Omaha daily bee., 1886-11-28

kind. He is married and has two children.
with whom lie inhabits large, lofty stube
well and even layishly furnished. Attached
TO this is good sized Kitchen. Herr Preuss
pays 30 marks (about SG5) rent. lie makes
his marks about 81 9O) a day pretty easily
lie draws little and occasionally contributes
to the organ of the Hirsch-Duncker gewerk.
verein, OF which he is member lie tells
me that now the political workingmen's so
cieties have been suppressed the only chief
carpenters association he knows of Is OF
local "verband,' which is part of the great
German 'GenOssenschaft der Zimmereute. -
Its members may be counted by the hun.
dreds.
NO CHANCE TO SAVE.
Wilhelm FRANKIE was helping to Law down
a floor in n new house when interviewed
him. He lives in the northwest district and
has wife and three children. He rents a
large room and kitchen of the kind already
| described. At present he earns 50 pfennigs
| (about cents per hour and works ten hours
| daily. lie does not admit his connection
| with any society, but of course subscribeS, as
the law requires to local and invalid funds
lie rises at half-past 4 and crawls into
| bed exhausted about 9. His wife
makes a tritle distributing newspapers
The children, as is almost invariably the
case, get free education at the Gemerinde
schule. His hand is shaky. He stays at
home every evening, except on Sundays,
| when he sometimes goes for stroll.
YES, Mein Herr, we manage to pay our
way somehow, but as for saving, oh, there is
| no show at ALL"
Thirty-tive pfennigs is low rate. Most of
| the capable carpenters of Berlin make forty
| to fOrty-live pfennigs per hour The polirs,
or DDSSAg maid from, bfty tp ty y,fn
nigs per hour. Some of the best have fixed
weekly wages.
ANUNHAPrY LOT.
Herman Marohn, poor fellow, makes moth
ing whatever. He hurt his leg some time
ago. Since then he has been living with his
wife on scanty dole of . marks % pteunigs
(about 54 cents week, allowed him by his
'gewerkveren," and 6 marks (about Sl.44
per month"; paid by two dodgers for one of the
two shabby little rooms he rents. 1t is in
connection with a black hole of kitchen
at IA RoSenthaler strasse. His window looks
on to gloomy court. The paper on the
walls is in many places worn OIL like the
covering of his chairs and sofa. At one end
OF the stube is bed, surmounted by wooden
clock. Chrome portraits of the Kaiser Kron-
prinz, or Bismarck, are not found in his
gallery. All he can allow himself and wife
pay his rent of 300 marks (about S12) a year,
he has to eat up his savings. He has fifty
marks left Before that is gone he trusts his
leg will be well again. Otherwise, why, it is
black prospect. How can two grown
people feed on six marks per
week? Let Frau Marohn answer the
question: She says three and
half pounds of coarse meat cost / marx,
20 plennigs (about 4? cents, rice 35 pfenniGs
(about cents, bread mark (about "A cents),
two pounds of the cheapest butterine
marks about As cents, half pound of cot
fee 80 pfennigs (about u cents), milk, sugar
and salt another 40 or so pfenngs. Now and
again Marohn indulges in a lO-ptennigs bot
tie of Weiss beer. This and the contempla-
ton OF the muddy streets is the only disspa.
ton of the family.
cHEERLEss SITUATION.
Carl Koch lives on the third floor of de.
pressing house i'll court yard at No SO
Eichenberger straSse, in the remote southern
district The whole quarter is incredibly
cheerless. There is hardly room for cart in
the street, and the houses are monotonously
dismal but clean. Herr Koch is doing well.
lie inherited a trtle from his first wife. His
second wife and two grown up daughters
live with him. The latter are seamtresses
and the former takes in q little washing.
For two dark but decent rooms and
kitchen he pays 240 marks about S5S). He
himself earns 40 pfennngs (about eleven
cents per hour, and works eight and half
hours per day the best part of the year.
Most of the carpenters take it for granted
that they will be out of work three months
in the year. lie Is member of the gewerk-
verein His wife says she spends fifteen
marks (about $500 per week for food. This
allows the family pound of good meat
daily. AS for amusement. none can be had
near. where they live for love or money.
sURLY SUBJECT.
Herr Keins, living on Bernauer strasse.
near the RoSenthaier suburb, was surly. He
supposed | would be wanting to know how
often he beat his wife next, and hnted that
the reporters inquiry was some dodge for
bringing down wages.
HIGH UP IN TIE WORLD.
Karl Munzburg, whose address | have mis-.
laid. is perched at the top of five flights of
stairs, in depressing part of the southern
quarter. He occupies two small rooms and
kitchen with his wife and five children and
his mother-n-law. He pays 24O marks rent,
spends Is marks a week for food, and
marks more for firing and petroleum. lie
earns 45 pfennigs per hour, eight hours day.
lie is t0lerably satisfied, thank you, but those
children's boots cost an awful lot, especially
those OF the two larger children, who 90 to
the gewindischul. 1 thought II needless to
inquire about amusements or savings.
SLOWLY STARVING.
All of these are happy compared with
August Boelecker, veteran of eighty, who |
found slowly starving. You cannot call il
living in a squalid ten by five room, at No. 20.
New KONG stTasse in the east end of Berlin.
The atmosphere was shOckingly foul, the
windows not being opened for days, while
the heat from the open stove on which pre-
tence OF cooking was going on almost choked
Inc as | entered. The walls were bare and
black, begrimmed by smoke of generations.
The only furniture was a couple of rickcty
chairs, a few kitchen utensils and
bed on which lay poor woman, Boelecker's
wife. Herr Boelecker pays marks per
month for this luxury His wife has been i'll
for four months He bimself ceased to take
an active interest in carpentering ten years
ago. Since then, having prudently subscribed
both to the municipal kasse, and the relief
fund of the carpenters gewerkyerein, he en-
loved the prinpplV rpNanue pf 1S nnaryc