Lady Smith Lodge...A Home For Young Women (1897). Part Two.
This post is one of three posts about the Lady Smith Lodge, a home that was established for young women in the early years of the colony.
The first post is about an article outlines the history of Lady Smith Lodge, the donations made, a background of some of the women who resided there, the routine and obligations provided by the Matron Sister Lizzie. The article was edited for copyright reasons.
The second post is about some of the women who stayed there over the years from letters and opinions published in the local newspapers. The letters highlight some of the issues women who worked to provide themselves with a living faced in the early years of colony and were associated with Lady Smith Lodge. In 1898 a fire broke out at 5 am in the morning and the building was bravely saved by the women who lived there.
The third post is about the heroism of a young woman in 1898 after a fire broke out at the Lady Smith Lodge at 5 am in the morning who saved the women's lives who lived there and the building.
In 1897 Western Australian community recognised that there was need for suitable accommodation for young women coming to Perth for employment and for those in domestic service seeking a break before moving on to their next position. By 1901 Lady Smith Lodge which had relocated to Hay Street, West Perth and then eventually closed with the funds and goods transferred to the Home of Peace for the Dying and Incurable in Subiaco. The Home officially opened in 1902 in Thomas Street opposite Hay Street on the condition that a ward for males be opened and named the Lady Smith Lodge and the female ward be named in honour of Lady Onslow in recognition of her contributions.
The articles are from Trove, the database for the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended. The article has been edited for copyright reasons.
West Australian, 9 November 1897.
A DOMESTIC SERVANT'S COMPLAINT.
To the Editor.
Sir, I take the liberty of addressing a few lines to you. I am a servant and am staying at the Lady Smith Lodge. I find it quite as hard to obtain employment here as it is in England. I have for the last three weeks answered all the advertisements I thought were any good to me in person, but found I was not required at any of the places, or else some one else had gone to secure them. I do not know what is to become of women who come to this part of the world.
I emigrated here, and came with very high credentials, and am capable of doing nearly all a woman can do to earn her livelihood in this part of the globe. I came here to settle in the country, as I felt my prospects would be brighter here than in England, but they are getting worse and worse. There is a dearth of work tor women servants, and presently the market will be overstocked, and then what is the result?
When a good woman comes here she is shamefully treated, and no one will give me work be cause I have complained of the scandalous treatment I have received here. I have a right to plead my cause, but when I am robbed of my living and all my earnings are spent, and no kind friend to help me through, and my health to fail, what then? I have been turned from pillar to post, and have been treated little better than an animal.
I have sought places as cook, house-maid or general, but all require the washing done as well. It is far too much demand on the woman. The gold industry does not seem to lighten the labour of a domestic. In England and the colonies elsewhere we really meet with Christian principled ladies, who study the girls and aid them into getting places . I fear my being debarred is that I have been maligned. I am utterly helpless now.
Before I would ask charity from this institution I prefer to obtain work, but I cannot get it. I have walked all over Perth, but to no profit. I have done all there is to do for my self but without avail. -Yours, etc.
LOUISE M. WOLFF.
Lady Smith Lodge, November 4.
Goldfields Morning Chronicle, 20 October 1898.
WESTRALIA.
A BARMAID'S SUICIDE. PERTH, October 19.
The woman, whose body was found hanging in Perth Park yesterday morning, has been identified as Nellie Connolly, who had recently been employed as a barmaid. On Sunday last she became an inmate of Lady Smith's Lodge, and showed signs of being mentally disturbed. She disappeared that evening.
Esperance Times, 22 October 1898.
TELEGRAMS.
West Australia.
SAD SUICIDE. A YOUNY WOMAN HANGS UERSELF. IN THE PERTH PARK. PERTH, October 21.
A young woman was found hanging to a tree in the Perth Park on Wednesday. Investigations made by the police concerning the deceased's identity have reached a successful issue.
It seems that the young woman was formerly a barmaid at the Court Hotel, Perth, her name being Miss Nellie Connolly. She returned to Perth recently, and last Saturday was successful in obtaining admission to Lady Smith Lodge. She appeared to be in a depressed state of mind, and on Sunday afternoon she left the institution and was not again seen by the officials.
Further inquiries show that the deceased was a married woman and that she had substituted "Miss " for " Mrs" when giving her name. She has been separated from her husband for some considerable time. The inquest was adjourned sine die in order to allow the police to obtain a statement in connection with the matter.
Clare's Weekly, 21 May 1898.
AT THE LADY SMITH LODGE.
