The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-02
WHITE SLAVES IN LONDON.
AN ENFORCED BOA RIDING S YSI'EM
 UPON THE 4ITENDA NTS
1n the Big Mercantile Estahlishments- The Horrid .'Living-Em" system.

ho NvEFtu 'LiFInG-EMo system
 If any clerk in any big American dry
 goods store thinks he or she has hard
 lines, let such an one read of the con-
 dltlons prevailing in London and then
 weep tears of joy to think that the Eng
 lish "living-in'' system, as it is called,
 Is practically unknown in the land of the free. It may be wiped out here,
 too, after a while, for there is hard Hght going on against it, but at pres ent its horrors are unabated. There
 are exceptions to every rule, but the
 statements made here apply to so large
 number of the great London shops
 that they fairly represent this remark able system, taken as whole. By the
 'living-in" system the employees are lodged and fed together at the employ CTS expense, and are under his juris-
 diction night as we'll as day. The system has many advantages in theory
 but in practice--well, the reader can judge for himself.
 The grievances of the shop assistants who have to Tive in" begin with their sleeping rooms. Of all the big London shops there are not more than one or two where every assistant has bed to himself or herself. The general rule is two, and sometimes three, in one bed and eight or nine in every room, The rooms, too, are about as bare and unat- tractive as it is possible to make them. Iron bedsteads constitute the furniture. There are no chairs, no tables, no cup boards. Every assistant keeps his or har nIofbnc n a trunk l1nGpr The had and if inadvertently any article is left lying out it usually is confiscated. It is against the rules to have any pie lures photographs or ornaments on the walls, or any flowers either in pots or vases, The girls are forbidden to do any needleWork in their dormitories. Cold water and basins are supplied by the generous house, but the clerks have to get their soap and towels. If they break any article of furniture or crock cry they have it to pay for No assis- tant is allowed to visit any other as- siStant in his or her room; none is al- lowed to receive a friend from outside anywhere in the building. But the hardest rule of all is that the clerk can- not choose his bedfellow or fellows, but is forced to bunk in" wherever he is put, and if his bedmates be of bubu- lous proclivities and come home drunk, or happen to have any disease, why, so much the worse for him.
 This unbreakable rule is the same in the girls department as in the mems. There Is a sitting-room for the girls and a snoking-room for the men, but they are both alays crowded to suffo- cation, and the assistant who would like to read book or write letter has no chance at all. It is one of the bitter est cries of what its victims have dubbed '"The White Slavery" that there is no such thing as privacy-that one is never alone. Again, every assistant half suspects every other of being one of the firms staff of unknown spies, and they, distrust each other according ly. Everybody must be out of the liv- ing rooms by eight o'clock in the morn- ing and in again by eleven at night-by | twelve on Sundays. The living rooms are generally in building in a side | street near the shop, and at the street | door there is Cerberus who lets in the young men and women as they arrive, up to the forbidden hour, when the door
  in getting back it's ten to one she will | have to walk the streets all night unless ] she can find friends to put her up" Just fifteen minutes after the closing hous the gas goes out everywhere, and | any one who has a light later than that l time is discharged Not even a candle is allowed In most houses 1t Is rule that all rooms shall be unoccupied on Sunday, and most of the assistants are glad to live up to 1t, but sometimes when the seventh day happens to be rainy, it comes hard. The apron strings' policy, as the assistants call it, enters into everything. If one of them wants to be out all night he has to have a pass, and if he neglects to get one he is fined heavily for the first two omis- < sions and discharged for the third The house that allows it's help to carry 1atchkeys has an unsavory reputation, and gets credit of doing this only to en- able the girls to elze out their meager incomes.
 No marriage is tolerated where "liv- ing-in" obtains If the firm gets wind of an affection between a man and a girl one of the two is promptly dis charged Such houses will not employ a married man if they know it, but they are outwitted by men { who see their better halves only from to Monday. There was an instance of a young fellow who de- ceived his employers in this way for { six years When discovered, although { he had given faithful service for all that time, he was discharged instantly. It ( Is another hard and fast rule that none l of the male employees of these shops [ may vote. ( The dining-room is usually dark | me in the cellar, and not invariably I Tree from cockroaches, known in Eng C and as black beetles The meals are q served on long oilcloth- covered tables, pare of anything beyond the essential V implements of gastronomic warfare te As rule the food is indifferent, for the t proprietor is constantly dissatisfied | with the chefs efforts in the way of a economy, and the bill of fare hardly = yer consists of more than three sta lies. The damp room is lighted with X laring gas-lghtE. The stale bread nncid "hutterine" a pallid chickOrv "