The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-11-26

stance, VINO live, ana nave lived Tor
years, on wages ranging from 81 to $40
food, and their clothing. It Is blessed
thing for them that they can get fur
uished rooms for So a month";, a full din
ner for 10 cents, and that they are salts
fed with cup Of coffee In the morning
and black bread and beer in the even
ing. for that Is all they got Beer and
black bread have saved thousands Of
lives in Germany. r." .~rc-~,.F--- -. .,-rstE
There is, however, one situation that
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
Ak ellnerin isASfot nearly mucn. 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 ac-
Quaintances-with marriage as a potcn-
tiality-is of the best. But all girls may
not become kellnerinnen;. some, indeed,
consider the situation not respectable, on
account of the, associations and their
usual consequences. Then they must be
pretty, otherwise they will earn little or
nothing, even if they get the place; no
body knows better than the with 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 field for an
agreeable future, nurse the one ambition
to become kellnerin. They begin at
the age Of sixteen as water girls'-that
is, as helpers to the real kellnerinnen,
under whose orders they are-and occupy
themselves in carrying beer and the
with coffee in German-speaking countries.
They work usually from 5 o'clock in the
morning until 8 o'clock at night, for
stipend of IS cents q week, plus meals,
which are light enough to be eaten stand
ing. After an apprenticeship, varying
from a few months to a year or more,
according more to their degree of beauty
than to their proficiency, they blossom
into real kellrcrinnen, get hanging
money pouch ard certain number Of
tables to look after and become prac-
tically independent. That is to say, they
receive no further salary, but keep daily
accounts with the "house," just as if
they were selling on commission. The
commission consists, in almost all cases,
solely of the tips they receive from Gus
toners. Their earnings from this source
vary exceedingly. In ar ordinary cafe,
chiefly by Germans, a keilnerin
will make from Is cents to 81 a day only,
because the German is not reckless tip
giver, and he rarely exceeds 2% cents,
no matter how much service he has eX'
acted. He always gives something, how
ever, and most Germans consider it mean
to give less than one cent, although the
imperial coinage makes it possible for
him to give one-quarter of that amount.
In cafes patronized by foreigners, on thu:
contrary, a kellnerin will make some
times as much as So day, and an aver.
age of $40 or $12 week is not uncom.
mon. 1t depends greatly upon how prett!
she is; and wage of $12 week &c:
a woman means, in South Germany, that
she is almost, If not quite, beauty
For this income she works exactly seven
teen hours day, and sometimes longer.
During carnival, for instance, there are
several weeks at a stretch when she has;
but three or four hours a day for sleep
and rest. The work is probably the hard
est in a we'll patronized cafe. ever in
vented by man. The girls are on their
feet constantly, in an atmosphere reek-
ing with smoke from the two-cent cigars
which, in Germany, are considered super
fine, and that she leaves at 1 clock In
tie morning to seek bedroom in which
there is never fire from years end to
years end. One day in eight or ten she
has a holiday at her own expense. More
over, unless she be exceedingly quick a.
figures and have a long memory, she
often finds that she has earned nothing,
or almost nothing, for the days work,
her tips. According to
the German custom, the patron of cafe
does not pay until he leaves it. and the
amount he owes is the amount he says
he orres-there is nothing to show for 1T.
AS 4 rule the Germans are long sitters,
ana 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. Them the kellnerin suffers, for I'M
less she remembers-Which is practically
impossible in a large cafe-she must de-
pend upon his word, although she her
self has been duly charged for every
in honor of the German, however, that
he would hardly cheat kellnerin inten-
t:onally; were he to try to do so it Is
incomtestable that all the other men in
tie cafe would rise in body, hustle him
into the street, and hurt him. .
Notwithstanding the extremely hard
lines of the kellnerinnen, there is always
host Of applicants for every vacant
place. They are mostly the daughters of
small shopkeepers, 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 housemaids. Perhaps there
is no better evidence of what German
women are obliged to make of their lives
IMAM lHdL d1lOFueu NY C4AS cAASIcACSS "
this latter class-not the parlormaid nor
the fancy cook, but the simon pure maid
of all work that every German family
with any income at all keeps to torture
to a degree probably unknown to any
working girl save the London lodging
house ''slavey." . .a y 'l2 sr,s,a,i-.-
I'm the first place, these girls go out
to service when very young->-,"v are
rarely more than fifteen or sixtt >:r1 years
old when they seek their. first situation.
At the start they often receive no wages
at all, and If they do the amount is $l.5U
a month. After three or four years serv-
Ice, when they are supposed to become
efficient, they are advanced to So or 81
month, and the latter sum Is perhaps
the average for first-class maid. Very
few get as much as IS, although su
perior cook of long experience can com
mand $40 or $12. In addition to the wage:
the government exacts 20 cents a month
as provision for disability in old age
in which case small pension is paid,
and there is also a small quarterly pay
lment to be >uade in consideration, of the
i:act that the municipality provides free
medical aid and hospital bed in the
event Of illness.
The German maid usually sleeps in o
closet, with or without window. She
gets up at dawn, and for breakfast has
cup of imitation coffee and a roll. Fr,
dinner she has soup, small piece o.
meat, one vegetable another roll and a
glass of water. For supper. a pint OF
beer and slice of black bread. That is
the daily portion, without variation. o:
forty-nine out Of fifty German servants.
Butter Is unknown to her, as are also
all the other things that most people like
particularly to eat; she never has the
same food as that which appears on the
family table-coarser and cheaper articles
being bought especially for her and duly
measured out by the mistress Of the house
lat every meal.
! Upon this diet the maid Is supposed to