The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless ManAnderson, Nels
General
The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man
Anderson, Nels
Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions; Tramps
The problem of ventilation is present in the older hotels for men.
In some corners, in hallways and isolated rooms, there is never any
circulation of air. The smells accumulate from day to day so that
the guest on entering a room is greeted by a variety of odors to
which each of his predecessors has contributed.
The following statement of an investigator indicates what is one of
the most objectionable features of the cheap hotel.
The lack of adequate toilet facilities is deplorable. In
one hotel I found two toilets for one hundred and eighty
men and in another seven for three hundred and eighty. Some
of the toilets have absolutely no outside ventilation,
opening on sleeping rooms. Some of them are located in
halls with no partition separating them from sleeping rooms
and are a source of foul and nauseating odors.[45]
With respect to wash basins and bath facilities the condition is no
better. Many do not even have hot water. In some places from twenty
to forty men use the same wash bowl.
The Department of Health has taken an active part in the campaign
against vermin, and co-operates whenever a complaint is made.
Their task seems hopeless since the patrons are so transient and
so frequently carry vermin from one place to another. The very
buildings are often breeding places for bedbugs, lice, and roaches.
SICKNESS AND DISEASE
If the homeless man becomes sick or injured while at work he likely
will be cared for by the hospital maintained by the industry.
But he is in dire distress when he has no job and is in need of
medical attention. Occasionally men without funds go to private
physicians and not infrequently they get free treatment, but the
traditional and easier method of meeting such situations is to
go to an institution. Chicago, with its numerous hospitals and
medical colleges, is a Mecca for the sick and the afflicted of the
“floating fraternity.” Homeless men come sometimes several hundred
miles for treatment to this great healing center of trampdom. They
have no scruples against entering an institution as a charity
patient. To them it is not charity, but something due to the sick.
VENEREAL DISEASE
Venereal disease and ailments growing out of venereal disease play
a considerable rôle among the tramp population. The Chicago Health
Department on the basis of the medical examination of inmates of
the House of Correction estimates that 10 per cent of the homeless
men are venereally infected.[46] This is double the rate of
infection found in drafted men.[47]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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