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76 ANNAIiS OF NEEDLEWOMEN.
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.
_ Chapter I. That Tlie Realities Of Life...
strong and willing to work for them / and would keep a Lome yet over their heads . In her girlhood she had been a good hand at the
• wash-tub—washing was better paid than needlework—by rising earland taking rest lateshe could earn two shillings a day .
Her y greatest , trial now consisted , in leaving the children for so many hours ; the eldest was only ninebut she was handy , and therefore
, this little maiden was early initiated by the devoted mother in the maternal duties required for the two-year old posthumous baby ,
besides "being made deputy housekeeper and mother to the little family .
"We pass over heart-aches , weary longings for past times , present anxieties & e . We are not dealing with feelings , but with
realities , and the struggles of providing for the wants of a family out of , ten hard-earned shillings ( for the Saturday was at first
devoted to home ) instead of £ 4 per week , are better imagined hy contrast than described . For a time , however , bread was thus
secured ; and the little ones , under their elder sister ' s care , throve as "well as could be _exjoected .
I inquired if during this time no district visitor or clergyman came to see her ; she replied she never saw any one , and made no
acquaintance whatever , even in lier own class of life , being most anxious that her unprotected little ones should not run the
risk of associating with idle or vicious children . In consequence of their having no other companions their affection for one another
was intense , and , as I afterwards learnt , they frequently denied themselves food to give to each other .
The fatigue , however , of standing day after day at the wash-tub was too much for the delicate constitution of the widow ; a year or
two of this hard life broke down her strength , and the washing , which had been constant and just sufficiently remunerative to keep
them in necessaries , was obliged to be relinquished . Illness was the next step down the ladder of want . After a tedious recovery ,
during which time she had received a little parish relief in the shape of bread and medicine , Mrs . M sought employment from , the
last resource of the destitute , and enrolled herself as a " needlewoman . "
Once more she now presided over the " home" of her children , taking in such" work as she could secure , and toiling at it all the
day , and almost the night through , to secure even a pittance for them . Her first employer was a piece-master in for the boot and ladies shoe
tradeand she received from him 3 _^ d . a pair binding boots , ; by working fifteen hours a day she could do four pair , about half the wages she gained at the wasli-tubbut no better work was to
he found . Seeing that her utmost efforts , could not secure bread , she lied to the parish for out-relief to supplement her labor .
It was app denied heron the score that she did not belong to the ,
parish inust find . Where out . , Weary then , did she bel desp ong ? the The po y did widow not know applied —she to
76 Annaiis Of Needlewomen.
76 ANNAIiS OF NEEDLEWOMEN .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1862, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041862/page/4/
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