The independent., 1907-03-14

ton society does to refined woman.
First, she sits among the chronic beg
gars of the city waiting for her case
to be probed. Then, If homeless, she
is sent to one of the society's boarding
houses, where she sleeps and eats
with the foulest sort of women while
being investigated Investigation
consists in sending some young woman
around to all the addresses the young
woman has given and hearing what
anyone wishes to say about her. MOI
likely. considering her plight, she has
no very near relatives left, so 1t is gen.
orally some remote relative, who, per-
haps, never liked her or her family,
and whose contributions to the inves-
tigation will be that Jane had nasty
temper when she was a girl or THAI
she always said Jane would go to the
poorhouse if she bought such expen-
sive stockings When it has found out
all that can be said about her 1t begins
to act, but all the women | ever knew
ran away before the investigation was
finished.
"A refined woman of forty years APP
piled to me who had been locked out df
her room and her trunk put out in the
hall by the janitor because she owed
three weeks rent. / took her to the
young womens Christian associa-
tion. All it could do for her was to
take her in for the night, give her
three meals the next day, take her
name and try to find her work-and
that to homeless woman who had
been walking the streets three weeks
looking for a job!
Well Dressed, or No 10
TT is not so much lack of force that
brings women to this pass as mis-
placed energy They have never been
trained to do anything, and here they
are launched on sea OF specialists.
They cannot ring peoples bells and
tell their story without references;
they cannot get job even as nurse or
chambermaid. Where are they to get
their references? From their rich
friends at home, who talk over their
downfall at teas and sewing circles?
Who wants to employ an underfed,
out of elbows woman of forty-five
years who sits around on the benches
of an employment office in a cockled,
faded skirt, a soiled shirtWaist and
battered hat and tells you she has no
references because she never worked
anywhere before? To get position 1t
is absolutely necessary to be pretty
we'll dressed. Clothes count for more
in New York than in any city in the
world"
AS to the remedy suggested by Mrs.
Gabrielle Stewart Mulliner in The Sun
day Tribune a few weeks ago, that In
domestic service the reduced gentle
woman should find her refuge, the
speaker said: 1T is no use theCrizing.
There is a social stigma about domes-
tic labor. The woman who earns her
living by cooking can never be re-
ceived as a social equal-she has os-
tracised herself Is that solution?
Il want some man to look at things
as they are and realize the fearful ex-
tremities these women are in. If some
home could be built where they could
stay for a month when they were out
of work and money which would also
be an employment bureau for a refined
class of labor it would save a world of
tragedy II | had the tongue and the
pen | would stop the rich people of
New York from helping the pictur-
esque lazzaroni any more or squan-
dering their sympathy and their SEN
timent on the attractive working girl.
They should not shut their cheap ho-
tells to women over thirty-five years
old, as the Trowmart Inn is doing.
The reduced gentlewoman is the de-
serving poor"