The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-11-26

amount down to $40--the smallest dow
| ry that enters into consideration in the
| German matrimonial market--her
| chances are prdportioned strictly in
accordance with the amount.
DowERIEs.
! notwithstanding the immense inn
| portance of dowrics Il majority of Ger
| man maidens are dowerless. 1t re-
| mains with themselves, then. to make
| good the deficiency; and it is just
| there that the most poignant features
| of the German woman's lot become
| apparent. There are no remunerative
situations open to women i'm Germany.
| Bookkeepers, stenographers, milliners
and dressmakers receive wages which
! are only a degree less pathetic than
those earned by shop girls. AS a gem
eral thing it may be said that no wom-
an employed i'm ordinary vocstions re-
ceiVeg wages sufficient for her respect
able maintainence and the putting by
Of enough to provide her with a hus-
band or reasonable comfort i'm adverse
days. 1t is true that there is an ad-
mirable pension system for wage-earn-
ers in Germany and it is also true that
| the Germans can, and do, live on annu-
tiles which in any other country would
seem ludicrous: but the main fact re-
mains--the wages of women show no
evidence of intention to provide for the
cohesion of body and soul
1t is held by employers. with a Gym
icism that deserves a worse name,
that women wage-earners do not re-
quire living wages for the reason that
they are capable of receiving outside
aid. When they live with their FAM
lilies they doubtless receive that aid {;
and too often they are driven to in
Vite it, whether they live with their
| families or not; but the great mass
of honest working girls are obliged
| to practice self-denial TO an extent
which would frighten an American
| girl into disability to perform any
work at all. There are shop girls here
in Munich, for instance who live. and
have lived for years. on wages raging
from 81 to $40 a month, paying for
their lodging. their food and their
clothing. 1t is a blessed thing for
them that they can get furnished
rooms for So a month, a fun dinner
for 10 cents, and that they are salts
fed with a cup of coffee in the morn
ing and black bread and beer in the
evening, for that is all they get. Beer
and black bread have saved thousands
OF lives in Germany.
AS MATTRESSES.
There is, however one situation that
a girl may get, the earnings of which
are more than likely to be good. viewed
from the German standpoint-that of
waitress in a restaurant or beer saloon
the terms are practically synony-
/ m,
nearly so much like drudgery as most
other work for women is; her earn
+ ings depend largely upon her person.
ality, she wears good clothes. and her
opportunity for making male ac-
quaintances-with marriage as po-
tentiality--is of the best. But all girls
! may not become kelnerinnen; some
indeed, consider the situation not re-
spectacle. on account of the assoca-
+ tions and their usual consequences
Then they must be pretty. otherwise
. they will earn little or nothing. ever
if they get the place; nobody knows
better than the wirth how. comely girls
draw custom. and that is all he asks
of them.
Most German girls of a certain class
then, in looking over the one ambi-
tion to become a kellnerin. They be-
gin at the age of 16 as water girls
that is, as helpers to the real kellner'
, innen, under whose orders they are
and occupy themselves in carrying beer
{ | and the glasses of water which in
: | Variably go with coffee in German.
- speaking countries. They work usual
- ly from ! o'clock i'm the morning un.
} til o'clock at night for a stipend ot
} | 20 cents a week, plus meals, which
: are light enough, to be eaten stand
! ing After an apprenticeship, Varyinl
2 from a few months to a year or more
; according more to their degree OF
. | beauty than to their proficiency, they
2 blossom into real kellnerinnen, get q
3, hanging money pouch and a certain
, number of tables to look after and be
$ come practically independent. That i,
To- to say. they receive no further sal.
. ary. but keep daily accounts with th'
e house" just as if they were selling
$ on commission. The commission con
- sists. in almost an cases, solely of tn,
+ tips they receive from customers.
y SMALL. EARNINGS.
, Their earnings from this source vary
=, exceedingly. In an ordinary cafe pat
;, runized chiefly by Germans, Il kellnerir
will make from = cents to 81 dan
, only. because the German is not a reck
, less tiu-aivcr. and he rarely exceeds
~ cents. no matter how much Servic,
: he has pXactCd. lie always gives some
thing, however, and most Germans con
side" ii mean to give less than one cent
although the imperial coinage makes i
possible fuy him to give One-quHrter %
thai amount. I'm cafes patrOni2ed 10y
u foreigners on the contrary, kcllnerh
u will make sometimes as much as So
daN and an average of $40 or $l2
week is not uncommon, 1t depends
70 greatly upon how pretty she is; ana
r. wage Of $l2 q week for woman means
, in south Germany. that she is almost
C. if not quite. Il beauty. For this ncOm
" she works exactly seventeen hours
y day. and sometimes longer. Durin!
e. carnival, for instance, there are sey
< ,erUl ,y,cE. at IA stretch when she hl
II bat three or four hours Il day for slccI
- and rest. The Wurk is probably tn
n hardest in . w"ll-patrouizrd cafe. eve
% invented 10y man. Thc girls are ON lhei
= fcol constantly, ia an atmosphere recli
Il iug with smoke from the two-cen
cigars which, in Germany are consid
!, ( cred yupcriinc and that she leaves a
II ! o'clocl, in the morning to seek a bed
y room in which there is never fire from
- years end to years end. one dav il
- eight or ten she has holiday at he
- own expense. Moreover, unless she b.
II exceedingly quick at, figures and haV