New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-11
HOMELESS WOMEN.
Many Willing to York, but There's
No Place for Them.

90 face old age and poverty is sufficiently pathetic
what OF the gentlewoman who at thirty-hve
aftv or perhaps at sixty, through some whIrligig
Of fate IS thrown on her own resources2
TIE middle aged woman who has always sup
-orted herself has equipment OF brain or hand.
or both that may eventually land her in a position,
n not in New York, in some city less overstocked
with labor. But the woman who has never had
"a work. who has always had her own home"
who has never learned 10 do anything Well yet at
middle llfo walks the streets Of New York vanly
stocking for job"-ah. what of her IN this roar
tng swlrllng maelstrom Of a city?
NOT EVEN TEMPORARY SHELTER.
DO you realize" said woman who administers
the charities Of one Of New Yorks mlllionaires,
s4hat there IS not in all New York place where a
reduced gentlewoman out OF funds go-not
home or an institution Of any sort that Will take
hsr ana tide her over her crisis TIL she can
get her feet again?
New York Is Loneycombed with charities. mill
ions are given away annually IN philanthropy,
mission workers overlap in the houses OF the very
poo- yet absolutely nothing is being done for the
poor lady between thrty-fve and sixty who is
obliged 10 earn her own bread.
"Now here" and she ran her eye down page
Of the Charities Directory" rs a home for IN
6igent fernales-admission fee, 500. How I ask
you IS q woman who expects TO be put out on the
street any day because she can't meet her rent
70 raise S-oo2
Here IS q home for destitute. respectable wom-
en'-adnission 500 and the candidates must be
EhA widows Of missionaries 11eE0 are CAIECN
homes innunerable; but this one only accepts
women Of sixty-1iye ard over. that charges s.
e week another has G waiting list Of three years.
another requires 500 admission. $50 for burial ex-
penses and $ for examining PHYSICIANS fee.
And so on and so on" She closed the book
,rnpatisntly You'd think a great deal was be-
ing done 10 meet this class Of distress. but It's all
On paper.
u heard OF a new home for women 10 be opened
IN the fall. Now I said TO myself. we shall
F-g-cr hat real
OF the reduced gentlewoman struggling or strand
ed n New York I wrote. and found that from
s2OJ 70 $50 down would be required, and applicants
must BE- sixty more.
"Of all classes Of needy ones n this big city,
reduced gentlewonen are tho most neglected"
TRUE CASES OF DISTRESS.
Then she went on to sketch the stories Of some
Of the poor things who drift to her IN their dis
tress seeking a home. friend, work. resources.
counsel. hOpe-everything.
There's the widow OF e university professor
she's making neckues in East Side factory for
s. e week. She IS hfty-three years old. Her hus-
band died; her family dropped OF one By one. At
first she tried 10 keep genteel playing accom-
paninents or reading TO invalids Slowly she sank
sank, TIL she earns her pittance in the buzz
and roar Of z factory. living on two meals a day,
her home q hall bedroom. four flights up in q
cheap tenement house.
And there's a nice Southern woman OF thirty
eight or forty who may be the street by now,
for when she came to see me the last time she
owed a weeks rent and had nothing to 90. She
writes most unusual verse has tried cataoguing,
literary work, clerical work, copying, addressing
but everything has proved 20 be temporary, ana
nov She has lost heart and IS on the verge OF
nervous prostration. This woman can't get up OF
ten miles a day. looking for positions. waiting
present letter. and 50 on. hope have clerical
position for her al club but II viii be only tenn
Test she G cried. I've got to look for JOB What
Will OF her?
FRAULEIN DROPS OUT.
we had woman Of sixty come TO Us last
spring She was one OF the most brilliant CONVEX
sationalists ever met. Her husband had had
good income they had lived much IN Europe had
never put by a cent and-gelL when I saw her
Ehe out Of clothes that her hips stood out
OF her old velvet gown. last remnant Of her
Now. any one hearing this would naturally
cope with q case like that@ we give the society
money year after year. What is it doing for wOr-
The Charity Organization Society could do moth
sgfas money and sent her back TO Europe, where
she had friends 70 help her We shipped her out
f5r her country 1t was the only thing we could do
Then there was Fr4ulein =. poor old Fraulein,
n her immaculate white ties, her old velvet
bonnet, speckIess and spotiess, her only headgeer
had come 10 America at nfty-hye on the death
% he last Of her patrons among the titled families
OF France, where she had taught her mother
tongue. The best she could do 10 get one
K,
ssnl-, Til she was stranded beyond description.
Little, shrinking old gentlewoman that she was,
with private pupils She Was Known at all the
setueInents al the relief organizations and every
BODY liked and respected her and everybody helped
her. KIND hearted, charming women listened to
her story and sent her from TO the other
Where IS Eraulein uOWY I don't
know. She's gone; nobody knows where-vanished;
believe. These poor things viii come TO you every
few weeks, sometimes for periods OF years, then
suddenly they will stop coming and you never see
or hear anything more Of them
one more instance TO show what plucky fight
some Of these women put up. Here is a girl who
has always wanted 20 be q kindergartner Wher-
had had no training Now she has Just sS
a two years course at the cost Of most heroic
inseated VIII ats ~ hoTt s1 ~ fZabetn street
Il rent free in keeping up the Insurance.
and there she did her own cooking and washing
father 90 '' '-''O % a i0ilniho memo OF a
LIVING ON RAGGED EDGE.
Now. at thirty-ave, she has her professional
equipment, and what Is she doing with It? The
best she get is position to substitute in a
uuant school. Her pay poor and precarious she
ekes out with 70 cents worth Of sewing week
Tor church charity and 81 20 from a church kin
cergarten class. She has q tidy little home in two
rooms IN a model tenement house. but she finds It
impossible 10 get any new clothes. and last night
she came TO and cried and said her employers
were finding fault with her because she was SO
The fault Of the reduced gentlewoman IS she
isn't interesting. II she were q young working
themselves TO help and save her: If she were an
lndagent pooT relief agencies would overlap in
ana give her summer holidays 10 boot. But people
results, and they would rather spend 500 on ten
girls 70 bring them out Of something than put It
woman who keeps her trials TO herself"
TELLS HOW c O s WORKS
Continuing. the charity worker quoted above
took up the way or two organizations handle
cases like these.