The evening world., 1888-02-28

Are Employed-Girls Forced to Live on
SO n Week-A Wngcworker Talks.
The EVENING WORLD has told SO many sad
and truthful stories about the female wage
workers of this great and busy metropolis
and given SO many facts and figures concern
ing their inadequate pay and the mode and
manner in which they exc out q miserable
existence while they are piling up large
profits for their e~xacting employers, that it
would seem almost superfluous to add to the
long list by q recital of their trials and tribu-
lations.
But. true to its mission as q medium Of in
formation and as n stalwart champion of the
peoples rights, it will continue its exposures
Of the social condition of the poor but hon.
est toilers of all classes until measures of re-
form are taken, and sordid and heartless en-
ployers wake up to O sense of the situation
and do them simple justice.
Where the principle that labor is the pro-
Queer of all wealth is 80 we'll recognized, 1t
would seem that the laborer should be en-
titled to a fair benefit from his or her toll,
but the sad fact nevertheless remains that
the rich are getting richer and the poor
poorer in spite of hat argument.
Among the toiling masses who obtain but
poor compensation for hard and unremitting
labor are The young women who work in the
large tobacco manufactures. 1t is true that
there are a few exceptions among the en-
ployees in tle tobacco industry, and The
| EVENING WcRLD in a late issue took occasion
to mention one of them as a humane and con-
siderate nan, who acted fairly with q large
force of hands of both sexes, and evidently
from a sincere desire to make their toll as
pleasant as circumstance would permit.
In contradistinction to this humane en-
ployer comes another whose dealings with his
workers present q striking contrast. The
story was related by an intelligent young girl
to q reporter of this paper. She said
There are 500 hands in the factory where
/ am employed, and their ages range from
the little girl and boy of twelve years to the
man and woman of forty. The average pay
of the girls is So o week. I know of one
young wosaan, a widow, who earns "a a week,
and she has two children-mere infants
whom she manages to support along with
herself.
How she could live on such a small sum
was a mystery to me, and knowing her 1 was
bound to ascertain. So. by q pretext. 1 man
aged to visit her abode. l found her one
evening after work slowed away in one room
on the top floor, rear, of an old tenement
house. The apartment was neat, but its
furnishings were of the poorest description,
and it had en- appearance which betokened
poverty of the lowest degree.
THE poor occupant was pale and weary
looking from the toll of the factory and from
lack of wholesome food and warm garments.
The two little ones were thin and sickly.
They we're clad in calico dresses, with we'll
worn shoes and not enough underclothing to
keep them warm. The atmosphere was Bit
ing cold when | called, and yet there was but
a scant fire in the little rickety cooking
stove-not enough to keep the room comfort
able.
~ asked this young mother, whose hus-
band had died but a short time ago, how she
managed to get along on the wages that she
got at the factory, and she answered, as she
glanced around the room: You can judge
for yourself while q tear glistened in her
eye and she pressed the youngest child-an
She also said she had not been in good
health since her husband died, and she had
been forced to seek employment in the to-
bacco factory. Having had no previous ex-
perience, she could earn but $4 q week at the
prices paid: Her little ones are kindly cared
for by a neighbor. not much better off than
herself, while she is at the factory.
OF course this poor woman is in hopes Of
lettering her condition, and struggles on in
the most abject poverty and in the most alb
stemious manner But as things are now I
am afraid that she will never do any better
in the factory; for there is talk of employing
even cheaper hands after turning out nearly
all the old ones.
Il am ore of about two hundred and fifty
young women who make from 81 to $9 q
better and dress better than the great major
ity of the girls. some of whom depend en-
tirely on the 80 a week that each Of them
gets. l hear some Cad stories of want of
warm clothing ana lack OF 1ood from some
of them every now and then, and I have ocu-
lar proof of their statements; for they come
to the factory in calico dresses and thin
wraps, shoes with soles worn out, and, in
several instances, last summers straw hats.
At lunch time l see them eating dry bread
and drinking q little weak tea or milk brought
in q can.
THE rules are very numerous and rigid,
and some of the poor girls have to pay fines
quite often for an infringement of them"
The proprietor of this large concern does @
thriving business and cunts his wealth by
| tina millions.