The morning call., 1892-12-04

Oh ABOUT the same siZe and / slipped at l.
cent cup OF coffee and found it not bad.
everything was as clean as could be, and
the class OF people who were eating an.
peared respectable. One Of the old ladies'
told me that they often fed as many as 1000
a day. and that they gave suppers as well as
DINNERS. they said that the institution
paid its expenses, and that II did not try to
make money.
Nearly all the vegetable-stores of Berlin
are In cellars, and there are numerous fish
stores, especially those which sell dried
hsh, below ground. | am surprised to see
what well-dressed people come out of these
cellars, and how well the people dress on
the low wages they receive. The average
wages oil common laborers throughout Ger
many range from 81 80 10 81 week, and
Tue mass o; workIngmen here, both skilled
ana unsEilled, do not get more than from %
cents TO 81 day. When one-f0urth of this
Is paid for house rent and the food of
the family purchased there is but little left,
aud 1t is wonder to me how the people
can buy any clothes at all. am told how
ever, that many of the people have several
trades and that they do work at home out
sdH OF their hours of labor, and all the
members Of poor mans family do some
thing TO increase the family income. There
is law against children being employ cd in
the factories, and they have here a CON-
puisory system of education, but these are
7, eyaded to con siderable extent and chill
| dren are hardly able TO walk before they do
something. Little girls are taught to sew
| almost as soon as they can handle the
| needle, and good sewing-girls who make
| buttonholes here consider themselves well
PAID when they make from SO to 81 a
| month. Girls who sew upon shirts get
| about these same wages and the greater
part OF such sewipg-girls work at home.
There are number of children who make
| living IN Germany by singing on the
streets Of the cities during vacations and
during the parts of the day when they are
not In school l saw clerical old man
| going about with such a choir of boys the
other day. He was dressed in long ulster
with a cape which came down over his
arms, and he carried little singing book in
one hand. He had about a dozen little fell
| lows ranging from 10 to Il years of age and
he marched with these from house TO house
and from court TO court, stopping at each
and having the boys sing popular songs,
| while he kept time as their master. There
was no instrument TO accompany them. but
| the little fellows kept perfect time, and
| at the clase Of the singing one of the
| boys went around with toy bank into
| which the Dystanders put pennies, and such
| coins as Wee thrown down from the win
| dows he picked up and put in. / followed
| this old man and his choir through several
| OF their street concerts, and l was much
| saddened by the look OF the children. The
boys were holiow-eyed and pale. and they
| seemed TO have no spirit about them. They
| neither smiled nor laughed, and the old
man made me think In some way OF FagiD,
| the old Jew who trained the thieves in
'Oliver Twist" ] asked one of the boys As
| to his wages, and he told me- that he got
| u marks a quarter or about 81 a month. /
| have already spoken of the little boys work
| ing on the Streets and you will seldom see a
girl Of any age Idle. She is taught to knit
| IS soon as she can hold the needles, and
| when she Is watching the children she
works industriouslv away at her stocking.
| Speaking of the Berlin-street sights there
| is no place in the world where the people
work so hard for a penny and where both
| women and men give yon so much Tor SO
| little. AT every corner you find men with
| red caps who are known a dienstman, and
who will carry a letter or a parcel TO almost
any part of Berlin for cents. and you pass
in every block women loaded down with
great two-bushel baskets of meat and vege-
tables which they are carrying nome fxDm
the market for about the same rate. There