There were two girls asleep in the room. One suddenly woke up feeling an intuition that something was wrong. A peculiar noise a recurrent grating, crackling sound, was heard. After listening for a time and speculating as to the cause of annoyance, she called across to the other occupant of the room. "Lizzie, do you hear a strange noise?" The walking girl sat up in bed for a moment listening - then she said, "It is the rats, they are eating through the floor, soon they will be making holes in our mattress ; go to sleep and take no notice of them. I'm off." The speaker lay down, turning her face to the wall , and soon gave evidence of being off to the hind of nod again.
The first speaker tried to compose herself to sleep too, but that irritating, monotonous sound of scratching and crackling - continued and increased in violence. Determined to find out what the cause really she left her bed, threw a wrapper around her, struck a light, and proceeded from the room. As soon as she opened the door she detected the direction of the sounds, and followed a passage lending to a lumber room, in which were kept the boxes and trunks of clothing belonging to the girls who lodged in the house. The sounds came from that room, and the girl fancied that she could smell smoke.
It dawned upon her at once that there was fire within the lumber room, but the door was fastened. She exerted her strength and forced the crazy lock. As she opened the door, smoke rushed out at once she reclosed the door, ran to her own room, and waked her companion, then flew down stairs to rouse the servants, and send one of them to alarm the fire brigade. Back to her own room to seize a rug, and then, assisted by her room and , she commenced to beat down the flames, which had eaten into the flooring, and almost consumed the lighter of the boxes of clothing.
By the time the matron was dressed, and the firemen arrived upon the scene, the flames were subdued, and all danger over, though the men, upon seeing how far the fire had progressed, declared that a very few minutes delay in ascertaining that a fire existed, would have meant total destruction of the building, and perhaps loss of life to the inmates.
But what remained to the heroic girl who had come to the rescue, and by her presence of mind battled the fire fiend, and saved the house from destruction? Only that her clothing was destroyed, along with that of the other poor girls who lodged in the house.
The landlord received a large rental for the building. He was a wealthy man. He was also a Christian and a prominent citizen. She would appeal to his generosity and to his Christian sympathy. She had saved his house. He would surely reimburse her for the loss of her clothing, for she was poor and had to earn, her living by teaching music.
She was too ill-paid for her services to be in a position to live in apartments in a regular hoarding house, so she pocketed her pride and took up her abode in a semi-charitable home. When she made her appeal to the landlord, he calmly informed her that she had only done her duty. Next she tried the Insurance office.
Finally, a five-pound cheque was forthcoming from each source, and the ten pounds was divided between the eleven girls, all of whom had suffered the loss of their clothing by the fire. The heroine of the affair was given a whole pound, as her reward for saving the house, the other ten were the recipients of 18s apiece.
West Australian, 28 August 1899.
TO THE EDITOR.
Sir, Your correspondent who over the pseudonym "Truth," in Saturday's issue, ventures to throw doubts on a letter previously appearing under the above heading, may desire to wriggle out of his rash pledge to part with a guinea towards the funds of the Lady Smith Lodge.
The letter he refers to was not written by a barmaid, but the facts ware supplied to the writer by several barmaids, with requests that a letter be written. That letter was written not, typed (for one must be accurate when dealing with such persons as "Truth" by a mere male, and submitted to the ladies at whose requests it was compiled, and the statements therein vouched for as being correct. Morally, therefore, "Truth" owes the Lady Smith Lodge a guinea.
I can prove to the satisfaction of "Truth" himself that the above are the facts of the case without any affidavits. I propose, therefore, that "Truth" shall on any appointed day meet me at any spot he may choose, where, if he will do all the "shouting," I will introduce him to quite a number of barmaids who serve till midnight, and are content to do so rather than have their salaries reduced, because the licensees of hotels will be forced to employ a man to take their places in the various billiard-room bars for an hour each night.
"Truth" talks a bit through his neck about "people who know the world." Which world? The tearoom world, which appears to be that in which "Truth" moves ? As to late hours, "Truth" appears to make a nasty sly insinuation about your mental capacity. Sir, when he says that late hours are deteriorating (sic) mentally, for I believe you, Sir, go home at quite a shocking hour.
If "Truth's" contention is correct, he must have written his letter to you about 4.30 a.m. Seriously, if "Truth?' and men like him want to do barmaids a good turn, let them try and get the girls Sunday off every weak. Sunday is Hebe's holiday, and if she can be ensured that, she will cheerfully stop out of bed till midnight, after having had a little nap during the afternoon hours, etc.,
HEBE'S SCEEVEE.
Perth, August 26.
Clare's Weekly, 18 June 1898.
THE LADY SMITH LODGE.
If what one hears outside the walls of the Lodge tallied minutely with what one reads in the pretty little booklet containing the printed report, or with what the various speakers emphasised during the course of the annual meeting held last Friday afternoon, then this institution would indeed be, what one of the makers described as " an ideal home for girls out of employment."
