A Day in a Registry Office.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 4 October 1902, Page 10 (Supplement)

A Day in a Registry Office.

i "So I says to her, I fcajs, 'This is the ] iir.it hout-e I've been in.x'n heie I've had to treat fab as if it w^S gold,' I says, j and &he 'I pay you \\ ;\ges to do I whiil I tell you,' &he says, 'not to liud I fault with mj- housekeeping.' Fancy, the lip of her !" I "Oh, don't I know." This from a sympathetic libtener, for the big waitmg100m was> full of girls, and confidences and general conversation were the order among many of them, though heie and tiitue Nit one stockstill and silent, speaking lo no one, and taking little interest in anything. "\VhaL did you say to that?" "Oh, I told her what I thought of her, and she got that wild she just couldn't say anything, but just 'Well, the sooner Vo part, the belter, Ellen.' 'You're quite light,' I says, 'and 1 hope the next girl you get,' 1 says, 'will have the same feeling about fab that you have,' 1 says." 2sext to Ellen and her companion sat a Moebegoiio old woman, a cheerless old wreck, of nearly seventy yeais of age. Her hands were gnarled and knotted, and shook in her lap. • She muttered a I little to herself now and again, but spoke to no one. Next her was .i jaunty girl of eighteen or nineteen, decked in much cheap finery, and occupied in telling any : om> flho would listen vaiious matters, ■which lequired that she should drop her \oice to a, confidential whisper. Kvery now and then the monotony of -waiting lifted a little as the registry otfk.e-kceper hurried in importantly to address one or other of the girls, and enquiro which of them would go as general to Cioydon or Birreguria, or to some hotel in the city. Many of the gills s)ju knew by name, and as she passed the old crone she laid a kindly hand on her shoulder. "I haven't Heard of anything for you yet, Mary ; you re so hard to please, you know." "I'll take anything you> get me nowadays," mumbled the old woman ; "nothin' '11' make me live on mo children agen." "Well, we must try and find something. Now then, Jessie, will you. take a cook's place omt at Flemington?" "Private?"' queried Jessie. "No, business place; good Wages." "How many kids?" ! "Only two. Why, if it resbed with you girls you'd never let any one have any children at all." "I'll see her," condescended Jessie, and the registry office lady departed with this nibbler. In the far corner, a frail bent girl, with a cough, discussed with an older woman the meriU of patent food for ir~ fants. "The nurse is good to him', ,bifc he don't seem lo thrive somehow, end then I get worrying, and forget things. I burnt the muttbn to a cinder the other day after getting a letter saying he was sick, and I'd been doing other things the same way, •so she give me notice, and now I must get a place somewhere near by him, and I'll worry myself sick again, and . I was pretty bad in the winter. Sometimes I'd ask her if I could go out of an afternoon, but she'd never let me, except my day off, and I never told her about the child ; she wasn't one of them you could tell things to " Jessie returned to her place. "Wouldn't youj&ko it?" asked the girl next her. "Not me; six in. family besides the youngsters, shirts to do for four men, and all the cooking and washing, ai.d twelve shillings a week." "A bit stiff." In came the registry office-keeper. "You were a silly girl not to take that, Jessie ; it was a real good place. Now, then, what -sort of place do you want?" this to girl in finery. "Waitress." [ "Haven't got one on the books to-day." "Silly game that," confided one girl to another. "I tried- it for a bit, and knocked myself right out. Up at 6 in the morning, on. your feet till midnight, and find your own lodgings. If you make Inilf^a-^rowii a week for your clothes you're jolly lucky." "I want a housemaid for Malyern?" Two girls showed interest. "How much?" t "Gbod wages." "You don't have me that way," retorted one, "How many in family?" '.'Four. Come 1 alone, Annie, 3'ou see the lady first, and -if you don't take it •the other girl can see how she likes it." Annie departed, aud silence, weary silence fell on every one; the morning was long, the waiting tedious, the look of apathy aAd hop elessnes on one or two faces most depressing. Annie did not return,/ so it was- evident she had accepted the situation. A Sad old aboriginal woman fell asleep in the comer, old Mary muttered to herself in hers.- Two newcomers roused a little interest for a time, one of them being a buxom female with a flushed face and watery eyes, the other a handsome Irish girl, who, recognising a friend, seated herself beside her, and began, to exchange experiences. "I want a girl for a farm at Moyru," said the registry office-keeper. No one responded, but some one muttered, "You don't catch me on a farm again." The registry ofiice-keeper was persuaI sive ; she extqlled the farm, but could [ get any offers. "Well, I want a general for, a nice, light place in Richmond." The sad, sickly girl brightened. "I want a. place in Richmond. I'll take it if it is. any good at all," ah,'d-she departed, . her friend giving her some further advice (about patent foods. "Seems rough on the old ones, don't it?" remarked the Irish girl. "Mother of Mercy! I hope I never come to that. Tottering round begging for work, and no one wanting me. Look at that poor, old black soul ,-- she's roughed it iv her time, eh?" , The old creature, sitting limply on her chair, suggested somehow in her apathetic Meary eyes and dull expression a jaded, played-out horse, a- wreck of something that had oeen strong and young and useful. She had been left behind by the old race ; was overlooked by the new. * "A funny thing for me not to be able to come into my own kitchen." A' recital of the trouble that led to dismissal occupied two girls, comparatively late-^ comers. "So I told her straight, without any nonsense, that I wanted the kitchen to myself. She had all the rest of the house, and I never went poking into the sittingroom to see what she was after, so she had no business to come into the kitchen unless she knocked first." "You never said that?". gasped the listener,'in delighted astonishment. "I did, straight. I was sick of the place, and didn't care what I said. My word, she did give it to me " 1 The registry-office keeper came to get a general for Oamberwell. "You don't mind being that far out?" she suggested to the new girls. "Whnt wages*" "Twelve shillings." "How man} 1 kids?" "Three." "All right. I'll see her." , , She was back very soon, however, a).-d exclaimed in disgust, "She kept mighty dark about the cow." "What a mean thing.*' said some 'lie sympathetically : "I can't abeir a now ; it puts me off, straight: I'd sooner mind kid*." There is a camaraderie in the servants' waitingroom utterly lackinp in the ro->rn where the mi -tiesi-ea congregate. WouMbe employeis eye one another with some little animosity, much curiosity and bus-

