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    3^4 th e dressmaker's life.

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    The Following Is Tlie History Of A Dress...

    its _inadequacy and unliealtliiiiess was increased by disorder and a want of scrupulous cleanliness . The mistress was wholly

    inconsiderate of the morals , health , or comfort of her inmates ; and whether it was that a selfish atmosphere had hardened them , the

    _girls were less agreeable and less helpful one to another . The hours too , for it was 'the season' were longernot a moment of

    ,, leisure was to be had , save on Sunday . Work was exacted to the utmost stretch of human capacity , and beyond it , for nature failed

    at the impossible task to keep the fingers flying and the eyes steady for a day and half a night , for every day strong men

    laid aside their toil in weariness : The fingers would flag , the eyes would dazzle , the work , affcer insufficient rest , would be languidly

    resumed , and the spur would be required by the jaded animal , till the bridal robes and ball costumes we fashioned seemed the tasks

    set by some malignant spirit to the sinful creatures in his thrall . " No wonder there was small religion there—our very souls were

    dead within us . That terrible ' season ! ' To aggravate it , the heat was intense , and before night the atmosphere of the

    workroom was that of an oven . To bring lights into it seemed madness ; but lights were nightly broughtand the longdim

    , , , delicious summer twilights were shut out , though behind the blinds the windows were opened , which was seldom the case

    during the day , the dust spoiling the light and costly fabrics at which we labored . One nightthus workingthe lights suddenly

    , , swam before me , multiplied themselves a hundred-fold , till I seemed sinking through a host of stars into blackness of darkness—I

    had fainted—no extraordinary occurrence there . Nature , longoppressed , refused to rally and go on again , she demanded a more

    thorough repair than one night's exemption from the task . St . George ' s Hospital was therefore my next destinationwhere

    , , perhaps too impatiently , I hoped and expected to receive my dismissal from life and its toilsome nothingness .

    "I must only add , that I have escaped from the house of bondage , but with a frame so debilitated , as to make me feel painfully my

    unfitness for each and all of the domestic duties which now fall to my otherwise happy lot . Unfit to nourish and bring up children ,

    unable to be a help to him who has chosen me , the physician often at my side , and knowing that my whole future existence will

    be poisoned by deep-rooted disease , and that in all probability an early death awaits me . "

    Absolute fairness is apparent throughout this narrative . The establishment most fully represented is one of the best of its class

    and in the character of its owners there is nothing to aggravate , and , everything to ameliorate the evils of the late hour system , yet those

    evils are not the less strikingly disclosed . It plainly results in a sacrifice of youthful health and lifewhich , overwhelming the

    indivi-, dual , when the numbers who suffer are taken into account , must

    also be a grievous loss to the community , besides too surely influ-

    3^4 Th E Dressmaker's Life.

    3 _^ 4 th e dressmaker ' s life .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1858, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071858/page/36/