Little Laborers of New York City -- C.L. Brace

ical point of view, and shows that the supply of skilled machine labor is by no means equal to the demand. That such wages can be earned by utterly destitute girls, after so short a training, is one of the most hopeful signs which have ever appeared here with reference to the female working class. In this machine school, during the year, over a thousand girls are trained.

Another interesting experiment in this house is the opening of a “training school for servants.” Its benevolent managers have taken pity on our housekeepers. They have remembered the troubles which every family undergoes from awkward and ignorant domestic service; the bad and unhealthy cookery, the slovenly house-cleaning, the ill-made beds, the poorly washed garments, and all the inflictions which we suffer daily from a class of workers who do not understand their business. An experiment is being made to remedy this evil by training a few young girls in this house as thorough and skillful servants. They are taught to cook a simple and nourishing breakfast in the morning; they then receive lessons in bed-making; they are next drilled in sweeping and scrubbing. They are instructed how to prepare a plain and well-cooked dinner, and a supper which a Christian may eat. On some days they are trained in laundry-work, on the sewing-machine, and in hand-sewing. The idea is an excellent one, and the experiment may result in producing a class, which is the greatest necessity in this country, of thorough-trained servants. The practical difficulty, however, will be that every housekeeper of the land is at the head of a "domestic training school," which will more than compete with this, as the lady not only trains the girl, but pays her board and wages for being trained.

Besides this lodging-house are four other lodging-houses, for newsboys, boot-blacks, and other street lads. The best known of these is the Newsboys' Lodging-House, No. 49 Park Place, the first ever opened in any country, founded in 1854. During nineteen years it has sheltered 91,426 different boys, restored 7196 lost and missing ones to friends, provided 7108 with homes, furnished 576,493 lodgings, and 426,580 meals. The entire expense of all this, including rent, furniture, repairs, etc., has been $124,223 29, of which amount the boys have contributed $32,80 96, leaving the actual expense, over and above receipts from boys, $91,416 33, being only about $1 for each boy.