pieion. They wear' expressions of olank ' indifference, and rarely speak one to another. The girl*, on the other band, e:i,it to oach. other, sympathise, and a&itet if they can. Though a few of them may .-ii thiough on entire morning and speoK to no one, it is not from a desire to Keep aloof, but rathpr fiom some pei:,;nal vaviy or preoccupation. _"ISo\v, i've got ii lovely place for you, Kate," the regislry-ollice keeper addressed the Iri&h girl. "Cook's pl.ice, two in family, sixteen shillings, boy kept, 10 sbirls, and every Sunday evening." Kate s-miled, winked at the room generally, and enquired genially, "What maun the last girl leave?" The legit try-office keeper laughed. "Come, come, you are more of a fool thai. I believe you if you let this slip through your ringers. She left to be married, of course. "An— who told you that?" but Kato robe and went out, and we saw her no moie. A settled gloom descended on sevcnl o r these waiting, and the lady with a. Hushed face became sentimentally confidential, n a hoarse voice. "To think of me looUiac for a situation on the anniversary of mipoor mother's death; she'd luin in her grave if bhe knew that I was sitting' Here wailin' for some one to asL me to go ,ml i wash their dirty dishes an' her in lei | grave this ten year, an' me with a s,-ood education, an " | Between twelve and one the waitingroom was almost deserted, bub old M-ny stayed on and nibbled a few biscuits Between two and four business wim flirty brisk, and of all those who had b-en there eavly in the morning, only the old black woman, old Mary, and the" girl who wanted a waitress's place remained : others had come and gone; the room h;ul overflowed once or twice ; some of tlx< girl had gone to other offices, others had obtained situations, others had just drifted off. Then the registry-office keppur turned to her books and her letters, to prepare for the following day, nnd to endeavour to find round pegs for round holes, and square pegs for square ones. — Melbourne Argus.