Middletown transcript., 1878-04-20


that the rooms are not SO well furnish.
ed as in the Stewart dungeon, but then
the girls have latch keys, and are not
obliged to be in by IL o'clock p. m.
All the washing must be done i'll the
Home at fifty cents dozen, Gall large
pieces. extra) 50 that the profits may
acrue to the noble founder Of this
glorious philanthropic institution Ex-
ira gas is charged for. If a girl is
hurrying to get dress done, and wants
lust ten minutes more to finish it in,
out goes the gas at half past eleven,
and she must creep to bed in the dark.
1t is only at night that working
women have time to make and mend
their clothes, but, oh shade Of the
great benefactor of women, Isaac Mer
ritt Singer, the inhuman Hilton means
to revive "The Song Of the Shirt" no
sewing machines are to be allowed in
the rooms, or on the roofs, and so these
poor wretches will have to
Stitch, stitch, stitch,
Without the dear gas light,
And work, work, work,
When the weather is warm and bright.
Oh for one short hour
OF Singers Magic wheel,
Before we knew the woes of want,
And the gas that costs meal!
Next to her sewing machine, a wo-
mans trunk is sacred TO her, however
practical and common place it may
seem to the other sex. There is laid
away has photograph, the last bunch
of violets he gave her, and there the
bundle Of faded letters which he sent
back when all was at an end between
them; there, perhaps, hidden away
from the light Of the day, the very
bridal wreath she was to have worn;
there yellow newspaper containing a
notice Of his marriage to another; and
all these dear relics, which many
night, ere she crawls to her lonely bed,
she takes out, wceps over and thinks
of what might have been, must be
dragged out and put in bureau draws,
and the trunk hoisted to the store
room.
And quite right, too, according to
the Hilton code. What right to SEN
timental remembrance has a poor wo-
man who has to work for her bread ?
They are only reserved for the rich
and great like himself and Mrs. Stew
art.
There's many an authoress here
works far into the night-what would
she do without gas after eleven ?-and
her one comfort is her writing desk
that is her stock in trade-but "no
working apparatus, or extra furniture"
is allowed in the Stewart prison, nor
birds, nor pets of any kind, nor even
visitors in the rooms, without the con-
sent Of all the occupants. IF your
dear old grandmother, Mrs. MacTwad-
die, calls, and wants to have private,
family chat for half an hour. when
she must catch the train for Newark,
the whole five hundred inmates must
be summoned, from cellar to roof, and
the question put to vote, when it is
discovered that Mrs. Gadabout and |
others being absent, and it being i'm
possible to form a quorum, your grand
mother has to run for the train before
you have more than said, "Howdydo ?"
to her.
And character The ladies have
not only to have a good character, but
to have it down in writing, and to
come with a written application for
board in one hand, and certificate of
responsibility in the other; and even
SO, the manager can dismiss a girl
without assigning any reason what
ever, and after that ignominy it's
mighty little character she will have
left with all those women tearing it to
pieces with the sanction of that grand
mogni, the manager.
The hotel is situated on Fourth av-
enue and Thirty-second street, just
twenty-five blocks from Stewards up
town store, where most of his work
women are engaged. The Fourth av-
enue car line is the dearest in the city,
being six cents a ride; the girls can't
walk forty-four squares a day and
therefore must -seventy-two cents
a week more to be added to the ex-
penses Of this charitable place. 1t will
cost a very pretty penny, all counted
up, to live there. Suppose ladies get
even 500 week, there are few in
deed who can spend that sum on them
selves, having relatives dependent up
on them.
Great stress is laid on the fact that
there will be libray containg FIVE
hundred volumes in the house, but
books cannot be removed from the IL
brary. A lady cannot take a book
to her room and lie down and read it.
Oh, no, that would be too great an in
dulgence. She must sit in the library,
amid all the hum Of voices and .shuf-
ling of feet The Astor library in this
city, is, believe, one Of the most COM
plete in the world. and is free. I