The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-25


city, knew of no place to stay and had
only vague idea of how and where
employment might be obtained. Many
of these girls become the easy victims
of the human sharks that wait for
their prey at the gates Of the railway
station. Hack drivers in the employ
of evil resorts are, in many instances,
the agents of Satan to carry these de-
fenceless victims to the dens of in
fanny, where no virtue or purity may
survive. There certainly should be
some supervision over the hack driv-
ers at the different railway stations,
since daily evidence proves that many
of them are paid purveyors for infa-
nous resorts.
In Minneapolis the Y. W. G. A. en-
ploys two women at the depots whose
duty it is to meet the trains and direct
unprotected girls to proper boarding
places The Pillsbury Boarding Home
will give girls good rooms and board
for $3.50 a week; but it is full to
overaowing and has long waiting
list
In ST. Paul there is only one board
ing home conducted by some mission
airy society and known as the Young
Women's Friendly Association. This
is an old-fashioned house with no sit
ting room, no baths and no lights in
the girls rooms. AS far as the writer
knows there is no home or boarding
house under Catholic auspices either
in st. Paul or Minneapolis for unpro-
tected Catholic girls coming into the
cities.
What about the work the average
girl from the country can do? The
majority of these girls do not want
to do house work and are too mex
perienced to get work in factory.
They usually obtain employment as
chambermaids or mattresses in cheap
hotels or restaurants. Many of them,
instead of applying to the State Free
Employment Bureau, go to private
employment agencies where they are
often swindled out of their little
money. A case came to my inform
ants notice few days ago which
shows how INSCRIPTIONS some of these
agencies are. A girl fresh from the
country went to one of them and after
paying dollar was given place as
chambermaid at a lodging house. After
spending day in this situation she
discovered that it was very low place
and she went back to the employment
Office, telling the manager that she
could not remain there. He told her
that, if she would pay him another
dollar, he would secure her good
place. This she did, and was directed
to restaurant of very much the same
character as the lodging house. OF
course she soon found that she could
not keep this place and she again went
| to the employment Office where she
was mulcted of another dollar for a
third place. She paid her third and
| last dollar but did not secure an
other decent situation; and was finally
compelled to apply to the Free En-.
ployment Bureau for work Cases like
this or worse could be enumerated by
the score.
| q
taurant she cannot possibly earn more
than six dollars in the beginning and
while she gets her meals at her place
of employment, she has her room
rent to pay and can save little or moth
ing out of her miserable weekly wages
In the factories, inexperienced girls
can earn very little, and for the first
year their average weekly wage is lit
tie more than five dollars. These girls
say they can live on about three dol
lars a week. This is counting $1.5C
for rent of room, and $3.50 for food
Of course all the girls cook their own
meals. Living on $3.50 per week
means as one of the girls remarked
that they must stcut out meat and
potatoes Their lunches generally
consist of bread, butter and cheese
There is very little left for clothing
! and the girls must resort to the IDOL
lar down and a dollar week houses.
They often pay twice what the gar
ment is worth and most of the time
are paying for their clothing lone
after it has been discarded In case oil
sickness, their condition becomes truly
deplorable for needing proper nurs
ing and medical care and without any
resources they soon become public
charges.
/ In the laundries the weekly wage is
very little higher than in the restau
rants and ordinarily not so high as
in the factories and the work is very
much harder. The worst moral condi
lions exist in the cheap restaurants
and laundries. The girls are so de
Il pendent on their positions that it il
difficult for them to expose these i'm
moral conditions without furnishing
their own regulations and losing theil
positions. The proprietOrs of thu
cheap restaurants urge the girls tt
encourage the attentions of men pat
rons in order to attract more lucra
tive trade. 1t is very easy for thes'
girls, in fact it is only one step to :
!, bad life, and many of them sooner O
L.,