The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-08
WHERE AND HOW THEY LIVE.
AS Many as 22,oCo Homeless Women
in New York.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.

in New York.
From the Brooklyn Eagle.
1t is said that there are $1,000 women in
New York who earn their daily bread and
have no home other than such as they make
for themselves. These women-the greater
number of them at least-cannot afford to
pay over SO week for their lodgings, and
they are driven to many shifts to tnd a de-
cent home at that price. The larger number
of them | find meet the difficulty by CO.
operation. Four or five will club together
and for S12 or SIS week can get big room
somewhere in which are double beds and
folding lounge and three or four dressing
tables Here they live together and pool
their assets for meals. These meals 1uc-
tuate as to quantity. If the club is in funds
the nearest restaurant and gas stove fur
nish them with spreads of mildly iuxurl-
Gus character; but when the necessity for
clothing becomes imminent with the recur-
ring season. tea and crackers form the prin-
cipal ingredients of their breakfasts and
dinners 1t is perfectly surprising to find
how long healthy girl can live on this
diet and stand all day long behind a counter
or sit steadily at a desk or typewriter
You don't see any fat women among this
class, however. They are very happy,
though, apparently, and most of them at
tribute it to the fact of their absolute in
dependence. They can stay out as late as
they want and are not called upon to ex-
plain their absences, and they can ask their
visitors into their own room. 1t is not alto
gether the best life for them, it is to be
feared Some painful tragedies happen
among these women and they lose a good
many of the best feminine instincts living
in this cooperative fashion. Domesticlty
and feminine reserve can scarcely flourish
in such an atmosphere. People who are
devoting their lives to the study of these
questions tell me that, if possible, every
woman should have room of her own, no
matter how tiny it be- That the sense of
absolute possession of everything about her
is fostering to that domestic instinct that is
strong in all the best women. In the pur-
suance of this quest lon the plea of find
inga suitable home for a sister-Saw the
inside of two or three boarding houses
strictly for girls. Poor girls They We're
every one of them, cheap and unspeakably
nasty Such odors, sour and greasy,
as lurked in those black halls and dingy
rooms The big rooms had four beds in
each and the small rooms were so small
that even new born kitten would have
failed to find comfortable space for being
swung around by the tail. There was
carpetless dining room on the second floor
of one of these, built over a shop and
stable, and | saw delectable dishes of cab
the table preparatory to the evening meal.
For the small room with board the occu-
pant paid SO week, for a share of one of
the big rooms she paid 81 The appliances
for bathing were startling by their absence.
Were woman | should far rather rent a
corner of a garnet over some shop where
there was nothing but a bed and bath tub
than live in one of those horrible houses,
vet three nf them that saw were filled to
the brim and mostly by girls of the better
class. One occupant was an ex-actress, who
has taken to journalism for a living, and
lives in one of these rooms with four other
women, they all being well educated and
well bred girls Within the last year three
new houses for working women have been
opened. One at 356 West Thirty-third
street was organized by the head of large
dry goods shop, who was awakened to the
| necessity of providing a decent home for
his many female employees. 1t is looked
after by the Society to Befriend Working
Girls, and not only does it supply homes to
| such of the shop girls as are without them,
but no young woman applying for nights
lodging is turned away, and many girls out
| of work are received there and are aided, as
! far as possible, in finding employment.
! While they are idle they can attend, if they
| wish, classes of sewing and instruction in
household work. The prettiest and pleas
| ATTEST home for women was opened this
| year at 50 Morton street The parlors are
rented to a woman's club, which helps to
pay the cost of the whole house. 1t is one
of those charming old-fashioned-square-
roomed dwellings, built before the days
| when land was so valuable on this island
| that they began to cut the slices thin, ard
| there is garden behind with flowers. The
cost of living is so arranged that a girl can
get room there for from 81 to IS week,
and the rules arefew and flexible. 1t was
meant for shop girls and factory hands,
but artists, stenographers, journalists and
women in the higher class of work flowed
in the first week and filed it up to the brm,
so that there has never been single va
cancy for poorer applicants. Another house
established this year is at 306 Second av
enue, which accommodates some forty or
more widows and elderly unmarried women,
and branch, meant for girls not more than
IS or 20, gives shelter to thirty-five. Sew
eral years ago Miss Legget established a
boarding house for business women in Gin
ton place, and as it was clean and well kept
she soon had to take two more houses, she
had so many members clamoring for adj
mission She got tired of the work after
awhile, but put women, trained according
to her ideas at the head of her establish
ments before she retired. The oldest of all
these establishments affordng female re-
fuge is the Home of the Ladies' Christian
Union, founded in 1861, in Washington
square, before there were so many wash
and cook ladies, and the name was more
nonored in the observance then in the
breach 1t has spread out into many branches
all over the city, and it is and has been the
vehicle of much good and comfort to home
less women.