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54 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT.
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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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.
_ Paris, February 17th, 1862. Ladies Wit...
man of theory , and hy the force of circumstances a man of practice . who His op is inions too illog should ical to therefore _Tbe called have the greater former wei without ght than being those 1 any of thing one
, of the latter ; and these opinions are given in the following quotations from a letter written to the Opinion Nationale .
" I read in an impression of your journal published yesterday , an article upon female printers , the principles contained in which
seemed to me to be very questionable . Permit me , Monsieur , particularly since my name was mentioned in it , to tell you about some
plans and ideas , resulting from a long experience , for the enlightenment of all who study this most important social question . M .
Levy , the author of the article alluded to , on the authority of M . Michelet , is of opinion that the only possible role a woman has
to perform is to take care of a house and to bring up children . Could such be the caseI should certainly say so much the better ; but
, these fine theories are unhappily contradicted by less fine realities . The time no longer exists when -women could spin all the linen
needed by the household . "We live in an iron age , and can only , at the cost of hard toilmeet the necessities of life that are each day
, increasing . Besides , neither M . Michelet nor M . Armand Levy point out the means of assuring to every woman the happy position
about which they speak so much . We must , therefore , accept faits accomplisand confine ourselves to ameliorate them by possible , that
, is to say , practicable means . "It is an incontestible fact , that family life does not exist among
the working classes . The workman's salary being always insufficient for his household expenses , his wife and children are obliged
to seek for work that will enable them to make up the deficit . The young girl herself is obliged to seek for out-door employment , which ,
if needlework , hardly suffices to feed her ; and when her employer lives in a distant quarterexposes her to a thousand dangers . To
, remedy as much as possible this evil , I conceived the idea of carrying out at the branch printing establishment , near Clichyan
im-, proved organisation ouvriere , having- for its basis the participation in its profits of the _oj _3 eratives to whom it directly affords employment .
In order to prevent families being broken up , to give employment in the same atelier to fathermotherand children ; to improve
, , their diet by purchasing wholesale the provisions consumed by all belonging to the branch establishment of which I speak ; and to
provide for them comfortable abodes , were the problems that I am about solving . In doing so I even accomplished your desire , that
the husband and wife should find themselves side by side when engaged in their daily avocations . "
Already M . Dupont has constructed two houses , which he lets in apartments to his employes at 30 per cent , below the ordinary rent
at Paris . The holder of each apartment has a right to the exclusive enjoyment of a little garden , large enough to furnish their
rooms with fresh bouquets , and frequently their tables with such
54 Our French Correspondent.
54 OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1862, page 54, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031862/page/54/
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