The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 17, 1907, Page 6

COTTAGES for the REFUGEES Dosch Arno r .ok ms appeared before f committee, They rad been living in 1 up in Misslon park, ere to be torn down. born in the Mission, o Mission, &nd now driven away to seek and Jamed of the committee, in t er Crowley women Jlooked on, human na- 1al sweat of the owners eyed and sho~ sen park might ts facing upon ity fol- citizens £ him Selfish vore the hypocritical mask of Outraged feelings led to heated s who ordinarily lose their heads. News of this ome builders and they aithough it use. A citizen er Crowley for 1 behavior when he en- rere were who tell me dramatic. Father Irish tongue and was Irish heart. He told ught of them He had 8 hand in secur- hese of the park by the sition to enlighten regarding it. rk had been bought for he Mission as a whole, a2 few speculators in real 4 them t were & Sorry ing men for giving up days to work for others, and the sclfish motive that led i the mass meeting. Since rer Crowley has been the leader in matters concern- Ing for refugees. r Crowley is chairman P of the meeting, at he -2 F T ELR CROWLE=Z" " % of the special committee on housings—a subdivision of the Rehabili- shelter and tation Committee of t San Fran- cisco Rellef and Red Cross funds. He is aided by M Alice Griffith, Dr. A. A. d@’Ancona Je i C. Queen. Father Crowiey is the dyna > force. The work is character of the man. It is a long w 3 ving the taint of organized ch ret it 1s systematic and « 1 caught my first impression of the man when he told mg he was too busy to talk to me in his office, but ied me to dimner. When T went out to the Youths' Direc- tory, on Guerrero street, where he lives, fiights of little parish boys like swal- lows blew up and down before his @oor. A smiling old parish woman let Later when I came to know a little more about Father thought of the old I me in. Crowley 1 sh song of Father nR— - Powerrulest prea Tendercst teacher, and Kindiiost ereatore fn ould Dovegal ier Crowley did not like to be red the fountain-head, “and brought out letter-heads to show that he was only one of many S — and in other ('/‘ ways tried to minimize his part in the work. But the wholg story of rehous- ing is sp strongly marked with his own personality that he must.be considered as the moving spirit. T ————— BFBR SHEZZERS FURST COrTRHECE BUILT 777 VPN D DOZORES SIHEEZTS, WY FRTHAHER CIROTET D s 7TED HWORKZIVG- % s SUNDZXS, How Refugees Can Build There has not been much printed about the housing committee, except the ad- vertiseménts making public the offer to help people into homes of their own! WIETCT REFLGESS EEFTIIE FOX 7oA DR COXr TGS, 3 Two classes have been aided—those who have begun to build for them- selves and have not had enough money to finish, and those who could not even begin. Tn the latter case the applicant for ald must have at least an equity on a plece of land; he must have paid in- stallments on it or have a two-year lease. Once the man has proved him- self all right the committee not only supplies him with haif the money, but /helps him borrow the other haif, if necessary, and furnishes him with plans and a contractdr to do the work, and he gets a better house at a cheaper rate than hie could himself build. So far 316 houses have been built. At the end of the next three months, Which will about complieie the work and exhaust the million-dollar fund, there will be built altogether in this way about 1800 houses. R1rcHEX" JOXO ZIVII G Roorr oxco BLTr O TEHE U R-ROOTT COT TGS CDINIY & =o0or7T 1778 34 o KZILTNG oot 7K AR '7/ Humanity, not charity reduced to a routine, has actuated the activities of this committee. Each individual case has been handlea by itself and each man has stood on his own character. He has been treated, not like a pauper, but like one to whom the money be- longs. Although the committee is sup- posed to give only a certain portion, about half, means have been devised to help any worthy applicant into a house of his own. His credit has been made good at the bank and In every way he has been Lelped to help him- self. There are three plans frem which applicants have made their choice: Qne four-roomed and two five-roomed cot- tages. The sccond of the five-roomed cottages Is a recent device for a par- ticular class of citizens, old ‘men and women who formerly rented a portion BETY LI~ BOONT COTTFGES r'_rmwmn » or THE of thatr houss afff ltved on G ™ come. The most comfortable of the Beuses bas @ve rooms, & living room, & &ning room, twe badrooms and s