Omaha daily bee., 1886-11-28
ties, as this would take from them their best

| Der OF such homes, and find In almost all of
them total absence of even necessary lux.
uries, and Of all means for enjoyment
| or pleasure. In describing three
such homes, l have excluded the
families in which storekeeping is added to
the fathers trade as a means of support and
in which therefore the trade has become
| secondary matter. l exclude also those
mechanics who have pawned their tools and
| sunk into the ranks of unskiled labor. The
following examples will serve as avera se
specimens of the London carpenters home:
THE FIRST SPECIMEN.
j P, Of Chapter Terrace, Bermondsey,
lives in double two story house with eight
rooms, in two of which are dodgers who pay
together shilings (about SlT 81 per week
The family has occupied the house for nine
years and pay about lG shillingS about s4)
| per week rent Taxes are paid by the land
! lord. The family consists of man, wife,
| three grown children and three small chill
| dren. Mrs. p. has been blind for some
! years. The eldest son (twenty-three) is a
| clerk at 30 shillngs (about S7.2j) per week.
| The second son (sixteen) is reporter at 10
| shillngs about $3.50 per week. The other
| children are at home. All of them were edu-
Gated at board (government schools, but
| hade coi/inued to study at home. sat in the
| little back kitchen, which is the family living
room. All cooking is done over an open
| CRATE. The furniture is of the simplest de-
| scriptSn, and the parlor, with sofa, easy
| chair and pictures, had about it the same
| hopelessly shabby, half-clean air which made
| 1t always pleasant tor me to step from these
| homes into the genuinely dirty and foggy
streets. Clothes were drying in the room in
| which sat while asking about the family
| LIE. The carpenter rises at 8 or $50, and
| begins work after half hours walk without
eating anything. At o'clock he has half an
| hour Tor breakfast of coffee at 80
| pence, or Tea at pence and bread.
| If In funds he may have herring or bloater
| for penny, or rasher of bacon for 9 PEN
| MES, the latter rather exceptional and be-
| speaking rather reckless prOdigality than
good times. Dinner at II is eaten at pub
lie house OF cookshop. The latter gives
plate OF meat for pence with vegetables for
pence. The tavern gives a coffee room
with an open fire free to all who buy a mug
OF beer for 80 pence. At this
hte nsh for pence or
half pound of steak for pence is cooked
by the workman. Supper is eaten at home
and Is generally of tea with bread and butter.
The family, meanwhile, make a breakfast of
bread and butter, with tea. Dinner depends
largely upon the state OF the family purse.
In bad times all the money must 20 toward
food to keep the man strong and well,
so that often the wife and children find
dinner no relief from that monotony of
tea and bread which forms the principal food
or even the better class OF mechanics fami
lies. MIR. p. makes 81 los (about $3.50 per
week, when fully employed, but out of this
sum come fines and reductions due to the
sixteen compulsory holidays during the year.
During the past twelve months he has been
out of work five months.
NO SAVINGS.
Their savings are nil. Mrs. p. said, with
hopeless sigh: Il began to save several
times, but my husband fell out of work as
soon as little was put by. l think it must
be unlucky to save, and shall not try to do SO
any more"
They have no recreation or social life and
make no attempt at peasuring on Sundays
or holidays The wife goes on excursions
with benevolent society, and four children
have been to colonial exhibitions with school
excursions.
DINNER INTERVIEW.
During the dinner hour / saw Mr. Z. with
a number of his comrades at the tavern
where they were cooking their dinners. |
passed behind the bar through long, low
passage, to small room in which dozen
carpenters were sitting eating at low tables.
Temperance coffee rooms are, by the way,
avoided because of the charge of half
penny for use Of the fire He estimated his
average earnings, month in and month
out, at 26 shlllngs about $500 per
week, and thought carpenter very
lucky if he could get POO days work in the
year. AT such wages he found saving i'm
possible, and said that, like most mechanics,
he lived on credit when out of work, and
when in work spent all his surplus earnings
in paying up old scores. With six days full
work week he could save shllings week
for getting himself out of debt. The land
lords must be paid first. To pay his house
rent when out of work he pawned his tools,
or in summer his overcoat and in winter
his undercoat. He also borrowed
of his comrades for this purpose. Practi-
caly he spent most of his life searching for
work or in paying off old debts His sons
were not apprenticed because any life is bet
ter than mechanics; also because he could
never hope to save enough money for pre-
miums. lie did not live in an industrial
dwelling because he wanted to live as free
man, unhampercd by rules and regulations"
Besides" said another man, "epidemcs
run through such buildings like wild fire."
For recreation he said he and his family go
for penny rides in a team ear to some park.
lie had not been IN a theatre for ten years
There used TO be balls at the trade halls to
which families went, but times are loo hard
for that now.
AN IMPRovIDENT WORKER.
= c. lives in Frein street. The fam
sly consists of man, wife ana four children.
They live in two small rooms on second
floor. The furniture comprises rickety bed
in each room, with several broken-backed
chairs, two tables, etc. In spite of the close
quarters an attempt at cleanliness is made.
Mrs. c. is refined, neat looking woman.
The husband is good worker but not provi-
dent. A girl of sixteen works as bartender
for shillings and 10 pence (about
sl.l5l per week, from a. IN. to y. m.
The wife makes workingmen's shirts M
6pence each, finding cotton at cost of q
penny per shirt, A shirt takes three hours
close work. All the children are educated at
board schools. The husband was out of work
six months of the past twelve. When in
work he had often to travel twelve miles
to work, getting up at O'clock. They
get what they can to eat when he is