The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-04-14
WOMEN IN ENGLISH WAREHOUSES;.
How the English Paupers Live---Romancc
OF the Marylebone Union.


OF the Marylebone Union.
The task of ascertaining what women
do in warehouses;, says the London
NeWs, appears suddenly narrowed on
entering one of the long rooms at Mary
lebone workhouse, and discovering what
class of women it is that chiefly populate
these metropolitan houses of refuge.
The room, in addition to being long, is
lofty, well lighted, apparently well ven
tilated, and certainly very warm. Run
ming through three-quarters of the
length of the room, by either wall, are
rows of little beds, forty in all, and up in
the far corner is visible an old lady far
advanced in the preliminary prepara-
tions for retiring to rest, albeit it is only
half-past four o'clock. But the majority
of the occupants of the room are seated
at tables at the rear end, on to which the
doors open, and by which great fire is
burning in bright stove. Not one is
under sixty years of age, many are over
seventy, eighty is by no means rare
age, and there are some who have passed
four-score y ars and ten. It is evident
that these wrinkled women, with their
breath, can do nothing that might come
that.death has forgotten them, and that
they are sitting here in the freight
waiting to be called for, and are, in the
meantime, drinking as much warm tea
as the regulations of the board of guar
dians will permit. "I suppose death
comes for them, poor things, when lie
has a spare minnit from attending on
better folks, young lady philosophic-
ally remarked in reply to a casual obser-
vation on the extreme old age of some
Of the inmates. She was sitting on the
curbstone in the covered cart entrance to
the courtyard, in company with another
young lady, who confessed to being
seventy-five come Michaelmas." They
were both vigorously putting at short
clay pipes, and sat here because it was
rather damp in the exercise yard, and
smoking is not permitted on the prem
ises.
At six o'clock in summer, and at 6:45
in the winter, the bell rings, and the old
ladies' begin their toilet. At 7:3O break
fast is served, consisting of five ounces
Of bread and pint and half Of Cruel
one week, and four ounces of bread and
a pint Of cocoa the next, and 80 on in
regular alienation. At 1890 dinner is
announced. On Sunday the bill of fare
comprises five ounces of boiled beef and
half pound of vegetables, stewed beef
being substituted once a mopth-whence
it may be noted, par parenthese, it fol-
lows that in social or literary intercourse
the workhouse population use the term
"stewed-beef day." where the outside
world would say "red-letter day." On
Monday they dine off four ounces of
bread and pint and half of soup; on
Tuesday beef or bacon appears on the
board. being served out in five ounce
portions, with half pound of vege-
tables; OF Wednesday, bread and soup
again; on Thursday, six ounces of bread,
two ounces of cheese, and can onion,
lettuce, or other vegetable" on Friday,
beef and potatoes; and on Saturday the
bill Of fare is reduced to the sweet SIM
picity of suet pudding, of which every
one gets one pound avoirdupois. On
Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays supper,
which is ordained to be served at $50,
consists of five ounces Of bread and q
ing days of the week an ounce of cheese
is served with the bread in place of the
broth. This is the regulation fare: but
is to say, the larger proportion of the
breakfast and supper pint of tea, half
an ounce of sugar. and half an ounce of
butter, in lieu of the Cruel, the cheese,
or the broth. At eight o'clock the bell
rings bedtime, but, as matter of fact,
MIR. and Mrs. Douglas, the master and
matron, while maintaining necessary
discipline with firm hand, manage to
mingle much gentleness with their treat
ment of the old people, and leave them
considerable latitude in the matter of
their movements. This specially induces
good deal of eccentricity in the matter
of going to bed. From five to six seems
rather fashionable hour of retiring for
the night, particularly these dark cold
days. : But some aged females begin
looking out their night-caps at four
o'clock in the afternoon, take their tea
in bed, and then lapse into profounder
state of somnolency than that in which
they have been peering about their mar
row world since they had their first tea
in the morning.
The women who fill the warehouses;
may be roughly divided into three
classes-those who are too old to earn
their living, and have no friends able
or willing to keep them; those who are
hopelessly handicapped with n family
of young children, and single women
who enter the house to be confined.
Amongst the few really able e-bodied pau
pers saw on the women's side at Mary
lebone was respectable, Woodworking
person who was here, and had been here
for many month, because she had five
young children whom she could not
maintain by her own labor outside. The
number of girls, chiefly domestic SER
wants who flee to the workhouse to give
birth to illegitimate children is seri-
GUS item in the parish balance-sheet.