Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-01-19
SHAME OF GLASGOW.
Has More Women Topsrs Than
London, Paris or New York.
One of the Worlds Most Progressive
Cities Yet Burdened with the
Curse of Dr~ink-SOme of
the Sights.

~ 49, 0tOkSh ~ - -
prides itself on the progress it has
made in almost every kind Of munich
pal reform.
1t is no exaggeration, says a special
correspondence of the st. Louis Globe
Democrat, to say that an American
walking in the evening through Glas-
COWS poorer quarter-through Salt
Market street, Bridge Gate, or High
street-soon begins to ask himself il
there can be any sober women in that
part of the city. Here, in the cours
Of an hour, one may see nearly q
thousand ONE pass in various stages
of intoxication, nearly all of them look
ing either for a saloon or a pawnshoI
which, by the way, are usually close
together.
When once a woman begins to drink
here she is done for" is a quotation
in this Scotch city, and one believes il
true after an evening in the slums
Old gray-headed women, with weak
dissipate6 faces and torn rags fol
scanty covering, reel through the
streets begging coppers with which tc
buy more drinks. Young men, them
selves the worse for liquor, exclaim:
"Give the barefooted old grannies } 6
penny-we hope we'll never come tC
that" The middle-aged topers are
the coarsest of all, their hair matted in
tawny snarls, dresses half-fastened
and their speech too foul for repeti-
ton. Some of the worst characters APP
pear in striped black and white fan
mel petticoats, and these women are
called the "Petticoaters."
One "~Petticoater" was on an unusu-
ally high spree on the Saturday night
the writer went through the Bridget"
as Bridge Gate street is called. Mad
with drink, this fighting woman rushed
home to her attic, put out her children.
and with a Ratchet smashed the furni-
ture and even tore to pieces the chill
dren's clothes. The Oldest boy, II.
went to the police, but in the meantime
the Infatuated mother had nailed UP
the door and defied them to enter.
"Petticoater" had broken up her home,
destroyed the household treasures, and
cast her children into the street.
The young women for the most part
YEA coarse shawls and with great
dizziness they wind them first about
their babies and then about themselves.
Every young Woman seems to be a
mother, but they pay scant attention
to the little ones, about the only pro-
lection a baby gets being the support
from the shawl. l have seen girls OF
II and 13 so intoxicated that they
could not walk straight. Even the
little girls of six and seven c~ongregate
outside the saloons waiting for a peep
in, or hoping that mother" will let
them have a "drap." The little waits
are barefooted and half-naked. The
droop in the corner of the mouth oil
many of these little people indicates
plainly the depression caused by cruel
ty and neglect, together with i'll health
and hunger. Little slum angels born
with an appetite for drink, they have
a hard time ahead of them, if they
grow to womanhood.
The cause of the degradation is the
wretched home life, laziness and in
temperance. Thirty thousand families
in Glasgow live in one-roomed flats.
Sometimes, indeed, six or seven fam
lilies live in one long room, with only
a chalk mark or piece of rope divid-
ing the rented space. Huddled to-
gether in such masses-men, women
and children-only the grossest immor-
ality can result. Shelter houses are
now being built rapidly, however,
where men may find a comfortable
nights lodging for a pittance.
About these shelters on Saturday
nights men are gathered by the score,
while women and children stand near
by begging their husbands for coppers.
There are a few shelters for women
also, where for eight cents in Amer
lean money a woman may stay over
night, and have a place to cook her
own tea and breakfast. But these
shelters do not take the place of a
home, for no provision is made for the
children. A little one may sleep with
the mother till 1t is five years old, but
the beds are narrow like the hunks of
a steamer, and generally there are half
a dozen youngsters. The shelters, how
ever, are an improvement over the ten
ements, and in them people are
obliged to live %decently.
A large home has been established
for married men with children who
have drunken wives. The wee kid
dies" as the Scotch express it, are
taken care of at an absurdly small sum,
and the father is with them at night.
This picture of sin and shame would
be untrue to life did it not contain
bright patches here and there.
Besides these shelters and institutions,
there are pleasant parks in the very
heart of the slums, a fine peoples pal
ace and art gallery, and opportunity
FOR every woman who will try to live
clean. One home took in a young
woman that Saturday night who is
only 80, and has been in prison "a
-. H1l1 rood @1-----.