[125] It is not sufficient to provide a refuge, there should be accommodation not charitable, not for _rescue_ but for _prevention_, as working women require to be free to come and go.
[129] A woman has, during the day, no access to a private room, where search is possible, and the washing places are in the common kitchen usually, or at any rate not private. Few lodging-houses have stoving apparatus, it is too costly.
[131] The contrast between the sanitary precautions of the tramp ward, and the absence of common sanitation in the common lodging-house is startling.
[133] These rooms, as they exist at present, are a grave social danger. They also should be inspected and under municipal control See as to Berlin arrangements, p. 21. These rooms are largely used for prostitution. All places used as temporary dwelling places need most careful and rigid supervision. Coroner's inquests often reveal sad dangers to child-life, in such "holes and corners" as are now let at exorbitant rents. A man can let _each room_ at a price that may cover the house rent. 8_d_. per night is a usual charge in the north. Light and fire to be found. See Appendix VIII.
I have been deterred from specimening women's lodgings in London by this difficulty--that one could not be sure of emerging in a fit condition to be received into the house of respectable friends.
Being anxious, however, to find out something about them, previous to speaking at a public meeting, at about 8 P.M. one evening, I started from near one of the principal stations, with my son to shadow me. He was dressed as a working man, and I as a woman of the vagrant class, fairly decent. I was supposed to have arrived in London and to be seeking a night's shelter. I crossed the street to enquire of an old applewoman where a bed was to be had. Her answer was not very encouraging. "There is a lodging-house for women at ---- Street, but it's a bad place. I wouldn't advise you to go there if you are respectable. There is another in ---- Street, it's a charity place." We determined to try to find both. We found the bad one with difficulty, and were again warned by a neighbour. So I did not venture there. Some low streets near appeared to be frequented by doubtful characters. We sought the "charity place." It was respectable, but, for one who was an investigator, not desirable. I might have tried it, but found on enquiry the price was above my purse, 8_d_. a night! Hardly a "charity," therefore, though doubtless a boon to more wealthy women.