In Boston, I once stopped in Scolly Square and listened to a number
of Mormon missionaries expounding their doctrine. They were not, as
many might imagine, old men with long gray beards, but were young men
of perfect physical manliness, with the clear-cut eyes of those who
lead temperate lives. They talked of Moses and the prophets, and in
the midst of the talk, a well-dressed young man standing next to me
interrupted by crying out, "Don't talk to us of the Blessed in Heaven,
and those canonized by the church! Give us a little practical religion.
Tell us what privileges Salt Lake City offers to the man who is poor
because he must work with his hands. Has Salt Lake City abolished any
of the social evils that pauperize her people? Has she driven out the
corrupt political machine? Has she established a municipal building to
offer to temporarily homeless people shelter and food as a safeguard
against the jail? Has she created a public bath, an emergency hospital,
a free employment bureau? Tell us of a Christianity such as this, and
we will listen." The Mormon Elders seemed stunned into silence, and as
the young man turned to leave, he addressed me, saying: "My God! How
I suffered in that city! I am a printer by trade. I became destitute
looking for work while there and suffered not only from hunger and
exposure, but I was arrested and thrown into jail as a vagrant, simply
because I was homeless, helpless, and penniless!"
It was during the first week in November that I left for Zion. On my
journey I was obliged to stop over at a station called Green River,
about one hundred and fifty miles east of the city. The weather was
cold and raw, there was no fire in the station, and I felt extremely
uncomfortable.
In the distance a dim light was visible, and I started to find out
what it might offer of comfort, and possibly breakfast. On my way, I
encountered six young fellows just crawling out of a warehouse in which
was stored baled hay, on top of which they had been trying to rest.
They were all thinly clad; their teeth chattered with the cold, and
they shivered until their bones seemed to fairly rattle. They, too,
went with me to the light which revealed a cheap restaurant. It was
only a board shack but there was a stove in there touched with a deep,
ruddy glow, and hot coffee and rolls was to be had for ten cents, and
much more if one had the price.
[Illustration: _Municipal Lodging House, New York City
Physicians' Examination Room_]
[Illustration: _Municipal Lodging House, New York City
"Now for a good night's rest"_]
Seated at the table, one of the boys looked up to me and said, "Do you
know where a fellow can get a job around here?" He told me they had
been working just over the border in Colorado, in and around Grand
Junction and Delta in the fruit belt, for the past six weeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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