[-131-]
CHAPTER XI.
REGISTRY OFFICES.
WE are indebted to Mr. Coote, Secretary of the
National Vigilance Association, for the information we are able to give on the
subject of Registry Offices. Mr. Coote has throughout our inquiry done all that
he can to assist our Commissioners. In this he has acted very differently to
some of the religious and philanthropic societies and associations with which
our Commissioners have come in contact. "What is the use of writing on such
subjects?" they were asked again and again. Sometimes doors were slammed in
their faces, sometimes they were kept waiting for hours, sometimes it was said
"the press is so conceited."
The National Vigilance Association has removed to 267, Strand,
and there its secretary may be found at work all day, and sometimes all night.
Servants' Registry Offices, he says, may be divided into three classes: 1. Those
which take [-132-] fees from both servant and
mistress ; 2. Free registries, where the mistress pays the fee and the servant
pays nothing, or something after she has entered into the situation; 3.
Registries for foreign servants. At many of these registries girls are provided
with lodgings until they obtain situations, and here they sleep five or six in a
room, two or three in a bed, for sixpence a night.
Of course some of these registries are respectable places,
but many are very pernicious, and not a few are wholly bad. Registries are
commercially difficult. If the proprietor is anxious to safeguard servants, his
business generally comes to nothing. Those registries which are conducted on the
merchandise principle, where the interest of the proprietor begins and ends with
the fee, arid girls are bundled off to situations without inquiries as to where
they are going, or who is to be their mistress, will bring in money ; but
registries conducted on philanthropic principles seldom pay, and certainly do
not make much profit.
Girls cannot be too often warned against the advertisements
of registries which offer situations with high wages and little work. These are
generally held by scamps, who advertise freely to attract customers, and then
clear off, sometimes [-133-] to begin again in a
new place, with a new name. One such man, who had previously been a
police-detective, carried on a notorious business for swindling servants. His
office was closed by the police. He changed his name and began again. He even
went to the Vigilance Association, and offered to go on their committee, saying
that his experience as a detective would be useful to the Association. One of
his tricks was to keep a dozen good-looking girls on the premises to see
mistresses. An engagement with one of these girls was made in his office by the
mistress, and the fee was paid. But the girl did not enter the situation. Some
excuse was made, and when the mistress reclaimed the fee, he said it was not his
fault that the girl would not keep to the engagement. Many such scamps start
registry offices for servants ; in fact, the Vigilance Society has a book filled
in with the names of "suspected" registries. These cannot be
published, but we shall give at the close of this article the names of the
safest and the best metropolitan registries. From "suspected
registries" girls are often sent into bad houses. Dozens of complaints have
been brought to the Vigilance Association about situations entered into by girls
in ignorance of the character of the mistress. One case the Association has
taken up, that of a girl who was charged [-134-] by
her mistress with stealing a pair of boots. It was discovered that the girl was
innocent, and that the charge had been brought to punish her because she would
not copy the evil habits of her mistress. Servants should be on their guard
against entering any house connected with a registry office unless they have
taken pains to know the character of the place. Sometimes the proprietors of
such houses run up bills the servants cannot pay, and then turn them out late at
night to shift for themselves, detaining their boxes. The greatest number of
frauds take place in foreign registries. Some of these are carried on by
foreigners, and some by English people. They bring girls over from the
Continent, or send English girls to European cities. Some have agents in
Germany, whose business it is to advertise English situations in glowing colours,
promising at the same time high wages and passage money. When girls apply to the
agents they are told that an agreement must be signed, and then they can go at
once to England. Their boxes are sent by a different route, arriving in London
before the girls themselves. These boxes contain all their worldly goods,
sometimes clothes to the amount of £15 and £20. When the girls reach
the London registries, the proprietor asks for their passage-money, and if [-135-]
they wish to go away, saying that according to the agreement there is
nothing to pay for the journey, he takes advantage of the fact that they cannot
speak English. Eighty per cent, of the girls give in to him, and enter the house
attached to the registry. He then runs them up a bill for board and lodging. Bit
by bit the girls sell all their clothing, and then in despair they add to the
large number of foreign prostitutes.
The following case was taken into court by Mr. Coote, and the
plaintiff received £15 damages.
Maria Geiger, native of Stuttgart, Germany, brought an action
against the keeper of a registry office and home for servants, for the delivery
up of her box of wearing apparel, and for damages for detaining the same, and
for breach of contract in refusing to obtain her a situation.
