Massachusetts Avenue, Tremont Street, West Canton Street, and the Hartford railroad tracks. This area is the best part of the South End lodging-house district. The general absence of professional men from Precincts 3, 4, and 5 of Ward 10 is explained by the large number of domestic and personal servants that appear in these precincts, as is clear from Chart ix. 2. Domestic and Personal Service. Nearly two thirds of the lodgers classified as domestic and personal servants (about 1300) reside, as shown by Table 31 and Chart ix, in the four precincts of Ward 10, and in Precinct 5 of Ward 9, in other words in a belt of territory extending across the South End from the Back Bay Station and the Hartford Railroad to Tremont Street and the lower part of Shawmut Avenue. A large number of negro waiters, cooks and stewards, barbers, janitors, and porters find rooms in the western part of this belt, and constitute the bulk of this class to be found in lodgings. The intersection of Dartmouth Street and Columbus Avenue marks about the centre of this negro colony. Their choice of this locality is probably due, in part at least, to its proximity to the apartment-house, hotel, and private residence districts of the Back Bay just across the railroad and beyond Copley Square. 3. Manufacturing and Mechanical Pursuits. As is shown in Chart x, the skilled workmen are concentrated heavily in the down-town end of the district. There is but one centre of density for this class the two precincts, 5 and 6, of Ward 9, where exactly one third of the skilled mechanics are lodged. The chief reasons why they are centralized here (between Dover and West Dedham streets, and Tremont and Washington streets) are: first, the proximity of the South End factory district, secondly the near- ness of the down-town business district, which is within easy walking distance, and thirdly perhaps the fact that the locality is somewhat less "genteel" than the districts farther out in Ward 12. Those portions of the latter ward which show a strong centralization of the professional and business classes show very small percentages for mechanical pursuits, a bit of evidence that the two classes do not much tend toward social amalgamation. Precinct 5 of Ward 9 92 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON shows a large percentage both of skilled mechanics and of profes- sional men, but electricians and engineers here make up a large proportion of the professional class. 4. Trade and Transportation. Turning to Chart xi, we find in this same district of Ward 12 a large percentage of mercantile employees. The strongest grouping of this class is, however, in the outer precincts of Ward 12, coinciding roughly with that of the professional men. While, then, to summarize the conclusions to be reached from this survey, we may say that no especially surprising concentrations are noted, nevertheless the district is differentiated into well-defined localities each of which is characterized by its own occupational class. Acquaintance with the district fully corroborates the evidence of this analysis. The tendency of the professional and commercial classes to congregate in Ward 12, of the clerks to settle thickly in the lodging-house part of Ward 9, and of the domestic and personal servants to concentrate in certain precincts of Ward 10, lends a tone of its own to each district, and is in part also a result of that distinctive tone. 1 The details upon which the foregoing analysis is made are given in Tables 34, 35, 36, and 37, which show the actual number con- sidered in each occupation. Points of minor interest are the central- ization of physicians in Precincts i, 2, 4, and 5 of Ward 12 (Table 34), and the great number of clerks and salesmen that appear in Table 35. (See Appendix to this chapter.) The importance of individual occupations is shown in the follow- ing table, for all in which more than one hundred persons were found : TABLE 32. OCCUPATIONS OF MALE LODGERS, IN ORDER OF NUMBER EMPLOYED Clerks 1002 Foremen, managers, etc. 203 Salesmen 610 Engineers 177 Merchants and dealers 411 Real est. and insurance agents 157 Waiters 361 Cooks and stewards 152 1 " The distribution of any element of the population over the city is significant both as indicating the character of the element and as accounting in some measure for its character." Lillian Brandt, The Negroes oj St. Louis, in the Publications of the American Statistical Association, March, 1903, p. 219. ff) *.9 4.3 Clergymen . . . 2 i 2 I 5 i 2 i 2 3 - I 21 2.2 Teachers 9 3 7 6 3 ii 9 2 4 2 2 2 60 6. 3 Lawyers . 3 7 4 2 I 12 9 M I II 2 9 - 75 8.0 Journalists i Literary and scientific 10 2 4 i 3 5 3 3 3 9 3 2 9 3 3 i 6 i i i I 42 35 4-4 3-7 18.6 Electricians . 22 5 12 12 9 9 7 19 4 18 I 7 4 5 177 130 13-7 Miscellaneous 7 2 2 - 2 I 2 4 i 2 I i 25 2.6 Totals . 103 85 64 62 60 77 "4 127 54 99 42 44 20 95i 1 00.0 Per cent. . 10.8 9.0 6.8 6.5 63 8.1 12.0 13.3 5.7 10.4 4.4 4.6 2.1 100.0 TABLE 35. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE Ward 9. Ward 10. Ward 12. Precinct : , 5 6 3 4 5 6 Occupation Waiters .... 32 16 38 50 81 75 Cooks and stewards 3* '4 '7 16 ii '4 Restaurant keepers . . 5 6 5 5 6 i* | IO 4 2 7 Policemen, watchmen, j etc g 6 5 9 2 5 Barbers IO a 8 12 IO 16 4 a 3 2 I a Janitors Laborers 3 20 IO II 7 3 IO 6 IO 15 22 13 Miscellaneous .... 16 19 49 65 38 Totals .... 139 74 116 163 202 I 9 8 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 Totals. Per cent. .8 5 22 8 16 5 5 361 27.7 a 3 5 14 7 8 3 S3 1 1.6 6 6 5 4 4 a 54 4-i - 4 2 10 8 9 a 79 6.0 6 4 2 ii Q 6 5 79 6.0 i S - 9 3 4 So 6.1 16 6 _ 12 3 3 54 4-1 4 2 - 7 i 6 6 88 6.8 ll 3 5 9 5 8 10 119 8-4 a '3 ii 4 9 4 7 37 18.2 62 5i 47 89 65 57 40 1303 100.0 Percent. . . . 10.7 5.7 8.8 12.5 15.5152 4.7 39 37 6.8 4.9 45 3-* " 96 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON TABLE 36. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, TRADE AND TRANSPORTATION Ward 9. Ward 10 Ward 12. Precinct : 5 6 3 4 5 6 i 2 3 4 5 6 7 Per Occupation Totals. cent. Salesmen . ... 48 67 53 38 33 62 75 6 7 27 54 43 25 18 610 '7-5 Clerks 123 I O2 88 60 42 97 93 * *3 ce 85 52 6 1 3 l 1 002 28.8 Bookkeepers .... 33 25 28 ii 18 32 27 34 jj ' 14 37 i/ 17 IO 303 8.7 Commercial travelers 7 4 5 2 6 8 5 15 4 8 8 4 a 78 2.2 Railroad employees . . 27 27 19 19 15 15 18 16 3 23 39 28 7 256 7-4 Real estate and insur. agents .... 9 17 14 8 i 9 17 '9 12 3i 10 7 3 i57 4-5 Agents (not specified) . Merchants and dealers 13 18 14 3 9 14 8 23 10 22 9 37 ii 38 16 65 I '9 ii 57 6 7 40 35 13 "5 411 3-3 11.7 Foremen, managers, etc. ii 10 '9 ii 9 IS 24 27 12 26 21 10 i 203 5-8 Bankers and brokers i 5 9 2 2 3 6 !4 2 6 6 i i 58 17 Contractors and builders 2 3 i - - 2 9 6 2 S i i a 34 I.O Manufacturers .... - 2 I - 4 5 2 - 2 3 i 20 .6 Publishers - - I - - i 2 I - I 2 i 9 .2 Teamsters .... 56 IO 13 II 4 13 5 II 10 29 16 19 15 212 6.1 Miscellaneous .... - - 7 8 3 3 i 22 .6 Totals .... 348 3'4 275 194 162 306 34' 4'5 165 374 263 221 112 349 1 00.0 Per cent. 10.0 9.0 7.9 5.5 4.6 8.9 9.9 1 1. 6 4.7 10.7 7.6 6.4 3.2 100.0 TABLE 37. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: MANUFACTURES AND MECHANICAL PURSUITS Precinct : Occupation Carpenters - . Ward 9. 5 ~~6 64 34 14 15 59 34 22 17 6 5 Ward 10 Ward 12. Totals. 260 92 242 '36 Per cent. 3-7 49 12.8 5-5 24 7 23 8 4 16 4 18 7 2 3 8 3 2 6 13 3 '3 6 2 i 12 I 16 4 2 9 8 7 4 2 12 4 12 8 3 4 28 8 21 6 5 '7 IO 18 8 2 6 17 12 II 4 2 7 6 T 3 2 Painters and paper-hang- Plumbers, and gas and steam-fitters .... Other building trades . Total for building trades Machinists . Other iron and steel- workers Other metal-workers Total for metal trades . Printing trades (chiefly printers) ... Textile trades (chiefly lt>5 105 62 47 '3 37 JO 30 37 76 55 46 24 735 38.8 69 '9 14 4' 7 IO 18 4 4 19 4 3 7 2 3 15 3 i IO 9 IO 4 14 4 2 6 4 9 8 M 10 2 4 6 2 269 82 58 143 4-S J.O 7O2 J8 26 26 72 i<) 20 '7 2O 49 22 20 12 409 27.5 39 i? 22 I? II 14 12 i? 8 IO 9 10 8 17 9 4 8 6 6 18 7 4 i 6 5 4 IO 7 5 3 13 '3 5 5 2 4 8 13 12 7 i 4 4 26 9 3 3 4 i 9 20 5 4 2 I 4 7 7 8 5 5 7 5 IO 14 8 '3 4 5 i 4 18 14 5 7 6 2 S 7 S S 4 3 6 220 124 "7 22 64 63 47 86 n.6 6.5 6-3 i.i 3-4 3-4 2-5 4.6 Piano and cabinet-mak- Other wood-workers . . Shoe-makers and leather- workers . Butchers and bakers Cigar-makers .... Miscellaneous .... Totals .... Per cent. . . 402 ai-3 228 12.2 142 7-5 118 6-3 58 32 106 5-7 97 52 102 5-5 102 5-5 85 9'9 129 6.4 129 6.4 4-9 1887 1 00.0 1 00.0 CHAPTER XII THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION EMPLOYMENT is the key to income, which is the measure of possible expenditure. An individual's economic condition is measured by the size of his income and by the expenses which he must regularly meet out of it. Knowing a lodger's occupation, we can estimate his income and compare with it certain fixed weekly charges he must meet. Not all lodgers are wage-earners. There are many wives sup- ported by husbands, some husbands supported by wives; there are many students, and many old people, some living on the income from past savings, some on the bounty of relatives, some on charity. But the vast majority of lodgers, both men and women, are paid workers. Until recently we have had no reliable statistics of the wages of mercantile employees in Boston, but Part in of the Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor for 1902 consists of a collection of mercantile wages and salaries. The Report covers 455 establishments in the heart of the business district, and 9454 employees. Tables 38 and 39 are based on it. Table 40 is from trade-union sources. TABLE 38. LOWEST, HIGHEST, AND AVERAGE WEEKLY INCOME, SELECTED MERCANTILE EMPLOYMENTS, BOSTON, 1902 Lowest Highest Average Men Women Men Women Men Women Buyers Bookkeepers Bookkeepers' assistants Clerks Cashiers Stenographers Commercial travelers Salesmen $15-16 $15-16 $125 $81 $3566 $26.07 6- 7 5-6 57-58 25-26 19-73 1 1. 06 II.OXJ 9.89 4- 5 3- 4 28-29 2O-2I 11.22 I2.5O 5-6 3~ 4 23-24 18-19 13.20 7.89 8- 9 4- 5 16-17 2O-2I 12.03 10.86 xo-ri IOO 28.22 3-4 3-4 60 24-25 14.99 8.04 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Lowest Highest Average Men Women Men Women Men Women $9-10 $4-5 $34-35 4- 5 $11-12 $16.49 10.67 $6.71 1 1 -1 2 23-24 6-7 30-31 15-57 13-93 2- 3 2-3 18-19 5-6 14-15 IO -33 9-10 9.10 9-5 4.83 TABLE 39. LOWEST, HIGHEST, AND AVERAGE WEEKLY INCOME, SELECTED EMPLOYMENTS OF THE DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE CLASS, BOSTON, 1902 Cooks Cooks' assistants Bartenders Watchmen Laborers Waiters Janitors TABLE 40. WAGES OF MECHANICS, SKILLED AND UNSKILLED, BOSTON, 1903-4, UNDER TRADE UNION SCHEDULES 1 Steam-fitters Plumbers Gas-fitters Plasterers Brick -layers Masons Carpenters Elevator-constructors House-smiths Sheet-metal workers Painters Decorators Structural-iron workers Roofers Electricians Steam-fitters Pipe-coverers Marble-cutters Freestone-cutters Laborers Plasterers' laborers Cement-workers Cement-workers' helpers Art-glass workers 1 This wage-list was kindly furnished the writer by Mr. Harry B. Taplin, Amherst Fellow at the South End House, Boston, 1902-04, who has made a special study of trade-unionism in Boston. Wages per week, Hours assuming constant per day Wages per day employment 8 $3.50-4 co $21.00-24.00 8 3.75-4.00 22 50-24.00 8 3-50 21. OO 8 4.00 24.00 8 4.40 26.40 8 4.40 26.40 8 3.00 18.00 8 3.60. 