Unfortunately the esoteric differs widely from the exoteric. Those ladies who initiated the movement for the establishment of the Lodge, and who form the several committees of management, who have thrown all their sympathies into the work and are loyal to their president, are blind to every side issue. They looked through one pair of glasses at the first, and they would not look through other spectacles since, lest they should happen to see differently with them.
When the scheme was started the need of such an institution was great. So far, it has fulfilled the purpose of those who originated it. Now that boarding houses are as numerous in the city as blackberries on a hedge, and that there are two kindred institutions working successfully on self supporting lines, it is little wonder that former donors of the Lady Smith Lodge say that there is no need to bolster up the home any longer.
To listen to the speeches delivered on Friday, one would think that Sister Lizzie is an angel of goodness, patience, and sympathy. To lead the apparently inspired letters purporting to have been addressed to her by girls who had at one time lodged in the institution, one could only conclude that the matron is a little higher than the avenge angel.
Yet to listen to the statements in cold blood by various inmates of the Lodge, or to give ear to the remarks of one time subscribers quite a different opinion is forced on one. Of course the gossip which floats about from tattler to listener may be only splenetic emanations from a jaundiced mind, but when only this kind of tittle tattle is heard, one begins to think that the terms " graceful kindliness," " womanly tact," " restfulness," " homeliness," &c., which occur with persistent iteration in the letters before mentioned, are mere ornamentation to an artistically got-up report.
According to the published statement the expenditure in the maintenance of the Lodge for the first half year was £759, and for the has; half year it was £560, making a total of over £1300 for the maintenance of 430 girls who had lodged temporarily in the institution for the year. These 430 girls had passed through the home in that time, one staying longer than six weeks. The building accommodates about 13 boarders, so that a sum exceeding £1,300 seems a startling amount for the up-keep of so comparatively small an establishment.
Of course, the half of this amount was contributed by the lodgers, who pay a certain sum—a very fair sum, as things are now - and the other £700 was raised by the public. This is a heavy tax on people who are generously supporting half a dozen charitable institutions, and who rightly contend that the Lady Smith Lodge should now either be made to support itself or go out of existence as an unnecessary institution.
The Chief Justice, who presided over the meeting, declared his belief that so long as Perth continued to attract population, the institution was needed, and he trusted that it would meet, with more generous support than hitherto. The speaker omitted the information that, with the growth of population, facilities for accommodation increased, and that now, boarding house keepers wept over the fact of empty rooms, instead of brusquely in forming intending lodgers that there was no accommodation, as was the case when the Lodge was initiated.
The Hon. George Throssell, with the superb optimism of a man with a big heart, pooh-poohed the idea of closing the Lodge. Surely a few hundred of ladies and gentlemen would easily be found who would willingly contribute regularly one guinea per annum to keep such a splendid institution going. He congratulated the president, and the ladies and gentlemen associated with her, on the success which had attended their efforts so far, and advised the committee to raise fuuds immediately to build a house on the land given to them by the Government, and thus be rent free in the future. He advocated the establishment of a servants' registry office in connection with the Lodge.
There is one way the lodge might be turned to incalculable advantage to the people of the colony, and that is by converting it into a training school for domestic servants, more especially cooks. This would in no way detract from the present use of the building; it would, on the contrary, add to its influence for good. Mr. Throssell dwelt upon the fact that ladies would be glad to obtain servants from the lodge, because after saying a few weeks wider Sister Lizzie's supervision they (the girls) would be able to take with them certificate or reference, as to their ability and respectability.
Now, if the girls are mere lodgers in the house, how would it be possible for the matron to guarantee their efficiency in any branch of domestic service. But if girls were taken into the institution to be trained, say for three or six months, they could then perform all the offices attendant upon keeping up the. house for the maintenance of a large number of boarders and lodgers, and thus diminish the expenses of working the establishment. It would then be, not only self-supporting, but would be doing a philanthropic work in itself, by training girls to be model housekeepers, fit to take not only situations in other people's houses, but to become housekeepers and heads of households themselves. Then, indeed, the matron would be justified in giving certificates of efficiency to the inmates on leaving in order to obtain situations. To know how to cook food properly is an art almost unknown in this colony.
The lack of this most important knowledge is responsible for most woeful loss of good food and extravagance iu housekeeping. There is in most households more food wasted by bad cooking than is consumed by the inmates, and thus the use are doubled. A girl who knows how to cook properly can command higher wages than in any other branch of domestic work, but how few there are with the requisite knowledge ? Just how many men are driven to drink, or to the public house, which is the same thing, by the exorable way in which their food is cooked and set before them only the recording angel can possibly have any knowledge of.
The photograph is of St George Terrace in Perth in 1899 and from the Royal Historical Society of Western Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
