The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1907-01-02
POOR OLD FOLKS OF LONDON
SADDEST OF ALL OF THE GREAT
CITY'S PITIFUL SIGHTS.
DereIict Women of Advanced Age
Arouse Compassion. How Some
of Them Exc Out Living.

Arouse compassion. now SOME
of Them Exc Out a Living.
No city in the world so conspicu-
ously presents the poverty of it's old
people as London There probably
are not more of them in proportion
to the entire population than other
cities contain, but they are more in
evidence.
''To me the saddest of all London
sights is it's derelict old women,
said a traveller recently. "They in
clude the street hawkers, dust-bin
rakers and the pathetic bundles or
unsavory rags that cover on the
steps of churches and silently appeal
for aims. 1t is estimated that in
the main or old section of the city
there are 500 or more old women OF
from 60 to 80 years who are abso-
lutely friendless and entirely de-
pendent on their own efforts for sup
port.
''These poor old creatures have,
so far as wage earning is concerned,
reached the lowest possible grade IN
the ranks of the workers. When
they get past working they begin to
beg. and that, with all it's risks, is
often a more remuneratlve employ
ment. Their different trades IN
clude washing, house-cleaning, shop
scrubbing and rag picking from the
dust-bins of the city.
I'm the seasons some go pea shell
ing or walnut picking at COVent Car
den. and, perhaps, are able to make
20 or % cents a day. To earn this
pittance the old women turn out OF
bed at 8 o'clock in the morning and
drag their feeble bodies across Lon
don to Covent Garden, there to SIT
and shell until 1870 or II. A clean
and thorough washer can get 80
cents a day-that is, for doing what
is known as a days wash. She
must be at her employers house by
7 o'clock in the morning, and i'm
mediately upon her arrival she is
faced by the accumulated dirty linen
of a family, which has been saved
up for a month.
Earn 80 Cents Day.
"To pay SO cents for washing
more than once a month would be
wicked waste, and as the linen when
it goes into the copper is the color
of your coat, sir, as one old woman
remarked, the amount of strenuous
labor entailed may be imagined. The
days washing finishes at in the
evening, but the washer is expected
to return next morning for couple
of hours to finish off the 'cOloreds
left over from the previous day.
"Of course, this makes it impossl-
BILE for her to get any further en-
ployment that day, so that the 90
cents a day really becomes only 70
cents when the matter is looked at
from the washers point of view.
Fifty cents in the top rate, but
when the casual washer is taken in
to do the washing she is frequently
engaged at from II to % cents a
day. Of course the washing is by
no means so we'll done by a casual
as by a regular woman.
about o'clock in the morning
other old women hobble down the
various streets of Whitechapel, ana
residents may be seen at their doors
calling to them as they pass: You
come clean my house? You clean
nv windows?' I want my shop
done; and in reply to the question
of how much?' the careful one VIII
offer 10 or IL cents, according to
the size of the place to be scrubbed,
whether four, six or eight rooms.
Here, again, the stronger woman
gets a bigger price than the de-
crepit old soul.
Poorest Paid of All.
picking over the dust-bins which
are placed on side city warehouses
is the lowest form Of occupation. An
Industrious woman can thus earn
from II to Is cents a day; but an
old woman who is reduced to this
employment can rarely carry enough
of the reuse (rags, cards, bits OF
string, etc. to bring in more than
eight cents day.
There is one other trade, the cos
termongering business. A cheerful
old dame of 70 years said that she
was at the market at O'Clock and
picked up a few green's and lettuces
cheap. These she sold to the poorer
folks on the south side of the river
at a profit. She said she always had
enough by her to pay for her bed
and a cup of tea. She had rarely
made more than 25 cents a day, and
FIRE .uently nothing.
Many of these old folks exist on
their 8 or 10 cents a day cents
for bed, 2 cents for tea and bread
and butter, cents for soup at night
and / cent for luxuries. The street
hawker seldom buys anything away
from the lodging house.
There are in various parts of
London common lodging houses for
women solely, but only in one or
two instances have charitable organi-
cations laid themselves out to special
ize for these poor old creatures