"THE INSOLUBLE PROBLEM OF THE DAY."
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE 'SPECTATOR.']
Sts,—Having read with interest the excellent article in the Spectator of May 16th, on the report of the Commission on the Housing of the Working-classes, it struck me that it might interest your numerous readers to know of an effort which is now being made by a few ladies to raise the tone of their poor and degraded fellow-women in the slums of South and East London.
These ladies leave their homes and comforts, and indeed all that to most women makes life bearable, and go into a voluntary exile, cut off to a large extent from all society, and give themselves wholly to ministering to the wants of the women living round them, trying to bring some ray of sunshine into their utterly dark and black lives. This method, which has been found most successful, is by establishing a club-house, in which the lady makes her home, and to which are attached a few respectable lodgings. Such an establishment is now being started in Tabard Street, one of the lowest slums in the Borough ; but many things are needed, such as furniture for four or five rooms, all the furniture for the coffee-bar, urns, a gas-stove, &c., and, above all things, a good piano, or money to buy these articles with. I may add that old or worn-out things are perfectly useless. I am certain that if any one with a grain of sympathy for human suffering in all its worst forms would take a walk up Tabard Street, and the courts and alleys lying round it, this appeal would not be made in vain.—I am, Sir, &c., (35 Sloane Street.BASIL LEVETT.
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