The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-01
SURPLUS ENGLISH GIRLS.
TWO MILLIONS HARD PRESSED
FOR OMETHING TO DO.

/
in London PA Difficult Question and
the Ways in Which 1t Is Solved
Four Hundred and Eighty-One
Applicants for One Place s Copying
Clerk-English Typewriters, Dress
maker Hello Girls, Etc.
Copyrighted 1887
LONDON, Sept. l9.-Sitting in the Office Of
a city" man in the Strand one morning
now a week ago two waste paper baskets
heapcd with envelopes were brought from a
recess and placed at my feet.
Look at them!" said the Offices proprie-
! tor. wheeling about at his desk.
81 advertised three lines worth, for a
| copying clerk TO tidy up my papers,
young woman from IS to p, preferrei
| These are the answers | got. Look at
! them
Here are the autographs of 4S1 British
| girls. Cool fists they write every one Of
them, too. Over 300 say they can CORES
! pond in French. One hundred and fifty
! claim to be able to handle letters in German.
| There are a lot of Italian scholars amo g
! them. Most of them profe to keep books
! By single or double entry, AMI tn res
| young army of expert typewriters ana
| shorthand writers. Two dozen are used 10
preparing manuscript for publication, and
there are fifty who can correct proofs.
And what wages do YOU suppose these
women expect from me. Half of the
name sums running from shilliugs to l.
shillings week. The Others range betwee
Is shillings and a pound. There are onll
half dozen or so who are bold enough to
| value tleIr services at 80 shillinGs or up.
w. Tbpra "a ~
for work and ready to work for any none,
nowadays
Tire secretary of the Society for Promo
ing the EMPLOYMENT of Women, upo
whom called recently, tells me t at of tie
| upper middle-clas in England. or rather of
the educated mddle-class, it is estimatr.
tha: one woman in every two is unmarried
he last census put i'll black and white Il.
fact that in England and Wales 81 per cen
Of the women of manageable age were
single and III per cent. were widows, max
ing 4S per cent. without the support of huS-
bands. In Scotland 81 per cent. of TIE
women Of marriageable age were single or
widows, and in Ireland 80 per cant. Within
the last ten years the overplus of women
| owing to emigration and other causes has
increased rapidly. The number Of me-
remaining single has also increas ed ana
people whose familiarity with the subiec
cannot be doubted, tell me that the ceasu.
figures OF 1891 will show nearly 100000
more women than men in the British Ises
aud. percentage of marriages considera-
bly, below that given. More than 60 De.
cent. of adult EnglishWomen, married and
unmarried, are working for daily subsis-
tence and their number multiply every
wear. Every avenue of employment open
to women is choked, ana there are literally
multitudes of destitute women, mot of the
working class" some of them competent
others anxious to do anything but able to
do nothing WELL looking eagerly about them
for chances to make shillings or pence,
without lifting their eyes to pounds.
"What is the best opening for a girl OF
fair education dependent on her own exer-
lions in London. is a gu Stion which have
put in every quarter fro which al inGelli-
gent answer might be expected.
"To teach under the London School,
Board has been the invariable reply
The average wages of school teachers, as
stated in a previous letter, are $500 per
year
Typewriting and stenography which EN-
ploy such numbers OF young women in New
York, are only beginning to be recognized
as affording openings for women here The
first school for teaching typewriting TO girls
was opened four years ago. 1t il still tn
largest office employing women of which
have been able to hear, and it graduted
nineteen pupils this past twelvemonth,
each pupil studying six months. There are
few girls employed as typewriters in Liv
erpool and others make fairly good thing
out of copying manuscript for members OF
the Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Business men are beginning to employ girl
typewriters, or typists, as the English
phrase is, but all told there are not as many
dozens who can count on regular work in
England as hundreds in America Good
typewriters, that is, women typewriters,
earn from "a to Sc week here. | have
heard tales of $40, but have not been able
to come upon any woman earning suct a
| fabulous salary. 1t is paid, think, only to
very rapid typists who are also Shorthand
| writers and who have knowledge of Con-
tinental languages i'll addition to English
WHAT'S true of typewriting is even true
of shorthand. 1t is spoken of as an en-
| ployment well suited to women, but is dore
almost altogether by men. Many women
| learnit, but comparatively few are in pay
| ing. practice.
The telephone girl in London as in New
| FORK Is an institution. The United Tela-
phone Company employs hundreds of wo-
| men, and the eagerness with which appoint
| ments are sought, the long flies of names on
| the books in the main office. registered in
| hope Of a vacancy, lift the veil, when one
| considers that the salararies begin at 81 IS
| per week and seldom rise above 81, from an
| am uni OF suffering nara 10 realize. with
ali the eagernesS of pay and slowness of
| promotion applications are considered only
from daughters of gentlemen, young per-
sons whose parents belong to trade being
barred out.
English distinctions as to grades of gen
| tility in employment are hard to under
stand. The telephone girl ranks above the
telegraph operator who usually learns more
but whose place is not hedged about by
caste provisos. Great numbers of women
are employed as telegraph operators at the
general postoffice, London, in Dublin, in
Edinburgh, in Manchester, Birmingham
and few other large towns.
Telegraph being branch of the civil SER
vice is entered by competitive examina-
tions. The scale of pay is 50 so to bsgin
with, rising to SO so when able 10 take re
sponsible charge of an Instrument and by
annual increments to So IS per week, a
maximum to be reached with diligence in
seven or eight years. First-class women
| telegraphers, that is women who can take
heavy wires on long lines, earn 81 week
| rising by annual increments to IS so
| There are not many women fortunate
! enough to reach this figure though there
are half dozen who rise above it, and as
matrons and supervisors of telegraphers
earn from $500 to 81 900 a year. T6ere are
about 5000 women telegraphers under the
civil service rules.
The women clerks in the general post
office, like tie telegraph girls, belong TO