21.60 8 3.00-350 18.00-21. oo 8 2.75-3-50 16.50-21.00 8 2.80-3.00 16 80-18.00 8 3.20-4.00 19.20-24.00 8 4.00 24.00 8 3-oo 18.00 8 3-2 19.20 8 3.50-4.00 21.00-24.00 8 3-0 18.00 8 3.50-4.00 21.00-24.00 8 4.00 2400 8 or 9 2.40 or 2.70 14.40-16.20 8 2.75-3.00 16.50-18.00 8 3.00-3.50 18.00-21. oo 8 2.00-2.25 12.00-15.00 8 3.00-3.50 18.00-21. oo THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION 99 Steam-fitters' helpers 8 2.00-2.50 12.00-15.00 Tile-layers 8 4.25 2 5-5 Tile-layers' helpers 8 2.50 15.00 Woodworkers 50 hours per wk. 2.80-4.00 16.80-24.00 Hardwood finishers 50 hours per wk. 2.80 up 16.80 up. Paper-hangers (piece-work) 4.00 up 24.00 up. Cigar-makers (piece-work) 20.00 These tables are sufficient to give some idea of the weekly income of the vocational classes that constitute the greater part of the lodging-house population. Certain fixed and regular expenses, namely, room- rent, board, laundry, and in many cases car-fare, must be met. What remains of weekly income may go for clothing, etc. As the greater part of the lodging-house district is within easy walking distance of the business district we shall exclude car-fare from this discussion, especially as we can scarcely hope to arrive at any correct estimate of it for the mass of lodgers. Laundry expenses also vary. Fifty cents a week might suffice one person, while another could not get along on a dollar. Laundry expense is harder on women and girls than on men. Many lodgers do a part of their own washing, although most landladies object to it. The two main charges are of course board and room-rent. The writer made an attempt in the early part of his labors on this inves- tigation to gather some statistics at first hand in regard to these two items, but it was productive of such meagre results for the labor expended that it was not persisted in. However, such results as were obtained, together with general information as to lodging- house rates, render it certain that the average weekly payment for room-rent is not far from two dollars per person. One hundred and five persons in eight houses on Union Park, for example, paid an average weekly rent of $2.34, while eighty-one persons in five houses on Upton Street near by paid a weekly average of only $1.90. The individual averages for the eight houses on Union Park ran respec- tively as follows: $2.14, $2.18, $1.94, $2.25, $2.80, $2.71, $2.32, $2.40. This shows considerable variation from house to house. Nearly as much is shown by the houses on Upton Street: $1.96, $1.65, $1.80, $2.00, $2.10. One house on Dartmouth Street shows an average of $3.16. Where the averages for different streets and different houses so close together vary so much, a general average 100 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON for the whole district, even had we the data for its calculation, would obviously give little information concerning the actual cost of rooms to individuals. Naturally a person can, within limits, suit the price of his room to his purse. The great demand, as shown by room-registry experience, seems to be for $2.00 and $3.00 rooms. The average prices charged for rooms have already been given in Tables 22 and 23, Chapter vm. Side rooms for less than $1.50 are rare, the usual rate being from $1.50 to $2.00. The demand for side rooms exceeds the supply. Square rooms range from $2.00 for unheated attic rooms to $5.00 and $6.00 for the best front rooms. A square room is usually occupied by two persons, who room together, the chances are, quite as much to reduce expenses as to enjoy each other's company. Among women there is a strong objection to rooming with any one, though there are of course those who either prefer it or do not object to it. Turning to rent paid by lodgers of different occupations, we find that where a man and wife occupy a room they pay from $3.50 to $6.00 a week and that the kind of employment has little to do with the price paid. We find single salesmen paying $2, $3, and $4 a week; saleswomen, $i to $3; clerks, both men and women, $1.50 to $4; dressmakers, $1.75 to $3; trained women nurses, $2 to $4; stenographers, $1.25 to $3; waiters and waitresses, $1.00 to $3. For skilled mechanics the almost uniform level is $2.00. Turning to Table 40, we see that the weekly earnings of the skilled mechanic do not, in times of constant employment, fall below $16 per week. It is said that the ratio of rent to income varies from 12 per cent, to 15 per cent, among the wealthy to twenty- five or thirty-five per cent, among tenement dwellers. 1 So far as rental expenses are concerned our unmarried skilled mechanic lodger is evidently not to be classed with the tenement population. In some other occupations, however, room-rent assumes at times more alarming proportions. Take, for example, the female clerks, whose highest wages do not range over $12 a week. Two dollars a week is i6 per cent, of this. The average weekly wages of wait- resses are only $4.83, and unlike waiters, they get scarcely any tips. From $1.00 to $3.00 for room-rent does not leave a wide margin for other expenses. The average weekly wage of saleswomen is 1 Kurd, Principles of City Land Values. THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION IOI $8.00 a week; a room- rent of $1.50 a week deducts 18.7 per cent, of this, one of $2.00 a week 25 per cent. We may be thankful that not a very large number of sales-girls live in lodgings. No shadow of doubt can be entertained that very many underpaid mercantile employees, other than sales-girls, are compelled to live in lodging- houses, where they pay out a disproportionate amount of their incomes for room-rent, and necessarily go underfed and inade- quately clothed. Especially is this true of the women and girls. With salaries almost uniformly lower than that paid men, as the ta.bles show, very often for exactly the same kind and amount of work, they still have to maintain the same standards of living, and in the matter of dress even a higher standard. The employer expects his female help to look neat and clean constantly. The girl has to dress well, outwardly, even though she suffer from cold. 1 We will not pursue the details of room-rent expense farther. The reader can readily see by a comparison of the tables that room-rent need not be felt as a seriously heavy charge by the better paid mer- cantile employees and skilled mechanics; that it is about a normal charge upon those of average salary; but that upon those whose salary is below the average it bears as a heavy burden. After room- rent comes the board-bill. Whether the present ar- rangement for sleeping in one place and eating in another is econom- ically advantageous to those whom circumstances compel to live outside the pale of the home may be doubted. The lodger of to-day accepts the situation as he finds it, as a matter of course. Probably he would be loath to go back to the regime of the boarding-house. Room-rent and board-bill thus become two distinct items in his expense account. The basement dining-rooms are largely patronized. Their almost invariable rates, as before noted, are "Gents, $3.50, ladies, $3.00." Why they make this difference in price is something of a conundrum, but it has become an established custom and holds undisputed sway. In its origin it was probably based on the idea that women 1 The superintendent of one of the best working girls' homes in the city states that the wages of her girls do not average over eight dollars a week. Twelve dollars is the highest, and only two or three girls receive as much as ten. There are seventy- five girls in the house. The superintendent does not think these wages are below the average wages of girls in lodging-houses. 102 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON eat less than men and should consequently be charged less. It may be, also, that there was in the distinction some sub-conscious acknowledgement that women, receiving much lower wages than men, could not be expected to pay as much. Be this as it may, it is obvious that no very high grade of board can be served either to men or women at such rates. The writer has eaten in many of these dining-rooms, and while in a few the food was good, considering the price, in many both the food and the service were atrocious. Soup, a choice of beef or mutton, boiled potatoes, "side beans," stewed corn, and blueberry pie, with tea or coffee (?) would con- stitute a typical dinner in the best of the dining-rooms. The follow- ing list of prices is advertised by one of the largest and best-known eating places: Full ticket, 21 meals $4.00 Breakfast and dinner, 14 meals 3.00 Breakfast, 7 meals 1.50 Dinner, 7 meals 1.50 Luncheon, 7 meals 1.20 This is the one big restaurant in the district which serves meals exclusively table d'hote, and it is as much an institution of its region as the State House is of Beacon Hill. A sample menu for luncheon reads well, but upon actual test is distinctly disappointing. The cost of board in a cafe* is somewhat higher than in a dining- room. The writer, in a personal test of cafe" life, found it impossible to reduce the cost below $4.50 a week, and have enough to eat. At that it was necessary to abstain from desserts of any kind. For breakfast the average lodger rarely pays over fifteen or twenty cents. Most of the cafe's serve "combination breakfasts" some of which, offered by a caf6 of about average excellence, run as follows: Small tenderloin steak, French fried potatoes, tea or coffee 30 cts. Broiled lamb chop, fried egg, tea or coffee 25 cts. Fried ham, fried egg, side beans, tea or coffee 25 cts. Two eggs on toast, baked beans, tea or coffee 20 cts. Fried sausage, griddle cakes, tea or coffee 20 cts. Corned beef hash, dropped egg, tea or coffee 15 cts. Baked beans, fish-cake, tea or coffee 10 cts. A cereal increases the charge five or ten cents, and fruit from five to fifteen cents. Most lodgers dispense with both. The consequent THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION 103 excessive diet of fried things reveals itself in sallow complexions and sluggish circulations. Allowing twenty cents for breakfast, twenty-five for lunch, and thirty-five for dinner, a modest enough estimate, we find a total of $5.60 per week. As many of the cafes issue discount tickets, which give a reduction of ten or fifteen per cent, for payment in advance, the actual cost of the week's board may be somewhat reduced. One cafe, for example, offers discount tickets, $5.75 for $5.00; another, $3.50 for $3.00, $2.15 for $2.00, and $1.10 for $1.00. If the lodger is thrifty enough to buy a five- dollar ticket in advance he can reduce the above $5.60 to something less than $5. The best dining-rooms in Ward 12 charge nearly as much as this five dollars a week for three meals a day, or four dollars for breakfasts and dinners being the highest dining-room rates. At the model boarding-house of the South End House it is found possible to set a good table for $3.50 a week, but only for two meals a day and three on Sunday; for three meals a day it is found necessary to charge $4.50. There are no men in the house. To reduce the board to these figures it is necessary to have at least fifteen boarders. It is doubtful whether the average lodger can afford as much as this for board even in good times. The writer does not believe that the average male lodger pays over four dollars a week, even when taking his meals at cafes. For women the rate must be still lower. Were there a few large and well patronized dining-halls in the South End, with a thousand boarders each, it would probably be possible to introduce many economies of large-scale production and reduce the cost of board materially. The cost of board to student members of the Harvard Dining Association in Memorial Hall, Cambridge, averages little, if any, over four dollars a week, and the board is incomparably better than one can get for that amount anywhere in the South End. Reducing room- rent and board to their lowest terms, $1.50 and $3.00 or $3.50 a week, respectively, we must conclude that a woman cannot expect to live in a lodging-house and take her meals out for less than $4.50 or $5.0x3 a week, and that a man cannot live for less than $5.00 or $5.50. For a woman $5.00 and for a man $5.50 a week may in the long run be set as the lowest price for room and board. At these figures the lodger will have to live in an unheated and stuffy side room, or share a poorly furnished and often untidy 104 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON square room with some roommate about whom he perhaps knows little; and he will have to be content with the plain and very often ill- cooked food of the basement dining-room and the cheaper cafes. If he has a square room to himself, and eats in the better cafes his weekly expenses cannot well be under $7.00, and may easily amount to nine or ten dollars. Compare now the probable lowest general cost of living with the lowest rates of salary paid to mercantile employees (Table 38, columns i and 2). It is at once evident that most of these low-paid persons cannot meet even the mere board and room-rent expenses of lodging-house life. Those of this class who do not live at home are starving themselves in the cheapest rooms to be had in tenement- houses and the lowest grade of furnished-room house. The income of the highest-paid mercantile employees, on the other hand, will easily permit them to live in South End lodgings. As a matter of fact when salary rises to $25 a week, the recipient is likely sooner or later to seek a room in the suburbs. It is the medium grade mer- cantile employees and the skilled mechanics who stay in the lodging- houses. And with them board and room- rent will take from one third to one half of their weekly income. A considerable amount of light housekeeping is done in lodging- houses. Evidence of this is afforded by landladies, and by the many small bakeshops and delicatessen establishments scattered through the district. How great are the privations patiently and philosoph- ically borne by many an underpaid clerk or struggling young sten- ographer will never be known except to the individuals themselves, for they are hedged about by a pardonable pride, and are more or less cut off from companionship. Perhaps enough has been said to render it tolerably clear that the economic outlook of the majority of lodgers is neither very roseate nor entirely hopeless. Their life is one of daily grind, of monotonous hand-to-mouth living, a sort of dead level of existence, modified here by heroic struggle, and there by indifferent expenditure of total earnings in legitimate and illegitimate ways. In the lodging-house population we are dealing to a large extent with that great class of young men and women who, having a certain amount of education and a considerable degree of pride, are struggling along in the ranks of mercantile employment now for a long time overcrowded. We THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION 105 have heard the clerks and salesmen called "the most despicable of classes," from the idea that they go into the office and behind the counter to be "genteel," to wear good clothes, and to escape the manual toil of the mechanic and artisan. No doubt there is some truth in this conception. The average clerk in a city store has no very broad conception of life; he lacks humor to appreciate himself at his own real and small social value; he is prone to look down upon the skilled workman as of a lower social class. Again we hear disapprobation expressed because girls who have to earn their own living generally prefer to enter stores and factories than to go into homes as domestic servants. Those who express such disapproval should first be careful that they have some acquaintance with both sides of the question. 