Page:The Girl Who Earns Her Own Living (1909).djvu/320

 an egg-crate on the window-ledge filled with damp and odorous rags. She would provide a cook stove if we provided the coal. If we wanted to use gas, we must hire our stove from the company and pay her fifty cents per week for gas drawn from her meter. Rate, four dollars per week. Greatly offended when I asked her for references, as we were strangers in New York.

"Mrs. J, West Thirty-fourth Street. Stuffy old house; furniture reminded me of second-hand shop. Landlady talked much and nervously, but was singularly ladylike; one room, five dollars per week, and you supply gas stove and cooking utensils. Separate gas meter for each tenant. No closet, and clothes must be hung behind dirty plush curtains. After displaying the good points of this fairly large room, Mrs. J explained that it was already rented. Going out I met its future occupant, a sadly bleached blonde, still more in need of a bath and clean raiment. On steps met a veteran 'bum' carrying a pitcher of beer.

"Mrs. G, Sixty-eighth Street, near Central Park West, wrote that she had no other roomers and her husband was never home, as he worked in a hotel. An airshaft room at three dollars per week was her offering. Cooking could be done in her kitchen. Room could hardly hold one person comfortably, let alone two.