Kitchem. It has all the conveniences any one nesds and It would bs a particular parsse who dld not conslder It convenient. The spacifications give its cost at #7785 ia- "cluding plumbing. The Old People's Way The other five-roomed cottage ia dus to Father Crowley. In It & hallway divides the cottage In twa, with two rosms on ous side on the other. The two ars cut of from the rest of the house so they can be rented. Father Crowley explains the occasion for this house. “From the start I gaw that ths fu- turs wes going to be hard for the old people, who by forty years of)y hard work had been able to build a touple of flats and live In one aad rent the other. For a long tims I saw nothing for these old refugees but the peor- /house. What little Insurance money they got would pet emable them to build, but with lhis fund we sball be able to help thdm build one of u¥bee compromise cottages znd ths rent they get from the two rooms will be enough to fill their simple They are & worthy They have given their lives to the building of the city and they deserve all the aid we can give them. In the majority of these cases the old people lived comfortably in one flat and rented the other. The old mar would walk out to the cor- mer on sunny days and meet his old friends. and in the evening come back to smoke his pipe and talk with his wife. I knew many such cases. To them the fire was a terrible thing. They saw their lifetime work gone In a minute, and many have been unable to help themselves. I hope we shall be able to help all these old people to houses of this kind, so they can end their days as independently as they have always lived.” This i1s the kind of work that must please the men who dug down Into their pockets to cowme to the rellef of San Francisco's homeless. These rellef fund houses hgve been built In every portion of the eity, all the way from North Beach to the Pot- rero and all through the Mission and beyond. They are belng gccupied by people who were in refugee camps, staying with friends, or occupying rented apartments. They are helping supply needed houses and are rooting citizens to the ef Householders are notably the best citizens. eeds. ass. B S S S SUU. + WHAT PEOPLE READ ON FERRYBOATS WHILE THEY ARE CROSSING THE BAY By Will Scarlet ~ OME people when crossing the bay never read at al Of these, gome @®ct on principle—it's bad the eves, you know—and the ne of least resist- persons belonging: to the don't feel like reading, and t reag—that's ali. But, everything congidered, the folks for one reason or &nother, refrain n reading while crossing the bay decided minor! Tor ow y <ime of the day and Most of your fellow vou will speedily find, have reading habit real bad, and if you weren't on & tour of inspection you would probably fall a vietim to it your- selt, Of the thousands who dalily saunter aboard the score of ferry boats plying between the metropolis and the bay cities mwany resd through 2 necessity, real or imagined, many more in the epirit of economy-—glorious misers of time!—and most far lack of something more definite to do. The 'last named are the most degenerate in a literary way, but also théy are far the most interesting. The average Californian can put up with almost any number of Inconve- niences; not even a number ten earth- quake, when once he gets used to it, notably disturbs his equanimity. But there is just one thing that the averago Californian can't stand, and that is to neve nothing to do. Yggre lies the rea- son—or one of the “reasons—of the prevalence of the reading habit on the bay steamers. Collisions, boiler explo- sions and euicide rescues occur with such provoking infrequency that there is absolutely nothing for the energetic commuter to do except to talk or to read. Talking implies two and is often impracticable. Reading demands just one-and gnmathine +a =n To the vast majority of ferry pas- sengers “something to read” means a newspaper. ‘A good many professional men who work in San Franclsco and sleep in Oakland find that if they don't read their papers on the ferry boats they can’t snatch time to read them at all. Then, too, the morning trip gives you a splendid chance to get the gist of the day’s news crisp and ecarly, and a perusal of the evening paper on the trip back affords suggestions for table talk and evening clothes gossip. About the noon hour, for obvious reasons, the Ppopularity of the newspaper wanes. But not only the busy, preoccupied ferry passengers utilize the news- paper. It is a veritable boon to folks with a superfluity of time on their