1 And those who consider the mercantile employees "the most despicable of classes" will do well to pause and inquire how many of these young men and women are drawn into stuffy offices, crowded department stores, and unhealthy fac- tories by the siren cry "Room at the top!" and this when in fact every one knows that the room at the top will suffice for a very few only, and that the business world is not a pyramid on its apex, but one on the broad, solid base constituted by the thousands of ordinary men and women who have to do the every-day tasks of the world. As it is hope of power and influence that draws an ever increasing number of college graduates into the legal profession, just so is it hope of advancement, fully as much as desire to be genteel and to escape manual labor, that draws young men and women of more modest education into the endless chain of office and shop work from which few can actually escape to higher levels. It was a recog- nition of this overcrowding of the ranks of mercantile employment by men and women of moderate attainments that led M. Leroy- Beaulieu to write, as far back as 1881: "Le pauperism qui est a craindre aujourd'hui, ce n'est pas celui des mise'rables qui ne savent ne lire ni e"crire, c'est le pauperism des homines instruits, plus au moins capables de toute tache de bureau; voilk les vrais pauvres dont la civilisation, si elle n'y prend garde, produira des legions a Pavenir." 2 This opinion, it seems to us, has been borne out by 1 See, for a sympathetic analysis of the reasons for the girls' choice of store and factory in preference to domestic service, Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics, chapter iv. 2 De la Repartition des Richesses, pp. 558-59. 106 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON the developments of the quarter- century which has passed since it was expressed. It can hardly be doubted by any one acquainted with the conditions that comparative poverty in the lodging-house population, characterized by the presence of so many mercantile employees, is as grinding as in the tenements, and that among the lodgers there is perhaps a more poignant suffering from loneliness and absence of friends and home life than is dreamed of among tenement-dwellers. Finally we have to record a fact which will no doubt be new to most readers. The lodging-house is not free from that more sordid type of poverty that renders necessary the good offices and aid of the charity visitor. We shall show in a later chapter, moreover, that the lodging-house tends to be a breeding-place for more serious forms of social degeneration; here we have to look a moment at the connection existing between the lodging-house and actual pauperism. District 12 of the Associated Charities covers a large part of the South End tenement, and nearly all of the South End lodging-house district. During the year 1903-4 about 165 new cases were recorded on its books, of which more than one half came from lodging- houses. Charity officers -in the district say that the number of lodg- ing-house cases is on the increase. Philanthropical workers who have had years of experience in the district bear evidence to the amount of real poverty encountered. That we should find a certain number of human derelicts in the furnished-room house is natural. When families lose their means of support, when husbands lose their positions, and wives are compelled to go out and do battle in a world for which they unfortunately have had no practical business training, when homes break up and household goods and furniture those last anchors of men and women to a sense of ownership and a permanent interest in a fixed abode are lost, then the lodging- house with its "furnished room to let" becomes the only refuge. Let an individual "down on his luck" once lose all his personal property save what he can carry in his trunk or wear on his back, let him once enter a furnished- room house and once be reduced to calling for charity aid, and the chances are that he is on a downward pathway from which it will be difficult for him to rescue himself or for any one to save him. We can make only slight reference to THE LODGER: ECONOMIC CONDITION IOJ this subject here. It was our purpose to give outlines of several lodging-house cases taken from the records of the Associated Charities, and also of two or three which have come under our personal view, but space does not permit. We may, however, record one case which, though not typical in the sense of being common, is nevertheless suggestive of the unexpected variety of misery which now and then comes to light. The man was a piano-tuner by profession, and was not a mean performer on the lighter stringed instruments. According to his own story, which there was no reason whatever to doubt, he had been a prosperous teacher of mandolin and guitar in Texas, in San Francisco, and finally in Massachusetts. Struck with a run of hard luck in losing most of his pupils, and unable to get enough piano-tuning to make a living, he made one more move, to Boston. There, after some months' struggle, he was forced to apply to the Associated Charities for aid. He was found on the top floor of a Tremont Street lodging-house with his wife and sick baby. Out of work, without friends, acquaintances, or business connections, he was daily making desperate efforts to get a job as piano-tuner or to get a few pupils. He had not succeeded in either. The weeks ran along and the couple managed to live on an occasional odd job of tuning and aid advanced by the Associated Charities. Meanwhile they were able to pay no rent, winter was coming on, and their room had no heat, and another baby was expected. The house was kept by an old couple who had not the heart to turn them out. A visit to their room took one up two flights of dark winding stairs, over carpets gray with age and dirt, and through halls permeated with the various odors of cooking and the dead air which quickly accumulates in a second-rate lodging-house. In response to a knock, one was admitted into a large room, the air of which was if possible worse than that of the hall outside. A gas stove burning out what little oxygen there is, cooking going on in an alcove, and win- dows tightly closed to keep out December cold, are in combination enough to explain haggard faces and sick babies. On one occasion, when the temperature was below zero, the couple sat up all night between two gas stoves. Soon afterward the second baby was born, and the couple were persuaded to move to cheaper quarters in a tenement-house. The man had still managed to retain a strong 108 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON self-respect and a beautiful set of piano-tuning tools, and when last heard of had obtained a temporary job in a piano- factory. The subject of poverty in the rooming-house deserves more ex- tended treatment than we can here give to it. There is material in the charity records for a study of this particular phase of poverty and of the influence of lodging-house life on pauperism, which would be of definite value were it made. CHAPTER XIII THE LODGER: HIS LIFE AND SOCIAL CONDITION OF the social conditions characterizing rooming-house life, not the least important is the remarkable isolation of the individual lodger from his fellows, the absence of all semblance of home ties, of companionship and friendship, and, for hundreds of young men and women, even of mere acquaintances. There is no true social life within the lodging-house. Without the spiritual or intel- lectual reward that hermits are supposed to have for their isolation, many lodgers lead hermits' existence. Their place in the world is anomalous. Surrounded by thousands of their own age and social position, they are as much alone, in the crowd, as they would be on the most lonely farm on some windswept New England hillside. That the lodgers, taking them by and large, do not know each other is the evidence of all who are conversant with the life of the South End district. Lodgers themselves, landladies, church, charity, and philanthropical workers, real-estate men, and proprietors of room registries, all testify to this fact. An especially striking instance of this isolation came to the writer's attention during the winter of 1903-04. A young artist who had been earning his living by illus- trating newspapers and magazines fell out of work and was in destitute circumstances. Through a chance acquaintanceship with a philanthropic worker who lived near by, he was helped along during the winter with an odd job here and there. Then, toward spring, some one discovered living in the same house with him, during all the time of his lack of employment, another illustrator who had had more work than he could handle, and who had been looking for an assistant. The two men were introduced, to their mutual advantage, but previous to their introduction by an outsider they had never spoken to each other, although meeting nearly every day. To what causes may such isolation be attributed? Differences of nationality and employment may have some slight effect in this direction, but not much. We have seen some tendency of persons 110 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON in the same occupation to congregate in the same general locality an indication, perhaps, of some degree of sociability within the locality. Within individual houses, however, we found a large number of employments represented, and can scarcely doubt that the resultant tendency is for the lodgers of the same house to keep individually to themselves. A far stronger cause of isolation is the lack of fixed residence on the part of most lodgers. As we have seen, fully one half the lodging-house population changes its residence every year. The inmates of a house are continually changing old ones dropping out, whither who knows, and new ones hovering in, whence and with what antecedent connections who can tell ? The absence of gatherings of lodgers, indeed of any room in which they may gather, and of any occasion for such gathering, contribute further to the general desolateness of lodging-house life. There is no lingering after meals, no singing, no discussion, no summer afternoon excursion planned by the lodgers of a house. Only in rare instances has a rooming-house a homelike atmosphere. The landlady, even if she wished, might find it hard to bring her lodgers together; for if the average landlady looks upon her lodger simply and solely as a rent-paying organism, the lodger returns the com- pliment by regarding her as a creature whose duty it is to sweep his room, make his bed, and mind her own business. With this attitude of mutual indifference, not to say veiled hostility, between landlady and lodger, place the uncongeniality which must exist between people who are kept strangers to each other through fre- quent change of address, differences in employment, in ideas and in mental horizon, and lack of opportunities to meet in friendly intercourse. Isolation is the natural result. 