Plaintiff said, "Before coming to England I lived with
my father and mother at Stuttgart, and while there saw an advertisement in a
Stuttgart paper for German girls to go to England for domestic situations. I
went to the office advertised, and saw Pfeiffer (who was admitted to be the
defendant's agent). He told me to send my box on to England, and gave me the
defendant's address to put on it. He also gave me a card with the defendants
name and address on it, on [-136-] which he was
described as 'Late of the Criminal Investigation Department, Great Scotland Yard,
S.W., and also Official Interpreter of the Criminal Police, 2, Official
Law Courts, London.' Pfeiffer told me I could have a place from defendant if I
came to England. He told me to send my box over in advance, but that I should
not have to pay for it. He advanced me forty marks for my journey. I went to the
defendant's house the day after I came to London, but he was out. The next day I
saw him, and he asked me if I was Maria Geiger, and whether I had my
certificates. He spoke to me in a rude manner, and said he would not give me a
place. I said again, 'Do give me a place.' He said, 'No, I won't;' and then asked
me to refund him 50s. He fixed the sum of 10s. for the carriage
of my box, and 40s. for my journey. He has not found me a place. I was
without a place some weeks, when I got one from Gordon House (a German Home). I
am not paid any money in my place; I only accepted it because I had no clothing
or money. I saw my box at defendant's house. It is worth from £15 to £20. I have spent £5 for board and lodging, and have borrowed
£1 to buy
clothing."
Cross-examined by Mr. Browning, she said: "I arrived in
London Tuesday, 26th October. The reason I did not go straight to defendant was [-137-]
because I was warned on board the steamer that many girls
were decoyed to London and got into bad places. A gentleman on board the steamer
advised me to stay at the Essex Hotel, Shoreditch, while I made inquiries. He
came the next day, and took me to the defendant's. He did so again the following
day. On the second day the defendant called me all sorts of bad names, and used
bad language. I told him I was afraid, and therefore did not go straight to him.
He said, 'I will send you back at once ; as to the box, you can pledge your watch
and earrings to pay.' I then went straight to the German Consulate, where I was
given the address of the German Home and the National Vigilance Association."
With regard to foreign situations, an English mother writes
as follows to Mr. Coote:-
"Some weeks back a young friend of mine, who is an
orphan, came to stay at my house while seeking a situation. She answered an
advertisement inserted by a foreign agency office, the manager of which, after
some correspondence, instructed her to apply for a situation at Vienna,
requesting her to forward her photograph. She did so, and later on received a
note telling her she was engaged to go to Vienna, and must call at the office
the Monday following. As she was [-138-] an inexperienced country girl, I thought it better to go with
her, and found, to my surprise, that she was expected to travel on the following
Saturday, without giving references and knowing the address of the lady to whom
she was going, the business having been entirely arranged between the agent
abroad and the agent here. She was instructed as to her journey, and was told to
have her boxes addressed with the name of the foreign agent. Two other girls
were to travel with her to the same destination. I set inquiries on foot, which
resulted in the girls being saved from a fate worse than death, and I want
through you to impress upon all girls to accept no situation abroad through any
agency whatever, however apparently straightforward its business transactions
may be, unless they have name and address of the lady abroad who engages them,
with references to the English Consul and the Chaplain of the Embassy, and time
to verify such references."
The following is a list of trustworthy metropolitan
registries for servants:-
WEST-Miss Bath, 69 Norfolk Terrace, Notting Hill ;
Dudley Stuart Registry, 8, Star Street, Edgware Road; Mrs. Faircloth, 106,
Regent Street ; The Misses Faithful, 136, Regent Street Female Servants' Home
Society, 205, Great Port-[-139-]land Place; Female Servants' Home Society, 21,
Nutford Place, Edgware Road ; M. Fitch, 296, King Street West, Hammersmith ; Mrs. Foley
(Roman Catholic), 26, King Street, Portman Square; Mrs. Hay, 52, Regent Street; Mrs.
Heeld, 38, Westbourne Grove, Bayswater ; Miss Hoyt (Roman Catholic), 47, South Street, Park Lane;
Mrs. Hunt, 32, Duke Street, Manchester Square; Miss Maulden, 153, Church Street, Paddington
Green ; Mrs. Norman, 77, Great Portland Street; Mrs. Perry, 9, George Street, Portman Square;
Servants' Registry, Soho Bazaar, 77, Oxford Street ; Soho Club and Home, 59, Greek Street,
Soho Square.
S.W.-Mrs. Cooke, 64, Fulham Road; Elm Park Registry, 319, Fulham Road; Miss Freeman,
162, Warwick Street; Mrs. Hawley, 159, Sloane Street ; Mrs. Holton, 2, Dartrey Road, King's
Road ; Mrs. Lord, 12, Gloucester Road, South Kensington ; Miss Lovejoy,
32, Sydney Street, Chelsea; Working Women's Home and Registry, 53, Horseferry Road, Westminster ; Mrs. Turner,
361, Clapham Road; Mrs. Curtis, 322A, Brixton Road.
W.C.-Foreign Women Servants' Institute, 36, Hart Street, Bloomsbury; Miss
M. M. Moran, 29, Queen Square, Bloomsbury.
N.W.-Mrs. George, 42, Camden Road.
[-140-] NORTH.-Mrs. Hunter, 517, Holloway Road
Mrs. Goddard, 228, Liverpool Road, Islington; Miss Franks, 252, Upper Street, Highbury; Mrs.
Smith, 1 38, Upper Street, Islington.
EAST.-Mrs. Burd, 386, Commercial Road Mrs. Winter, 96, Mile
End Road.
Also the offices connected with M.A.B.Y.S. (Metropolitan
Association for Befriending Young Servants); Young Women's Christian
Association, and Girls' Friendly Society.