Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-02-02
FOR SINGLE WOMEN.
Respective Difficulties of Landladies
and Unprotected Females.

| Respective Difficulties of Landladies
and Unprotected Females.
| From the New York Sun.
ut has always been hard matter for
| the unprotected female to get a room or
rooms in an unquestionable neighborhood, -
said the school teacher but now it is al
most impossible to do so. You are stopped
at the very outset of your search by the
sign, Rooms to Rent-for Gentlemen Only,
a sign, by the by, that is steadily growing
| in the frequency of its appearance all over
the city. girl friend Of mine came in
from the country last week to study short
hand, and she told me that some of her ex-
periences in trying to get a room were
most notifying. In some places she was
put through a catechsm that was either
insulting or laughable. she said, just as
she was in mind to regard it; in other
places she was told point blank that she
could only be admitted with references;
while it seemed to her that all the neatest
houses presented the warning announce
ment 1 have spoken of-For Gentlemen
Only
My friends story struck me so forcibly
that repeated it to my landlady and asked
her if she imagined the experience was an
unusual one. No, my DEAR, she said-you
know l have been with her five years-I
do not think it was. You see, we have got
women into our houses. We have always
had to be, but we are obliged to be es-
pecially so now since the recent moral
housekeeping, for it stands to reason that
woman has got to have shelter, no mat
ter how bad she is and marrying her out
of one place doesn't put her out of exist
ence. That's one reason why we have to
be especially careful just now.
Another reason is that so many young
girls and women are pouring into New
York to try to earn a living, or to study
something that will give them a start-iust
like your friend, my dear-and economy is
such a necessity with them that they are
driven into little tricks of light housekeep-
ing, and that's something we don't like
We put up with it when it is managed with
exceptional neatness, when it is very light
or when there is perhaps one case of the
kind in the house; but when 1T comes to
every room being turned into an amateur
kitchen and the house smelling like COM
bination of cabbage, coffee and coal oil
why, then it's about time to stop the whole
thing. 1t has got SO that every time we see
WomanS trunk come into the house we
wonder whether 1t contains coal-ol stove,
spirit lamp and chatting dish, or a cast
iron heater and rubber pipe for tapping
our gas jets. l say we because / have
spoken to other landladies on the subject,
and we are all of the same opinion
" Lastly, woman though l am | must saw
that men make much more desirable room
ers. They don't complain, except under
extreme provocation; they don't receive
visitors except at very rare intervals, and
they are only in their rooms to sleep, ex-
cept on Sundays or when they are sick.
" so, you see, my dear my landlady con-
cluded there are several reasons why 1T is
hard for single women to get rooms in nice
houses and in desirable parts of the city.
1t seems hard, know, but we have got to
protect ourselves. you know and really the
woman question is just much problem
to us as it is to Lady Henry Somerset and
the rest of them. If any other of your girl
friends are coming to town you would be
10tp L.
them not to think of starting out to look,
for rooms without being provided with
some simple guarantee of responsibility
and with cast-iron assurance that they
will go out to their dinners"