WORKING WOMEN IN LONDON.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1526, 9 April 1886, Page 3

WORKING WOMEN IN LONDON.

The number of women earning their own living, and often agisting to keep the family, in London, is increasing every day. Huudreds are employe ) iu the Poatoffice, in some of the innur ance compauiee as cashiers and bookkeepers, in tracing engineers' plaof-, in type writing, in telephone work and cigarette-making—all employments ot comparatively recent date, for it is nor so many years since the trial ot female clerks in the clearing house ol the Postoffice was thought a wonderfuinnovation, and oue which many wise heads predicted much evil of. There are besides, of course, the very large number of working women in the more ordinal sense —the dressmakers, mil liners and shop assistants. Among the latter, perhaps, it is the truest that we know little <,f how they live. One thing is not half enough known about, them, and that ic the large number of i»irl» and women employwi iu L>ndv»> at a rate of payment which i* quite in adequite for them to live upon, however careful t! ey may be. They are generally machinists or dressmakers, <>r milliners' assistants, sometimes attendants in second-rate shops. It i* a common thing for these women to be pr.id $• (82) a week, or less—they think themselves well off when they earn 9a (?2 25) and the work is not constant; because, when times are bad, or the pl*ck season sets in, they are turned off. They will £jo day after day to some of the shops where their work is known and sit in the waiting room on the chance of an odd hand beint? wanted. If theie earnings are onlv part of the household's means it is weil j enough ; the girl's work pay* the rent if it does not always keep her, and "he' is not without food or skelter 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 0d a week for a bed in toe same 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 not terjr much, wrjr one will alio* j

but when we know that the recipient is expected to dres*well—tbatis, respect* ably —and flu 1 benelf in boots; that in going oat in all weathers her clothed 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 assistants lire in houses provided for them, under the charge of a matron or housed keeper; 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 he 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 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 Pood alone—that i« to sav, without

••barge for kitchen, tire, or attendance; ' and that when five or six people join together for tea it costs them< includ-

ing sugar and milk ab-mt 3d per week. It is en-y to see how cheaply a number 1 of women cou'd b<? provided for if the food were weil managed. S » far the clubs or where the plan has been adopted of a common kitchen have been eminently successful, and the only difficulty is that there 'are not nearly enough of them, and that there are never any vacancies in those which exist. In some of these an excellent hot dinner of meat, two vegetables and bread is served in the i rooms at the rate of 8d per head, than which nothing better or cheaper could be desired. For 4s 8d per week a woman can thus have the food without which she cannot continue to work, *nd her breakfast and tea are small

items in comparison to dinner. This is, of course, only to be had in resid* ential clubs for a higher class of women than the milliners' assistant, who out of her scanty earnings could never afford 4s 8i a week for her oinners. The evil in these cases if 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 tbem. It is not by any means, however, among this class of women only that there are workers atruggling bard to keep their heads above the water. It in no exaggeration to siy 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 liffht. Many of these are quite young, and, to their credit be it spoken, H<ey live as blameless lives, though cut off from ail supervision, as their carefully guarded sisters, whose parents surround them with every possible protection, and would fain have them ignorant that evil exists. —The Queen.