Messrs. Lewis and Allenby, Regent Street, employ seventy ladies in the house, twenty-four in the show-rooms, and the rest in the workrooms. They take neither apprentices nor improvers, and all the young ladies who apply to them must previously have received a thorough training. Hours of work are from 8.30 until 6.30, Saturdays until 2. They have three weeks' holiday after the London season. Their house has lately been rebuilt, and the rooms are everything that can be desired; two young ladies usually share a bed-room. A piano, and house library, besides a subscription to Mudie's, are provided for the use of the young people.
The salaries range from £25 to £200 per annum. A doctor calls every day to see any one who may be ill, and anything he orders is immediately provided at the expense of the firm.
Messrs. Marshall and Snelgrove, Oxford Street and Vere Street, employ seventy ladies in their show-rooms. The hours of work are from 8.30 until 6.30 in the winter, or 7 in the summer; Saturdays until 2. Sixteen days' holidays are allowed after the season. No apprentices are received, and the salaries vary from £20 to £150 a year. About ninety or a hundred girls are also employed in their work-rooms, at salaries of from £15 to £100 a year.
Messrs. Venables, High Street, Whitechapel, a very old-established firm, employ twenty-five in the house, at salaries of from £20 to £200 per annum. The hours of work are from 9 till 7 in winter, until 7.30 or 8 in summer, Saturdays until 3 o'clock. A fortnight's holiday is given every year. Apprentices are taken for two or three years at a small premium, which is usually returned as a bonus for good conduct. There is a bagatelle and a billiard table, a piano, and a library of 2,000 volumes, for the use of the employés. Not more than four girls are ever expected to share the same room.
Messrs. Spencer, Turner, and Boldero, Lisson Grove, employ seventy ladies. The working hours are from 8.30 until 7, and they have a fortnight or three weeks' holiday in the year. The salaries are from £5 to £100 a year. Apprentices are received for two years without a premium, and their friends are only required to provide them with clothes. In one large room five young ladies sleep, but as a rule there are not more than three or four in a room.
Only the young ladies in the show-rooms are allowed to sit down; it would interfere too much with business if those behind the counters were provided with seats. I asked two of them if they found the continual standing affect their health; they said girls for the first month found it very trying, but after that they become used to it, and, excepting in very hot weather, did not mind it at all. Cases of serious illness are very rare in all the establishments I have visited. At the last two shops I have mentioned the class of customers is very different from the others; but, with that exception, I believe the young ladies employed are equally comfortable.
Teachers of Cookery.—At the National Training School for Cookery in the Exhibition Road, South Kensington, ladies are taught to be efficient teachers of cookery, and, as a rule, do not find it difficult to obtain engagements. The School Board employs a considerable number, and pays them at the rate of £60 a year.
Teachers of cookery can now pass through a full course of twenty weeks' training in cookery and practice in teaching at the National Training School for Cookery, South Kensington. The fee is £20. Teachers of plain cookery only can now pass through a course lasting ten weeks; the fee is £8 8s.
Students in training are expected to attend evening classes, held by staff teachers, once a week. A student in training for a teacher first passes as a pupil through the Scullery and Demonstration Classes. This takes (working every day except Saturday) one month, from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M., with an interval from 12 to 2 for rest and luncheon. At the end of the month her note-books are to be examined and corrected. She then spends one month learning in the Plain Cookery Practice Kitchen, and a fortnight in teaching there what she has already learnt. She next goes into the High Class Practice Kitchen, and spends one month in learning and a fortnight in teaching. The last month is devoted to practice in demonstrating, first a fortnight in private, and lastly a fortnight in public, for which the lady superintendent has drawn up careful and strict rules; they are hung up close to where the student stands, to give her demonstration.
During her course of training the student can, if she likes, dine with the other pupils for 1s., or, if that is beyond her means, she is allowed to purchase any little dish that has been cooked as a lesson, at a nominal charge.