YOUNG WOMEN ' S HELP SOCIETY. — SOUTH LONDON
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[To THE EDITOR 01 THE " SPECTATOR:] Slit,—Once again I venture to bring before the notice of your readers our work among the women and girls of South London. Thanks in a great measure to the manner in which they responded to my last appeal, we have been enabled to do good work daring the past year.
Our club-room for girls is now open nearly every night from 7 till 10, and on Sundays from 3 o'clock. This shows a satis- factory increase against only three times a week last year. The number of names on our books has risen, the girls from seventy to one hundred, the married women from fifty to ninety, with a corresponding increase of average attendance, which in February, March, and April, was as high as seventy for girls alone,—poor factory-girls most of them Last year a sugar-plum manufactory was burnt down, and many of these girls were suddenly thrown out of work ; if we had not been able to let them have cheap dinners, from a halfpenny upwards, I believe they would have starved. But it is for the married women that I would specially ask help this year. Our work among the girls has, indeed, resulted in many signs of improvement, as a visit to the club any evening will show ; but they are very wild, and their spirits are at times almost overwhelming. The elder women have had their spirits crushed out of them, sometimes beaten out of them, and a great many of them have come to desire a better state of things for their girls. This is our great work daring the past year. The ladies who work down in the home have been enabled to draw the hearts of many of the mothers to them, and to show them that their lives have been lived on a very low level, and to teach them to work and pray for their younger sisters.
One other point I would mention, viz., Bank Holidays. In the poorer parts of London, hell seems to be let loose on Bank Holidays ; and what the Jubilee Day will be I cannot imagine. Hitherto we have been enabled, through the kindness of a few ladies personally interested in the work, to take the girls out of the neighbourhood for the day ; but we want help badly. If any one would invite the girls into the country, or even to spend the day with them in London, they would do a real charity.
Oar finances have to a certain extent kept pace with our work ; but the latter increases, and so must the former if we are to prosper. Our gas-bill is a heavy item, Li?, especially as we cook by gas, which is cleaner and more economical. Our rent and taxes come to £65, and yet these are the barest necessaries of life.
I must add that we work in connection with the Young Women's Help Society. I only wish I could say half I know of the wonderful work which that Society is doing. Any further information will be gladly given, and subscriptions received, by your obedient servant,
18 Chester Street, S.W., ,Tune Ott. BASIL LEVETT.
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