Anonymous

“ In the refreshment business, more than in any other, a marked improvement in the quality of articles supplied is speedily recognised, and is followed as a rule by a large increase of sales; and this is especially the case in houses frequented by working people. The converse is equally true, and here is the secret of the failure, more or less complete, of some houses which appear at first sight adapted to do a successful trade. ”

“ A Committee, on the other hand, administering funds contributed by themselves or others, necessarily enjoy greater freedom of action than a Company. They may vary their operations in any direction they may deem advisable, or may increase the conveniences and attractions of the house, without too closely calculating the amount of profit to be realised. ”

“ Each Coffee Publichouse is to be placed under the charge of a competent manager, who should reside on the premises. It is desirable that he should be a married man, with a wife able to assist him in his duties. The manager and his assistants should all be total abstainers. Great care, it is scarcely necessary to say, should be exercised in the selection of the manager. He should be a man of sterling integrity, whose heart is in his work, vigorous and active, with good temper and pleasant cheery manners. ”

“ He craves a stronger liquor, and believing he can only get it at the publichouse, he returns there. In the same way a poor working woman, exhausted by long hours of toil in a confined workroom or foetid dwelling, finds that the weak washy fluid too often sold under the name of tea will not allay the 'sinking' of which she complains, and she too returns to the dram shop. Yet coffee and tea of excellent quality, strong and fragrant, may be sold to a fair profit at 1d. per cup, holding half-a-pint, and a wholesome, though less nutritious, beverage at 1d. ”

“ In some parts of London women leaving the factory at midday may often be seen taking a cold and unsatisfying meal in the open air—on a doorstep or in a corner, anywhere—exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Wherever suitable coffee-room accommodation has been provided for them, working women have gladly availed themselves of it. One of the houses of the People's Café Company in High Street, Whitechapel, has many customers of this class. ”

“ Let us suppose that a working man, addicted to stimulants, wishing, perhaps, to turn over a new leaf, goes into one of these houses to take a meal, and calls for a cup of coffee in place of his accustomed beer. He is served with a weak and rather thick decoction, pleasant neither to taste nor smell. He drinks it and goes away, and he soon discovers that the stuff he has taken has no sustaining power, and probably it disagrees with him. ”

“ In some instances about £1 a week, with board and lodging, is paid for the services of the manager and his wife. In small towns and villages the wages will usually be less.
The number of assistants required will depend not only upon the size of the house, but also upon the character of the trade—whether lodgings are provided, or hot dinners, &c. In some London houses the attendants are all female; in others they are exclusively male, not even the manager's wife being allowed to share in the work. In a third class of houses both male and female attendants are employed. ”

“ I have nowhere to go to but the publichouse, nowhere to sit down, often nowhere to take my meals. We young men lodgers often sleep in one room, with two or even three generations of the same family, including young women and girls, unless, indeed, we can get into the model lodging-houses. Coffeehouses might save us, model lodging-houses might make model men of us ”

“ Yet these men are so far from 'all bad,' that if the nurse of the ward is a 'trained' nurse, which implies a character and education, to carry some weight and influence, they will scrupulously respect their nurse's property, and even her feelings, and will send her word if they have 'kept straight'—how seldom!—or when they have got work. ”

“ Attention has already been drawn to the importance of thorough ventilation of the kitchens. A cooking stove is much to be preferred to a kitchen range or ordinary kitchener, and may be obtained of any size required, the prices ranging from about £5 upwards. The kitchen should contain either two ‘coppers’ or a gas stove with two boilers, one for boiling water, and the other for making soup. The latter is a convenient arrangement especially where tea and coffee are required at an early hour in the morning. ”

“ A third plan which may be adopted either where sufficient funds cannot otherwise he obtained, or where it is proposed to open more than one house in the same town or neighbourhood, is to form a Company with limited liability.
Each of these methods of working has advantages of its own. A Company, if successful, may readily extend its operations, and will not lack funds for the purpose; and it affords an opportunity of aiding this movement to many persons who would be unable or unwilling to contribute money to a purely charitable undertaking. ”

“ It may be very desirable that houses of a similar character should be opened for middle-class customers, as has been done by the People's Café Company in some parts of London with benefit to the public, but no part of the limited space in an ordinary Coffee Publichouse should be assigned to the exclusive use of any particular class of customers. ”

“ Such an answer, and one of a generally satisfactory kind, has already been furnished in the case of some houses in London, Liverpool, Dundee, and elsewhere, and it cannot reasonably be questioned that wherever sound principles of management are adopted success will be attained in greater or less degree. A Coffee Publichouse in a small town or village will probably be unable to command the trade which may be readily secured by a house situated in one of the great centres of population, but such a house should at least be rendered self-supporting after the first outlay ”

“ In London, where there are many thousands of publichouses, the few existing Coffee Publichouses should be multiplied by hundreds in order fully to meet the wants of the people, and in other great towns the need is proportionably great, while every village throughout the country should have its Coffee Publichouse on a larger or smaller scale. ”

“ It may be argued that as they are not accustomed to such luxury they will not expect it and may do without it, but the answer is that the Coffee Publichouse movement seeks to discover, not what people may do without, but what they need, and that it relies for its success upon the extent to which it may confer upon working people unaccustomed benefits. ”

“ Women are driven to drink by ill-treatment, or insufficiency of food, or both. When the husband drinks, or trade is slack, the wages which reach the hands of the poor wife and mother are inadequate to meet the wants of the family. The husband will be fed; the children must be fed; and the mother is happy if there remain for her a crust of bread and a cup of tea. ”

“ His home may be one small room, in which he can scarcely stretch his legs in comfort, and where all the domestic operations must be carried on. Reading soon tires him, if he knows how to read at all, and in his home he probably has no other resource. After a chat with his wife and a game with the children, he seeks the society of his 'mates.' They have something to talk about that he can understand, and that interests him. Where are they to be found? At the publichouse. ”

“ In case the first floor is not required for coffee-room purposes, it may be let to a working man's club, or other societies, for meetings, etc., or it may be utilised for letting lodgings and fitted with divisions or 'cubicles,' each of which forms a small bedroom suitable for a single man; any other rooms that can be spared in the upper part of the house being fitted in the same manner. The cost of dividing rooms in this manner, including partitions and plain furnishing with iron bedsteads 6 feet by 3 feet, will be from £5 to £5. ”

“ The reservation of a room or rooms for visitors of a ‘better class’ is also to be deprecated. It is necessary to guard against a tendency to which this movement, in common with others, is liable, of moving gradually upwards in the social scale, after beginning; at the bottom. The Coffee Publichouse such as we are now describing is intended for the benefit of those who most need it—namely the working classes generally, including the roughest and poorest of those classes, and should not be diverted in any degree from that purpose. ”