The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-12

for their lodging, their food and their
clothing. 1t is a blessed thing for them
that they can get furnished rooms for
" month, full dinner for 10 cents. and
that they are satisfied with a cup of cof-
fee in the morning 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.
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 restaurant or beer saloon-the terms
are practically synonymous. The work of
a kellnerin is not nearly so much like
drudgery as most other work for women
is; her earnings depend largely upon her
personality, she wears good clothes, and
her opportunity for making male acquaint-
ances-with marriage as a potentiality-is
of the best. But all girls may not be
come kellnerinnen; some Indeed, consider
the situation not respectable, on account
of the associations and their usual con-
sequences. Then the must be pretty, 9TH
erwise they will earn little or nothing,
even if they get the place; nobody knows
better than the with how comely girls
draw customers, and that is all he asks
of them.
Most Germans of a certain class, then,
in looking over the field for an agreeable
future, nurse the one ambition to become
a kellnern. They begin at the age of IS
as water girls"-that is, as helpers to the
real kellnerinnen, under whose orders they
are-and occupy themselves in carrying
beer and the glasses of water which so
with coffee in German-speaking countries.
They work usually from O'Clock an the
morning until 8 O'clock at night for a
stipend of IS cents a week, plus meals,
which are light enough TO be eaten stand
ing. After an apprenticeship varying from
a few months to year or more, according
more to their degree of beauty than to
their proficiency, they blossom into real
kellnerinnen, get a hanging money pouch
and certain number of tables TO look
after, and become practically Independent.
That is to say, they. receive no further sal
airy, but keep daily accounts with their
house" just as if they were selling on
commission. The commission consists, IN
almost all cases, solely of the tips they 1e-
ceive from customers. Their earnings
from this source vary exceedingly. In an
ordinary cafe, patronized chiefly by Ger
mans, killnerin will make from IS cents
to 81 day only, because the German is
not a reckless tip-giveT, and he rarely ex-
ceeds 212 cents, no matter how much serV-
ice he has exacted. He always gives
something, however, nd most Germans
consider il mean to give less than 1 cent,
although the imperial coinage makes it
possible for him 10 give one-quarter of
that amount. In cafes patronized by for
eigners on the contrary, a kellnerin will
make sometimes as much as So a day, and
an average of $40 or S12 a week Is not I'M
common. 1t depends greatly upon how
pretty she is; and wage of $12 week
for a woman means, in South Germany,
baf @ If
a beauty. For this income she works ex-
actly seventeen hours a day. and some
times longer During carnival, for in
stance, there are several weeks at
stretch when she has but three or four
hours day for sleep and rest The work
is probably the hardest, in a well patron
lied cafe, ever invented by man. The
girls are on their feet constantly, in an
atmosphere reeking with smoke from the
two-cent cigars which in Germany are
considered superfne, and that she leaves at
1 o clock in the morning to seek a bedroom
in which there is never fire from years
end TO years end. One day in eight or
ten she has holiday at her own expense.
Moreover, unless she be eXcec dinghy quick
at figures and have a long memory she
often finds that she has earned nothing, or
almost nothing, for the DAYS work, not
withstanding her tips. According to the
herman CGSlOlHs the pdtAOi VI u NoAN
does not pay until he leaves it, and the
amount he owes is the amount he says
he owes-there is nothing to show for it.
AS rule the Geramns are long sitters,
and if a man has remained in a cafe
throughout the afternoon and evening has
drunk and dined, and smoked, he sometimes
forgets that he has had so much. Then
the kellnerin suffers, for unless she remem-
bers-which is practically impossible in
L. i = H. Il
although she herself has been duly charged
for everything she has ordered II must
be said in honor of the German, however,
that he would hardly cheat a kellnerin in
tentionally; were ne 10 try to do so it is
incontestible that all the other men in the
cafe would rise in a body, hustle him into
the street, and hurt him.
Notwithstanding the extremely hard
lines of the kellnerinnen, there is always
a host of applicants for every vacant
place They are mostly the daughters of
small shop keepers, and many of them
have received good educations. Being
obliged to earn their own livings, they
choose to become mattresses rather than
shop girls or house maids. Perhaps there
is no better evidence of what German wo-
men are obliged to make of their lives
than that afforded by the existence of this
latter class-not the parlor maid nor the
fancy cook, but the simon pure maid of all
work that every German family with any
income at all keeps to torture 10 degree
probably unknown to any working girl
save the London lodging house "slavey."
In the first place these girls go out to
service when very young-they are rarely
more than Is or 16 years old when they
seek their first situation. At the start
they often receive no wages at all, and IL
they do the amount Is $3.50 a month. After
three or four years service when they are
supposed 10 become efficient they are ad-
ysnced to SO or 81 a month and the latter
sum is perhaps the average for a first
class maid. Very few get as much as 81.
although superior cook of long expert
ence can command $40 or Sl2. In addition
10 the wage the government exacts 20 cents
a month as provision for disability In old
age-in which case a small pension is paid
and there is also small quarterly pay
meut 10 be made In consideration of the
fact that the municipality provides free
medical aid and @ hospital bed in the event