1 1 Walter Besant's Autobiography contains an expressive passage on the isolation of the lodger: . "When I was tired and hungry I would look for a chop-house, dine, and then walk slowly home to my lodgings, taking a cup of coffee at a coffee-house on the way. I ought to have stayed home in the evening, and worked, but Featherstone Buildings is a very quiet place. ... In the evening the place was absolutely silent. The silence sometimes helped me to work, sometimes it got on my nerves and became intolerable. I would then go out and wander about the streets for the sake of animation, the crowds and the lights, or I would go half-price a shilling to the pit of the theatre, or I would drop into a casino and sit in the corner and look on at the dancing. The thing was risky, but I came to no harm. To this day I cannot think of those lonely evenings in my London lodging without a touch of the old terror. I see myself sitting THE LODGER: HIS LIFE AND SOCIAL CONDITION III In one sense, of course, all individuals are isolated, but many a lodger may not have even the solace of chance acquaintances. In the lodging-house world, furthermore, isolation has its own peculiar dangers. Take the typical case of a young fellow coming in from the country to earn his living. He has secured a position in some mercantile establishment at eight or ten dollars a week. He comes to the city an absolute stranger, ignorant of its complex- ities, destitute of worldly wisdom, and very probably unprovided with that strong, self-reliant moral reason, without which he will be at sea when he encounters the host of confusing problems his new life will certainly present. He first must find a place to live, which, for the time being, means a place to eat and sleep. In the old days he would probably have been taken in by some kindly-disposed boarding-house landlady, but to-day the motherly landlady is chiefly a dream of the past. What, then, are the steps by which he acquires his introduction to city life ? First of all he lands in some lodging-house. It may be a homelike place, one of the most reput- able lodging-houses in the city. It may be a den of thieves and pros- titutes. The chances are that it is neither, but simply one of the hundreds of nondescript, mediocre houses of the South or West End. He has a typical little six-by-eight hall bedroom. He sees little or nothing of the other lodgers, even of those on the same floor with himself. He takes his meals in some near-by basement dining- room. The only acquaintances he makes for a long time are the casual ones of the office and counter. He may begin to drift into a saloon or a pool-room on his way home in the evening and thus pick up a few more connections. As time goes on and he becomes more and more sophisticated he will not scruple to follow up the chance meetings of the cafe table, and finally those of the lodging- house itself. In fact it is conceivable that his first acquaintances may be in the house. They may be either good or bad; in either case they are accidental and casual. But the possibilities wrapped up in such casual meetings are not incapable of assuming a danger- at a table, books stretched out before me. I go to work. Presently I sit up and look around. The silence is too much for me. I take my hat and go out. There are thousands of young fellows to-day who find, as I found every evening, the silence and loneliness intolerable." Quoted in a pamphlet recently issued by the American Institute of Social Service. 112 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON ous aspect; as when a woman of immoral type happens to take a room next to the young country lad on the third floor rear. The general absence of a reception-room for the use of roomers and their friends is a very important cause for the lack of social life and companionship. Landladies affirm, as we saw in Chapter vin, and with good show of reason, that they cannot afford the loss of rent which would necessarily result from the reserval of a room as a public parlor. But the fact that lodgers do not demand this require- ment of common decency shows how the pressure of economic necessity will modify moral conventions and standards. Probably not one girl in a hundred who finds herself in a rooming-house would have thought while at home of receiving a gentleman caller in her bedroom. Yet ninety per cent, of the women lodgers, if they associate with men at all, must either receive them in that way or loiter with them in the streets. Some landladies, indeed, go farther and prescribe definite rules hampering or preventing social inter- course in their houses. A few prohibit their lodgers, especially women, from having callers at all. One landlady will not have people in her house who exchange visits because she feels that they will be sure to get discontented by discussing herself and her house. On the other hand, isolation is not entirely due to the landlady and economic conditions. Many women lodgers take great care not to make acquaintance to any extent with people in the same house, often because of some disagreeable experience or for the sake of protecting their privacy, about which they are sometimes over- solicitous. With social intercourse hampered in so many ways, spare time evenings and Sundays hangs heavily on the roomer. He is not a church-going person, and his chief literary resource is the Sunday newspaper. Whether that satisfies the cravings of his soul after enlightenment we do not know. In the summer-time, when the warm evenings come, the lodger deserts his room for the front steps. Probably more lodgers come to know each other in these spring and summer evening loiterings than in any other way. What the average lodger does with his long evenings in the winter is something of a mystery. He has the evening paper (not the "Transcript," which is too expensive), but few books. In the many rooms of lodgers which THE LODGER: HIS LIFE AND SOCIAL CONDITION 113 the writer has seen in different parts of the district, books and evidences of reading were rare exceptions. The lodger lives in his trunk. Books would be an impediment, even could he afford to buy them. There is, of course, considerable visiting back and forth between lodgers who have been in the city long enough to get acquainted, but the amount is not great, and certainly not so great as it would be were there civilized facilities for the reception of callers. The theatres of the South End help to while away an occa- sional evening. Probably one reason melodrama has such a hold on the South End would be found in the dreary routine of the life of the lodger and tenement-dweller. Various educational advantages are within reach of the lodger, if he only knew of them more generally. The Public Library is easily accessible from the district. The South End Branch of it was located, prior to 1904, in the basement of the English High School a poor situation. Probably comparatively few lodgers knew of its existence at all. It now, however, occupies the old Everyday Church building on Shawmut Avenue, is above ground, easily accessible, near the centre of the district, and it bids fair to increase rapidly in usefulness. Chief of the educational advantages in the neighborhood, avail- able for lodgers, is the Central Evening High School, held in the building of the English High. The school provides "special advan- tages for those who are employed during the day and who desire a thorough and practical training to assist them in securing advance- ment in business. The courses of study comprise all the studies of the day high school and of the practical business college. The school is open free of charge to all persons living in Boston who are above fourteen years of age." 1 A considerable share of its pupils are said to be lodgers. 2 The Mercantile Library Club, on Tremont Street, has a membership of one hundred about equally divided between past residents of the districts and the better class of lodgers. 1 From the Announcement of the school. 2 The writer asked the School Committee for the privilege of examining the card catalogue of the school's enrollment for the purpose of ascertaining exactly to what extent the lodging-house population avails itself of the school, but for reasons known only to themselves the officials of the Committee refused to grant the request. Other- wise we should be able to give much more definite information on an important point. 114 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Parker Memorial, on Berkeley Street, an institutional Unitarian church, and Shawmut Congregational Church, on Tremont Street, offer many advantages to roomers, as do also the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations and the Young Men's Christian Union. The South End House, with its staff of university settlement workers, is also seeking gradually to extend various social and educational advantages to lodgers. 1 1 For the work of the South End House in attacking the lodging-house problem, see South End House Report, 1906, pp. 8, 24, and 25, and earlier reports. CHAPTER XIV VITAL STATISTICS Sec. I. Statistical Data IT would be surprising if a population group so well defined as that of the South End lodging-house district had no noticeable influence upon the phenomena of births, deaths, marriages, density and age-grouping of population, sex-distribution, sickness and health, and the like. In this chapter we shall try to ascertain what influences can be traced to the lodging-house. Perhaps the most important consideration in this connection is the influence of the lodging-house on the marriage- rate, and on the question of race- perpetuation or race-suicide, which has been more or less in the public consciousness for the past few years. The question of mar- riage is reserved to a later chapter. This chapter will be devoted to density of population, age- and sex-distribution, and births and deaths. It should be understood at the outset that the conclusions we may reach in this chapter are approximations only, and that they are not highly refined statistical deductions. Much as we should prefer accuracy and refinement, we cannot, in the present state of urban statistics, attain them. This is especially true of an inquiry, like the present one, limited to a single and specific population-group covering a limited territory not exactly coextensive with any com- bination of administrative districts for which statistics are pub- lished. The statistical data in any way available are discouragingly meagre and inadequate, not to say misleading. In the present conditions of our public statistical bureaus specialized and localized statistics are perhaps not to be looked for. They can be had only when the bureaus are given larger resources in appropriations, in working force, and in leaders who understand the value of special social statistics for small areas. We have not, unfortunately, a Charles Booth always standing ready to meet the expense of collect- ing facts and statistics concerning the life and labor of every branch of the population, and of every unknown section of the city; other- wise we should not remain in such dense ignorance of the conditions Il6 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON for existence surrounding great masses of people who are practically our next-door neighbors. How great is the dearth of statistical data and how it baffles the investigator may perhaps be seen as we pro- ceed. 1 If the lodging-house section were coterminous with ward boundaries, or if some one ward were entirely filled with lodging- houses, it would be easy to utilize the ward statistics at present available, so far as they go. Unfortunately, however, the South End lodging-house district covers parts of three different wards. Ward 9 is a lodging-house section in its western portion; about half of Ward 10 is a lodging-house district; and Ward 12 is almost entirely, but not completely, a lodging-house district. Little use can be made of the statistics of Wards 9 and 10 by themselves, and in using those of Ward 12, par excellence the lodging-house ward of the city, we must bear in mind that certain disturbing influences deflect the figures from what they would be did they apply to a purely lodging- house population. These disturbing elements are, first, five or six 1 Urban population and vital statistics, if given at all for a unit smaller than the city as a whole, are given by wards or other large administrative districts which have practically no relation to population-groups, and in which changes of boundary from time to time render comparison at different periods of time difficult and some- times impossible. Moreover, such districts are too large to give accurate results. Were data collected and published by voting precincts, or better, by equally small but permanent statistical divisions, most of these difficulties would be obviated, because precincts are so small that the investigator could combine them at pleasure so as to include just that area he wished to include and no more. As yet, however, with the exception of simple statistics of population, the ward is the smallest unit used. The only data for accurate charting and calculating of density of population are published in the 31^ Annual Report of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor (1900), pp. 57-60, where population by precincts for 1895 and 1900 is given, and the pre- liminary returns of the State Census of 1905 on Population and Legal Voters (pp. 10, u). For age-distribution there is nothing published, either by wards or precincts. The only material even remotely available on this point consists of statistics by wards of persons of school age, to be found in the Twelfth Census, Population, part i, p. 222, and in the Reports of the Boston School Committee, the City Statistical