Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02

ton lint Those who are not barefooted
wear heavy clogs without stockings, and
they will kick shins with any rough in
Liverpool for pot of beer Many cargoes
OF damaged cotton arrive here. 1t Is sold
by auction to class of dealers who dry 1T,
and prepare it second time for the market.
Two or three thousand of the hoodlum class
OF young women sort or "pick this stuff IN
filthy noisome pens The employment is
not steady, and they get what the renoya-
tors have mind to pay; all the way from
shlllings to 10 shillings per week.
These girls and women are about as re-
spectacle as men would be under like cir
cumstances; drink gallons of beer per day
while at work, clubbing" their pennies
for its purchase; ferociously beat those who
do not "drink fair" and live in any manner
they may; there being absolutely no effort
on the part of any person or society to bet
ter their condition. Plain cooks in houses,
restaurants and the common grade of inns,
will earn shillings per week. A general
house servant receives shillings. A house
maid, nurse and waitress combined, who is
regarded as the highest grade of house
servant, may receive 8 shillings.
WHAT A BREAKFAST MEANS.
Charwomen or scrubwomen receive shil1-
lngs per day and breakfast, that is, tea and
bread and butter, and they may possibly Sc
cure two engagements per week. Washer
women are very glad to earn altogether 10
shilllngs per week, and perhaps their
assistants may get from a shilling
"three ha'p'worth of bitter" which trans
lated means three cents worth of bitter
beer. Girls in tobacco, confectionery
and stationers' shops will receive from 4
to shillings per week; and mattresses in
restaurants, considering the severity and
hours Of their labor, are the poorest paid
of all. Many of these girls are required to
serve meals in gentlemens' chambers and in
Offices, at all hours, after the manner of the
Havana coolie cantineros, and are subject to
all manner of insult which they endure with
dogged bravery and CHEEKY invulnerability
emitting them to be regarded as real
heroines in any other land.
There is very fine cafe at the head of
Dale street, where nearly 1000 employers
and clerks from the Cotton Exchange and
neighboring offices lunch or dine daily 1t
will rank with our better class American
restaurants. The entire service is by
women. There are from 25 to 30 as comely,
cleanly, bright, well educated and thor
oughy respectable young women here as
could be found at any aristocratic levee in
New York or London.
A BRIGHT WOMAN ACTUALLY coNTENTED.
Having often been served at the place, at
the same table and by the same waitress, I
asked her the amount of wages per week she
was paid.
"Six shillings;" she replied cheeriiy.
"Cannot you find service at better wages
in Liverpool" I inquired.
"Oh, no sir; that is very good pay here.
"Do you get any tips besides?"
every seldom, sir. Only occasionally
can't afford it. And the masters never do
that in Liverpool
"And this shil1ings per week Is all
you do earn, or can earn, after good ed
ucation, and while using the best years Of
your life?"
"Oh, but you must remember, SIR
and this triumphantly-'we get our own
food besides And very good food It is,
slrP'
There was no use of continuing the in
quisition. Here was the absolute limit of D.
handsome, capable, well-educated and re-
spectacle woman's possibilities and aspira-
tions, because of her own absolute knowl-
edge in the matter, in this second city Of
Britain.
"Ah, but money has twice the pu-
chasing power in Great Britain than It has
in America" some one remarks
PURCHASING POWER OF ENGLISH WAGES.
There never was a crueler political or
other fa1sehood coined. It is absolutely
true that there is not a human need, do not
say luxury, which cannot be as cheaply or
more cheaply purchased in America than in
England, barring the one item of hsbita-
tion. The burning fact is that the lowly of
this country are forced to live twice or
thrice as meagerly as our own toilers. Here
capital has with devilish ingenuity, as it
may do with us in time if immigration be
not soon wholesomely restricted, ascer-
tanned to farthing on how little human be-
ings who labor may be made to exist, and
Britons who "never, never will be slaves"
are slaves of the most hopeless character
from the cradle to the grave.
But what may be the amusements and d.
versions of the Liverpool lowly? is natural
inquiry. They are drink, drink, drink, and
"scamping" the rents. Not all drunkards.
Most Of them are regular drinkers. The
horror of it all Is, women predominant.
There is not in any ten leading American
cities as much actual squalor and beastly
hopelessness as may be found in this one.
And yet nearly every one of this class does
something and earns something here. What
ever may be the purchasing power" Of
money in America, it is good thing to re-
member that American laborers are not the
subjects of such studies as these.
EDGAR L. WAKEMAL