CO-OPERATIVE “FLOPS”
One of How’s ambitions is to establish hobo stopping places in all the principal cities of the country. Already he has opened “Hotels de Bum” in more than twenty cities. Some of them are owned by the I.B.W.A., but most of them only rented for the winter months. The “hotel” in Cincinnati is typical. It is a two-story frame building, located in the Hobohemian section of the city. The second floor, designed for “flopping,” is equipped with about forty cots. The first floor is divided into a loafing- or reading-room and a kitchen. In the kitchen there are a gas range and enough pots and kettles to “boil up” clothes or cook a “mulligan.” At the rear of the building is a small wood yard where ties and other wood are cut for the heater. The management of these hotels is left to the men who select a house committee from their number. The committee looks after the building and insists that the men keep the place clean. A small tax is imposed now and then to meet current expenses and to pay one man a small fee for looking after the accounts. The ordinary “mission stiff” cannot survive long in an I.B.W.A. hotel. He usually leaves when asked to contribute his share toward the upkeep. But a man without money is welcome, if he does his part. Some of these hotels pay their way. Most of them, however, never meet expenses, but the deficit generally is made good by How.