Department, and the Municipal Register. For sex-distribution statistics by wards are given in the Annual Report of the Registry Department of the City of Boston (since 1901). No statistics of morbidity are available. For marriages statistics are published only for the city as a whole, in the reports of the City Registry Department. Previous to 1901 this Department published its statistics only for the city at large, but since that year certain vital statistics have been published by wards an innovation for which the City Registrar deserves sincere Jhanks. It is to be hoped that a way may be cleared for an extension of this policy. VITAL STATISTICS 117 short tenement-house streets, secondly, a number of apartment- houses, and thirdly, a few private residences. Their effect will be noted as we proceed. In considering the influence of lodging-house life upon vital statistics it is convenient to distinguish between general and special influences. The ultimate purpose of all statistics is to furnish facts about the public welfare, and data upon which suggestions for im- provement may find logical foundation. Certain phenomena are of prime importance in themselves as having a direct and forceful influence upon the public weal. Such are births, deaths, and mar- riages, and to a lesser extent, density of population. Statistical knowledge of these phenomena is directly valuable. Other phe- nomena are important because of the influence they exert over birth and death rates, the number of marriages, the size of families, and the like. Age and sex, density of population, nationality or race, occupation, etc., are influences of a general nature active everywhere at all times. In addition to these may be mentioned certain more specific influences peculiar to city life. Here we must place the sani- tary condition of the houses and streets, regularity or irregularity of living, prevalence or absence of prostitution, intemperance, crime, the general physical condition of the people, 1 and last but not least, their psychological state. With all these influences, general and special, the lodging-house has a more or less distinct connection, either as affected by them or as affecting them. Its connection with birth-rates is direct and unmistakable. Some influence can also be traced on death-rates and on density of population. There is also an indirect influence on all these phenomena through the sex and age constitution of the lodging-house population, and through the physical and moral environment the rooming-house throws about the individual. Sec. II. Density of Population It may be laid down as a rule, well borne out as we shall see by statistical data, and certainly corroborated by personal knowledge 1 Much is to be looked for in this particular matter not only from statistics of mortality and morbidity, but from the physical examinations and anthropometry in our gymnasiums. It is not too much to hope that every ward in the city will eventually be provided with a municipal gymnasium and a trained physical director. Il8 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON of lodging-house conditions, that wherever a private residence degenerates into a lodging-house the natural consequence is an increase in the number of people living under its roof. The South End residence of twenty-five years ago was the exact prototype of the private residence of the Back Bay (Ward u) to-day. Some indication of the increase in the number of persons per dwell- ing in the South End since it became a lodging-house section may therefore be had from a comparison with the present Back Bay district. In 1900 Ward 12, our lodging-house ward, had an average of 10.81 persons per dwelling; that for Ward n was only 6.66 per dwelling. Taking these figures as they stand, we should con- clude that a change from a private residence to a lodging-house will in the long run result in an increase of about four persons per dwelling. This simple deduction, however, would fall short of the truth. Four of the precincts of Ward 1 1 with a population of 9840 more than half the total population of the ward are in the West End and up the side of Beacon Hill, and, with the exception of a few streets on the Hill where many old Boston families still cling, constitute a district of densely populated tenement- and lodging-houses. The other five precincts, with a population of 9434, constitute a fashionable residence district. It is evident that the crowded houses of the four West End precincts must very appre- ciably raise the average number of persons per dwelling for the ward as a whole. How much less than 6<66 the average would be for the private residence section alone it is impossible to say, but it would certainly be reduced materially. 1 It might on the other hand be objected that the average for Ward 12 is raised by the tenement- houses in the ward, but the objection would be ill-founded because the tenement-houses of the ward are all small, and the effect, if anything, would be to reduce rather than increase the average number of persons per dwelling. On the whole, therefore, it seems likely that if we could but isolate the statistics for the private resi- dence on the one hand and those for the lodging-house on the other, we should find that the change from private residence to lodging- house would result in at least a doubling of population. This con- 1 We have to remember, however, that while Back Bay families may be small they may have a bountiful supply of servants. In the lower Back Bay it is not uncom- mon to find from six to nine servants living in a house. VITAL STATISTICS 119 elusion is more than substantiated by personal observation. Taking nearly a hundred houses as a basis, the writer found the average number per house to be a trifle over fourteen. How many private residences of the Back Bay contain half this number? That Ward 12 (even including as it does not only the vast body of rooming-houses, but also the numerous apartment-houses, a con- siderable number of small tenements, and a sprinkling of private houses, which tend to lower the average) has a high average number of persons per dwelling, when compared with other sections of the city, may be seen from Table 41. The general situation and charac- ter of each ward is noted in the table, and may be of interest in connection with the other tables of this chapter. TABLE 41. AVERAGE NUMBER OF PERSONS TO A DWELLING, BOS- TON, BY WARDS Ward Persons to a dwelling Location and character of ward 1904-5 1 1902 2 6 19.6 20.33 North End; foreign tenement. 8 16.2 J5-77 West End; foreign tenement. 7 12.3 11.66 South Cove; tenement-houses. 9 11.9 x 3-33 South End; tenement- and lodging-houses. 3 11.9 921 Charlestown; tenement-houses. 2 11.4 10.43 East Boston; tenement-houses. 10 10.9 10.48 Back Bay and South End; lodging- and apart- ment-houses. 19 10.1 10.00 Roxbury; largely tenement-houses. 5 10.0 9.92 Charlestown; tenement houses. 13 9.7 10.56 South Boston; tenement-houses. 18 9,4 9.88 Roxbury; tenement-houses. 12 $.2 10.81 South End; lodging-houses. 17 9.2 9.36 Roxbury; tenement-houses. 14 8.8 8.54 South Boston; tenement- and apartment-houses. 22 8.6 7.73 Roxbury; miscellaneous. 15 84 8.48 South Boston; tenement-houses, i 8.1 7.56 East Boston; miscellaneous. 1 Calculated by dividing the population of each ward as given in the State Census of 1905 by the number of dwellings in the ward as given by the latest Report of the City Registrar. See Population and Legal Voters (preliminary pamphlet of the census of 1905) pp. 9-11; and Annual Report oj the Registry Department of the City oj Boston, 1904, p. 297. The figures here calculated are more accurate than the latest available Registry figures, because based on actual population, and not estimated, returns. 2 Annual Report oj Registry Department, 1902, p. 268. For the Registrar's method of adjusting the census figures (of 1900) to the number of dwellings as shown by the returns of the City Assessing Department see the same Report, pp. 214-215. 120 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON 21 7.9 7.55 Roxbury; miscellaneous. 20 7.6 6.68 Dorchester; residences and apartment-houses. ii 7.3 6.66 Back Bay; fine residences and apartment-houses. 23 6.7 6.35 West Roxbury; suburban district. 24 6.7 6.25 Dorchester; suburban district. 4 6.7 7.29 Charlestown; miscellaneous. 25 5.1 5.61 Brighton; suburban district. 16 4.8 8.49 Dorchester; largely tenement-houses, and much vacant land. The table shows well the characteristic density resulting from the presence of the lodging-house. In 1902 only four wards had a greater estimated density per dwelling than Ward 12, and these were without exception the great tenement-house wards of the city. By 1904 Ward 12 had fallen to tenth place, but still ranked among the dense tenement-house wards. The ten wards showing the highest averages are all either tenement- house or lodging-house wards. According to the State Census of 1905 the population of Ward 12 has declined (see page 7), owing probably to the encroachment of business. The estimates of the Registry Department may there- fore be erroneous, but not flagrantly so; or it may be that the very encroachment of business deprives the district of more houses than it does, in proportion, of population, and that the number of per- sons per dwelling may still rise. Ward u, which is like the South End as it was a quarter-century ago, comes near the bottom. Naturally the suburban wards have the lowest averages. The changes of whole streets, precincts, or wards from private residences to lodging-houses, which gradually took place in the South End, evidently can have but one result. The district will suffer a large increase in population. This increase in what is now the lodging-house district can actually be observed in the statistics covering the period in which the change took place. Ward 18, the old ward which previous to the change in ward lines in 1895 was nearly coterminous with the present Ward 12, showed an increase of population in the decade 1885 to 1895 f 2 5 P er cen t- Between 1895 and 1900, also, the growth continued, but at a somewhat slower rate about 9 per cent, increase for the five years. It is impossible to account for this growth on the basis of natural increase. The death-rate of the present ward far exceeds the birth-rate, and probably has done so for many years. 1 Nor can it be accounted for 1 Birth- and death-rates by wards were not compiled previous to 1900. CHARTXHI, VITAL STATISTICS 121 to any extent by the erection and occupation of new buildings. The territory was already pretty completely covered with dwellings. Of late years a few cheap apartment-houses have been built, but they have usually taken the place of lodging-houses torn down or remodelled to make room for them. The only possible explanation of the increase, therefore, seems to be the influx of lodgers which took place within the decade 1885 to 1895 and continued with slightly diminished force to 1900.* That the South End rooming-house district is one of the most densely populated portions of the city may be seen from Chart xn. We are fortunate in possessing population statistics by voting pre- cincts for the year 1900 and also precinct maps showing the location and boundaries of each precinct. 2 A glance at the map will show that the foreign and tenement- house wards, Wards 6 and 8, are by far the most densely populated portions of the city. After these come portions of Wards 13, 14, and 15, in South Boston, and Ward 9 in the South End. Ward 9 merits somewhat closer examination. The thickly populated western portion, next to Ward 12, is a typical lodging-house district. It is in fact, as will be seen by reference to Chart xm, the most densely populated portion of the lodging-house section, so far as we can judge by male lodgers alone. Judging of density by the imperfect standard of number of per- sons per acre, Ward 12 stands fifth, as shown by the following table: 1 See Chapter m. 2 See the Report for 1900 of the Mass. Bureau of Statistics of Labor. With the data it is possible to construct a fairly accurate map of density. Each dot in the chart represents approximately one hundred persons, and the dots are placed within the precincts as nearly as possible where the population actually is. The precinct out- lines are then erased, that the map may not be too complicated. Large park areas and uninhabited spaces, such as docks, railroad yards, unfilled flats, outlying and unsettled territory, are given no dots. These uninhabited areas are located with the help of a large map of the city, in connection with careful personal observation. This method of showing density is as accurate as can be attained with the data at hand. Compared with the usual method of representing density by wards and scattering the density uniformly over each respective ward the method here followed is perfection itself, because it puts the population where it belongs. A map of the city in the old way gives Ward 6 a much less dense population than either Ward 8 or Ward 9, whereas the truth is that Ward 6 (the North End) is fully as densely populated as Ward 8 (the West End) and that the greater part of Ward 9 does not compare with either in density. 