laying pipe and wire for gas and electric systems, and erecting new buildings" and working at "docks, warehouses, and factories". The demand for casual workers fluctuated a great deal from the 1890s to the 1930s; as such, lodging houses provided an inexpensive place for these mobile workers to live. The peak demand for city lodging houses was in the winter, when there was little rural work. To cope with this surge in demand, lodging "house keepers doubled up people in rooms and set more cots out into the hallways." Black workers had difficulties getting housing due to the "color line" restrictions of racial segregation. While most of the lodging house residents were men, some women lived there, often in a separate room. A wide range of lodging house prices were available, depending on how much privacy and common areas they offered, ranging from private rooms, semi-private cubicles (nicknamed "cribs" or "cages"- a reference to the chicken wire that topped the cubicles- they had seven foot walls around a 5 foot by 7 foot space), and the cheapest "flophouse" style lodgings. Most lodging houses had no dining area or restaurant facilities, unless it was in an old hotel. A difference between rooming houses and cheap lodging houses is that rooming houses charged by the week, whereas lodging houses charged for each day, only rarely making weekly tenure available. In major cities, five story or higher rooming houses were common; in smaller cities, three or four stories was the norm. The fairly expensive, 40 cents-per-night lodging house usually had a mattress, chair and clothes hook. The most expensive lodging houses had a little dresser and a basin for water with taps. A 1913 San Francisco health inspector's report on a 40-cents per night (the top end of the price range) lodging house described it as: Three-story frame. Saloon on first floor. Thirty-nine rooms [upstairs]. Skylight in hall does not ventilate. Five inside rooms on each floor have window in unventilated hall. One fire escape; one stairway; large hall; four toilets; four baths; twelve stationary basins. Hot water in bath rooms... Many rooms have double beds. Not all lodging houses were heated, but if heat was available, it would be from hot stoves placed in the hallways. The residents faced "vermin, general filth, and horrific smells", along with "[l]ice, other bedbugs, and mice". The lowest form of lodging house was the flophouse, which