Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/464

 450 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Just the extent to which the cheap theater, of which those described above are typical, are substitutes is left for the reader to judge. They are filled at night to overflowing, with a differ- ent crowd each night. Even the cheapest seats cost 10 cents (and the ic-cent seat is uncomfortable and apt to be close), an amount which the people of these districts may not spend every night for a " luxury." The truth is that the vast multitude, seeking amusement and having no money with which to pay for it, crowd the saloon vaudeville, where amusement of a still inferior character is furnished them.

The parks are not for the people. Just how much a system of parks that would include small parks located in the wretched and congested districts of our city, would counteract the saloon is not to be reduced to mathematical calculation. But this is certain : here is a need that it is the business of the city to supply, and cease taxing the poor for parks designed for the rich. The majority of the billiard halls are in no sense a substitute, but those furnishing soft drinks are well patronized, and are in every sense substitutes of the first quality, so far as young men and boys are concerned ; but they are few in number. Recreation and amusement, so necessary to the symmetrical development of all our lives, are denied to those most needy of it or rather, they are supplied in abundance, but of a character and under circumstances not conducive to good morals.

LODGING-HOUSES.

But how are the 30,000 of the floating population provided for? And what kind of lodging-houses do they find? The first, second, twenty-second, and twenty-eighth precincts are well stocked with lodging-houses of the 10-, 20-, and 3o-cent type. An account of my night's experience in a 5-cent "doss- house" will give a slight insight into the needs of these people. On the evening in question I had been at an "at home" of one of the settlements, where, amid laughter and gaiety, in rooms having the air of home about them and tastily decorated with flowers, I saw the laboring man and his family at their best. From a daintily arranged table in one corner of the dining-room