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164 LIVES FOR LEAVES.
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.
Tiiiske Are, Perhaps, Few Subjects Conce...
position _sus head of the family , and neglect to provide for their households
And the . task of reviving the nioral feeling , of pointing the obtuse moral perceptionisif not hopelessat least doubtful . Did we not
, , , believe that now , at length , the probe is at the core of the evil , and that in our Tagged and industrial schools we have promise of a
happier state of things , we might despair . But although , with regard to many of the ills which affect society ,
"we have to learn not only to labor , but also "towait , " there are some which admit of more prompt redress . The grievance to which it
is proposed to advert is one of these , and has other sources than those to which allusion has been made . Passing by the whole range
of female employment , from the brick-field and the potato-field to the " token hand" amid gossamer and satin , and doves and angels ,
we have to remark on some facts which refer to the condition of those who derive subsistence by the manufacture of artificial flowers
and leaves . Somehow " the poor flower-maker " has come to be regarded as next in point of misery and distress to the shirtmaker
whom Hood has celebrated in his famous song . By careful investiationhoweverthe mind is gradually disabused of preconceived
notions g , , while , at , the same time , we become enlightened as to the existence of other and graver evils than any we had imagined .
The number of artificial flower establishments in London is about 200 but many of these are on a small scale and employ but few
hands , ; some of them not more than twenty , including half a dozen , or morechildren . There are nearly a hundred of this class , and
not fewer , than a hundred and fifty employing not more than forty females . Then the number ranges gradually to 150 . We may
hardly estimate the general average to be above twenty-five , by which calculation we have 5000 persons engaged in this
manufacture . There are , besides , about sixteen preparation houses where the
materials necessary for the artificial florist are made . The number of females employed in these houses ranges from 40 to 150 . An
average of seventy gives us 1100 more ; so that the number of women engaged in the two branches of the trade may he estimated
as amounting , at least , to 6000 . The year lately closed has been a _g'olden one for artificial florists .
Never was work more abundant , and never did prices range _highei * . Hands were scarcely procurable , and advertisements were baited
with tempting announcements , among which was sometimes conspicuous the strange notification" No emerald green used . "
It is probable that there are some , who may not comprehend the inducement suggested by the note concerning emerald green , and it
is on this subject we have to remark particularly . Emerald green is not the only color employed for leavesbut it is incomparably the
, best , and in the principal factories is used exclusively . It is used
too in many other ways , as for fruits , grasses , buds , & c . j and , just as
164 Lives For Leaves.
164 LIVES FOR LEAVES .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1862, page 164, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051862/page/20/
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