122 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON TABLE 42. DENSITY OF POPULATION, BY WARDS, BOSTON, 1904-5 * Ward Density Ward Density Ward Density 8 185.6 10 60.5 19 38.4 9 H9- J 7 57-4 22 36.5 6 102.3 M 57-4 13 35-8 18 100.6 3 44.6 ii 35.2 12 923 4 41.5 20 30.2 15 83.6 21 41.4 I 22.2 2 72.6 7 39.5 24 14.6 5 61.7 16 38.6 25 7.9 23 3-4 To summarize the results obtained from such population and density statistics as are available, we find, (i) that both statistics and experience will show a large increase in the number of persons per dwelling wherever a private residence district changes to lodg- ing-houses; (2) that the notable increase of population since 1885 (up to 1900) in what is now the South End lodging-house district coincided in time with the change from private residences to lodging- houses and was due to that change; (3) that the present lodging- house district is one of the most densely populated portions of the city, second only to the most densely populated tenement-house districts. Sec. III. The influence oj the lodging-house on distribution of population by sex For this phase of the subject we have three contradictory sets of data: first, the statistics of sex-distribution by wards; secondly, statistics of the sex of boarders and lodgers in 1895; and thirdly, the results of some personal observation. The following table gives the ward statistics: TABLE 43. PERCENTAGE OF MALES AND OF FEMALES TO TOTAL WARD POPULATION, 190! 2 Ward Males Females Excess of males Excess of Females 6 55.6 44.4 ii. 2 7 55- 2 44-8 10.4 8 547 45-3 94 5 54-3 45-7 8.6 1 Compiled from ward areas given in City Registrar's Report, 1904, p. 297, and ward population in 1905 given in preliminary pamphlet of State Census of 1905, Population and Legal Voters, pp. 9-11. 3 Calculated from the Report of the Registry Department, Boston, 1901, p. ii. VITAL STATISTICS 123 TABLE 43 continued Ward Males Females Excess of Males Ezcess of Females 2 53.1 46.9 6.2 9 5i-8 48.2 3.6 13 50.9 49.1 1.8 14 5- 6 49-4 1.2 4 5- 2 49-8 -4 3 5- 5- -o .o 18 49.4 50.6 1.2 i 49-i 5-9 1-8 25 48.8 51.2 2.4 17 486 51.4 2.8 23 48.4 5 1 - 6 3-2 15 47-9 52-1 4-2 16 47.6 52.4 4.8 24 47.6 52.4 4.8 19 47.4 526 5.2 22 47.4 52.6 5.2 10 45 7 54-3 8.6 20 45-5 54-5 9-o 12 44.2 55.8 it. 6 21 42.6 57.4 14.8 11 41.0 59.0 18.0 In connection with this table attention is also called to Chart xiv, showing the geographical distribution of the preponderance of sex one way or the other. The strongest determinant of relative percentages of the sexes is nationality. A glance at the map will show that the wards which have an excess of males (Wards 6, 7, 8, 5, 2, 9, 14, 13, and 3) form a belt across the city from north to south, including all of Charlestown, the western portion of East Boston, all of the North and West Ends, the South Cove (Ward 7), and the greater part of South Boston. These wards contain the great foreign population of the city. On the other hand, as shown by the map, and the table, the wards which show an excess of females are, generally speaking, and with the exception of Ward 12, the residential wards of the Back Bay and the outlying portions of the city. The largest percentage excess of females is in Ward n, the Back Bay, where there are 18 per cent, more women than men. 1 Next comes Ward 21, an attractive residence district contiguous to 1 In Ward n the excess of women is in some measure due to the large number of female domestic servants. 124 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON Franklin Park. Ward 12 comes third, with an excess of n.6 per cent. Compare this with the excess of females for Boston as a whole, 1.7 per cent., or with the 16.6 per cent, excess in Brookline, which is said to have the largest excess of females in proportion to its size of any city or town in the United States. Ward statistics, it is evident, indicates that the South End lodging-house district, including not only lodgers, but all its other residents as well, has an exceedingly high excess of females. When, on the other hand, we examine the statistics of boarders and lodgers as published in the Census of Massachusetts for 1895, we find the relative percentages of males and females reversed. In 1895, 65.1 per cent, of the (then) 54,422 lodgers and boarders in Boston were males and only 34.9 per cent, females. In round num- bers the males comprised two thirds, and the females only one third of the total number. These two sets of data, high percentage of females in the typical lodging-house ward (Ward 12) and low percentage of females in the boarders and lodgers for the city as a whole in 1895, must be reconciled. If they are both to be taken without change or inter- pretation, the inevitable conclusion must be that there are not many lodgers in Ward 12, and this we know to be absolutely contrary to fact. A number of circumstances account for the conflict in the evidence. In the first place it may be doubted whether all the female lodgers would get enumerated in any census. Tucked away in rear, side, and attic rooms, and for the most part out of the house at work at day, they are easily overlooked. Landladies are much less dis- posed to give information about their women than about their men lodgers. Secondly, the statistics of boarders and lodgers in the state census include all classes of lodgers, whether inmates of the fur- nished-room house or of the ten-to-twenty cents a night dives of the West and North Ends. In this latter class of lodgings there is a very heavy preponderance of males, the class being composed largely of unmarried foreign laborers and of vagrants. Thirdly, the years that have elapsed since 1895 have been sufficient time to permit of a great increase in the number of women living in lodging-houses. The state census of 1905 will probably reveal whether such an increase has taken place. 1 Certain it is that the field of industry has been every- 1 At the moment of writing these returns unfortunately are not yet available. VITAL STATISTICS 125 where opening to women, that girls as well as boys are more gener- ally leaving their homes and seeking employment in the shops and factories of the city, that the tide which flows from the quiet countryside to the tumultuous urban centres, pouring its flood of unattached men and women into the rooming-houses, brings the sisters as well as the brothers, the daughters as well as the sons. Fourthly, there are some minor elements in Ward 12 which may tend to raise the percentage of women. Nearly all the lodging-house keepers are women, and it may be that the apartment-houses in the ward contain more women than men. But the three factors first mentioned are enough to explain the discrepancy in the statistics, and to show that the figures for 1895 are of no value to us in this connection. Finally our third source of information personal investigation corroborates the ward statistics, and indicates that the figures for Ward 12 as a whole give probably a correct idea of the sex-dis- tribution of the lodging-house population. In a count of nearly a hundred houses we found the number of men lodgers and of women lodgers substantially the same. Add the landladies, and we have a heavy excess of females. Sec. IV. Influence of the lodging-house on the age-grouping of population With the exception of the school census of persons of school age, no statistics of population by age-groups and wards are published. We have therefore endeavored to gain a few crumbs of information from the Precinct Lists of Male Residents, of which we have made use in other connections as well. The following table is constructed from an analysis of some of these lists, and gives the age-grouping of males over 20 years of age in three typical lodging-house precincts: TABLE 44. MALE ADULT LODGERS BY AGE-GROUPS, THREE TYPICAL PRECINCTS Age-Groups: 20-24 25-29 3~34 35~39 40-44 45~49 5-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70 and over. Wd. 9, Prec. 6. 116 180 163 107 87 72 65 27 28 16 17 Wd. 10, Prec. 3. 119 149 98 65 69 42 47 18 24 12 5 Wd. 12, Prec. 2. 100 163 124 105 101 57 60 36 32 19 23 Totals 335 492 385 277 257 171 172 91 84 47 45 Averages 112 164 128 92 86 57 57 30 28 16 15 126 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON So far as we can judge from such a table, which is imperfect because of the lack of data for the age-groups below twenty, at least 8 1 per cent, of the male lodgers are below fifty years of age, 63 per cent, below forty, and 51 per cent, below thirty-five. Over one third are between the ages of twenty and thirty. The considerable number of men over sixty years old, and even of seventy and over, should be noted. The lodgers in the main represent what should be the years of vigorous young manhood and womanhood ; they are the active rank and file of the business and laboring world. The table, it must be remembered, is for adult males only; we have no statistics for women lodgers. The most striking fact about the age-grouping of lodgers is the almost total absence of children. Were it possible to isolate statistics for the lodging-houses alone, free from the influence of tenement- and apartment-houses, this fact could be brought out vividly. Even with the crude statistics which we have, the small number of children in the South End lodging-house district, roughly coexten- sive with Ward 12, is noticeable. The only statistics available for this matter are those of the school census. The following table gives the number of children of school age, 5 to 15 years, by wards, and the percentage to total population in each ward. The percentages, and not the absolute numbers, are of importance. TABLE 45. CHILDREN OF SCHOOL AGE, 5 TO 15 YEARS, BY WARDS Estimated popula- Children 5 to 15 years Percentage of the Ward tion, 1902. l of age, I9O2. 2 total ward population. 8 19 28,494 5,765 20.2 1 23,961 4,731 19.8 6 32,085 6,105 19.0 2 24,078 4,565 18.9 13 23,961 4,372 18.3 23 24,785 4,928 18.3 14 22,489 4,067 18.1 18 23,490 4,241 18.0 22 26,904 4,831 l8.0 8 30,260 5,408 17.5 1 Annual Report of the Registry Department, Boston, 1902. 1 Monthly Bulletin, City Statistics Department, October, 1903, Appendix, Table II, p. 270. * Calculated. VITAL STATISTICS 127 Estimated popula- Children 5 to 15 years Percentage of the Ward tion, 1902. of age, 1902. total ward population. 16 21,017 3,670 17.4 25 20,252 3,533 17.4 24 28,494 4,928 17.3 17 26,256 4,560 17.3 15 20,664 3,505 169 20 34,135 5,760 16.6 4 13,893 2,240 1 6. 2 3 I5,3o6 2,408 15.7 9 25,786 3,786 14.7 21 35,079 3,558 14.2 5 13,481 1,481 10.9 7 15,542 1,468 0.4 11 20,252 1,700 8.4 12 2 4t7^S f >9SJ 7-8 10 23,254 1,693 7-3 As in so many of our tables here again we find Wards 10, n, and 12 in close company. Ward 10, consisting chiefly of lodging- and apartment-houses, has the smallest percentage of children, while Ward 12, lodging-houses, has practically no more. Compare its 7.8 per cent, with the 20.2 per cent, of Ward 19. A request to the Boston School Committee to be allowed to look over the registers of the grammar and primary schools drawing children from Ward 12, in order that an estimate might be made of the number of children coming from tenement-house streets and deducted from the figures given above for Ward 12, met with a re- fusal. Had the estimate been possible it would have been sufficient to show beyond a doubt that the lodging-house population is void of that life and brightness which only "a child in the house" can bring. Sec. V. Birth- and death-rates in the lodging-house district The small number of school age in Ward 12 would naturally lead one to expect a low birth-rate there. As a matter of fact, we find that the birth-rate is not only very low, but that it is the lowest of any ward in the city. The following table shows the unique position held by Wards 10, u, and 12, in comparison with other wards: 128 THE LODGING-HOUSE PROBLEM IN BOSTON TABLE 46. BIRTH-RATES, BY WARDS, FOR 1900-1904, AND AVER- AGE BIRTH-RATES FOR THE FIVE YEARS 1 Average for Ward 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 the five years. 1 6 45-37 45-85 46.9 46.6 45-9 46.12 13 41.82 37-n 34-3 34-9 3I- 1 35-85 8 35-88 34.06 31.6 3i-4 32.2 33-03 19 33-92 33-n 29.6 29.4 26.9 30-39 2 32-93 30.80 27.4 26.7 27.6 29.01 I 30-57 27.40 25.6 27.3 28.1 27.79 17 31.91 27-5i 26.7 27.2 24-4 27-54 14 29.08 28.19 26.4 27.1 23-9 26.95 18 31.15 27.21 25-4 25-7 23.6 26.61 16 29.42 24-54 27.4 27-3 24-3 26.59 3 26.91 25-30 26.2 25-9 26.3 26.12 25 27.12 25.09 27.8 24.2 24-5 25-74 4 25-74 26.60 23-8 23.8 24.7 24-93 7 29.36 25-05 . 25.8 21. 