The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-15
uOWTHE BIG CITY GROWS
swALLowING UP THOUSANDS
COUNTRY GIRLS EVERY FALL.

Enter Into tne OuI-A ArOaS NOLApS-
.,,,on OF Broadway and the Home-
o,.kness Of the Boarding House Hall
Bedroom
xvw YORK Oct 12.-The influx Of young
-, and women into the city in October is
~, ~, the southwark fitting of the birds. By
- and threes from every little country
-:,I,oe and town they take their scattered
s;-,t and as the lines of them converge to-
- Manhattan Island every tram that
'-.;rcs INTO the Grand central station re-
,,inds one of the swarms of pigeons that
- To blacxen the air and break the tree
b,nyhs when they settled down in Ken
lucky forests.
Years ago is autumnal migration was
almost wholly masculine. Nowadays,
tom mortgaged farms and village econo-
mics. with the diplomas of rustic schools in
,bair nockets and the freshness of country
braezes in their chesks. girls who have been
drawn from every state in the union by the
,--aat magnet New York, which;acts over
S ee,ia areas even more powerfully than did
Tnwau ard Lawrence on the New England
al districts in the beginning of the fac
- ora are hustled on every block by the
t,nnatient elbows of business on Broadway,
and begin their initiation into the home
s,cTness provoked by boarding house hall
bedrooms.
ple at work IN the dry goods stores, 40 per
can't of the telegraph operators, 20 per
cant of the typesetters and more thSu so
nar cent. of the e. pewriters are women;
,yon,en's faces have become familiar as
clerks bookkeepers, secretaries and even err
rand girls in the larger counting rooms, in
tho general offices and the lawyers
chambers, aud of the army of working
women which is to be paralleled nowhere
m earth unless in London the country pro-
norton is lal ge, and yet the October swarms
arc increasing.
VIVA Is to become of this fresh young
blood that is 50 eager and buoyant, though
no inexperienced, aud that now gives
piouaucy and color to the work-a-day
routine? The idea of earning ones own
living and belief in the independence and
freedom which is supposed TO go with ii has
fascination for the bright eyed adventures
for the golden fleece OF fortune; but as
matter Of fact, stripped of the rosy halo
who. the Life may assume in the distance,
the bitterest dependence that woman eau
know, the most CALLING yoke that womans
shoulders can bear, the most cruel annoy
aces that woman can suffer will in all
probability De the lot of four out of five of
these rosy damsels who throw themselves
on their own resources and the tender
nerclcS Of the big city for livelihood.
In spite of the talk about the widening of
wOmen'S opportunities, most Of the practIca-
bic avenues are choked with travellers
before the rights of way are fairly secured.
No class of workingmen can claim expert
ence Of such cut-throat competition as exists
among women. TIE typewriter who asks
for place at 81 "A week will find somebody
ready TO take it at Sc from under her ha d.
The governess who applies for a $25 a
month situation will meet on the doorsteps
half dozen $50 teachers. The
would-be telegrapher wdo applies at the
Cooper Union free school for instruction
will he refused admission, in view of the
crowded market, ualess she has the definite
promise OF a position at the end Of her
course. The Normal College turns out
every year hundreds Of teachers who have
to wait weary periods for scholars. The
average of women at marriage, which mas
a direct bearing on the labor problem, is
increasing, and larger and larger numbers
remain unmarried. .-
Women look hopefully to the professions
to relieve the strain. Medicine is by long
odds the most promising. How many
women doctors does New York support
handsomely? You may count them on
your fingers. The wages Of the trained
nurse, though still good, threaten continu-
ally to fall How many women dentists
has the city' Three. How ma lawyers
One. How many clergywomen? None.
How many newspaper womens A handful
who earn excellent wages, and a skirmish
line Of free lances whose board bills are
often overdue. A young lawyer who adj
vertiSed for housekeeper at $16 month
had over 200 women blocking the passage
ways. A woman who advertised for a
music teacher for her little boy had thirty
applicants within four hours.
WEat does art work mean! A few Ii tie
samples of water colors or decorated menus
hopefully placed under glass for sign at
the door Of the boarding house, and mouths
OF hand to hand wrestle with fate, with
restitution in the background and hunger
and cold snarling in the middle dista ce,
with final defeat almost certain, if indeed
tho route stop short of death on a drawing
board stretched between two chairs, as hap
pened to young girl with ambitions some
time ago.
What is woman to do? This is what
one woman is doing Ten years ago or there
abouts she graduated with honors from
one of the best girls schools in the country.
her father gave a graduation par ty for her
and brilliant career was predicted by the
guests Tor the beautiful and talented Great
ure. BY and by her father failed, and the
care OF him, broken in health and needing
injuries, and of her invalid mother came on
The carefully educated girl. Six dollars a
week is what she is able to earn behind a
RIBBON counter, and there she stands. In
october there are advertisements for sales
women for the fall trade. Ihave numbered
by count more than fifty waiting at s
O'Clock in the morning to ask the super
lntendent for one of half dozen positions
College graduates are expected to be well
saVlshed with $500 and 500 places at the
teachers agencies with fees and percentages
70 pay, and often accept $500 or $500 in
private schools with corridor duty at night
alter the days grind is ground. And wnat
compensation is there in the public schools,
LOT desks In which this fall there are many
spOIcatlons from country girls, for many
uo9fs work per day in a foul atmosphere
9nu with constant strain on the nerves?
~ . ot tne New York schools year ago out of
o,o4o teachers, 3 ,123 were women and 222
men, but for the first years service mems
oalarles run up from $720, and
women's from $40S. Does not every
.t~onan know that it is next to impossible
1or self-dependent woman to live in the
selIy on S40S year in any degree of COM
tolL and clothe herself with sufficient neat
aess 10 insure the respect of her pupils and
associates! In Brooklyn woman who is
10y Normal school graduate faces the
same same problem on $500. And what stimu-
Jus Is there to a teachers ambition9 Sim
a Of, Z. baA