Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/650

 634 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Kv half-past seven o'clock the coffeehouse and bakery are well astir. In the latter, rosy "Annie" is turning out her quota of brown and white loaves, with a minor detail of pies and shin- ing rolls. When the coffeehouse was opened, with its stained rafters, its fine photographs, and its rows of blue china mugs, it had a reflective visit from one of its neighbors. He looked it over thoroughly and without prejudice, and said decisively: "Yez kin hcv tic shovel gang or yez kin hev de office gang, but yez can't hev 'em both in the same room at the same toime." Time has shown the exactness of the statement. Its clientele, increasing with its increasing efficiency, have selected them- selves, and it is not the man in overalls who is the constant vis- itor, but the teacher, the clerk, and the smaller employer of the region. The laboring man sends his children for bread and soup and prepared food, but seldom comes himself, however well within his means the fare may be.

Here the residents of the house are served with a movable feast according to their uprisings. The quiet young inspector, whose work in the narrow alleys has changed them as by a daily miracle, is likely to be the first. Then come those who bear a divided burden ; the factory inspector and her deputy, the librarian, the students, and the two schoolboys of the house- hold. These are gone before those appear whose clubs and classes have kept them late the night before at the task of guide, philosopher, and friend.

From the coffeehouse are also served the luncheon and dinner for the house dining room, so that the family of twenty- four are placed in direct social and economic relations with the common kitchen, and the "belated industry" of private service is dispensed with. The domestic economy is all under one skilled management.

Leaving the coffeehouse by a covered way to the main building, one finds the large room on the right of the entrance already filled with applicants to the labor bureau for employ- ment, or to the relief department for aid. The latter acts as a clearing house for organized aids except in the case of the