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Bowery Bum Goes to Work9 Complains of Living CostNEW YORK, June 25 (UP—Being a Bowery bum costs about $!i8 a week these days so Joe Campbell is going back to work. He will leave the beer, the shadows, and the ancient women with their anxious painted faces.“And it'll seem strange,” he said. “Sometimes life seems like a dream anyhow. Sometimes it seems I was just bom living easy, and never worked at all. But that's finished now, it’s all washed up. I'm going back to track work, to ‘gandy dancing’ on the railroad.”Inflation has done it, Joe explained. Hot air money has hit the Bowery, floating down with the roar of the “Ls” and a man can’t live high anymore without getting blisters on his hands—30 cents to sleep in a flophouse. That’s how bad things are.”“When you fork over 30 cents, like I did last night, it’s getting tough all over,” Joe said. It ain’t fun with a 100 bugs crawling on your ribs.” Before the war, Campbell could get a good night’s rest for 15 cents—or sometimes for a dime.Supper costs Joe about 70 cents now, and “they dust don't give you anything to eat.”He paid 20 cents in the old days for food. If he wanted to splurge, he would spend 50 cents.Joe said bumming a dime here, or two bits there, has lost its meaning.“People don't hand out as much to us now,” Joe said. “But I guess they’re spending more. They’re having a good time. They think you’re kidding if you say you’re hungry.“It costs the average bum about $18 a week now. That’s too much for life in the Bowery. A guy can’t relax.”
Newspaper Details
Southern Germany Stars and Stripes
Altdorf, Bavaria, DE
Wed, Jun 26, 1946
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Dylan S.
USA 26 Oct 2016
Other Publications Near Altdorf, Bavaria
Southern Germany Stars and Stripes
