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AND WORKING WOMEN. 177
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.
—?- — The Educated World Seems To Be Div...
out how to set the world to rights , and growing vastly conceited on the strength of their knowledgethough it will never be of the
, slightest use to themselves or any one else , the busy people have begun the workand are in a fair way to accomplish it , and by
dint of digging and , delving , rubbing and scrubbing , patching and unendingthey really do produce a great effect in the "way of
reforming , the world , and accomplish much true , permanent good . "Whenever one of these workers can spare time to write a book
describing what they have been about , the reading people may feel sure that it will contain nmch valuable information .
Such a book is cc Mended Homes and Who [ Repaired Them , " by Mrs . JBayleythe Author of " _Kagged Homes . " Drink is , of course ,
the cause of , the raggedness . Men who earn fifteen , eighteen , and twenty-one shillings a-week spend half their wages , and sometimes
more , at public-houses , and the remainder is not enough to keep a _decent homehowever careful the wife may be .
, Mrs . _Bayley says , "X wondered sometimes that such squalor and wretchedness should still be visible in homes presided over by
true-hearted Christian women . I did not at first sufficiently take into account that some amount of money , _sut least , is necessary to
- the mending of a 6 C ragged home ; " and that , as long as more than halfandin some instancesnearly the whole , of very
moderate wages , went , to the public-house , , the poor home must remain unmended . "
iC One , Lor poor d , woman the drink appealed is such to a God great in and the won fullness derful of trouble her heart to us : — ;
we can't tell what to do for it . Oh , have p - ity upon us and our miserable childrenand in mercy take it away !"
In _^ consequence , of the husband bringing in so little money , the wife is continually obliged to go out to work , often to the
injury of her health—for the mother of a rapidly-increasing family is in no fit state for hard work—often to the injury of the
children , who are neglected in her absence , and always to the destruction of all home-comfort . Not unfrequently the women get
washing to do at home ; but this is little improvement , as they have to work , standing at their tubs , for ten or fifteen hours a-day ,
sometimes even till their legs hurst , and they have to send for a doctor to bind them ! ( Page 63 . ) Meanwhile the men maybe seen
idling about with up their hands in their pockets , and one man , who was out on strikewas heard to say , " 1 ain't a goin' to give in ; I
, han't done no work for this two months , and I shan't till I has it own the old ' oman 'ill keep the house a-goin' ; she'll
my way ; work till she drops . " A pleasant hearing for the " old woman !" One bad result of the system is that the women , worn out with
fatigue , are apt to drink spirits to keep ' up their strength , and thus acquire Truly a St fatall . Pa y ul bad was habit right in saying that the man who failed to
YOI _/ . XI . O
And Working Women. 177
AND WORKING WOMEN . 177
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1863, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051863/page/33/
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