The Washington herald., 1913-01-07
CornmeaI GriddIe Cakes.
BRIGHTER HOME LIFE
FOR WORKING GIRLS
Opportunity to Live Wholesomely and
and Comfortably Promised.
BY FRANCES sHAFFER.

Next October a new home will be in
readiness for working girls In New York.
It is the outgrowth of one already estab-
lished by Mrs Frederick Vanderbilt. and
the new quarters will have room for 100
girls
The rooms will vary in price from $3.50
to $500 a week, including board. Some
will be single, others double; but all
will be cared for by maids On each
floor there will be a sitting room or a
sewing room, and the girls will have
free Use of sewing machines, in case
they care to do their own dressmaking.
The cellar is TO be equipped with big.
well-appointed laundry, with modern ap-
pliances for dispensing with much of the
old-time hand labor; and there girls
whose modest earnings do not warrant
any needless expenditures can do their
own laundry work, in part or entirely.
For social life there is a parlor, which
also may be called a music room. IL one
will stretch her imagination a bit, for
there Is to be a piano and other devices
to make the home attractive and to give
the girls an opportunity to spend the
evenings in song or other recreation IL
they like.
Food to He Inviting.
The home cannot be called really self
III,
where all the girls will eat together.
there need be no sense of obligation. for
that part of the enterprise will pay for
itself. The plan is to make the food
plain but inviting, and the room itself
cozy and as pretty aslmay be.
There are to be no burdensome restric-
tions, and as few regulations as posi-
bic. There will be no bars upon callers
except In the general way that prevails
In all well-regulated homes And that
Is one of the things that will count. for
the irksome rulings that sometimes are
part of enterprises aimed to provide
homes for self-supporting girls are suffi-
cient to drive them away, in spite of the
other advantages. For liberty is mighty
sweet. whether one happens to have a
lot Of money at her command or Just a
even $50 for room and board leaves
small enough wherewithal for other
necessities
Whether II is Mrs Vanderbilt or
some one else who aims to place the op-
portunity to live wholesomely and COM
fortably within the reach of girls whose
resources are very meager indeed, the
work VIII yield nightly in results And
1t shows that she and the others like
her have full appreciation of one of the
problems of the working gfrl-the girl
without a home.
Hard TO Understand.
1t is hard to understand how some Of
them manage to keep going on the slen-
DER wage they earn Harder still to COM
prehend how they keep in tune with life
when their hours away from work must
De spent In the depressing atmosphere
that prevails In the cheap boarding
houses which some girls must call homes
II Is not easy to work all day at some
OF the labor that girls perform and then
go home to little back room, without
a note Of brightness in 1t; yet the aver
age girl who works in the big cities, IL
she boards, must go where board isl
cheap.
And the average cheap boarding-housel
Is not place where attractions thrive.
In order to understand how life runs
among girls who are without the shelter
Of good home, girls who do not earn
enough to make ends meet, 1t is well to
read some of the books written by folk
who get their stories at first hand.
We are told that about is per cent of
the working women of Chicago are girls
without home ties. And in her work in |
connection with Hull House Jane Adams |
has learned the sorry ms and outs in |
the lives of many of these girls.
Stories Very Revealing.
Her experience and the information
she has gathered through association
with the girls in their periods of work |
and their harder times when work is |
dull make US understand the exceeding |
need of homes where true note pre-
walls, and where the rate Is low enough 4
to meet painfully modest prrse. Some |
OF the stories she tells are very reveal
Ing. and they, and others of their kind |
stand back of the homes that are es-
tablished for working girls
II would be well IL these homes might |
be self-supporting, but how can they be
when the weekly wage OF these girls is
said to average about six dollars?
IT is fortunate that there are the big
minded and great-hearted men and wo-
men who appreciate that economic con-
iftions are pretty hard upon women who
must work in some of the labor fields.
They are always hard when the wage
IS so far down that it is question
how to live.