After I had been forced into the wagon, while it passed the bright
street lamps I studied the faces of my unlucky companions in crime. All
these young fellows were between the ages of eighteen and thirty-three
and were skilled workers. As I looked upon them I immediately
recognized one of them as a young fellow to whom I had spoken that
afternoon while looking for work. He, also, was in the same condition
that I was in, stranded and homeless. He told me the police, that very
day, ordered him out of town but because of his ill health he was
unable to walk. He also said that he was afraid to risk going into the
railroad yards to get a freight, as the police were liable to arrest
him, so as the night was very cold, fearing with his poor health that
it might be fatal if he should sleep outdoors, he finally decided to go
to the "Star of Hope Mission," where, as a sick man, instead of being
given relief and shelter, he was thrown into prison.
Arriving at the jail, we were immediately searched. While the night
captain took my record, I told him that I was there, not because of
having committed any crime, or as a political critic, but simply to
study the conditions of the unemployed in the city; to study the
chances of an honest workingman, temporarily out of work and without
means to get the necessaries of life in Houston. Having never heard of
me, the Captain gave me an audible smile of suspicion and ordered me
thrown into the bull-pen, a dungeon of almost utter darkness.
The docket of the Houston City Jail for the night of November 28,
1910, has the names of eight victims of the "Star of Hope Mission,"
including myself. They were all run in by the Mission because they
were unfortunate enough to be without a night's resting-place, and
had appealed to this so-called Christian institution, maintained
supposedly for the express purpose of sheltering homeless boys and men.
While in jail I interviewed most of my fellow victims, and learned that
not one of them had ever been in jail before. The torture of their
humility was clear to me, for while speaking to them, they continually
reverted to kind parents and a loving home. We were all sitting or
lying down on the stone floor, as there was no other accommodation.
While all of them were gloomily silent, I remarked:
"Well, cheer up boys, this is not so bad. It might be worse."
One of them quickly answered, "You're right, Mister. I hope they won't
let us out until morning for I have no place to go."
Then I said, "Supposing we were in a condemned prisoner's cell and were
to be put to death to-morrow," and one of them quickly replied, "I
wouldn't care if we were for I have nothing to live for anyway."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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