The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-06

own living.
"What dye doc"
81 revolved IN my mind the probable sci
entific boundaries of fiji as brought out
the story about the typewriting.
"H-m." The monosyllable spoke vol
umes as to my would-be landlady's idea
of the reputable nature of my alleged
occupation, and my face burned as if my
assumed role had been real character
and l smarting under her underlined suspi
cions.
work for a man, of courser
For lawyer"
Got any referencesr
my employer would give me certificate
of character"
"The manl Yes, l suppose so. Well, l
don't like to take women. They come home
to lunch, like as not, and that means
meal in the middle of the day Then they
always have-brothers or cousins or old
friends, who come to see them and take up
the parlor. My girls want that room to
themselves"
was half amused and half nettled as l
went down the steps, trying to imagine my
probable feelings if | had been in good
truth a stranger in New York in want of
something to take the place of a home.
had been questioning as no Que would have
dreamed of questioned u young man and
had been made to feel that a self-supporting
girl was a suspicious character who must be
put on the defensive and made to prove that
she was proper person TO admit into re-
spectacle house. This landlady's rates we're
S. per week.
After this experience it occurred to me to
try how | would got on if / asked for dou-
BILE room for myself and my mother. Under
that protection one class of objections ought
to be removed.
Removed it was, but another class was
substituted. The second lodging house
keeper to whom made my application for
board and room for cashier and her wild
owed mother at once put the query whether
my mother had a sewing machine. Women,
she said, we're so apt to go into dressmakng,
and she couldn't bear the litter of pieces
round. If she took us she proposed TO charge
the two of US S14.
In the list of my boarding house adver
tisements were a couple which made special
mention of ''rooms for working girls" |
concluded to try my fate as a 'saleslady,"
and my quest took me several blocks nearer
the East river and into a quarter of the
town where placards in the windows in
vited me on every block to step in and be
accommodated with rooms or table board.
Alas the day! May never be driven to
taking refuge in a boarding house expressly
for working girls. | explored the inner re-
cesses of four and they did not differ greatly
except as to Details
The first was in dreary, brick block,
over a saloon. Its passages were gloomy
and perIneated with odorS of onions mingled
inextricably with those of stale beer. The
whole place was greasy, grimy, not so much
with present dirt as with "reminiscences OF
long ages of cheapness There was no car
pet in the hail. none in the dining room, and
that on the parlor or what served for par
lor, had long ago merged its coors in the
Whitley BROWNIES of the last stages of dilapi-
dation. did not see any trace of q bath
room, and found that | could not get the
least closet of room to myself with a cot and
a single chair and no window for less than
SIS with board while a share in a bigger
room with from three to five others cost "a.
1t would take a tough mental and moral
fibre to preserve common decency in such a
| place.
did not visit the boarding houses for
| girls established by associations like the
| Ladies' Christian Union, for instance, be-
cause, though doing much good, they are
not numerous enough TO materially affect
The problem of suitable homes for self-sup-
| porting girls, and because their regulations
as to hours, attendance on prayers, visitors,
etc. are so stringent that many who most
need their help are deferred from applica-
ton. Nor did | explore the lodging houses
like that managed by Mrs Doggett in
| second avenue, where poor SlII can Rel
a cot for Csc a night, because they fur
nish for the most part temporary accommo-
dations. ss
My two days search convinced me that
the question of board for unmarried women
at rates that the average working woman
can pay is terribly serious one. 1t also
opened my eyes to the curious protection
afforded by the cabalistic letters Mrs" AT
a number of houses where / presented my
self as a married woman, the usual cate
chism was suspended, and the demand for
| references in some cases, at least, entirely
omitted. | tested that point as thoroughly
as / could, telling what seemed to me a sus-
picious tale of husband who twas not i'll
! city, but might join me later" or of hus-
band who twas a travelling agent who spent
| Sunday in town with me now and then be-
tween trips" The easy credence with which
| these yarns were received accounted to my
| thinking for the number of Lena Des-
pards with whom New FORK is filling up,
who, under the easy matrimonial title, con
duct themselves with an ease that would
ostracise a single woman.
There are good boarding places delight
| fully homelike ones, for independent wom-
en-, of course, but they are not always easy
for a stranger to find
| - Tr~a- H..