I found in Los Angeles, as in every other city that I visited, that the Y. M. C. A. is nothing more nor less than a rich men's club. I found men worth a great many thousands of dollars rooming there. They paid from thirty to fifty dollars a month for their rooms. And I found boys on small salaries also living there but living on one and two meals a day, in order to be able to pay their paltry room rent. CHAPTER XV IN PORTLAND "_To live honestly by one's own toil, what a favor of Heaven!_"--HUGO. "Dell me, vhere I find me a lawyer?" In broken accents, these words came to me from a German laborer who stepped up to me out of five hundred unemployed men who thronged Second Street in the vicinity of the labor bureaus. "I am a lawyer," I responded; "what is the trouble?" With an amused expression, eyeing closely my blue jeans, he said, "You vas not a lawyer." "No," I answered, "I am not a lawyer, but tell me your name, and what is your trouble, and perhaps I can find you one." [Illustration: _Municipal Lodging House, New York City Women's and Children's Dining Room_] "My name is Steve Goebel. Vell, I dell you, I go there," pointing to the employment office near at hand, "seven days ago, und I pay two tollars for a job at lumber camp Rainier, fifty, maybe seventy, mile avay. I pay my fare out there. I vork six days und six hours for vun seventy-five a day, ten hour a day, den dey dell me dey no vant me no more. I work so hard in rain und vet, und I vear mein clothes out, und I pay five tollars a veek board. Vhen dey dell me dey no vant me no more dey offer me dhree tollars for my six days und six hours' work. I owe the commis, vhat you call it, fifteen cents for leedle tobac. Den dey take from me vun tollar hospital fee und dhree tollar poll tax, they say, or road tax, und offer me dhree tollar. I not take dot dhree tollar,--somevun dey rob me. I hafe leedle money. I come back part vay on boat, as far as my leedle money bring me, den I valk back here. I dell the office how I get treated und dey says nefer mind, ve get you anoder job, but I say I valk all night, I am hungry, den dey give me den cents for breakfast." I took this man to the office of the City Attorney and left him there to tell his story. I afterwards repeated the story to one of the leading newspaper writers of the city. He looked at me very earnestly, and said, "Do you think there will be a thing done about it?" I looked at him without reply, and he continued, "There won't be a thing done. There is no law for the poor man here."