1 22.4 24.72 15 28.47 26.52 22.3 23-7 22.5 24.69 20 24.69 23.10 22.7 23-7 23.6 23.56 22 26.74 22.92 23.6 2I.O 22.6 2337 9 25-3 2459 22.8 22.O 21.4 23.19 24 23-51 2434 21-7 21.2 22-4 22.63 2 3 23-77 21.32 21.7 ' 25.5 19.0 22.26 5 22.43 22.19 21-5 20.8 21.6 21.70 21 19.10 19.85 19.7 16.7 17.2 18.51 II 12.34 12.70 13-3 14.2 12.5 13.01 IO 13.36 I3-30 "3 11.9 12.9 12.55 12 11.67 77.70 12.2 if. 8 77.07 11.69 Chart xv shows graphically the birth-rates by wards. The birth-rate of Ward 12, 11.69, we find to be lower than that even of such wards as 10 and n, fashionable residence and apart- ment-house districts, where according to modern conditions we look for the lowest birth-rate. The extremely low birth-rate of all three of these wards may be realized by comparison with the average rate for the whole city, which for the five years, 1900 to 1904 inclusive, was 27.03. This is something more than twice as high as the rate of the three wards in question. It is a far cry, of course, to the enormous 1 Compiled from the Annual Report of the Registry Department, Boston, 1904, Appendix A, pp. 245-293. 1 Calculated. g 5 9 34 2 8.1 Other New England states 43,77 7-7 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania 16,556 3.0 South Atlantic states 8,028 North Central states 4,686 1 Compiled from the Twelfth U. S. Census, Population, part I, pp. 706-709. 1 Estimated. 190 APPENDIX South Central states i>i25 3.3 Western States 977 United States, not specified 2,556 American citizens born abroad, etc. ^,5^ Total born in the United States outside of Boston 123,863 22.1 Born in Canada, etc. 50,282 9.0 Total born in the United States, outside of Boston and in Canada, etc. 174,145 31.1 Foreign born, exclusive of Canadians 146,874 26.2 The following table gives the percentages born in Boston and outside of Boston for the three years 1885, 1895, and 1900. TABLE 52. NATIVITY OF THE POPULATION OF BOSTON, BY PERCENTAGES 1885 1895 1900 Total population of Boston 100.0 100.0 100.0 Born in Boston 38.5 42.0 42.7 Born outside of Boston 61.5 58.0 57.3 Born in: Massachusetts 12.7 7.9 8.1 Other New England states 10.0 8.1 7.7 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania 2.5 2.7 3.0 Elsewhere in the United States 2.2 3.0 3.3 Canada, etc. 7.0 9.0 9.0 Foreign born, exclusive of Canadians 27.1 27.3 26.2 The salient facts shown by this table are these: that about sixty per cent, of the population of Boston was born elsewhere, but that there has been a slight decrease (4.2 %) of this non-native element since 1885; that of this non-native portion of the population the foreign born, exclusive of Canadians, etc., con- stitute nearly one half, and that the other half is derived chiefly from New Eng- land and the British American provinces. The Canadian element is of great social significance. It appears to maintain an even level of about nine per cent, of the total population, but increased somewhat in the ten years between 1885 and 1895. In these same ten years there was a striking fall in the percentage from Massachusetts as well as from other New England states. The percent- age from the near-by states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania shows but a slight decrease in the fifteen years. APPENDIX C STUDENT-QUARTERS IN BOSTON A treatment, however summary, of the lodging-house question in Boston should not omit some reference to the student-class. Perhaps no population group is so thoroughly a lodging- and boarding-class as are the students. In the nature of things most of them are away from home and have to live in board- ing- or lodging-houses, however much they may dislike the life. This is espe- cially true in Boston where as a rule the educational institutions are not pro- vided with dormitories and eating-halls. In general the student must shift for himself, find his own boarding- and rooming-places, and be his own judge of suitable houses and localities. The general result leaves much to be desired. With a word first as to the residence of teachers in Boston, we may turn to the geographical distribution of students of a few typical institutions. The pro- blem of the student-lodger is a separate problem in itself, and is one best left to persons whose work has made them familiar with its special peculiarities, its own points of difficulty, its own tendencies for good and for evil. The public schools of Boston are presided over by approximately 2220 teachers (1903). Of these about 120, or only 5.4 % live in South End lodging- houses. The inclusion of the West End would increase the percentage slightly, but it is evident that most of the public school teachers live in suburban dis- tricts, and that teachers as a class do not form an appreciable part of the lodg- ing-house population. It is said and with near approach to truth that there are between 20,000 and 25,000 students in Boston. This includes students in the large educa- tional institutions like the New England Conservatory of Music, the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts Medical School, Emerson College of Oratory, Boston University, etc. Besides these we have the students in all the miscellaneous little institutions the business col- leges, the art schools, the schools of dramatic expression, etc. Many of these students live at home in the city, many live in the suburbs near and far, but most will be found in the lodging- and boarding-houses of the city. Some idea of the geographical distribution of the students may be gained from Chart xvii, which shows the distribution of some 1180 students from one of the large educational institutions of the city. 1 Of these the South End 1 Out of some 1500 in the institution. The other 320 lived in the suburbs beyond the limits of this map. 192 APPENDIX lodging-district claims the greatest number, 238; the West End and Beacon Hill claim 97, Newbury Street (Back Bay) 94, St. Botolph Street 88, and Hunt- ington Avenue 37. The map represents fairly well what would be the general distribution of students could we obtain data for all the institutions. It is evident that the South End lodging-house district is one of the great student-quarters of the city. Besides the South End there are four other stu- dent-districts at present: namely, the West End and Beacon Hill district (A on the chart), the Huntington Avenue and St. Botolph Street district (D and E), the Newbury Street district (B), and finally the new student-quarter in the western portion of Ward 10, between Massachusetts Avenue on one side and Huntington Avenue and the Fenway on the other (F). The district between Huntington Avenue and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, including St. Botolph Street and the cross-streets, Harcourt, Garrison, Follen, Durham, Cumberland, Blackwood, and Albemarle streets, is perhaps at pre- sent the most typical student-quarter of the city. But for the railroad it would be continuous with the South End. The railroad, however, acts as a stone wall between the two sections, and they are distinctly unlike in appearance and in character. The South End is full of lodging-houses as such. The other district is given over mainly to flat-dwellers, who re-rent rooms to students, artists, musicians, and the higher class of business employees. District F, the newest student-quarter, together with Huntington Avenue and St. Botolph Street, is practically sure to become the one great, typical stu- dent-quarter of the city, a district far more thoroughly and compactly given over to students than is any section at present. This newer section includes: Westland Avenue, Batavia, Gainsborough, Jarvis, and Hemenway streets, and portions of St. Botolph Street and Huntington Avenue, and a large amount of territory yet to be built up. Within this new district are already situated the New England Conservatory of Music, the Emerson College of Oratory, Simmons College, and the Harvard and Tufts Medical Schools. The Museum of Fine Arts, with its art school, will move to the same district in the near future, and it is possible that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will sooner or later move to the same locality. When these movements are completed we may expect to see the students, those of the better class at least, leave the South End and Beacon Hill lodging-houses. Houses and dormitories for the special accommodation of students will be built in the new district and we may expect to see the problem of the student solved to some extent. The New England Conservatory has already erected a residence-hall accommodat- ing about two hundred women-students, divided into groups, each group having its own private parlor, dining-hall, and servants. INDEX INDEX Addresses, rapid change of, 83-85, 138, 142, 145-149. See also Nomadism. Administrative districts not suitable units for statistical purposes, 1 1 6. Advertising, 62, 70, 144, 147. Age, 117, 125-127, 129, 131. Of landladies, 52. Of lodgers, 81, 82, 83, 115, 125-127. Alleys, 22, 27. Altruism, 154. Ambition, 165. American Institute of Social Service, 172, note. Americans in Process quoted, 25. Amusement, 27, 29, 30, 172. See also Thea- tres, Dance-halls, etc. Anthropometry, 117, note. Apartment-houses, 4, 24-25, 26, 79, 86-87, 91, 117, 119, 121, 125, 126, 128-129, 131, 144, 159-162, 164, 1 66, 179, 189. Bachelor-, 4, 178, note. Should be investigated, 159. Architecture, 13, 21, 22, 34-37. Assessed valuations, relation to real values, 72- .74- _ Assignation, 30. Associated Charities, 106, 107. Astrologers, 32. Back Bay, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 26, 75, 91, 117, 119, 124, 129, 131. Bakeries, 28, 104. Baltimore, 38, 40. Banks, 14. Basement dining-rooms. See Dining-rooms. Bath-room, 34, 35, 36, 170, 179. Beacon Hill, n, 16, 24-25, 118, 188-189. Beds, 35, 37, 170. Beer garden, 28, 30. Besant, Walter, quoted, no, note. Bibliography, 183-185. Bicycling, 173. Billiard-halls. See Pool-rooms. Birth-rate. See Births. Births, 115, 117, 121, 128-133, I 5~ I 5 I > J ^4 169. See also Children and Marriage. Blue Hills, 172. Board, price of, 3, note, 101-104, 174, 177. Quality of, 102, 174-175. Boarding-houses, 25, 38-51. Distinguished from lodging-houses, 5. Supplanted by lodging-houses, 25, 43-56, 152, 1 68, 174. Bohemianism, 52, 155. Books, 113, 173. Booth, Charles, 115. Boston Transcript, 112. Boundaries, 20-26, 168. Brandt, Lillian, quoted, 92, note. Brighton, 120. Brookline, 16, 124. Brooklyn, 40. Buffalo, 38, 40. Building Department, 13, note. Building laws, 79-80, 132, note, 178, 179. Building trades, 96. Bureau of Statistics of Labor (Massachusetts), 7, note, 53, note, 66, 97, 169-170. Bushe'e, F. A., quoted, 19. Business, 10, n, 16, 27-33, 47> ^3> 69-70, 1O S> 120, 173, 174, 179. Business mediums, 32. Cafe's, 5, 23, 24, 27, 39, 46, 47, 48, 49, 66, 102- 104, in, 139, 142, 145, 161, 163, 168, 174-176. Distinguished from dining-rooms, 28. Cambridge, 13, 29, 103. Canada, 53-54, 81, 82. Card catalogues, 47, 84. Card readers, 32. Carpets, 35, 36, 60, 107, 170. Change from boarding to lodging, 38-51. Charity, 94, 97, 106-108, 154, 175, note, 176- 178 and note. Charles River, 16, 135, 172. Charlestown, 13, 119, 120, 123. Chicago, 30, 31, 38, 40, 41, 42, 134, 157, 159. Child, Samuel M., quoted, 79-80. Children, 13, 82, 126, 129, 131, 144, 150, 151, 159, 161-166, 169. Chinese, 32. Church records, 151. Churches, 23, 84, 143, 151, 173. 181. Cincinnati, 38, 40. City Wilderness, The, quoted, 12, 13, note, 8 1, 137- Class consciousness, 152-154, 161. Clerks. See Manufacturing and Mechanical Pursuits, also Mercantile Employees. Cleveland, 31, 38, 40, 134. 