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14 A HOUSE OF MERCY.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. At A Few This High Days Institution Ga...
doors and mantel-piece ; and upon the mantel-piece stands a small wooden cross .
We were first taken into the laundry , "which now occupies what ¦ was formerly stables . The institution is in part supported by
laundry-work , and during the London season a great deal of linen is sent from the West End to be got up by the girls . They were ,
however , busy washing and ironing their own clothes only , when we visited the laundry . _No washing is received in the Peniten tJ _^ f _^ - ~
. from the immediate neighbourhood . . _* _'??^ Many scientific appliances have been introduced into the
establishment for lessening the labour of washing and wringing the clothes . I observed to the Warden that I could not avoid
questioning whether this "were an advisable arrangement as regarded the education of the girlsfor in an ordinary way househqld and
, domestic labour has none of these aids . Two instances had come under our own observation , of girls educated in public institutions
¦ where labour had in a similar manner been lightened , refusing when in service to perform common and necessary domestic work because
it had never been required of them " in their school . " The Warden replied that in the case of this particular class of girls
these scientific _ajDpliances were a great boon . The girls are generally placed in the laundry as soon as they have passed out of the
noviciate class , the labour being simple and easy , thus lightened by these mechanical aids , and no longer too heavy for their generally
feeble frames . The whole course of their previous lives having rendered the penitents weak , and utterly incapable of exertion
requiring a considerable amount of muscular power , it is only by judicious arrangements that they can be gradually and without
danger to health initiated into domestic "work . There were about ten girls occupied in the laundry -when we
entered . All were perfectly silent , this being one of their silent hours . Some
were dressed in pale grey , and others in pale blue gingham dresses ; checked handkerchiefs , and small white caps . Beyond the laundry
was the drying-ground , in -which we noticed the scientific arrangement of the lines for drying the linen , all the lines radiating from a
pole in the centre . It is a pity that this plan is not generally adopted , as thus the wind is caught from whatever point it blows .
There is accommodation in this establishment , as I have already saidfor eighty girls , and there are constant applications for
admis-, sion into it from refuges in London and other places ; but although the funds would allow of more girls than forty , the number now
penitents -within its on walls account , the of Warden the small is number deterre of d 6 from i Sisters receiving " in the fresh
establishment . All the instruction in domestic matters , and the oversight of the girls day and night , is confided to " Sisters of Mercy "
who reside in the Home . At the present time there are but three
14 A House Of Mercy.
14 A HOUSE OF MERCY .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/14/
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