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124 MRS. EOBINSOH's HOUSEMAID.
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.
Mrs. Robinson Is In Search, Of A Housema...
genteel Pending young this 1 dressmaker meditation , emp Mrs loyed . R . is b addressed y the day by to Miss work Jones for , the the
family . Miss Jones' dialect may be provincial , but her manner is highly refined , and her dress unexceptionable .
" I wished to ask a pettiekler favor , ma ' am . Mrs . Browne , a lady I work forhas called to say she wishes me to go for three days to
, make up a ball dress . It ' s so very pettiekler , that she come to speak to me her own self . "
Mrs . It . observes that " the work in hand is much wanted , that delay would be inconvenient , " etc .
Miss J . — " Certainly I wouldn't on no accounts ill-convenence you , but Mrs . Browne don't know whatever she shall do if you
can't spare me . She ' ve purchist all the mateeral , and it ' s for the grandest ball she ' ve been at yet . "
Mrs . H . ( conscious all the time that Miss J . will prevail . )— " Has not the lady got a ball dress ? "
Miss J . ( in notes of admiration . )—" Law ! ma'am , I ' ve made her four elegant party dresses in the last six weeks . A lovely white
tool over glossy silk , looped up with roses ; a pink tarlington rooshayed ; a sweet merry-antick for dinners and swarrys ; and "
Mrs . R . — " Would not one of these do for the ball ? " Miss J . ( as if pitying the ignorant question . )— "Oh ! dear , no ,
ma ' am ; she has wore them all at parties . Three of them she ' ve wore twice . She couldn't possible put on a dress that has been
seen already at this ball , its so very select . " Mrs . R . — " I can't see wh . "
y Miss J . — " "Why , ma'am , Mrs . Browne ' s a real lady , and goes into the best of company . "
This is a home stroke . Mrs . Robinson , abashed and instructed , yields . Miss J . knows well that Mrs . R . ' s " party dress" of silk
has done duty at at least a dozen " dinners and swarrys . " Miss J . is in the ascendant .
Within a stone ' s throw of the house in which the best of company is about to assemble , stands a large Metropolitan Workhouse . At
this time the pauper girls and boys are sent from the " house " to a large farm . school , as it is called , a few miles out of town . Many
hundreds of children are there , from various unions . They are placed out at so much a head , fed by contract , and taught by
contract , the " so much" being so little that the contracting parties do not hold themselves bound to attend to their welfareas they would
to that of animals placed on like conditions under , their care . Either from low living or bad ventilation , diseases of many kinds are
prevalent among them . The girls are at twelve years old sent back to the " house , " perhaps the only home they ever knew . The
" house" cannot keep them ; the rates must be kept down ; the vestrymen must not become unpopular bexpensive arrangements .
The children must go somewhere . They y have learned a little
reading , very little writing , perhaps part of the multiplication table ,
124 Mrs. Eobinsoh's Housemaid.
124 MRS . EOBINSOH ' s HOUSEMAID .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1859, page 124, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041859/page/52/
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