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THE DRESSMAKER'S LIFE. 821
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 Following Is Tlie History Of A Dress...
tlian a year . They are perhaps daughters of respectable tradesmen , who have learnt the business at their leisure , and practised it at
Such manner home , inmates and in who their are wishing of native course p to lace but start , temporaril come in up a naore to y affected town public a by year and the di to imposing sci fini pline sh .
of their new life , though even a year of it will effect deep-seated _, derangement of the stomachwith vomiting after meals , and other
relief painful in symp the walk toms . to and The from out , -do their or workers lace of too business , have and some the sli im ght - p ,
possibility , long as their hours frequently are , of protracting them beyond a certain length . The burden then chiefly falls on the
trained hands , who are hired for efficiency and can be depended onand even they do not spend many years of womanhood at such
work , . If any one could look round the work-tables of the metropolis , they would see none who had grown old at their task , and very
few faces , even of middle age : they would see chiefly girls struggling oneven gailbeneath the burden which will one day crush them
if , they escap y e , not from beneath it ; and early womanhood , pining patiently and impatiently under its yoke . The seeds of disease
already rooted in the latter , already falling on the former . " I must ive an account of our pleasures , however , and return to
the last sad g portion of my subject , as I shall have occasion to do hereafter . In the little room which I occupied with three
companions , all was not weariness and gloom . My unfortunate age , too old to be made a pettoo young to be the companion of three
grownup women , excluded , me for a long time from all their more confidential intercourseand I was left at any period of leisure which
, fell to our lot , to a corner under the skylight in summer , or a position on two adjoining boxes in winter , on one of which I sat , while on .
the other stood my candle . There I pored quietly over my books , borrowed from various sourceswhile my three elders surrounded
the tiny table , in close conversation , , one or other working at some private needlework , or conducting a voluminous correspondence . It
was not till my first three years had expired , that I was fully taken into this little conclave , in which during * that period I had seen
several changes . In the slack season we cleared away about eight o' clock , and were then at liberty to visit the outer world . Ten was
the hour of return , and it was strictly observed , never indeed violated , except in the instance of some young lady accompanied home by an
agreeable companion of the other sex , who found the door closed against her until prayers were over , and who was therefore forced ,
perhaps ungrudgingly , to perambulate the neighbourhood for the next quarter of an hour ; but the offence was seldom repeated , for
even if the delinquent enjoyed the laughing surmises of her companionsshe quailed beneath the politely sharp enquiries of our
superior , . Not so strictly kept however , was the rule to be in bed an hour after these excursions ; the lights were seldom out at the
appointed time , and even after they were extinguished , long whis- '
toi _,. i . z
The Dressmaker's Life. 821
THE DRESSMAKER ' S LIFE . 821
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 321, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/33/
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