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320 the dressmaker's life.
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.
The Following Is Tlie History Of A Dress...
unbroken task . But before many weeks , had passed , tlie dreary monotony of the existence upon which I had entered , began to dawn
upon me ; its more real hardships were as yet unfelt , and I envied the sadlover-worked little message girlwhocarrying a basket as
large as y herself , trotted about froni morning , , till night . The food provided for us was plain , but wholesome , and not insufficient in
quantity , except to those whose digestive organs were in a state of great activity , which was sometimes the case with new-comers . But
very seldom did a vigorous appetite continue long to trouble them . On the whole , there was little to create discontent in this respect , if
there had been no other reason of complaint , but the diet was not hours sufficientl spent y lig in ht sedentary and nourishing labor to are be taken wholesome into , account when . the These long
hours , varied of course by the greater or less pressure of business , were from fourteen to sixteenand occasionallyeven eighteen hours
, , a day . No stated time was allowed for meals ; at each meal we spent simply the shortest time in which it was possible to eat what
was set before us , wash our hands , and begin again . " One of the rules of the house was to have prayers in the evening
they read were by the sometimes head of the omitted establishment ; while , , even but in after the hei fifteen ght of hours the season , —the
Had asleep average lulled upon of into at her least unconsciousness knees six months , awakening in the the overtasked at year the , — cessation many frame a . one of We the among slep voice t us in that was the
which garrets was , two too in small each bed to admit , and two of more beds than in each one— room indeed ; save so small one ,
that the only place in which a bed could stand would , not allow of its tenant assuming an upriht positionwithout coming in contact .
with the roof . Four individuals g , each , in possession of at least a trunk and bonnet box , having to dispose of themselves and their
room belong to ings stir in about one . small These room rooms , had were not , it also may bitterly be supposed cold , in much the
winter , and _' perfectly stifling in the summer . They were , however , kep of the t scrupulousl kind ; and y in clean none , which , I believe is not , is the the case sleep in ing every accommodation establishment
much better than that I have described . " From fifteen to eighteen hours work a day , continued for weeks!—!—in
absolutely no exercise for six days out of the sevensleeping a even space the so confined soldier in , that barracks that allowed is in comparison to the prisoner extensive , the !— pauper ' it is im , or
possible , ' incredulous people , say , ' the human constitution could not endure it . " It does not endure it long ; it is , indeed , capable of
enwidely during inflicted it only for as a it very is , does short not period appear without on the injury surface , but that of things injury .
I have said that the class from which dressmakers and milliners are fille drawn d , is not in the the first most lace indigent there , I is will a tell continual you how influx its ranks from the are p
up ; , country of fresh recruits , who do not remain at the business for more
320 The Dressmaker's Life.
320 the dressmaker ' s life .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 320, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/32/
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