New-York tribune., 1890-01-26
A PLACE OF SAFETY.
LIFE IN A GIRLS LODGING.HoUsE


"Well. maybe am too fond of going to Holiness
Meetings. said working housekeeper the writer,
as she began search for her umbrella rainy
sunday afternoon: "but hope you won't say, as
another person did awhile ago. when / asked her
for her company i don't for such goody goody
affairs Wel' says l, 4 have much bady
badly in my life that banker after religious meetings,
II it is only for a change Where have seen so
much Why nobody knows better than a young
girl knocked around, as was how much wickedness
there Is In great city. / think have told you
that il have a living relative in the world don't
know il. My father died when baby, and
the first thing can remember being held up
to take the last look at my mother, she lay in
her coffin. Then put in orphan asylum
where ! stayed till | big enough 20 go out as
chd's nurse, at which time said goodby to schooling
and to play for, you may guess, child's nurse
in a poor family (and it was TO that sort that was
sent has a lot 10 do besides carrying the baby My,
wasn't beat and banged around for the next 1--WE OF
six years
"Of course as soon as | was old enough TO
do shop work. / left the folks who had used me
50 roughly, and struck out for myself / was awful
ambitious and ready TO try anything that came along
and | worked at bonnet frames and pocketOooks'
and straw sewing and end of other things though
at first ! couldn't earn more than two or threa
dollars week II was then l learned how hard II
is to earn money by honest work, and how awful
easy ID is TO earn it In other ways; for though
never was more than sort o good looking, there was
them who wanted 10 drag me through the gutter
before | old enough to know right from wrong.
However my natural leaning toward the right,
and glad enough / to find home III a girls
lodging house. where could live decent and feel
safe When had money paid III so week for my
board and when l out Of work, which sometimes
happened. though not often, paid my board by
making myself useful in the kitchen and Laundry.
That | didn't much like, them kind of boarders
wasn't allowed to 90 out except on sundays, but l
learned a lot that has been useful to since am
a real good cook though l say it that shouldn't say
IT, and | can do up shirts equal to Wong Chong or
any Of 'em. You see washing Is took IN there,
and SO is dressmaking and other kinds of sewing;
and so the girls learnt to do laundry work, and run
sowing machines, and 10 cut and tit, and do ever SO
much besides that nobody would have learnt
em in the tenement houses that most of em came out
Of. How many boarders That don't exactly remem-
her as IL is fifteen years since ! left there.
but am sure the house will hold considerable over
fifty and in my day it was nearly always full though
the gNls were being constantly sent away, some 10
the West and some to take situations here in the city.
How are they fed! Well. at that time they might
have been better fed. l always said that, after
working hard all day, those girls ought 70 have had
a stew for their supper the boys have In their
house instead OF being put on wlt bread and
butter and tea Bread they have plenty OF, but only
butter enough for slice. For breakfast there Is
should say, there was-bread ana molsSseS ana ana
worked out though they wouldn't get none OF tho
meat and potato dinner that the stay homes had IN
the middle of the day Things may have changed
since then. and suppose they have. for as say, I'm
telling YOU of fifteen years ago DID the glrls clothe
themselves Not always, but there was a lot Of
clothing sent from time 10 time by the Chlldrcn's
Aid their friends, and these rich people
never half their clothes the girls that came
in without enough on 'em 10 keep em warm were
made more comfortable than they ever were before.
between what they taken ? Fifteen ana
twenty five Now and then there viii some younger
than fifteen be taken, but hardly ever one over
twenty five as women al that time in life are sup
posed TO enough and know enough 70 keep 'em
out Of mischief. sometimes girls Will be sent IN by
police justices who think that all they need "a set
'em in the right road i a little discipline OF the KIND
their own folks ain't fitted TO give 'em. some Of 'em
has fathers the Island and some OF em has mothers
there and IL does look at such times the Girls
the gutter. It's opinion that half Of the girls
who 20 the bad sent there by the fault of thel
who ought 10 have brought em up different \
NOnng girl-aId real pretty one. tOO-came 10 the
Lodging House night when ! was there and SAYS
she: Mamma told me this morning that wasn't %
come back 20 her if didn't get some work 20 do. and
can't il because never have been taught moth
ing II | 10 90 home now, just as like a. nOs
I'd find her fighting drunk and then she'd beat me
Ike tho dickeI s.
That girl vas took in and the last heard Of her
she first-rac laundreSS. getting all the work
he could do. II She had been turned away. don't
like 10 think II what she would be now. There amt
but few yong girls that vicious by nature, and
that's the reason why homes like the Girls Lodging
House has been the saving OF SO many Of 'em."