TEA-SHOP WAITRESSES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have been reading in the Daily Herald, during the past few days, lurid revelations—such they profess to be— of the treatment of waitresses in London teashops. I read that these unhappy slaves are underpaid and overworked, and that, however ill they may be, they are sometimes harried by the superintendents till they drop down in a faint. I suspect that all this is gross exaggeration, but if every word of it is true the solution is perfectly simple. Much the same kind of work is waiting to be done for good pay and under reasonable conditions in hundreds of thousands of English homes. A generation ago domestic servants were often kept much too long on the stretch, and inconsiderate mistresses were by no means unknown, but the inconsiderate mistress hardly counts to-day if only because in self-defence she must treat her servants differently or have none. There are many thousands of mistresses waiting in vain to get the help they want. They are willing to give plenty of considera- tion in return for consideration. The wages are much higher than they have ever been ; a very considerable amount of " off " time is allowed ; the food and the surroundings are good, and the work, properly regarded, is as important work as any woman could do. The mistresses who wait in vain for girls who will not merely " oblige " but be obliging would almost fall on the necks of those who were willing to accept the wages and do fairly what is wanted. What have the waitresses got to say ? What the Daily Herald 1—I am,
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