WORKING WOMEN IN LONDON.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1735, 26 March 1886, Page 5

WORKING WOMEN IN LONDON.

The number of women earning their own living 1 , and often assisting to keep tho family, in Londoa, is increasing | every day. Hundreds are employed j ia the Po3toffioe, m some of the insurance companies as cashiers and bookkeepers, in tracing engineers' plan?, in typo writing, in telephone work and cigarette-making — all employments of comparatively recent date, for it is not so many years ago since th.9 trial of female clerks in the clearing house of the Postoffi.ce was thought a wonderful innovation, and one which many wise beads predicted much evil of. There are besides, of course, the very large cumber of working women in tho more ordinary senae — the dressmakers, mil--1 liners and shop assistants. Among the latter, perhaps, it ia the truest that we know little of how they live. One j thing is not half enough known about them, and that ie the large number of girls and women employed in London at a rate of payment which is quite inadequate for them to live upon, however careful they ni.'iy be. They are generally machinists or dressmakers, or milliners' assistants, sometimes attendants in aocond-rate shops. Ifc is a common thing for these women to to pnid 8* (82) a week, or less — they think themselves well off when thoy earn 9s ($2 25) and the work is not constant ; because, when times are bad, or the stack season acts in, they are turned off. They will £0 day after day to some of the shops where their work is known and sit in the waiting-room on tho chance of an odd haud being wanted. If these earnings are only part of the household's means it is well enough j the girl's work pays the rout if it does not always keep her, and she is not without food or shelter during the time the work fails. But it is wholly different with the young woman who has no home but that she pays for. If she is quiet and respectable she generally lodges with some fellowworker older than herself who has furniture. She pays 2s or 2s 6d a week for a bed in tho 3ame room and for her share of the firing and light. She buys her own food and cooks it herself. Six shillings for seven days is 30fc V©ry much, ever? on§ will ftljow }

but when we know that the recipient is expected to dress well — that is, respectably —and fiad herself in boots ; that in going out in all weathers her clothes wear out more quickly, no one need be surprised that her wages alone cannot keep her and dress her. In most of the large shops the assist* anfs Jive in houses provided for them, under the charge of a matron or housekeeper; but there is a very large number of women in London employed during the day who have to find homes for themselves as best they may. By combination, good wholesome food can bo obta ; ned at a rate which is simply impossible to separate catering — a fact which is, of course, self-evident, although few are aware of the figures j which represent this saving. As an example, I may mention that, to my owq knowledge, a dinner consisting of soup, a cut from a freshly-cooked joint, two vegetables and a roll cost something under fivepence a head, when supplied to forty people for the actual ! food alone — that is to cay, without | charge for kitchen, fire, or attendance ; i a.ud that when five or six people join | together for tea it costs thorn, inc'lud- ! ing su£?nr and milk about 3d per week. | U is ea?y to see how cheaply a number of women could be provided for if the food tvere well managed. So far the clubs or lodgings where ■ the plan has been adopted of a common j hitcheu have been eminently successi ful, and the only difficulty is that there | are not nearly enough of them, aud i that there are never any vacancies in j those which exist. In some of these I an excellent hot dinner of meat, two ! vegetables and bread is served in the J rooms at the rate of 8d per head, than | which nothing better or cheaper could Ibe desired. For 4*s 8d per week a ! woman can thus have the food without which she cannot continue to work, and her breakfast and tea are small items in comparison to dinner. This is, of course, only to be had in residential clubs for a higher class of women than the milliners' assistant, who out of her scanty earnings could never ' afford 4s 8d a week for her dinners. The evil in theße cases is that the dinners are only served in the middle of the day, and many of the workers who cannot get home to dinner are unable to benefit by them. It is not by any means, however, among this class of women only that there are workers atruggling hard to keep their heads above the water. It is no exaggeration to say that in London hundreds of gently bred and cultured women are living actually alone, going forth to their daily work and returning to their lodgings in the evening, with perhaps a stinted fire or bad light. Many of these are quite young, and, to their credit be it spoken, they live as blarnalees lives, though cut off from all supervision, as their carefully guarded sister^ whose parents surround them with every possible protection, and would fain have them ignorant that evil exists.— The Queen.