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ANNALS OF NEEDLEWOMEN* 393
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.
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.. Chapter V. " I Am The Woman That Work...
Ibefor _^; the hunger you appeased is returned again and is craving ; to be satisfied—the new clothing you supplied is probably in pawn
, gone to meet the demands for rent . There seems nothing to be done but again to open your purse . It seems inhuman to withhold
the supplies , till at last the individual becomes an habitual dependant A large on number your bount of our y . population thus float through the world
, either grasping the charity of any such friend , if haply they find oneor failing this , filling our Unions , where they live and die
, unknown . I would exemplify this statement by the history of a poor woman
who ( a specimen of her class ) has lately often crossed my path . She is , poor creature ! a widow , and has two children under her
guidance , —I will not say to keep , for young as they are they do their full share towards supporting themselves . Mrs . S is
just one of these incapable women . I believe her to be respectable and honestbut she has neither energy nor hopefulness to battle
with the world , around her . Her state of health too is bad , so that there is little chance of her ever rising above that hand-to-mouth
life which harrows the existence of so many of God ' s creatures . As to her childrenI will leave my readers to judge ( when they
have heard my tale respecting , them ) whether or no there is any likelihood that their minds will ever develop to a higher state than mere
animal existence . London was the birthplace of the mother ; born of poor parents in this overcrowded city , her earliest associations
were those of poverty ; her mother was a laundress who went out to work by the dayand her father a gentleman ' s servant : she
was at the age of twelve , turned into the world to support herself , a little reading and writing being the only preparation she had
received in the way of education for this youthful ordeal . She was destined for service , and her first place was that of
maid-of-all-work in a small tradesman ' s family . Here her strength was overtaxedand to this may probably be traced her whole
afterlife of physical , debility _; indeed , medical testimony proves that if the constitution of young girls be once strained beyond its power at
this critical age , health is never afterwards enjoyed . It is a wellknown fact that no class of servants are required to perform so
many and such arduous duties as these poor little maids-of-all-work , who are generalltaken from workhouses or culled from the very
poor , because they y are had cheap , and have no friends to interfere in their behalf ; at twelve _* years of age , and even earlier , we find them
by hundreds engaged in such employment . Taken at a day's notice from whatever lace they called homethey are immediately
expected to divest p themselves of any remnant , of childhood , and to undertake the responsibilities forced on them , by their employers ,
who generally , with no _thoxight save the amount of work they can get from themdemand far more than any grown woman would
consent to perform , . They are made to carry heavy weights , remain
voi . ix . p it
Annals Of Needlewomen* 393
ANNALS OF NEEDLEWOMEN * 393
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1862, page 393, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081862/page/33/
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