[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. " ]
Sta,—May I ask for a little space in which to describe the aim and object of the Young Women's Help Society, which, I think, may he able to furnish to the young women and girls of the Canal-boat population the help and Christian influence which " Antitheta," in your last week's issue, says they need ?
Originating in a class for factory girls, started in Colchester by Mrs. Philip Papillon, it has grown into a wide-spreading organisation for the help and benefit of all classes of young women and girls, married as well as single. The branches already formed include village girls, domestic servants, " bond- a.gers "—as the field workers in the North are called—young women in shops, warehouses, mills, factories, and salt works, and those engaged in tailoring and other work in their own homes. The work done in each branch is adapted to local needs ; each has its local committee and workers, and its local subscriptions, which are expended on itself, the merely nominal sum of 2s. 6d. yearly being alone required from each branch for the central fund. It is a religious society, working along the lines and with the help of the Church. It sets the highest standard of Christian endeavour before its members and associates in the rules of life, which it requires them to observe; but it also extends its influence and benefits to those whose only claim is that they need help.
Since last November 6th, branches, chiefly for different classes of factory girls, have been started in the south and east of London, providing, as funds and number of workers allow, secular, Bible, and sewing classes, penny bank, clothing and sick club, temperance society, library, reading and recreation-rooms, lodgings, and, in one case, two working-girls' homes. Workers for some of these branches are greatly needed. The society has just rented two adjoining houses in Ratcliffe ; one for a home for workers, where, it is hoped, ladies will go and live for a time and work amongst the girls ; the other,for a lodging-house for those girls who have no homes. Any one who knows anything of work is the East of London will recognise the need for both these homes. Only by good and cultivated women living amongst them can the girls sea what their own lives should be. Some of them have never heard of any higher pleasure than the public-house ; leaving work at eight or later, what wonder that they seek there the only society open to them ? Although helping in every way open to it, the Young Women's Help Society does not pauperise, rather it encourages the self-reliance and independence so often remarkable amongst these friendless girls. It also fosters a feeling of responsibility for others, urging its members to reach out helping hands to those less favoured by circumstances than themselves, who have had no chance, perhaps, of being better than they are.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
