PLENTY OF TOUGH WOOD.
HELPING HAND IS NOW READY
TO ENTERTAIN.
All Comers Will Be Cared for in
Terms of Equality --
One Penalty Is a Bath.
The Helping Hand Institute has finished laying in its annual fall supply of cordwood. This announcement, while perhaps not interesting to the casual reader, will doubtless be received with something of misgiving by certain patrons of the institution. It means that hereafter the man who goes to the institute for a warm bed in the name of charity will have first to go down to the basemen of the building and work out his salvation with a buck saw.
Three carloads of good, tough hickory wood have been put into the basement in readiness of the usual autumn demand. From time immemorial it has been the custom of this institution to require every man who applied for a free bed to say a given amount of cord wood before he can go to his bed-chamber. And, what is infinitely worse in most cases after the wood is "bucked" and piled up neatly, he is required also to take a bath. It has never been on record that one who had finished his task and taken his bath found himself afterwards cheated out of a good night's sleep by insomnia.
"Many seem to think this requirement rather a hardship upon the men," said E. T. Brigham, the superintendent, last night. "But our theory is that indiscriminate charity makes tramps. We believe that a man ought to be given an opportunity to work for what he gets and then be compelled to work before he gets it. No man who is unwilling to earn his way ought to be cared for, we think, and we have adopted the cordwood method with this idea in view.
"The result is that the very worst hoboes steer clear of our place, while deserving men who ask nothing better than a chance to work for a bed and breakfast are glad to come to us. It makes no difference whether an applicant gets in as late as 10:30 o'clock at night, he is taken to the basement, where a good sharp saw is put into his hands and he is told the quantity he is to cut. The average is about one hour's work, but an industrious and willing man can finish his task in less time than that. He feels all the better for his exercise after he gets in bed, while we are ahead of the stove wood."
