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REMEDIES 243
Y.W.C.A. Par too little is said or known
about this work. The homes they have
established for girls of all classes, not only in
this country hut in foreign countries, have
proved a godsend and such places of refuge
and deliverance are a godsend indeed to many
a hard-pushed girl or woman. The homes
are not free : the girls all have to pay, nor do
they take any girls without references and
good characters. This is quite right and very
necessary. It is quite impossible to mix up
different classes of women and girls who need
our protection and help and the Y.W.C.A.
;
provides for the class which is very close to
us and which demands our respect and consideration,
and that is the better-educated and
better-born girls who are obliged to work for
their livings, and earn very small salaries.
Those who are condemned to occupy lonely
lodgings, where they are cheated and neglected,
where they get bad food and have no single
thing on earth to give them any comfort or
pleasure, where they are subjected to a
thousand temptations in spite of the fact that
they are refined and well-bred girls such
girls as these can be provided with comfortable
accommodation, cheerful sitting-rooms,
and cheap food, all of which are the greatest
possible blessings to them.
Of the work of the Y.W.C.A. homes I
know a good deal personally, and I also know
a great many girls and women who have been
in them and whose independent reports I have
had from time to time, and I may say I have