The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-12-28
GERMAN SLAVE GIRLS
SHOCKING STATE OF AFFAIRS
IN FATHERLAND.
Past Century Laws Hold Unfortunate
Young Women to Involuntary serFi-
tade-Most of Them kidnapped from
small Country Villages.

The German empress and Countess
Waldersee. formerly princess of Noer
born Mary Lee, Of New York, have
made it up" After an estrangement
Of several years standing, these au-
gust ladies have met again in Work
of Christian love, the success OF which |
without the cooperation o. either
might we'll be doubted. The Happy al
lance between her majesty ana the
field marshal's wife. niece and aunt
purposes to put an end to most as
graceful form of white slayery-the |
waitress evil-to which nearly SO,O0O |
worthy young women of the father
land are subject. The position OF the
waitress of Germany in no wise cor
responds to that of the English bar
maid, though both serve liquor TO male
guests. While her British cousin Is
regarded as business woman and ae-
cordingly paid, the German waitress
is a coolie, sold by contractors TO her
master for a stipulated length Of time.
Yet even the degrading term "eoohe
only nadequately describes Gretchen
position, for it suggests, besides tenn
porary bondage, certain rights as TO
wage and liberty at the expiration OF
the contract The German waitress
receives no wages, and the abjeet IL
nancial dependency in which she Is
kept by bosses and agents prevents
| her, even when she is nominally free,
from going her own way and becom-
ing, if she chooses, a useful member OF
society. As, despite the sorry condl-
| tions under which they live, the ma
| iority of mattresses are respectable,
| Woodworking girls, the empress gra-
ciously received the petitions for RELIEF
addressed to, her by several thousand
young women engaged in the business,
| and forthwith ordered the civil ana
| clerical members of her household TO
| investigate the waitress question from
a judicial, legislative and purely hu-
name standpoint These authorities
| have now made their report, and her
majesty summoned Countess Valdez
| see, her American aunt" as her eX-
cellency is called at court, to Berlin to
| help devise ways and means for stamp
| ing out the evil The report OF her
majesty's commissioners, who in their
investigations had the active support
of numerous government and munich
pal officers throughout the empire, dis
closes a thoroughly disgraceful state
of affairs with respect to Empress
Auguste Victoria's new proteges The
German waitress" says the paper, lis
a slave in all but name. In the con-
tracts which bind her 10 her master
and agent respectively she figures as
a sort of outlaw, having no right to
administer to her own affairs; she is
! subject to all sorts of fines and bound
| to spend her earnings in the way her
master directs. The master manages
to keep her in his debt all the time
and uses her dependency for his own
profit, until sickness or loss of good
!, looks makes it desirable Cor him to re-
lease her from further bondage, Pen
, niless and infrm. the waitress is then
thrown on the pavement to become
burden to the community. The report
goes on to say that the waitress evil
fiourishes in the metropolis and in the
big cities no more brazenly than in
+ the smaller towns. In Posen, for in
stance, which has only 10000 inhab
itants, including the garrison, there
are forty Treat-Kneipen, employing
from three to twelve so-called prett!
waiter girls. Disloyal husbands, dis
: honest clerks, boys and pupils of thu
higher schools even spend their night!
and, more often than not, other peo
| pies money in these evil resorts tina
only tend to enrich the inscription
| liquor sellers and to degrade their EN-
. ployes. Seventy per cent of all petit!
/, | embezzlement cases and the downfall
, | of numerous young men can be trace
: to these Kneipen, the names of whicl
| are constantly before the police AM
: higher courts. Yet the state and mu
inequalities not only tolerate them, bu
license them, and there lies the roo
of the evil, which your Majesty's iniu
enee may remove" say the commits
sioners. These gentlemen disCoYere
that the chief depots Of tie whit
: slave market are in East Prussia an
I in Prussian and Austrian Poland
y such one horse towns as Kattowit;
e Myslowitz, Beuthen, etc, large con
= signments of women and girls froI
e Russia, Hungary, Galicia and Austri
!. are constantly arriving under escol