case in one laundry in a hotel cellar.  I worked here at the ironing-table on a consignment of suits from the navy-yard.  As work came in from outside the hotel, the establishment should have been under the State inspection.  The rooms were narrow.  There was a ventilating fan, placed very low, near where the girls hung their wraps, and as soon as I came in, they warned me that it caught up in its blades and destroyed anything that came near it.  The belting of the machines was unboxed.  A blue flame used sometimes to blow out four inches beyond the body-ironer, directly into the narrow space where the girls had to pass before it.  In connection with the danger from machinery, danger from employees’ elevators should be noted.  In one hotel I rode forty-four times on an elevator where the guard door was closed only once, though the car was often crowded, and twice I saw girls narrowly escape injury from catching their skirts on the landing doors and the latches.  In another hotel, inexperienced elevator boys were broken in on dangerous cars containing signs that read:  ’This elevator shall not carry more than fifteen persons.’  The cars were used, not only for people, but for trunks and heavy trucks of soiled linen.  On one trip a car carried one of these enormous trucks, two trunks, and twelve girls; on another trip there were twenty-two people.

“At eight of the hotels wages were paid partly in board and lodging.  The money wages are given below:—­

WORKERS LIVING IN
PER MONTH
Ironers on flannels, stockings, and plain work     $22
Ironers—­skilled workers on family wash             25-30
Shakers                                             14-16
All beginners                                       14-16

                         WORKERS LIVING OUT
                                                       PER WEEK
     Ironers $7 and upward
     Shakers 6 and upward
     Feeders 6 and upward
     Folders 6 and upward
     Starchers (shirt), piece-work wages, average. 8
     Starchers (collars and cuffs) 15 and upward

“The eight hotels varied widely in living conditions.  The food was reasonably well cooked, but, like most hotel fare, monotonous, and destitute of fresh vegetables and of sweets.  One of the results of this is that the women spend a large part of their wages for fruit and other food to supplement their unsatisfactory meals.  Only two hotels planned meals intelligently.