The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-24
SLAVERY IN NEW YORK
All the Hotsl and Restaurant Walters
Said to Pc Slaves

Said to Pc Slaves.
From Kate Fields Wassfnoton.
IL Will be revelation to many to learn
that there are 20. walters in New York
city alone, the ma ority of whom are French
and German, though many are Swiss and
Irish and some are English. Few were born in
this country, native Americans dsspising a
/ service which they consider degrading,
! Why it should be considered manly to
measure tape and unmanly Co serve beef
steak and coffee in hotels aud restaurants,
| my Judgment fails TO discover. OF tie
two trades l should prefer the latter as be-
ing decidedly more virile. were walters
treated as they should be by their employers.
OF this more anon. Because a man behind
/ a counter is called clerk and a man in the
swallow tail Of the drawing room is called a
servant, the former has no real advantage
| Both are servants. We are all servants
We hear great deal about the dives of
New York aud how they should be sup
pressed. Nobody, unless he subscribes to
the Waters Journal, is aware of the uu-
licensed slave markets known as WATERS
Employment Saloons" which are as much
worse than dives as dives are worse than
| hotel barroomS. No one need visit dives
against his will. 1t is purely voluntary
act, while walters are forced 70 frequent
employment saloons in order 10 get a chance
| to earn their bread and butter. Explain1
Certainly, dear reader.
Imagine yourself proprietor of hotel or
restaurant, or manager of club, and want
ing staff Of walters. You first employ a
| head waiter and leave the rest to him. II
your head waiter is exceptionally honest he
will engage his men by direct communion
ton. High-minded stewards are as rare as
| hlgh-minded men in other trades The
average head waiter is in league with some
keeper of a walters saloon, where ne seeks
| his underlings and finds them. Knowing
this. men who otherwise would not 20 near
these dens are compelled to haunt them,
and, in order to curry favor with their
masters. patronize the bar that wives and
children may not sterve. Thus thousands
OF families have been reduced to misery.
Let e waiter tell his own story:
| You know that Mr.. Maderer is head
waiter with Shlckfuss at the Arion, while
| during dinner hours he works at Holtz &
! Freitstedt's. Last Sunday Jan. 81 an af-
fair was to come off at the Arion. for which
he needed not less than sixty to sixty-flve
walters, who were TO be engaged at Georges.
| Ii was announced that the list would be
open on Thursday. AS matter Of course,
it was necessary to patronize the place q
week ahead. Many, l know, spent their
| last pennies to make some impression on
Vampire Georges. Thursday arrived, the
place was packed, and money seemed to
have no value. One had the impression
that he was among herd of politicians be-
fore election. AT length, when every one
had expended as much as he had u mind to,
all were told that the list would not be
made until the next day. The same story
on Friday. After everybody had spent his
| hard-earned nickels, about forty were put
on the list. After all, erything would
have been well and good if only this mons
ter of a man-Georges-had put all of them
on the list. But no, just those who are the
poorest, some OF them not knowing how to
| give food to their families when they come
home in the evening, just those men were
made to come again on Saturday and spend
their last pennies, aud then, after they had
paid their tribute to that devil in human
shape, were told that telegram had come
| to the effect that ten men less were wanted
My heart bled when l saw these poor
wretches walk to the door, disappointed in
their hope and deeply embittered, yet una
| bic to tell their minds TO the rascal.
Another of the same stripe is Fritz
| Ziegler, Ninth street and Stuyvesant place,
who had an order for the Liederkranz for
Saturday, but we hope will not get another
| Five of us called on this fellow last Wednes-
day. After each of us had paid Two rounds
of course Fritz always joins, so that we
spent 60 cents each-Ahe told us to call again
| 1nutSuaN thursday came around and
brought US the same story, Call again to-
morrow Then came Friday. Fritz, will
| you have drinkP With an abominable
| grin on his face he declared his readiness
certainly After we had paid our drinks
we asked about the work. He said: Half
of the order has been taken away from me
and gone to the west side. But you may
call tomorrow, and in case one or another
man should be wanting. you have the first
| shown
! appeal to Mayor Grant TO free an honor
able class Of citizens from an awful bond
age.