A Five-Cent Lunchroom Where Men Are Barred

The lunch rooms of the Young Women's Association, in the Shorey building on Second street near Columbia, were pleasantly filled yesterday at noon, when about thirty-five young women gathered there to have an old-fashioned summer lunch. Mrs. Flora D. Brown, who manages the rooms, was assisted by Misses Bell, Foads and Martin in attending to the wants of the guests, and a very enjoyable time was had. Mrs. Brown and the young ladies who assisted her were attired in fancy costumes; the model was taken from a description in the Sunday Post-Intelligencer of two weeks ago, the egg-shaped balloon sleeves being made of Japanese napkin paper, with tastefully improvised bonnets of the same material.

The rooms were fitted up about a year ago by Mrs. Brown and have been maintained by her ever since, her object being to get just enough in return to pay the running expenses. She has an independent income to meet all her wants, and is identified with the work and gives her time to the undertaking. She believes in the work and is interested in the welfare and comfort of young women. Every day at noon she serves a lunch for those young women who work for a living. Coffee, tea, milk or chocolate cost them 3 cents, paid in advance or promised; a wholesome lunch costs 2 cents more, and a bowl of soup brings the total cost of the lunch up to 15 cents. Some of those who patronize the rooms bring their lunches and buy only something warm to drink. Many of the young women in the stores and factories go there because there is a sign, and a reading room attached, and they know there is always a welcome. Others go, not because they feel the necessity of economising, but because they enjoy the experience and delightful surroundings. Mrs. Brown does all her own cooking, and some of the members, and others who take a personal interest in the work, are present every day to aid in caring for the guests.

It is a woman's place pure and simple. Men are tabooed here to the same extent that women are in clubs where only men are expected. No men are supposed to call at the rooms, but of course if they do, they are treated well, for none of the women are man-haters by any means.

It was at first Mrs. Brown's intention to have nothing in the place suggestive of the masculine member of humanity, and to a certain extent she has thus far carried out the idea. The only exceptions in the dining room are the nicely framed engravings of Chopin and Mendelssohn, and she explained their presence by saying that the former occupant of the rooms was a dealer who left without paying rent, and the pictures were held as security and have been there ever since.

'They don't flourish away,' remarked Mrs. Brown, with a laugh, in explaining the presence of the pictures. 'You know they are both dead.'

The past year has been so gratifying and successful that Mrs. Brown is considering enlarging the plan to provide teas and special lunches, when the members can invite their male friends to join them in a pleasant social session. Mrs. Brown says her idea is not to reform or to prevent evil. She says working women are obliged to stand in the doors of stores during the noon hour and eat a cold lunch, and the practice must be disagreeable to both mind and body. At the rooms of the association they are always welcome; it is lively, light, pleasant, and for 5 cents they have something warm with their lunches. Then they have the gratification of knowing that they are paying for what they get; that they are guests and not objects of charity, and that a welcome is always extended them.

The association card invited women to call at any hour, especially the noon hour, for milk, coffee, tea or cocoa, bread and butter, and cake, and announced classes in penmanship, dressmaking and cooking as soon as enough names were secured.