The times., 1898-08-08
AFRo-AMERIcAN SERVANTS.
Some Reasons Why They Have Been
Displaced in New York

some neasohs why Ihey Have been
Displaced in New York.
Among the problems which most per-
pick Afro-Americans men and women, at
this time in the North and South, is how
to make a living. On the surface this
may appear not TO be the case, but any
observant persons has only TO use his
eyes, in New York, for instance to see
to what a remarkable extent Afro-Amer-
leans are absent from all those industries
in which the great mass of citizens make
a living. And yet there is in New York
a very large and constantly increasing
colored population, coming in an endless
line, so TO speak, from the Southern
States and the West Indian islands. The
great city swallows them up and stran-
ger seldom ever sees one OF them on the
streets or as an employe in any of the
business houses or places of resort and
amusement which he may frequent.
Where do they go when they enter the
big cities of the North and West, and
what do they do for a livelihood2 This
question constitutes a very interesting
problem by itself. There is a vast deal of
tragedy in it which the world seldom
hears of, because, for the most part, the
victims suffer as the dumb OK suffers,
making no complaint.
Few New Workers ever stop 20 consider
that in the past twenty years Afro-Amer-
lean walters in hotels and restaurants
and servants in private families, coach
men, janitors, BARRIERS, and the like have
disappeared almost entirely. Their places
have been taken by white people, mostly
patton. Othello's occupation has been
taken from him, but Othello is still there,
multiplying in the natural order and by
accessions foreign and domestic.
There Is great deal in the condition
of freedom which was not dreamed of
in the philosophy of those good and noble
people who broke down the system of
slavery and placed the slave upon indus
trial equality with the other race ele-
ments of the citizenship. Competition in
the labor market IS one of those things
which was not considered at all; but
the freed slave had TO consider it, and
is sadly considering 1t now.
While the problem of how TO make a
living is difficult in the extreme for Af-
ro-American men 10 handle. IL is vastly
more so for the Afro-American woman
She is restricted in her breadwinning
opportunities even more than the man.
Indeed, in n city like New York there
does not appear to be anything for her
TO do. The factory and store and office
and even the sweatshop are shut against
her as tight as fate; and the big laun-
dries and the big apartment stores, which
have killed the seamstress industry, have
taken away from her entirely two
sources of revenue in which she was
once able to make an humble but honest
haT he A
woman in a large city is as bread
winner was shown when Mrs. Victoria
Earl Matthews. of the White Rose Mis-
sion in New York, read a paper recently
10 the members of the Hampton Va.
conference on The Dangers Confronting
Southern Girls in Northern Cities -
While the paper dealt entirely with the
hard conditions which confront Afro
American girls from the South who 20
10 New York hoping to better their hard
lot, a discussion by women members Of
the conference which followed showed
that the conditions confronting these wo-
men in the urban and rural centeFs OF
the South were equally hard, unforbid-
ding and discouraging both in the bread
winning and the moral sense. Indeed
the disclosures as TO the latter point of
view were of the most deplorable char
acter.
Mrs. Matthews showed that none of the
protection thrown around the working
girls of other races in New York ex-
tend 70 the Afro-American girl. She is
left 10 her own resources and devices
when not controlled by an agent who
has secured a lien upon her by paving
her passage money. Mrs. Matthews said
of the multitudes of Southern working
girls who are annually swallowed up by
New York:
IF the majority Of these girls under
stood the condition of the labor market,
tine estimate in which the crowds are held
who are willing to accept any method of
transportation just for the sake of getting
North and the kind of work they are ex-
pected 10 do; If they had an inkling of the
humiliation they must endure. IL IS rea-
sonable to suppose that Sc f-respe L w1u, d
deter hundreds from rushing into a life
that only the strongest physically, NOR
ally and spiritually could be expected 10
stand. But the girls do not know They
feel stifled in the dead country towns
they turn scornfuily from the thought of
supporting themselves in the common oc-
cupations of the home village And yet
could they spend a few days with me and
hear the agoniZed moan of many a young
creature out of whom the city had crush
ed all hope, all innocence. they would
consider their lot in the South a blessed
one. But the girls do not know, and so
rush 10 physical and moral death by the
thousands.
''Un,I. the truth is known in every town
and village and hamlet of the South. the
young women of our race. the educated
and uneducated alike, will pay with
bright youth and innocence the fearful
price exacted by the INSCRIPTIONS cofnbi-
nation of money makers instrumental in
getting them to the city, who make a
barter of virtue and helplessness. So sue
cessful have been the operations Of GER
tain agencies in bringing young girls from
the South for questionable purposes that
all Southern girls are now regarded as
morally unreliable by the employing class
Every honest girl leaving her Southern
home in search of work in Northern cities
| must expect to meet this distrust. which
in most cases serves as an insurmounta.
bic barrier to securing desirable employ
ment. ut
so many of the careless, unframed
| shiftless class have been taken North
simply as blinds, and imposed upon peo
pie desiring domestics of this Southern
class, for the special purpose of lessen
ing the demand, that the demand ha.
greatly fallen off. Employing agents en-
| gagged in importing Southern girls int,
New York, and they are organized into c
strong combination, cannot get as muci
money in fees from respectable people a.
from the disreputable class, hence ever,
effort is made to increase the demand
among the latter. Every week, from tn,
early Spring to the late Autumn days
crowds of these girls arrive by the South
ern steamship lines. There are aiway.
plenty of recruits and the work of deatl
and destruction proceeds without let o.
hindrance.
MANY of the dangers confronting ou
girls fresh from the South in the erea