Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-02
London white Wing" Tells
How He Keeps Wolf Away,
Bread and Tea Principal
Food

LONDON, Aug. 3O.-It isn't al
ways easy for the American work
ingman to make ends meet.
But the lot of the British laborer
is far harder still.
Take Alfred r. MummefY, for in
stance. He is feeding, housing and
clothing himself, his wife and five
children on $13 a week.
And there are thousands even less
fortunate than he
For Mummery, employed by the
street cleaning department of the
Borough of Southwark, which is a
part of big London, gets more rath-
er than less than the ordinary un-
skilled worker. He's just an aV-
erage British workman.
But to get back to his living prob
lem in after the-War expensive Eng
land
Mummery lives in the Walworth
district His home is on the top
floor of a tenement building.
Lucky to Have Three Rooms
There are three rooms-two bed
rooms and a room the family uses
as a kitchen, dining room and sit
ting room. 1t is in the latter his
children study their lessons every
night after supper.
1--WE rented the flat before the
war;" Mummery explains. I'VE are
lucky to have it.
Under the law, the landlord can
not put us out, so long as we pay
our rent, and he can't get over 20
per cent more than we paid before
the war.
Most landlords nowadays, when
they get an unfinished flat vacat
ed, put few things in it, call it
furnished, and ask almost any price
they want. And they can put you
out almost any time they wish
Our landlord installed in our flat
coal stove and a&O a gas stove
with a penny-in-the-sl connection
for our gas supply. We pay him
nearly SO a week
I'm case ! get sick, the borough
will pay half my wages for six
months. If anybody in my family
takes i'll, we get doctors and medi-
cine under the national health act.
If we need dentists we get them free
through the London county council.
The nine shillings Qess than $2)
that | keep for myself, | use partly
in keeping up my dues in clubs that
pay benefits in case of illness or
death.
Now | suppose you wonder what
we eat. Wen, here's about the way
it runs:
"Breakfast-Tea bread and cleo
margarine.
moon dinner-Meat, green's or
ca bbaee DOtatOeS tea
Five o'clock tea-bread. oleomar-
garine, tea.
Eight o'clock supper - bread,
cheese, tea.
My wife uses three or four pounds
OF tea a week costing one shilling
aud four pence go cents a pound.
We have about eight or nine pounds
of sugar a week at IL pennies
about Is cents a pound.
When we have meat it is bacon,
or mutton or sometimes beef At one
/ shilling and four pence pound.
! We get greens al a penny ha'penny
| approximately three cents a pound
Potatoes don't cost us much We
get three pounds for tuppence about
! four cents) We need about five
loaves of bread a day. They are
small loaves costing 4 IL pence
| about nine cents each. And our
rgarine-running about three
or four pounds-cOSts us six pence
| about u cents a pound.
| Church Fetes Their AmusementS
! Clothing and shoes for himself
and his family, however, form Mum
mery's big problem. He tries to
meet it by paying some of his spend
ing money into boot and clothing
| clubs That costs him about u
cents a week.
When he has paid in certain
amount, he is entitled to boots or
| clothing equal to that amount.
But we make ours last a long
time he says. Il always can buy
| leather fairly cheap. and l repair
! the shoes of all the family. And
my wife is mighty clever at patch
| ing UP the clothes
/ Mummery, unlike many British
! workmen, doesn't spend his spare
time al the pubs" public houses
| or saloons. He neither drinks nor
smokes. And he doesn't go TO the
movies.
Mummery is religious He is a
regular churchgoer. And he and
his brood look 10 the church festi-
walls for all their amusement.
We go to the concerts and the
services at the Browning Settlement,
! which is near where we live. These
entertainments don't cost anything,
and they are pleasant.
They often have lemonade and
cake, and the cost is so small that
anybody can afford it if he has a
regular Job.
That. in brief IS how man is
supporting himself his wife and five