hands and to men and women engaged in the perennial quest of something to do. Reading the paper while cross- ing the bay means much to them. It is a delightfully fascinating and time-consuming employment. Tt s Tireette o add attmmilatineg, it charma and attracts. Where, alter all, does a newspaper make better reading? You cafi't reaily enjoy it hanging to a strap in a streetcar, and somehow there's never time enough or quiet enough to read it around the house. But the ferry boat offers ample leis- ure, ideal facilities and suitable en- vironment: I believe there are some people who cross the bay solely for the gratificatibn of reading their newspapers en route, Not zil the ferry readers, however, read the newspaper. there {s the student class. The morn- ing boats carry scores of San Fran- cisco lads and lassies to Berkeley, and hundreds of young peoplée .from the bay cities ta the metropolis. Indeed the 8 and §:20 boats from Oaikland, Alameda and San Ratael présent.a picturesque erray of college pins and hatbands. There the experienced eye may detect the white and red of Low- ell, the blue and white of Sacred Heaft, the black and vellow of Lick and. {ndeed. tha distinctive symbol of For example, practically every other college, acad- emy and high school on this side of the bay. Some of the boys who revel in baggy corduroys rcad newspapers, and some, eschewlng reading alto- gether, engage in “joshing” and a modified form of “rough house,” but most of them, on the trip to school, are busy with their books. On Mon- day mornings in particular are his- tory and literature textbooks in evi- dence. As for the co-eds, their class- books absorb them almost to a unit, \Be comforted, O Ye parents, and ye teachers, be appeased! Xven though your youthful suburban charges spend many of their hours in riotous living, _they study while crossing the bay. One might think that, next to the newspeper, the popular magazine is the favorite pabulum of ferry boat readers. Observation proves other- wise. The magazines have a surpris- ingly small clientele, despite the fact that they sel briskly at the news- stands in the ferry building. Most commuters appear to regard the mag- azine as something for exclusive home consumption. Quite a number of men stuff Munsey or the American into _their overcoat pockets and read the inevitable newspaper or nothing. And now another unexpected fact claims recording. A very considerable number of ferry passengers read manu- scripts. Of these a good many—formal looking typewritten papers—are plain- ly legal documents; but there are others. Typed and penned and pen- ciled pages of varying sizes, shafpes and hues, from/the studen theme™” to the suburban correspondent’s “copys” are to be met with repeatedly in the course of a stroll from bow to stern of the Berkeley, the San Francisco or the Tamalpais. Certainly, what in the newspaper world is called copyreading is a relatively popular duty ‘or diver- sion while crossing the bay. Proof- reading, though, is not. In all my ferry boat experiences—a pretty exten- sive one—T recall but a solitary in- stance of a man—evidently new to the 1;b—tpenemn¢ corrections on a galley eet. Some ferry passengers, largely wom- en, reaed current fiction during the trip. A minority of the.novel readers are ob- viously oft for a vacation and intend to begin enjoying it right away by thus indulging in a mild form of men- tal dissipation. The majority, how- ever, are professional peeple, who prefer a book to & newspaper when there is question of taking a littie re- laxation. nroverb says you can't tell a book by the cover; but you cae.~That is one of the things the co is for. Casting observing though cautious glances at the volumes in the hands people crossing the bay, see that commuters asioral passengers read books other than fic- tion. As might be supposed. poetry is not very popular on the ferry boats— it is not very popular anywhere—but n in the tobacco-smelling lowe- cabin the muse has a small but sedu- lous band of devotees. Literary essays now and then. too—I once saw a young lady so intent ou & volume of B. R, Sill's prose that a deckhand had to tell her that the boat had reached the mele—ana, look hard enough, ‘you may distinguish an occasional velume of history. Hare and there it is possible to pick out some zealous adult student of Frenmch, German or Spanish and, even befors the school segregation topic had come into prominence, you might o ver a Jap or two racking His 1t “on brain over past and present. Aec- tors sometimes grasp the of the d