, 1884-01-25
GIRLS.
Tho Need of a Restaurant for Poorly
Paid Working Girls.
visit to Enting-Heuses PatronIxet
by the shop GirIs---The In
sumcIency OF Their
Food.


Inter Ocean-l
Whatever Is the cause the American girl
prefers to enter any other avenue of labor,
however crowded, and drag out existence on
a pittance that does not give her comforts
comparable with such as she should receive
In home from the honorable and most nat
ural occupation of women-housework-
Sooner will she drudge in manufactures, be-
hind counters, be snubbod In offices, half
starve in order to keep up an appearance that
bellies her need. II she is homeless, 1t is only
by strictly watching the expenditure of each
hard-earned penny that this fight for respect
able self-maintaining existence is maintained.
II she is employed In any Of the caIlings
termed "lady-liken or "genteelr she must be
neatly and fairly dressed every day. Many
positions, where the work is poorly paid for,
are positively unattainable to any woman
stability clad A woman's attire Is no indi-
cation OF her resources.
SHOW me what people cat and l will tell
their condition. exclaimed a political econ
omist. His ascertain may be widened to
compass the history Of the earth's population
or narrowed to that Of a single individual.
One has but to enter any restaurant In the
city frequented by working women at lunch
hour and observe the food they eat TO find in
1t the elucidation of many wan faces indica-
tive Of constitutions enfeebled or breaking;
to find in 1t a revelation of lives that daily
NSNJ AAo SAAihhL u IL ~ Ii Tue
first claims of existence. The observer win
ascertain, as he watches these women at
their monday repast, that the majority of
working women are far more poorly fed
than workingmen. II he asks himself
"WhyT it Is easy for reflection to give
answer. They are paid less for their labor
than men. Their expenses are equal, often
greater. There are, too, numerous places for
the exclusive patronage OF men where
| nutritious food ran ha nhta mad for N grna1l
sum.
There are no like places open TO women in
this city. In the eating-houses they can
frequent for a small amount they may APP
Pease hunger; they cannot satisfy it. Men
will confde in acquaintance, appeal to
strangers, resort TO trickery to get enough to
eat There is no silence prouder than that of
a hungry woman who desires to keep a posi-
ton of responsibility.
"One can be hungry and no one know it."
said a young girl to the writer one day, "but
IL ones clothes are shabby every one knows
it" This is the feeling that actuates so many
women in the natural and laudablo effort to
appear in garments that shall not eyince their
poverty to the world to deprive themselves of
enough to eat.
Entering a Dearborn street restaurant
largely patronized at the noon hour by
women employed down town, a reporter
whose modesty was ruthlessly destroyed in
youth, with his usual sang froid seated him
self in the department especially allotted to
ladies. He ordered a repast and proceeded
leisurely 10 scan the appearance of the women
at the tables and the food before them. They
were uniformly well dressed.
There was one pretty, pale-faced girl neal
him whose lunch consisted Of two slices of
Vienna bread, a wapery boiled potato and a
piece of pie. By reference to the menu 1t
was found that this meal cost 10 cents.
Across the table sat a young woman with
crow-feet tracks about her eyes that time
alone would not have planted there till she
was As. A glance at the food with which she
sustained herself explained their existence.
They were the way marks of exhaustion. The
fuel with which she was feeding her physical
machinery to keep it in running order con-
sisted of the regulation two slices of Vienna
bread, "a small dish of slowed tomatoes, and a
cup Of tea. This meal also cost 10 cents.
Not one In ten of the women eating in this
place were served with meat. There were
few whose outlay exceeded 20 cents. The
bin of fare showed that for this sum fish or
several kinds OF meat under the head of
entrees" could be obtained, these orders, ac-
cording to custom, being accompanied with
bread. butter and potatoes. Few of the
women who expended 90 cents awaited them
selves Of this list, but ordered dishes far less
nutritious.
D l think the girls that work here have
enough to eatP' snapped the sharp-featured,
black-eyed foreman Of a factory where girls
are exclusively employed. u don't think
nothin' bout it. l just know there's lots of
'em that don't Some 1.-Two at home, and of
course they do. The most Of the others just
rent rooms. They don't board nowhere.
They run out at noon and get a bite. Lots
Of EN- don't have no stoves in their rooms,
winter In, winter out. Some have little oil
stoves that they cook a bit on. Others Just
buy something at the bakers and sometimes
bologna or the like. That's just how they
lives, If you want to know. 1 wish some of
the folks that go bout exhorting poor girls
bout the beauty of honest toll an the ter
rors OF sinful idleness would have to live am
work as some Of these girls do. There'd be
less talkin' and more doini."
d you think there are any girls working
In this store who do not have enough to eat7s
The question was asked OF a young sales
woman in one Of the low-priced State street
establishments. She arose to answer the in
quiry from her seat on a luxurious and invit-
ing nail keg that the thoughtfulness of her
employers had placed behind the counter for
her to rest upon in her idle moments.
Il often think that some do not"
d they say soP'
"Bless you, no. Do you suppose a girl
would tell that, OF all thingsl 1 live at home.
l know I'd starve II I didn't have any more
to eat than some OF these girls. Actually, 1
know girls who just rent rooms and board
themselves, who, l believe, don't have vegeta-
hles or meat once a week. There comes the
loor-walkerP and she busted herself with her
stock.
Numerous young girls employed in State
street stores eat at the noon hour In a res
taurant advertised as a lunch-house for ladies.
"Their checks. "divulged one of the mattresses,
"never exceed II cents. They have the same
things every day
HWhat are theyP'
"A cup of tea, bread, butter and piece of
pie.n
"Please bring me those things,r requested
the reporter.
The spread" was brought. There was a
small cup partly filed with q decoction the
color of tea. Itpossessed a faint fragrance sug-
gestive of tea There were two slices of bread
thin enough to have been grudgingly cut
during a famine. The plate OF supposed
butter had the circumference of a accent
piece and a triae more thickness. The size of
the triangle of apple pie was proof against
its injury TO digestion This constitutes the
food of many growing girls whose work and
atmospheric surroundings arc enough to Inn
pair health II they were amply sustained
with wholesome food. Every one knows that