196 INDEX Closets, 34. Clothing, 27, 31, 99, 101, 157-158. Coal-bills, 58. Coercive morality, 178. Collective bargaining, 156. See also Trade Unions. Columbus Avenue, building up of, 14. Combination meals, loz. Commissions, 69, 76-77. Common, the, 24. Community life, 154. Influence of, removed, 179-180, 181. Companionship, lacking. See Isolation. Competition, 32, 47-49, 154, 155, 156, 157- 158, 1 66. Congregation, tendency toward, 90-92, 167, 169. Conjugal condition of landladies, 54-57. Of lodgers, 81, 94. See also Marriage. Consciousness of kind, 90. Consumption, uneconomic, 161. Continent, the, lodging-houses on, 3. Cooked meat, 28. Coolidge, Dane, quoted, 39. Cost. See Price. Cost of living, 159-162. See also Price. Counterfeiting, 134. Country offers inadequate moral training for city life, 179-182. Courtship, 172, note. See also Public Parlor. Crime, 4, 32, 69, 117, 134-149, 162, 171. Criminals. See Prime. Criminal statistics, backwardness of, 138. Crisis of 1873, 14, 75. Crowd, influence of, 10. See also Imitation. Cynicism, 163, 180. Dance-halls, 28, 30, 31. Death-rates. See Deaths. Deaths, 115, 117, 121, 128-133, J 3^ note > '5" 151, 169. Delicatessen establishments, 28, 104. Density of population. See Population. Map of, how made, 121, note. Department stores, 32, 94-95, 105, 156-158. Depreciation, 76-77, 168. Dining-halls, large, needed, 103, 174-176. Dining-rooms, 23, 27, 101-102, in, 137, 163. Distinguished from cafe's, 28. Discount tickets. See Meal-tickets. Disreputable houses in guise of lodging-houses, 140-141, 171. Divorce, 161. Doctors, 32, 92, 135, 143-144, 148, 151, 162. Domestic and personal service, 87, 88, 89, 90, 9' 95- Domestic servants, 82, 105, n8,note, 136, 153, 174- Dorchester, 120. Dormitories for students, 188-189. Dover Street, 20, 26, 29. Drink, 27, 29, 30, 31. See also Intemperance. Drug-stores, 27, 32, 143. Drunkenness. See Drink and Intemperance. Dwellings, average number of persons to, n8- I2O. Dwelling-houses. See Private residences. East Boston, 13, 119, 120, 123. Education, 104, 105, 106, 113-114, 138, 165, 169, 172-173, 174, 176, 181, 182. Moral, more intelligent, needed, 179-182. Elevated railway, 79. Eliot, Charles, 172. Employers, attitude of, 101, 156-158. Employment. See Occupation. Environment, 27-33, IX 7> I 3 l > I 35~ I 3^> J 38, 145-149, 165, 168, 170, 173-182. Equities, trading in, 70, 78. Evening high school, 113. Evidence, hard to secure, 140, 151. Against real-estate sharpers, 171. Evil, the lodger-, in tenements, 4. Exodus, the, from the South End, 14 ff., 67, 75. Expenses, of landladies, 57-60. Of landlords, 76-77. Of lodgers, 99-104. Factories, 14, 16, 89, 91, 105, 125, 156. Fakes, 32. Family, 150 ff., 161-162, 163, 164, 179. Fashion, 10, 13, 14, 31, 32. Fees, 69. Fens, 26. Fire-escapes, 34. Fire-proofing, 79-80. Flats. See Apartment-houses. Flats, filling of, 12, 14, 75. Fluidity of lodging-house population. See No- madism. Foreclosure, 68, 69. See also Mortgages. Foreigners, 8, 42, 53, 123. Fort Hill, u. Fort Point Channel, 13. Franklin Park, 124. Free-lunches, 48. Furnished-room houses. See Lodging-houses, definition. Furniture, 33, 35, 37, 59, 66, 67-71, 106, 168, 170-171, 173. Gambling, 134, 135-136, 148. Gas-bills, 58. Germany, 4. Good-will, 63, 67-71, 1 68, 171. Great Britain, lodging-houses in, 2, 3. Grocery stores, 28. Group- conflict, 154. Group-control. See Social Control. INDEX 197 Habit, 163, 180. Hall-rooms. See "Side rooms." Harvard Dining Association, 103. Health, 28, 32, 36-37, 63, 66, 102-103, "S 131, 132, 165. Heat, 34, 39, 58, 103, 107. Heterogeneity of the lodging-house population, 82, 84, 93, no, 145-149, 169. Home, supplanted by the lodging-house, 9, 150 ff. Homicide. See Murder. Hotels, 29, 30, 91, 141. Hot water, 36. Housekeeping, 5, 104, 159, 163. House-rent, 58, 63, 64-66, 76-78, 100, 159-160, 164, 168, 171. Kurd, Richard M., quoted, 16, 76. Husbands, occupation of, 54, 56-57, 94. Elicit love affairs. See Informal unions. Imitation, 161, 162, 163, 182. Improvement league, possible, 170. Income, 158. Of landladies, 57-58, 60-63. Of landlords, 76-77. Of lodgers, 90, 97-99- Independence. See Personal freedom. Individualism. See Selfishness. Inertia, 172-173. Infant deaths, 131, 132. Informal unions, 135, 138, 142-144, 146-147, 153, 163, 171. Inspection, 3, note, 172. Installment sales, 33, 68 ff., 1 68. Insurance, 77. Intemperance, 117, 137, 146-147. Interest law evaded, 69. Investment, 174-176, 178, note. See also Real estate. Isolation, 31, 104, 106, 109, no, 112, 142, 1 68, 182. Causes of, 109-110. i73-'74> I79 l8o > Jews, low infant death-rate among, 132. Just wage, 155, 182. Kitchen, 179. Laborers, 90. Labor efficiency, 30, 86, 174. Landladies, 10, 19, 23, 37, 38-42, 47, 52-71, no, in, 112, 124, 125, 136, 138, 139-140, 141, 145-149, 151, 152, 162, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 175. Landlords, 10, 57, 60, 72-80, 145, 167, 170, 171. Large-scale productions in the restaurant busi- ness, 47, 174-176. Laundries, 27, 31, 32. Laundry, 59-60, 99, 135. Leroy-Beaulieu quoted, 105, 173, note. Library facilities, 113, 172. License, lodging-house, 3, note, 172. Marriage, 143. Living-in, 3, note. Liquor-stores, 27, 30, 137. Local industries, 27-33. Lodgers, number of, 6-7. Lodging-house, cheap, i, 39, 124-125, 137, 138. Common, 2, 3. Definition, I, 2. Distinguished from boarding-house, 5. Municipal, 2. Lodging-house keepers. See landladies. Long Day, The, quoted, 171-172, note, 177- 178, note. Losses in real estate, 75-76. Lynn Woods, 172. Made land, 12. Mail, 138. Mantels, 34. Manufacturing and Mechanical Pursuits, 87, 88, 90, 91, 96. Marriage, 12, 89, 115, 117,129,142-143,150- 166, 179. See also Conjugal condition. Co-partnership of, 159. Postponement of, 150-152, 155, 161. Marriage-rate, 150-151, 153, 155-163, 164, 169. Marshall, Alfred, quoted, 162, note. Marshes, 13. Massachusetts cities, lodgers and boarders in, 41-46. Mealers, 49. Meal-tickets, 49, 102. Median, the, 130. Melodrama, 31, 113. Men often preferred as lodgers, 66. Mercantile employees, I, 5, 97, 100-101, 104- 106, 156, 161-166, 169. See also Trade and Transportation. Mercantile establishments, 27-33. Mercantile Library Club, 113. Mercantilism, spirit of, still existent, 164. Metal trades, 96. Metropolitan Park Commission, 172. Middle classes, attitude toward marriage and children, 161-166. Middlesex Fells, 172. Migration, intra-urban, 11-19, '68- Mills Hotels, 175-177. Milton, 1 6. Ministers, 84, 140, 143, 151, 163. Mirrors, 34. Model boarding-houses, 103, 176. Model lodging-houses, 175-178. Money-lenders, Ji. 198 INDEX Moral responsibility, 179-182. Morals, 46, 49-50, 57, 63, 64, 65, 1 1 1, 1 12, 1 17, 134-149, 152-153, 156-159, 163, 168, 169- 182. Mortgages, 63, 66, 68, 69, 71, 78, 168. Municipal baths, 172. Municipal gymnasiums, 117, note, 172. Murder, 134, 135, 138, 171. Mussey, H. R., quoted, 68. Mutual aid, 154. Nationality, 117, 123, 131, 153. Of landladies, 52-53. Of lodgers, 81. Nativity of the population of Boston, 185-187. Neck, the, 13. Negroes, 78, 82, 87, 90, 91. Neighborliness, 154. New England, 53, 54, 71, 81. New England Watch and Ward Society, 140. Newsholme, Arthur, quoted, 129-130, note. Newspapers, 112, 134, 138. New York, 2, 3, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 81, 134, 157, 178, note. Nomadism of lodgers, 82-85, no, 138, 142, 145-149, 168-169, I73 '75- North End, n, 119, 123, 125, 129. Occupation, 25, 54, 56-57, 117, 131, 153. Of lodgers, 81, 82,83,86-96, 97-99, 137, 169. Opportunities, 9, 10, 29, 81, 113-114, 154, 162, 172-173. Overcrowding, 3, note. Palmists, 32. Paris, 143. Parker Memorial, 114. Parks, 13, 16, 152, 172, note, 172-173. Semi-private, 22. Parlor, 34, 62. See also Public parlor. Pavements, 22, 37. Pawn-shops, 135. Personal element, loss of, 173-174. Personal freedom, 158, 168, 173, 178, note, 179- 182. Personal service. See Domestic and personal service. Philadelphia, 38, 40. Philanthropy, province of, in the lodging-house problem, 174-180. Picot, Georges, quoted, 141, note, 143, note. Pictures, 35. Pin-money. See Subsidiary wages. Plumbing, 36. Police, 136, 137, 138-139, 140, 144, 146, 149, 171. Pool-rooms, 27, 28, 29, in. Population, demand for large, not entirely ra- tional, 164-165. Density of, 115, 117, 118-122, 169. Increase of, 8, 19. In suburbs, 17-19. Lodging-house, in various cities, 38-50. Movement of, from country to city, 8-10. Of lodging-house district, 6, 7. Poverty, 105-108, 161, 169. Precinct lists, 54-55, 83, 86, 125. Precinct maps, 121. Prices, board, 48-49. Clothing, 31. Coal, 58. Gas, 58. Lodging-houses, 70-71. Provisions, 47. Real estate. See Real-estate values. Rooms, 99-100. Water, 59. Pride, 104, 153, 160, 163-164. Change to lodging-houses, 15, 25. In lodging-house districts, 7, 23, 25, 86-87, 117, 119. Private residences, 13, 91, 118. Probation officer, 138. Professional service, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 95, 169. Prostitution, 30, 32, 117, 134-149, 158, 159, note, 160, 161, 163, 171. Extent of, not generally realized, 139. Need of detailed investigation of, 139, 144. Segregation of, 144. Provision stores, 28. Public Garden, 12. Public Library, 113. See also Library facilities. Public opinion, 170, 171, 172, 175. Public parlor, 35, 46, 57, 65-66, 112-113, 142, 152, 171-172, 175, 179. Quacks, 32, 144. Quick lunches, 28. Race. See Nationality. Race suicide, 115, 132-133, 161. Reading-rooms, 172. Real estate, 10, 14, 15, 16, 72-80. Real-estate agents, 27, 58, 63, 67-71, 92, 168. Real-estate transfers, 15, 1 6. Real-estate values, 33, 72-80. Decline of, 15. Real income of the family not dependent upon the husband alone, 159. Reception-room. See Public parlor. Recreation, 27, 162, 165, 172. See also Amuse- ments. References rarely required, 141, 146, 170. On working- women's homes, 177, note. Reform suggested, 169-182. Registry Department of Boston, 119, 120, ff., 150. Religion, 178, note, 181. INDEX 199 Remedial measures, 169-174. Remodeled lodging-houses, possibilities of, 178-179. Rent. See House-rent, Room-rent, etc. Repairs, 59, 76-77, 168, 170. Residence districts, II. Restaurants. See Cafes and Dining-rooms. Risk, 69, 71. Rooming-house. See Lodging-house, defini- tion. Room registry, 62, 67, 100, 109, 170-171. Room-rent, 5, 60-62, 99-101, 136, 140, 168, 171, 177. Rooms, distinction between "square" and "side," 34. In tenements, 4, 5. Price of. See Room-rent. Situation of, in house, 34. Room-signs, 23, 26, 63, 140, 147. Rozbury, 13, 20, 26, 29, 119, 120. Rules, undesirability of, 3, note, 178, 180- 181. Rutan, Elizabeth Y., quoted, 25. St. Louis, 38, 39, 40, 41, 134, 159. Salesmen. See Mercantile employees and Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. Saloons, 27-31, in, 137, 172, note. Sampling (statistical method), 87. San Francisco, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 107. Sanitation, 35, 117, 131, 175. School census, 125, 126-127. School committee, 127. Schools, 23. Remiss in ethical training, 181. Second-class construction, 79-80. Seduction, 111-112, 135, 157, 158. Selfishness, 154, 157, 161, 162-163. Sex, 117, 122-125, I 3 I - Of lodgers, 81-82, 115, 122-125. Of lodging-house keepers, 52. Shade, 22. Sharpers, 63, 66, 67-71, 136, 167, 171. Shawmut Church, 114. Shop-girls, 6, 89, 94-95, ico-ioi, 153, 156- 158. Shoplifters, 135. Side rooms. See Rooms. Single rooms, heavy demand for, 100, 178. Skilled mechanics, i, 5, 9, 81, 89, 90, 100, 105, 153, 168. Smoking-rooms, 175. Social betterment, 85, 169-182. Social control, 180. Social cooperation, 154, 170. Social dissolution, 138. Social intercourse. See Isolation. Social parasites, 32, 137. Social standards, changes in, needed, 179-182. South Bay, 13, 132. South Boston, 13, 29, 119, 120, 123. South Cove, 119, 123. South End House, 103, 114, 179. Speculation, 78. Standard of living, 90, 101, 145, 154-155, 157, 161-163. State House, 24, 25. Statistical bureaus, 115. Statistics, conflict of, 124. Criminal, backwardness of, 138. Lacking, 83,86, 115-116,124, 125-126, 130- 131, 138, 150, 169-170. Purpose of, 117. Stolen goods, 135. Straw lodgers, 67. Street plan, 21, 27. Street railways, 12, 13, 17, 21, 29. Stucco-work, 34. Student quarters, 188-189. Students, 26, 58, 82, 97, 174-175. Style. See Fashion. Subsidiary wages, 6, 156-159, 177. Suburbs, 10, 12, 16, 17, 62, 104, 120, 129, 131, 159, note, 1 60, 1 88. Population of, 17-19. Suicide, 134-135, 138, 171. Summer, effect of, on lodging-house population, 61-62. Sundays, 3, note, 28, 36, 112, 148. Sympathy, 90. Tailoring establishments, 27, 31, 32. Tapestry, 34, 36. Taxes, 72, 76-77. Tax-rate, 76. Teachers, residence of, 188. Tenement-House Act (New York), 2. Tenement-House Act (Massachusetts), move- ment for revision of, 79-80. Tenement-House population. See Tenement- houses. Tenement-houses, 4, 24-25, 29, 31, 35, 54, 63, 79, 81, 86-87, i> i4 i*t 113, 117, 118, 120, 122, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 137, 144, 154, 160, 163, 164, 172, 182. Theatres, 30, 31, 113, 162, 173. Theft, 134, 135-137- Topography, 131. Towels, 36, 59-60, 170. Trade and Transportation, 87, 88, 90, 92, 96. Trade-unions, 9, 155-156. Tramps, 2, 3. Transients, i, 140, 141. Transportation, 10, 12, 17, 29. See also Street railways. Union Park, 13, 22, 73~75 7 6 * 99- Urban statistics, inadequacy of, 115-116. 200 INDEX Vacant land, 121, note, 131. Vacant rooms, 61-63. Vaudeville, 31. See also Theatres. Venereal disease, 143. Ventilation, 35, 36, 37. Vermin, 37. Vitality, 164-165. Vital statistics, 115-133, 169. Available urban, 116, note. Wages, 97-99, loo-ioi, 104, 154, 156-159, 182. See also Subsidiary wages. Wage statistics, 97-99. Walking, 173. Ward politicians, 8r. Wards, location and character of, 119-120. Population and vital statistics of, 115-133. Water-bills, 59. Water-closets, 36, 59, 60. West Chester Park, 13, 22. West End, n, 16, 24-25, 29, 81, 82, 118, 119, 123, 125, 129, 137, 138, 188. West Roxbury, 120. Whitmore, Henry, quoted, 72. Widows, 54, 64, 1 68. Winthrop, 24. Woman-labor, 155. Women, holders of real estate, 77-78. Married, as wage-earners, 156. Occupations of, 25, 47-48, 63, 93-95, 125, 158. Wages of, 95, 97-102, 154-155, 177- Women lodgers, statistics of, lacking, 83, 86, 124, 126. Women's clubs, 65. Women's Educational and Industrial Union, H5- Worcester Square, 13, 22. Working-girls' homes, 176-178. Effect on wages, 177. Yards, 22, 79. Yeggmen, 4. Young Men's Christian Association, 114. Young Men's Christian Union, 114. Young Women's Christian Association, 62-66. "Jiff THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara STACK COLLECTION THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 30fn-8,'65(F6447s4)9482