The age-herald., 1900-09-16
AN INTERESTING LETTER
From Mrs. Kinney in Regard to inc Distinguished Recognition the Daughters oi the American
 Revolution Received.
ny ANNIE KENDRrcK WALKER.

A number of Birmingham women were ap- preached the past week in reference .o the need of an apartment house Tor the business women of the city, and In every instance the subject met with response which indicated that while Birmingham mas so far made no special provision for the hundreds of young women who are filing various positions in the business world there is. however, a proper recognition or the need of d home for the busy woman While hundreds of young women who are employed in various occupations are nap oily situated in that their families reside in the city, still there are hundreds of other women who are deprived of the protection of d home, and who, accepting positions in the city, are confronted with the prob lem of where to live economically, know ing that they cannot afford to be indifferent to the environments that frequently go hand in hand with economy.
 When a young woman accepts position her next thought is to secure her boarding house convenient to her place of business, and her decision Is naturally governed by the amount of her weekly salary. In many cases she accepts conditions that later on She realizes as intoerable, but with her busy hours Sle HdS llllle tIlilS lOl iiA'S9tA- gating localities, and probably decides to make the best of present conditions. With environments that are anything but con- genial to her she is probably compelled to remain for the sake of economy, and in time she perhaps grows somewhat indiffer- ent to her surroundings.
 The fact that there are numbers of young working women who are daily applying for 10E1sri ir,g and a~l in i~111in nph h1 are absolutely wretched at many condi- tions that they are called upon to face, has been strongly emphasized recently in several instances of which l have been told. In one of these cases one young wo- man was comfortably located in board ing house, but the price of board was un- eXpectedly raised and exceeded her salary. She was, of course, compelled to immedi- ately seek other lodgings, and she applied at number ot boarding houses her means and that at the same time offered the homelke elements which appeal to men and women alike. She was compelled to abandon all hope of securing respectable lodging place where the price would be within the amount of her salary, and she was forced to accept surroundings that were at once wholly unsuited to her, and indeed were most objectionable in every way
 There is, too, the young woman whose salary Is proDabiy cut, and the lneVltaDie result follows in her effort to find reason- able lodgings in a respectable locality. Where she Is dependent alone upon her salary, which is all too frequently the case, she is compelled to consider seriously the problem of living, and where her salary Is small the associations that she may hope to form are subordinated to the question of her salary, and in the end, where she may once have been firm in her decision tc regard environments, she is compelled to accept conditions as she finds them
 But while the young woman whose salary enricheS the cofferS of her ldndlady is struggling to keep up appearances there is, on the other hand, the woman who is struggling to save something out of her meager salary, and who at once closes her eyes to all environments, knowing that if she hopes to make a little bank deposit at the end of the month she cannot consider any but the most economical lodging place to be found. She probably undertakes to do light housekeeping and economize to the extent that results in breaking down her health. For the woman who Is confined day after day in the great department stores and in the office buildings there Is an imperative need for conditions by which she may live in comparative ease and whereby the expense of living may be re- duced. That she Is brought into daily con- tact with all classes of people Is no req son that she should not consider seriously the best methods of living and of taking advantage of the economical features that have come to be recognized In the science of living. The fact that she has so little time to call her own emphasizes the need