Morning journal and courier., 1892-11-08
LONDON WORKING GIRLS.
With a Glance Mt Some OF the Darker
Aspects of London SOoiety-Hard
Work, Poor Wages and a "SOcial
Problem.,,

Aspects of London SOotety-Hard
Work, Poor Wages and a "SOcial
Problem.',
LONDON, Oct. 20.
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
After writing so much about men and
their employments we turn to the fair sex
with feelings of the most grateful avidity,
and we are quite sure that in devoting
special letter to the working girls of this
mighty city of London the reader will be
as much taken by the novelty of our theme
as the writer is. Woman is captivating
subject in any situation in which she may
be brought before us, but woman in Lon
don, making her way through the rushing
tides of activity and the still stronger
tides of temptation which beat about her,
ia subject which, in the living, human
interest attaching to it, could hardly be
e1celled. Fancy population in which
there are not less than eight hundred and
seventy-seven thousand girls between the
ages of fifteen and thirty. Such is Lon
don, if those are to be believed who have
made study of the last census returns,
and it cannot bs doubted that the larger
part of this vast aggregation Of youthful
femininity is earning its own livelihood.
It would not be too much to say that at
least forty thousand of the young women
of London are supporting themselves by
means which are disreputable and even re-
voting. This biggest city in the world is
a dreadful place when looked at in this az
peot. 1t is sort of receiving depot for
the depraved and unfortunate of the whole
kingdom. No city of the United States
bears the slightest comparison to it in this
respect. New York draws only little
upon the west, and Chicago is too far
away to attract in any considerable nun
ber the feminine refuse of the east. But
London is not very far from any place,
and it is SO immensely vast withal, and Of
fers, in this particular, such a good pros
pect for sin and misfortune to hide itself
from recognition, that it becomes inevita-
bly, sort of social sink, into which are
drawn a large proportion of the wronged
and depraved from every section of the
British Isles.
Besides this, 1t Is turning out fallen wo-
men of It's own at an enormous rate. The
social conditions which obtain in its slums
have q big share in this sad work, but the
social conditions of the ayistocratic West
End are still more to blame. Really there
are so many shameless libertines abroad in
London that an attractive girl is hardly
secure against them even In broad day
light. The only thing which equals the
peril in which virtuous girls are placed by
the ogling and lechery of men in this mo-
tropolis is the annoyance and temptation
to which men and boys are subjected by
the ever present seduoers of the opposite
sex. In these two phases London life
presents an awful problem to social re-
formers, and we question if there is any
| thing to match it anywhere else in the en-
tire English speaking world.
This will be thought digression. So II
| is, and surely, in writing of girls in Lon
don, it is quite q pardonable one. The
outcast and unworthy, however, we must
dismiss. For the unfortunate amongst
| the vile and Intentionally wicked, regret
| ing to our proper theme, what a relief II
is to know that after all the great mass oi
London's eight hundred and seventy seven
thousand girls beat back like veritabls
heroines every assault upon their virtue
and Notwithstanding the pinches of wsnt
which many of them suffer, plod theil
way through the dangerous and bewilder
ing streets of this city, in pursuance Of
| their daily avocations, or in search of some
opportunity 80 to do, not only without ac
tual taint, but with the firm purpose o,
keeping free from evil to the end, spite o.
all Inducements to q contrary course.
Foremost among the worthy females who
toll for living In Lendon we mention th'
barmaids. We put these first as protes
against the general suspicion in whict
they are held and as q means of lifting from
then-so far as the pen of one man car
do this-that ban of social prejudice whicl
thew incur on account of their calling
These barmaids must be judged by Eng
lish, not by American standards. The!
are where they are because the customs o
the country have put them there. The.
are certainly ont Of place, but the natiol
ia to blame, not the girls. That their oc
cupation exposes them to extraofdinar
peril is beyond doubt, and 1t is hardl
surprisine that some of them yield. Ex
oessiye drinking, we are told, is their mos
common fault, but some succumb to
worse enemy still. # the testimony give
before the royal commission on labor ma
be believed some are engaged with the dif
, tinct understanding that they are not to b
, over scrupulous toward either oustome,
, OF tho men who employ them This