The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-09-26 00:00:00

DISTRESSED ENGLISHWOMEN IN
PARIS.

Referring to the meeting held in Manchester last week, to
obtain contributions toward& the enlargement and the per-
manent establishing of "Miss Leigh's Mission Rome in
Paris (already doing such good work and rendering the
very help needed for Distressed Englishwomen in Paris)
which it is estimated will cost £lO,OOO, The Times' Paris
Correspondent writes
A paragraph in The Times of the 17th, headed
" Distressed Englishwomen in Paris," containing a re-
port of a meeting held at Manchester to promote a
home and mission established in this capital for their
relief, will have interested not only philanthropists,
but all persons having inifficient experience of rano
and its ways rightly to estimate the value of such an
institution, and to lodge how far it is likely to pro-
mote the highly moral and Christian objects of its
founders. Such persons will, at the outset, be rather
surprised by Miss Leigh's statement that there
are now more than 2,000 English girls in Paris
liable to need the benefits of the home, and who
are apparently either in employment of a more or less
precarious nature or engaged in Improving their quail-
fications as governesses, milliners, ladies' maids, or
cooks. The siege and the Commune reduced the
English population of Paris to the minimum point at
which t had probably stood in Paris during the
previous 50 years. It may safely be affirmed that at
the end of May, 1871, there were very few English in
Paris except those who had been lona settled here, who
had shops or other establishments they could not
abandon without heavy loss, or even rum, and who
might fairly be considered to have become de facto
Parisians. In those days of gloom and despondency
there was nothing here to attract English girls ot the
classes described above, so that the 2,000 who we are
told are now in Paris must have come in the last three
years. We are probably justified in taking that num-
ber to be the average floating population of young
Englishwomen in Park If so it proves two facts—
first, the large number of English girls of the working
classes unable to find employment at bone ; and,
secondly, the great mistake many of them make in
thinking they will better their chances by coming to
Paris. To speak especially of the claws of servants.
If they entertain the idea that they will render
themselves more acceptable to English mistresses
by foreign training, whether that be acquired in
Paris or elsewhere, they are greatly in error. All
English ladies who know anything of Continental
life will consider English servants deteriorated,
not improved, by foreign service, and especially by
service in Paris at the present time. Persons who need
linguists as servants generally take foreigners, and are
not content with the imperfect knowledge English of
that class are likely to acquire even during a rather
prolonged stay in a foreign city. The observations I
have had rather extensive opportunity of making,
both here and in Italy, convince me that it is
erroneous to set down the large influx of unemployed
It is some years now (says Thc Tones) since atten- English girls in this capital to the desire of English
lion was first called to the fact that Russia possessed mistresses for maids with foreign experience
extensive coal fields in the country lying between the and training. The emigration in question is
Sea of Azof and the Dnieper, but as at that time no. much rather to be attributed to a restless desire for
body apparently wanted the coal the subject dropped change, travel, and amusement. It is certainly a new
out of sight. N arious causes have, however, of late idea to me that English people prefer taking servants
induced a renewal of interest in those coal beds, and who have served in Paris. If any there be who do no,
the increasing demand for steam coal, the advance in they must be quite ignorant of what Parisian servants
the price of English coal, and the growing scarcity of generally are, especially of late years. One reads
wood for fuel in Southern Russia have helped to start sometimes very attractive accounts of the model French
a trade in Russian coal, which, if the quantity and servant of the old school, who formed part of the
quality, of the material be as described, promises to family, preferred his master's interest to his own, and
have ultimately a great future. Already, as we learn who was described as sober, honest, and courteous.
from a report on the subject compiled by Consul Such pictures are generally either fancy sketches,
%Arab of Berdiansk, the trade has grown to such an so far as they can be said to resemble any
extent that " whereas in 1870 it would have been im- class of French servants of the present day, or they
possible to purchase 50 tons of soft coal for exportation are painted by persons who, having been particu-
at Taganrog, contracts can now be made there ha the larly fortunate in their own domestics, and 'having,
delivery of some thousands of tons during 1874." perhaps, had a friend or two who were equally so,
The field lies in the territory of the Don Cossacks, have reasoned from exceptions and not from the
in the Government of Ekaterinoslav, but no accurate generality. Although far from saying that in cer-
, survey of it exists, and the estimate which sets it down tam old French families servants of the good old
' at 30,000 square miles in extent must be accepted as school may not still be found, I maintain, and I am
merely a rough guess. Still, there in no doubt that the Prepared to prove, that the general run of Parisian ser-
field is very large and the qualities of the coal now ex- vents are the worst in the world. The mode of lodging
tracted are at least good. Mr. Zohrab examined six servants in French houses in upper rooms not included
, seams on the new Russian Company's estate, and found in their masters' apartments, and where they are
that good seams commenced at a depth of 180 ft, exempt from control, can receive whom they please
• Borings have not been made below 500 ft., but thus far and go in and out at any hour of the night, is tie-
good coking coal is to be found, and above that , moralizing in the highest degree, and is especially
lies good steam coal in seams of 3ift. to fift, thick, s rag- dangerous to inexperienced young Englishwomen. The
times within 200 ft. of the surface, and almost uppermost Bishop of Manchester reported as to those who come
in the order of strata is tine household coal in seams of i here to learn skill in cooking. Some people maintain that
6ift. in depth. It is reported that fire-damp has hitherto ' there are not a great many men cooks in France who
been unknown in the mines, and workmen use a bare will turn out a better dinner than a first-class English
I candle in the galleries without danger, but we doubt woman cook. But although we must admit Paris to be
whether future immunity is to be inferred from this the first school for cooking, it is unfortunately true that,
• fact. The sinking of pits is little impeded by inroads of concurrently with culinary skill, the young English
i water, the Steppe in which the beds lie being so dry, pupil is likely to learn much eviL The recognized
and is accomplished at comparatively little cost. There and systematic dishonesty of French cooks far exceeds
would at first sight, therefore, appear to be nothing to anything that can be imputed to English servants
prevent RllBBla from rapidly developing a very pro- generally, and has been greatly aggravated since the
fitable export coal trade. The measures lie within war, and Communism has become widely-spread among
easy reach of the Sea of Azof, and were once the rail. them. With this it is certainly not desirable that
way completed to Sebastopol and Berdiansk immense our English domestics should be inoculated. The
quantities might be brought to those ports wish great Bishop of Manchester was perfectly correct in
facility. Every year is making the chance of a good " imagining that Paris was not the safest city in the
market for both household and steam coal greater in world for a young unprotected woman to be thrown
the East, but especially for the latter. The rapidity into at the most dangerous period of her life."
with which steam is displacing sails is every year I have just read an amusing article in the Temps of
putting a greater strain upon existing sources of fuel this date, the writer of which seeks to prove in a
supply, and no country would gain so much as Eng- lively witty strain that the immorality commonly
land did ready means of coaling for -merchant vessels charged upon Paris has been much overrated. He
exist halfway towards the East. At present the ex. units that Pans IS much better than it was and that
pense of fuel to our Indian and China steamers is the very foreigners who readily expatiate on its cur-
very heavy. Coal which sells at Southampton at 18a. ruption are the first to share in its pleasures and
, a ton will cost from 335. to 40s. at Port Said or Aden, profligacy when opportunity is afforded them. It
and perhaps 50s. at Bombay, and it is in every way a is quite true that the foreign element in Paris is
serious drag upon commerce that stores of coal should sometimes underrated and even lost sight of. The

=4,. • IN WM.II