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13
VISITATION OF MILLINERS.
At this season great excitement was produced in town by
the alleged death of a milliner's assistant in Regent-street, from
overwork and bad ventilation, and as is usual on such occasions,
a great deal of strong language was used, and statements
put forward, which, when examined, were found to be
scarcely supported by fact. As a specimen, we may refer to a
letter sent to Dr. Lankester, the coroner for Middlesex, and by
him forwarded to us, making the strongest possible assertions
as to the " miseries that thousands of helpless young women
are subjected to," speaking of the " horrors of the work and
sleeping rooms," of the long hours of work, the insufficient
remuneration, and giving Dr. Lankester the names of six
milliners in this parish, as examples.
We may remind the Yestry, that so far as our powers
extend, we are most careful to exercise them in behalf of
helpless women. Whenever any maid-servant (or any
other servant) is, to our knowledge, sent to a hospital or to
the sick wards in Mount-street with any fever, we always
cause an inspection of the premises to be made from which
she is sent: more especially, if we hear either of illness
or death from any such complaint in any milliner's
establishment; and if there were not valid reasons against
publishing names, we could point out several houses of repute,
in which the greatest pains have been taken to explore and
remove causes of illness.
We called at four of the six establishments denounced to
Dr. Lankester—for the other two had been removed.
In the first, only two young women slept on the premises,
in a well-ventilated room, affording each nearly 700 cubic
feet of space.